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This book explores what ´critical´ means for the talking therapies in a climate of increasing state influence and intervention. It looks at theoretical and practical notions of ´critical´ from perspectives including queer theory, feminism, Marxism, the psychiatric survivor movement, as well as from within counsellor training and education.

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Authors´ Biographies, Abstracts and Critiques PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Talking Therapies, Culture, the State and Neo-liberalism: Is There a Need for Critical Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis and Counselling?; Del Loewenthal PART II: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM CRITICAL PSYCHIATRY AND CRITICAL PSYCHOLOGY? 2. The Medical Model: What Is It, Where Did It Come from and How Long Has It Got?; Hugh Middleton 3. Toward Critical Psychotherapy and Counselling: What Can We Learn from Critical Psychology (and Political Economy)?; Ian Parker 4. The Neurobiological Turn in Therapeutic Treatment: Salvation or Devastation?; Kenneth J. Gergen PART III: USERS´ PERSPECTIVES 5. Personal Versus Medical Meanings in Breakdown, Treatment and Recovery from ´Schizophrenia´; Tom Cotton and Del Loewenthal PART IV: CRITIQUES COMING MORE FROM OUTSIDE 6. Critical Theory and Psychotherapy; Anastasios Gaitanidis 7. When Love Is Not All We Want: Queers, Singles and the Therapeutic Cult of Relationality; Mari Ruti and Adrian Cocking 8. Relating to People as revolutionaries; Lois Holzman 9. Work in Contemporary Capitalism; Michael Rustin PART V: CRITIQUES COMING MORE FROM INSIDE 10. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Therapy (but Were Afraid to Ask): Fragments of a Critical Psychotherapy; Andrew Samuels 11. Critical Priorities for the Psychotherapy and Counselling Community; Colin Feltham 12. The Deleuzian Project; Chris Oakley 13. Psychoanalysis and the Event of Resistance; Steven Groarke 14. Psychology, Psychotherapy - Coming to Our Senses?; Paul Moloney PART VI: CRITIQUES OF TRAINING AND LEARNING 15. Contesting the Curriculum: Counsellor Education in a Postmodern and Medicalising Era; Tom Strong, Karen H. Ross, Konstantinos Chondros and Monica Sesma-Vazquez 16. Systemic Means to Subversive Ends: Maintaining the Therapeutic Space as a Unique Encounter; Jay Watts PART VII: IS THERE AN UNFORTUNATE NEED FOR CRITICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY, PSCYHOANALYSIS AND COUNSELLING? 17. Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis and Counselling for Oppressors and Oppressed: Sex, Violence and Ideology in Practice?; Del Loewenthal

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"I enjoyed this book, and I consider it to be well worth reading. It should be read by people who practice psychotherapy not because the volume does not have flaws; it has several. The book makes many debatable assertions and has plenty of speculation. ... the book provides a long overdue, hard, critical look at the social, economic, and political implications and assumptions associated with the practice of psychotherapy." (William J. Whelton, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 61 (18), May, 2016)

"What this book does do extremely well is demonstrate critical engagement with psychotherapeutic practice in context. ... this book is an engaging and exciting place to visit." (Aaron Roberts, The Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy, Vol. 19 (1), 2019)

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