Deconstructing Psychotherapy

`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.

Ian Parker is Professor of Psychology in the Discourse Unit at Bolton Institute. He is author of Psychoanalytic Culture (SAGE, 1997) and co-author of Deconstructing Psychopathology (SAGE, 1995).

CONTRIBUTORS

Steven D Brown Keele University

Vivien Burr University of Huddersfield

Andrew Collier University of Southampton

Bronwyn Davies James Cook University

Don Foster University of Cape Town

Kenneth J Gergen Swarthmore College

Rom Harre Oxford University

Maritza Montero Universidad Central de Venezuela

Jonathan Potter Loughborough University

Joan Pujol University of Huddersfield

Carla Willig Middlesex University