Most Popular Books by Jeremy Holmes

Winner of the 2010 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Scholarship! Exploring in Security discusses the concept of mentalising and considers three components of effective therapy – the therapeutic relationship, meaning making and change promotion – from both attachment and psychoanalytic perspectives.

Describing the neuroscientific basis for effective psychotherapy, Professor Holmes draws on the Free Energy Principle, which holds that, through ‘active inference’ -- agency and model revision -- the brain minimises discrepancies between incoming experience and its pre-existing picture of the world. Difficulties with these processes underlie clients’ need for psychotherapeutic help. Based on his relational ‘borrowed brain’ model, and deploying his capacity to communicate complex ideas to a wide audience, Holmes shows us how the ‘talking cure’ reinstates active inference and thus how therapy helps bring about change.

Storr’s The Art of Psychotherapy first appeared in 1979 and became an instant classic. After Storr’s death, a third edition was rewritten and revised by Jeremy Holmes, and this fourth edition is a further up-to-date iteration. Storr (1920–2001) and Holmes, both medical psychoanalytic psychotherapists, are ‘elders’ in the world of psychotherapy. Their eclectic, experienced and cultured voices offer students and psychotherapy practitioners clinical wisdom hard to find elsewhere. Their book expounds in a very practical way the issues entailed in setting up and maintaining a psychotherapeutic relationship and practice: how to introduce oneself, arrange one’s consulting room, establish a contract, when and how to make ‘interpretations''. The second half of the book deals with more general and often problematic issues, including how to align therapy in the light of diagnosis, working with ‘difficult’ patients, therapy termination, and the life course of a therapist, ending with a valedictory overview. In this fourth edition, Holmes has added a chapter on the scientific validation of psychotherapy, sections on tele- and e-therapy, non-binary gender and sexual identities and the impact of race and class on the therapeutic relationship. This engaging, accessible and profound book is essential reading for psychotherapists, counsellors, psychiatrists and mental health practitioners in training or practice.

In recent decades, attachment theory has gained widespread interest and acceptance, although the relevance of attachment theory to clinical practice has never been clear. The Search for the Secure Base shows how attachment theory can be used therapeutically. Jeremy Holmes introduces an exciting new attachment paradigm in psychotherapy with adults, describing the principles and practice of attachment-informed therapy in a way that will be useful to beginners and experienced therapists alike. Illustrated with a wide range of clinical examples, this book will be welcomed by practitioners and trainees in psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and in many other disciplines.

Second edition, completely revised and updated John Bowlby is one of the outstanding psychological theorists of the twentieth century. This new edition of John Bowlby and Attachment Theory is both a biographical account of Bowlby and his ideas and an up-to-date introduction to contemporary attachment theory and research, now a dominant force in psychology, counselling, psychotherapy and child development. Jeremy Holmes traces the evolution of Bowlby’s work from a focus on delinquency, material deprivation and his dissatisfaction with psychoanalysis''s imperviousness to empirical science to the emergence of attachment theory as a psychological model in its own right. This new edition traces the explosion of interest, research and new theories generated by Bowlby’s followers, including Mary Main’s discovery of Disorganised Attachment and development of the Adult Attachment Interview, Mikulincer and Shaver’s explorations of attachment in adults and the key contributions of Fonagy, Bateman and Target. The book also examines advances in the biology and neuroscience of attachment. Thoroughly accessible yet academically rigorous, and written by a leading figure in the field, John Bowlby and Attachment Theory is still the perfect introduction to attachment for students of psychology, psychiatry, counselling, social work and nursing.

What is psychoanalysis? Is it relevant to today’s mental health crisis? How can psychoanalysis help people suffering from psychological distress and illness? This vital new book examines how psychoanalysis has changed since its inception, and how it has adapted to the needs and concerns of 21st-century mental health professionals and patients. The first part of this book provides a concise and unbiased account of the origins of psychoanalysis, and the theories which characterise the main post-Freudian schools – neo-Freudian, Kleinian, interpersonal, self-psychological, Lacanian – and the ways in which they agree and diverge. The second part uses clinical illustrations to examine the practicalities of psychoanalytic technique in the consulting room – assessment, free association, dream analysis, transference, and counter-transference. Whatever their allegiance or role, mental health professionals – psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, child mental health professionals, mental health nurses – need to be conversant with the strengths, relevance, and limitations of the psychoanalytic approach. This book provides an indispensable, up-to-date, and accessible account of psychoanalysis today. Shaped throughout by considering the viewpoint of an interested 21st-century reader, it is of great interest to psychoanalysts and related mental health professionals, as well as students and all those interested in the treatment of mental health.

Attachment theory is on the leading edge of a conceptual revolution. It offers a new paradigm that can synthesize into a more coherent whole the best ideas from psychoanalysis, cognitive science, and neurobiology. With its emphasis on relationships, attachment theory is determinedly humanistic, while retaining the scientific vigor of Darwinian ethnology. Attachment theory provides an overall framework for thinking about relationships, or more accurately, about those aspects of relationships that are shaped by threat and the need for security, themes that are central to the work of psychotherapy. In this book Jeremy Holmes explores the contribution of attachment theory to everyday psycho-therapeutic practice where patients are usually seen once weekly, or less, for no more than two to three years.

Use of the imagination is a key aspect of successful psychotherapeutic treatments. Psychotherapy helps clients get in touch with, awaken, and learn to trust their creative inner life, while therapists use their imaginations to mentalise the suffering other and to trace the unconscious stirrings evoked by the intimacy of the consulting room. Working from this premise, in The Therapeutic Imagination Jeremy Holmes argues unashamedly that literate therapists make better therapists. Drawing on psychoanalytic and literary traditions both classical and contemporary, Part I shows how poetry and novels help foster therapists’ understanding of their own imagination-in-action, anatomised into five phases: attachment, reverie, logos, action and reflection. Part II uses the contrast between secure and insecure narrative styles in attachment theory and relates these to literary storytelling and the transformational aspects of therapy. Part III uses literary accounts to illuminate the psychiatric conditions of narcissism, anxiety, splitting and bereavement. Based on Forster’s motto, ‘Only Connect’, Part IV argues, with the help of poetic examples, that a psychiatry shorn of psychodynamic creativity is impoverished and fails to serve its patients. Clearly and elegantly written, and drawing on the author’s deep knowledge of psychoanalysis and attachment theory and a lifetime of clinical experience, Holmes convincingly links the literary and psychoanalytic canon. The Therapeutic Imagination is a compelling and insightful work that will strike chords for therapists, counsellors, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists and psychologists.

For three decades Jeremy Holmes has been a leading figure in psychodynamic psychiatry in the UK and across the world. He has played a central role in promoting the ideas of John Bowlby and in developing the clinical applications – psychiatric and psychotherapeutic – of Attachment Theory in working with adults. Drawing on both psychoanalytic and attachment ideas, Holmes has been able to encompass a truly biopsychosocial perspective. As a psychotherapist Holmes brings together psychodynamic, systemic and cognitive models, alert to vital differences, but also keenly sensitive to overlaps and parallels. This volume of selected papers brings together the astonishing range of Holmes'' interests and contributions. The various sections in the book cover: An extended interview – covering Holmes’ career and philosophy as a psychodynamic psychiatrist ''Juvenilia'' – sibling relationships, the psychology of nuclear weapons, and the psychodynamics of surgical intervention. Psychodynamic psychiatry: Integrative and Attachment-Informed A psychotherapy section in which he develops his model of psychotherapeutic change ''Heroes'' – biographical pieces about the major influences including, John Bowlby, Michael Balint, David Malan, Jonathan Pedder and Charles Rycroft. ''Ephemera'' – brief pieces covering such topics as frequency of psychodynamic sessions and fees. Attachments: Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis - The Selected Works of Jeremy Holmes will be essential and illuminating reading for practitioners and students of psychiatry and psychotherapy in all its guises.

Cur Deus Verba unfolds a systematic theology of Scripture from a single key question: What did God seek to accomplish by making the Bible? The answer requires seeing why the Holy Trinity made anything at all, why the Word became flesh, and finally why the Church needs an inspired text. As Christ is more fully "man" than any mere man, so his Church is more fully "society" than any merely human society. And as every society has its literary tradition, so the Church needed a canon of literature that would be more fully "book" than any merely human book. But to grasp what God intended to accomplish, we have to see how he intended to do it. To the extent possible, God wanted human beings to cause not just the text but revelation itself, and paradoxically this exaltation of human agency gave rise to the need for Scripture’s spiritual sense. The spiritual sense of Scripture leads in turn to a meaning of the term "literal" that is unique to the realm of theology, and the connection between the two means that we cannot follow the literal sense without grasping the spiritual as well. Once God has made what he intended in the way he intended, one question remains: How does this inspired text continue to exist? As with any text, the answer is that Scripture exists in physical books, but really and principally in the hearts of the readers. And Scripture''s own place in the salvation history it records means that one human heart is preeminent: the text of Sacred Scripture exists exemplarily in the Heart of Jesus Christ.

Highly Commended, BMA Medical Book Awards 2013 Sensitively updated and revised for modern practice, Anthony Storr''s legendary work continues to be an indispensible introductory text for aspiring psychotherapists. Professor Jeremy Holmes, a friend and colleague of Anthony Storr''s and himself a leading psychotherapist, has updated this accessible and humane account of the practice of psychotherapy to include: Integrative psychotherapeutic approaches Revised classification of personality types New sections on selection and assessment Consideration of evidence-based psychodynamic practice Broadened appeal to the full range of mental health professionals Retaining Anthony Storr''s wisdom, vision, and classic approach, whilst bringing the text totally up to date, this will be a cornerstone volume for beginner and experienced psychotherapists alike. It will also appeal to psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, nurses, social workers, counsellors, and other mental health professionals.

While the prime focus of psychotherapeutic theory and practice is intra- and interpersonal, these are nested in an often unexamined supra-personal sociological, ecological, and spiritual context. Based on in-depth interviews with people from a wide range of faith backgrounds, Jeremy Holmes highlights the role belief and spirituality play in everyday lives. He identifies core common themes of attachment and hope; frameworks of meaning; and the everyday praxis of rhythm and ritual. He also draws on classic literature, using Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Tolstoy’s War and Peace. The book concludes with a moving account of Holmes’ own practice as a psychotherapist. The Spirit of Psychotherapy is a must-read for psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and mental health professionals to understand the importance of faith within the largely secular world of psychotherapy.

This is a concise, accessible introduction to the basic principles of attachment theory, and their application to therapeutic practice. Bringing together 70 years’ of theory and research, its expert authors provide a much-needed user-friendly guide to attachment-informed psychotherapy. The book covers: The history, research base, and key figures and concepts of attachment theory The key concepts of attachment theory, and their implications for practice Neuroscience implications of attachment and its therapeutic relevance The parallels and differences between parent-child attachment and the therapeutic relationship The application of attachment in adult individual psychotherapy across a number of settings, also to couples and families The applications of attachment to working with complex disorders The applications of attachment in child psychotherapy

Promise and Fulfillment: The Relationship Between the Old and the New Testaments is the eight volume in the acclaimed series from Scott Hahn’s St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. Letter & Spirit, the most widely read journal of Catholic Biblical Theology in English, seeks to foster a deeper conversation about the Bible. The series takes a crucial step toward recovering the fundamental link between the literary and historical study of Scripture and its religious and spiritual meaning in the Church’s liturgy and Tradition. This volume features an all-star lineup tackling one of the oldest questions in Christian biblical scholarship — the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. Highlights include Hahn’s essay on the meaning of covenant in Hebrews 9 and Brant Pitre’s reading of the parable of the Royal Wedding Feast (Matt 22:1-14) against the backdrop of Jewish Scripture and tradition.

This first-class book provides an unrivalled basis for further discussion on to how to make psychotherapy more effective both, ethically and professionally. Above all, psychotherapy is a moral practice. However scientific its research, or however much scientific research is demanded of it, psychotherapy remains a practice born of moral dilemmas, of how we live together, each with the other...Above all, the book is a plea to accept psychotherapy as a profession.