Configuring Psychology

Martyn Pickersgill is Professor of the Sociology of Science and Medicine, University of Edinburgh. Known internationally for his scholarship on the sociology of psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience, he is an elected Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences and winner of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Henry Duncan Medal.

• Introduction: psychology, therapy, and society; Part I. Configuring Contexts: 1. Positioning psychology: configuring professional boundaries and identities; 2. Proliferating therapy: the rise of the improving access to psychological therapy (IAPT) initiative; 3. Producing treatability: reconfiguring the subjects of therapy through entwinements of clinical practice and mental health law; Part II. Configuring Care: 4. Prefacing care: the reciprocal configuration of patients, services, and professionals during referral and assessment; 5. Performing autonomy: working with and against healthcare structures to configure access and exclusion; 6. Prompting exclusion: how 'did not attend' policies shape the involuntary discharge of patients; Coda: psychological therapy and the ambivalence of access; References; Acknowledgements.

'Martyn Pickersgill here configures a rich and compelling account of clinical psychology. This vital book tells an important story of how clinical psychology is configured, including through its encounters with other disciplines such as law, and the implications of these encounters. Pickersgill invites us to reflect on how bureaucratic, technological, social, legal and political dynamics shape care, care providers and the subjects of care themselves, and the ethics of these configurations, along the way.' Kate Seear, Professor of Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University, Australia