"...a much needed text which...will benefit both clinicians and psychotherapists in training....Considering the wealth of clinical material and wisdom found in this book, I think it is well worth the price. It is of great topical interest, and I highly recommend it to all residents and mental-health professionals involved in dynamic psychotherapy." --Canadian Journal of Psychiatry

"If a 'charming textbook' seems like an oxymoron, then welcome to Nancy McWilliams'sPsychoanalytic Diagnosis. Her book is just such a wonder....McWilliams has succeeded in producing a book for initial learning that will remain on her readers' desks as a frequently thumbed manual." --Psychoanalytic Books

"Thanks to McWilliams's excellent book, those of us who teach or supervise can at last offer our students and supervisees a comprehensive, exceptionally well-organized text on diagnosis, grounded in evolving psychoanalytic theory and focused on linking diagnosis to the appropriate therapeutic response....Since readingPsychoanalytic Diagnosis, I have found myself using it as a teaching tool and reference when diagnostic questions arise that have implications for therapeutic interventions." --Contemporary Psychology

"...this text serves as a good introduction to the field of psychodynamic therapy and conceptualization." --American Journal of Psychotherapy

"In her sweeping, comprehensive work about a psychoanalytic perspectives on diagnosis, Dr. McWilliams has written a book which could easily become classic as a psychoanalytic primer for students in the field...This book is worthy of a wide readership." --Clinical Social Work Journal
--Review

If a 'charming textbook' seems like an oxymoron, then welcome to Nancy McWilliams's Psychoanalytic Diagnosis. Her book is just such a wonder....McWilliams has succeeded in producing a book for initial learning that will remain on her readers' desks as a requently thumbed manual --Psychoanalytic Books, 7:3

In her sweeping, comprehensive work about a psychoanalytic perspectives on diagnosis, Dr. McWilliams has written a book which could easily become classic as a psychoanalytic primer for students in the field...This book is worthy of a wide readership --Clinical Social Work Journal, Sept 95

Psychoanalytic Diagnosis is a highly readable approach to character pathology that combines theoretical sophistication with clinical wisdom. Nancy McWilliams is an experienced, empathic, and intelligent therapist who succeeds in making clinical material come alive through her perceptiveness and her skill in writing. It isn't often that diagnosis is linked in a meaningful way to treatment, and McWilliams' schema allows this to happen. In addition, she shows an appreciation of all of the approaches to psychoanalytic theory without succumbing to a doctrinaire formulation. The integration that is achieved is an accomplishment in its own right, and students at all levels of training should benefit from this lucid presentation --George Stricker, Ph.D., Distinguished Research Professor, Adelphi University

Thanks to McWilliams's excellent book, those of us who teach or supervise can at last offer our students and supervisees a comprehensive, exceptionally well-organized text on diagnosis, grounded in evolving psychoanalytic theory and focused on linking diagnosis to the appropriate therapeutic response....Since reading Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, I have found myself using it as a teaching tool and reference when diagnostic questions arise that have implications for therapeutic interventions --Contemporary Psychology 41:6

This is the first text to come along in many years that makes psychoanalytic personality theory and its implications for practice accessible to beginning practitioners. The last book of its kind, which was published more than 20 years ago, predated the development of such significant concepts as borderline syndromes, narcissistic pathology, dissociative disorders and self-defeating personality.
Contemporary students often react with bewilderment to the language of pioneering analysts like Reich and Fenichel and, since 1980, the various volumes of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have reflected an empirical-descriptive orientation that deliberately eschews psychodynamic assumptions. Consequently, today's therapist in training may have little exposure to the rich clinical and theoretical history behind each disorder mentioned in DSM; to psychoanalytic expertise with widely recognized character patterns not mentioned in DSM, such as depressive and hypomanic psychologies, high-functioning schizoid personalities, and hysterical personalities; or to a comprehensive, theoretically sophisticated rationale that links assessment to treatment.
Filling the need for a text that clearly lays out the conceptual heritage that psychoanalytic practitioners take for granted, this important new volume explicates the major clinically important character types and suggests how an appreciation of the patients' individual personality structure should influence the therapist's focus and style of intervention. Dispensing with the dense jargon that often discourages people from learning, Nancy McWilliams writes in a lucid, personal manner that demystifies psychodynamic theory and practice. Innumerable clinical vignettes are presented with humor, candor, and compassion, bringing abstract concepts to life.
Comprehensive in scope,Psychoanalytic Diagnosiswill be valued by seasoned clinicians and students alike. Psychodynamically oriented readers will find it an excellent introduction to psychoanalytic diagnostic thinking. For those identified with other approaches, it will foster psychoanalytic literacy, providing them with the capacity to better understand the approaches of their analytically oriented colleagues.