Deconstructing Psychotherapy - Paperback

by Ian Parker (Editor)

I enjoyed this book, and think that it should find a grateful and attentive readership in the practical field as well as being a central text in academic settings. It will also be well received by those, like myself, for whom the interest is more in deconstructing than psychotherapy′ - Dialogues

This book takes the discursive and postmodern turn in psychotherapy a significant step forward and will be of interest to all those working in mental health who are concerned with challenges to oppression and processes of emancipation. It achieves this by: reflecting on the role of psychotherapy in contemporary culture; developing critiques of language in psychotherapy that unravel its claims to personal truth; and the reworking of a place in the transformative therapeutic practice.

Deconstruction is brought to bear on the key conceptual and pragmatic issues that therapists and clinical psychologists face, and the project of therapy is opened up to critical attention and reconstruction. The book provides clear reviews of different viewpoints and will help readers to understand the complex terrain of debates.

Author Biography

CONTRIBUTORS

Nollaig O′Reilly Byrne Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin

Wendy Drewery University of Waikato, NZ

Vincent Fish The Family Therapy Center of Madison

John Kaye University of Adelaide

Glann Larner Community Health Centre, Nowra, NSW

Ian Law Yaletown Family Therapy, Vancouver

Roger Lowe Queensland University of Technology

Imelda Colgan McCarthy University College Dublin

Wally McKenzie Hamilton Family Therapy, NZ

Stephen Madigan Yaletown Family Therapy, Vancouver

John Morss University of Otago, NZ

Maria Nichterlein Dunedin Public Hospital, NZ

Eero Riikonen The National Research and Development Centre of Welfare and Health, Helsinki

Vanessa Swan Yaletown Family Therapy, Vancouver

Sara Vataja VAK-projekti, Helsinki