ON BALANCING APPROACHES TO PSYCHOTHERAPY - PRESCRIPTIVE PATTERNS OF ATTENTION, MOTIVATION, AND PERSONALITY

Prescriptive dimensions for differential treatments are reviewed. In c ontrast to previous efforts in this vein, a number of empirical and co nceptual literatures from various fields within psychology are reviewe d which emphasize the characteristics of the client, rather than the c haracteristics of specific disorders. Specifically, the prescriptive m atch between the person and the treatment is considered in relation to convergent dimensions of social motivation, attention style, and pers onality. These dimensions are integrated into an expanded definition o f the global continuum of agency and communion. A relative definition of health is also considered in terms of the balance of the agentic an d communal dimensions within persons (flexibility), and in terms of th e possible shift in the prescriptive formulae during the course of the rapy.