We all share identical properties that mark us out as human beings. Even so, every person is unique: we are not clones. It's the same with depression - or perhaps more properly the depressions (plural) - because they manifest in so many different ways and under different circumstances yet in essence remain the same. This is a simple enough observation, yet there appears to be little understanding of the condition - or conditions - among the general public, who tend to lump together all states of 'feeling miserable' into something to be snapped out of, a disease category to be treated medically, or a feebleness of personality to be disapproved of and dismissed. In this new title from Wyn Bramley, many different views on causation and treatment are explored. The emphasis is on real people's experiences from all aspects of the depressions - sufferers, helpers, family and friends - not a self-help work but an all-encompassing aid to understanding this common condition.

Wyn Bramley provides no simple solutions to disharmony or impending break-up, but she does offer a clear model for understanding how couple partnerships operate, thus creating opportunities for change. Without blame or judgment, she sets out to help you discover the truth of why you and your partner are really together at all, and what unacknowledged forces keep you together, or threaten to tear you apart.Illustrative material from therapy sessions admits the reader to the pain and joy occurring in every stage of coupledom, from the selection conscious and unconscious of one s other half, to the agony and ecstasy of the early years, right through to old age and the facing of a partner s death. Many imagine a shared life to be a refuge or cure for emotional pain. In fact, mature loving is hard work, but when achieved, perhaps years later, the rewards are great and lasting. In this book, we meet people of all ages in enormous distress, on the edge of splitting up, enduring illness, affairs, children or in-law issues, redundancy or competing life styles; or suffering unutterable loneliness within the relationship, unable to understand the loss of former closeness. Making sense of what has been, and is, happening beneath the surface often needs a third party to unravel unspoken issues which have previously been oblivious to the couple. Therapeutic intervention is not always a success (and the author explains why), but many couples do come through to a better and truer understanding of their own and their partner s make-up, resulting in a more authentic and realistic way of dealing with their shared concerns. Not all couples require therapy, of course. A careful reading of this book could be sufficient to start off a change in a couple s way of thinking, such that impending problems are prevented or better managed. The attitudes and psychological capacities required by those who do approach a couple therapist, as well as a summary of who might and might not need help, are addressed in the concluding section of the book."

After forty years' experience in the field of psychotherapy, Wyn Bramley presents a clinical memoir, which is simultaneously 'light' but serious, outlining all that happens (or fails to happen) that is not covered by books or training. She draws on her vast experience and uses material from real cases to illustrate and explore some of the unexpected manholes and creative rule-breaking which has been necessary to her work. Wyn Bramley has worked in the mental health field for more than 50 years. In this book she invites experienced therapists and counsellors to consider becoming more self-directed practitioners, grateful to but not dependent on their old training and ideology. She advocates a coming together of the various disciplines as opposed to the old factionalism, believing that modern psychodynamic principles and concepts can be assimilated into all modalities. She takes old ideas in this field that have stood the test of time and places them, along with lively case material, in a contemporary context. She also brings us up to date with the latest Relational thinking, which readers may have missed in their training. Her central conviction is that mature therapists should dare to open up their own internal world to the work, so that the therapy is deeper and richer. She describes in plain, accessible language, and with clinical illustrations, how this may be accomplished. Attention is given to the controversial issue of disorders of personality, the best way to do short term therapy in the NHS, the differences between couple and individual therapy, and how defence mechanisms and the developmental perspective operate in the consulting room of a modern self-reflective practitioner.

This book, written in plain language by an experienced, psychoanalytically-orientated therapist, is aimed at lay readers who wish to understand how couples consciously and unconsciously operate in successful and unsuccessful partnerships. It covers the central concepts involved, illustrated by (disguised) case material. The book will also be invalu