Directly inspired by the work of Jerome D.
Frank and his field-defining book
Persuasion
and Healing, this volume of essays by
distinguished contemporary scholars broadly assesses the
current state of research and practice in psychotherapy.
Editors Renato D. Alarcón, a former
student of Frank's, and Julia B. Frank, Jerome Frank's
daughter and coauthor, bring diverse perspectives to the
volume. Each chapter, based on one of the themes of
Frank’s classic book, offers honest critique and
fearless criticism of psychotherapy as it has evolved in
the twenty-first century. Contributors update classical
psychotherapeutic concepts such as demoralization, hope,
meaning, rhetoric, and cultural variation and add new
insight into how the neuroscience revolution affects our
understanding of mental organization and psychotherapy.
As Frank did in his own time, these authors challenge
the claims made for the specificity or superiority of
cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, and other varieties
of psychotherapy, providing a candid assessment of the
value and limitations of many competing approaches to
diagnosis and treatment. They also focus attention on
psychotherapies for special populations, including
children, people with serious medical illness, and those
from culturally and religiously diverse backgrounds.
Like Persuasion and
Healing, this volume advocates not for any
particular approach but for psychotherapy more generally
grounded in principles of evolutionary biology, culture,
narrative, and behavior change. It provides researchers,
theorists, and practitioners of every kind of training
with a genuinely phenomenological approach to a wide
range of psychiatric issues. Echoing Frank's voice, in
particular his emphasis on the commonalities of
suffering and the therapeutic power of hope,
The Psychotherapy of Hope offers
scholarly wisdom and practical advice on how to
understand psychotherapy—and apply its principles to the
greatest benefit of patients.