Books / Clinical practice & common factors
Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy
Frieda Fromm-Reichmann’s Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy, first published in 1950, presents her psychoanalytic approach to the therapeutic relationship and intensive psychotherapy.
Book details
Author of listed edition: Frieda Fromm-Reichmann
Edition: First published in 1950; the 1960 Phoenix Books reprint has ISBN 9780226265995
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Edition year: 1950
Language and origin: English (United States)
Form and genre: Treatment Manual & Clinical Guide
Level: Advanced
Historical era: 1940–1959 · Object Relations, Existential & Client-Centred
Covers: The therapist’s role in the therapeutic relationship; Listening, interpretation and the treatment setting; Clinical ideas about intensive psychotherapy
APA 7th reference: Fromm-Reichmann, F. (1950). Principles of intensive psychotherapy. University of Chicago Press.
What it is
Published in 1950, this book presents Fromm-Reichmann’s approach to intensive psychotherapy. The publisher’s contents list covers the therapist’s role, the therapeutic process and contacts with relatives.
What it covers
Fromm-Reichmann discusses listening, the treatment relationship and interpretation, including her clinical ideas about hallucinations and delusions. A later historical account describes her work with people experiencing psychosis and her use of face-to-face therapy. These accounts describe an approach; they do not demonstrate its effectiveness for every patient.
Historical ideas and their limits
Fromm-Reichmann also used the term “schizophrenogenic mother” in earlier writing. Later scholarship describes the lack of scientific evidence for that explanation of schizophrenia. Families should not be blamed for causing the condition.
Reading this record
This entry uses the publisher’s description and contents, a historical review and a later catalogue record. The full 1950 book has not been reviewed for this entry. It does not assess the effectiveness of an individual treatment.
Sources and inspection notes
Fromm-Reichmann, F. (1950). Principles of intensive psychotherapy. University of Chicago Press.
Supports: Publisher identifies the work, copyright year and contents; the full book was not reviewed.
Supports: Catalogue identifies a 1960 reprint and ISBN 9780226265995; this is not evidence for an ISBN on the 1950 edition.
Supports: Bibliographic record and abstract of a historical review; the full-text review discusses Fromm-Reichmann’s 1948 term and the lack of scientific evidence for the maternal-causation theory.
American Journal of Psychiatry. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, 1889–1957.
Supports: Historical account describing her clinical ideas and work with people experiencing psychosis.