Unbearable affect

the long version

What happens when emotion becomes unbearable? In some psychotic patients, delusions, hallucinations, and incoherence are the result, while others suffer from negativism, autism, or emotional paralysis. In this remarkable book, Dr. David Garfield builds on the work of Semrad, Jung, and Bleuler in identifying affect as "the driving force behind all our actions and omissions" and in using emotion as the focus and guide for healing psychotic patients. This is particularly important in an age when antipsychotic drugs and modern neuroscience have rendered many patients less symptomatic, but still dysfunctional. The book is divided into three sections, which correspond with the three stages of psychotherapy of psychosis. The first section deals with finding and understanding unbearable affect in the initial clinical work with psychosis. The second section outlines techniques for helping patients contain and transform unbearable affect. The book's third section is geared toward keeping patients out of psychosis once they have stabilized. Built on a solid theoretical foundation and furnished with clinical experience and practical advice, Unbearable Affect provides a powerful tool through which to approach the healing of psychotic patients. Mental health professionals who work with psychotic patients in hospitals, prisons, shelters, clinics, or private practice will find this sensitive book highly illuminating.