Meaning-Fullness: Developmental Psychotherapy and the Pursuit of Mental Health

The book Meaning-Fullness: Developmental Psychotherapy and the Pursuit of Mental Health by Jan Resnick critiques current mental health practices and offers an alternative perspective. He focuses on the existential vacuum and proposes a developmental psychotherapy approach that aims to cultivate a greater capacity for play, creativity, relationship, and meaningful living. The book is supported with clinical examples and a case study and is accessible to mental health practitioners and anyone concerned with mental health and well-being.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 02 February 2023
Publisher: Phoenix Publishing House

The purpose of Meaning-Fullness: Developmental Psychotherapy and the Pursuit of Mental Health is to explore why current mental health practices fall short in addressing the growing need for effective responses to the mental health epidemic. Author Jan Resnick begins by critically examining psychiatry and psychology, particularly the misuse and corruption of research that underpins these practices. He then presents an alternative perspective, understanding, and approach to issues of mental disorders. Resnik centers his attention on the existential vacuum, a term coined by Viktor Frankl in his classic text Mans Search for Meaning, which refers to feelings of emptiness, purposelessness, and meaninglessness. These feelings are increasingly prevalent in our contemporary world. The existential vacuum points to a realm of experience that is not adequately described by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) or treated with a bio-medical approach.

A radically different therapeutic approach emerges through the elaboration of Winnicott's ideas in Playing and Reality, his last published work. Resnick demonstrates how the capacity for meaning-making originates in early childhood development and how this understanding can be applied to adult experiences, thereby transforming psychotherapy into a developmental process. Developmental psychotherapy aims to cultivate a greater capacity for play, creativity, relationships, and meaningful living. In addition, therapy must strive to relieve mental suffering, facilitate recovery from trauma, and mitigate, if not resolve, psychological disorders. The theory is richly supported with clinical examples throughout the book, culminating in a comprehensive case study that integrates the ideas with clinical practice, forming the final part of the book.

Dr. Jan Resnick has crafted a must-read that offers valuable insights into the field of developmental psychotherapy and the pursuit of mental health.

Dimension: 246 x 189 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781800131330