Rainer M. Holm-Hadulla Book order

"Goethe's Path to Creativity provides a comprehensive psycho-biography of Johann W. V. Goethe, a giant of modern German and European literary, political and scientific history. The book brings this influential work by Rainer Matthias Holm-Hadulla to the English language for the first time, in a newly elaborated edition. Goethe's path to creativity was difficult and beset by a multitude of crises, beginning with his birth, which was so difficult that he was initially not thought to have survived it, and ending with an infatuation that left him, at the age of 74, toying with the same kind of suicidal thoughts he had entertained as a twenty-year-old. Throughout his long life, he suffered bitter disappointments and was subject to severe mood swings. Despite being a gifted child, a widely recognised poet, and an influential scientist and politician, he spent his entire life loving and suffering; nonetheless, he had the exceptional ability to endure emotional pain and to transform his sufferings creatively. The way in which he mined his passions for creative impulses continues to inspire modern readers. Readers can apply the lessons they have learned from his life and use his strategies for their own creative art of living. Goethe's Path to Creativity will be of great interest to all engaged in the fields of creativity, literature, psychoanalysis, psychology, psychotherapy and personal growth."--Provided by publisher

What happens in psychotherapy and when is it helpful? With twelve case reports covering the most frequent disorders requiring psychotherapy, the prominent psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychoanalyst Rainer Matthias Holm-Hadulla shows how success can be achieved with the flexible integration of different psychotherapeutic methods. The focus is on individuals in their social context, with their various biographies, life situations, and creative potentialities. The narratives revolve around an 'ABCDE' model and highlight the following aspects of modern psychotherapy: therapeutic alliance, behaviour change, cognitive reflection, psychodynamic analysis, and existential understanding.

Counselling and psychotherapy are effective to the extent that they promote the creativity of clients and patients. Creativity is both a lifestyle and a health resource. A creative lifestyle implies learning to be the authors of our own lives and a creative approach to our inner lives and our social environment gives us coherence and authenticity. This book derives creative principles for counselling and psychotherapy from practical modern approaches in these fields, as well as from psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, and new concepts of creativity itself. The creative attitude central to this represents an integrative basis for the differential application of various counselling and treatment techniques. Creative counselling serves to assist in coping with distress and clearly defined conflicts, and encourages personal and professional development. Creative psychotherapy is an aspect of dynamic, analytic and integrative psychotherapy. The hermeneutic principles – memory, narrative shaping, interactional experience – are activated with a view to ridding patients of psychopathological symptoms. In the modern world with all its challenges, creative counselling and psychotherapy are of outstanding importance. The book outlines a readily understandable, vital, and creative approach to the practice of counselling and psychotherapy in the service of the development of personal and social creativity.