Questioning Psychology

What gets in the way of our understanding other people? So asks psychologist Brian Levitt in this challenging and deeply reflective book. Levitt writes with honesty and humility about the profession in which he has worked for 25 years and the people he has worked with. He questions the assumptions that prevent us from seeing people more fully for who they are; the belief systems that underpin all that we do; the devices and methods psychologists routinely use; the influence of the systems within which they work, and the impacts of power and fear. He speaks to newly qualified and more seasoned practitioners alike with his call to look beyond theory and control and see the full complexity of the people who face them in their work. From the author - This book is many things. It carries my understanding of the field I love and that I have lived, worked and played in for the better part of 25 years. It is a personal reflection of how I understand my work with other people as a psychologist. It is a steady stream of questions that may lead to seeing the people we work with more fully for who they are. It holds my thoughts about the belief systems that underpin all that we do. It holds my experiences and reflections with respect to our devices and methods, from personality theory to diagnosis and the dominant tools of psychological testing and interviewing. It is increasingly personal, eventually leading the reader through my thoughts on what it means to us as human beings to work within and be affected by systems, and the impact of power and our fears. It is an alternative to textbooks on clinical psychology. It is a work of critical psychology, asking questions about the bases of our field and what we do. It is a book that holds my ideas and thoughts for young practitioners seeking an alternative source of supervision and study, and it is a book for more seasoned practitioners who may be thinking about what they are really doing after all these years of working with other people.