In this profound work, Vittorio Guidano expands upon his earlier seminal contributions on the application of cognitive and developmental principles to individuals struggling with various forms of psycho-pathology. Here, he fully develops the idea that individuals' experience, both positive and negative, are powerfully influenced by their personal psychological organizations. Focusing primarily on the eating disorders, the phobias (with agoraphobia as the prototype) obsessive-compulsive patterns, and depression, Guidano illustrates how early developmental experiences and ongoing psychological processes may collude to perpetuate dysfunctional patterns and personal distress. The central and perhaps most exciting thesis in this new expression of Guidano's thinking is that the deep structure or core organizing processes that constrain human psychological experience may be at the heart of successful intervention as well as the classical problems of resistance, relapse, and refractory
