Circles of Change: Volume 1: An Adventure in Therapeutic Community at Atascadero State Hospital

Circles of Change represents the culmination of Dr. Abrahams seven decade career as a psychoanalyst. In this two volume book he comes full circle from his roots as one of the creative leaders of America institutional psychiatry starting at Fort Knox Military Prison and St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington D.C. to return from a long sojourn in private practice in Southern California to Atascadero State Hospital from 1990 through 1996 which is the subject of this study. During his unique and varied career Dr. Abrahams studied with was in analysis and interacted with luminaries of American psychoanalysis such as Frieda Fromm Reichmann Harry Stack Sullivan James Rosen Edith Weigert and Karl Menninger. He truly deserves a place as this book demonstrates as one of their peers. He has made singular contributions to psychoanalytic theory and practice particularly with respect to the treatment of those patients who have been considered least accessible to traditional psychoanalytic therapy. Long before the seminal works of Kernberg and Kohut which are referenced in the annotated bibliography he developed successful models and techniques for treating patients with narcissistic and psychopathic personalities as well as psychosis and mood disorders.