Psychotherapy and Politics

Nick Totton is a psychotherapist, group leader and trainer in private practice in Leeds. Originally a Reichian practitioner, he currently uses and teaches his own synthesis, Embodied-Relational Therapy, drawing on psychoanalytic, process-oriented and humanistic elements. He is a founder participant in the Independent Practitioners Network and a member of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy.

• IntroductionPsycho-PoliticsEntering the 21st CenturyPART ONE: PSYCHOTHERAPY IN POLITICS`Right′ and `Left′ Therapists up to 1945Alternative RealitiesTherapy for the PeopleDeconstructing Mental IllnessConflict and CommunityPressing for Policy ChangesConclusion to Part OnePART TWO: PSYCHOTHERAPY OF POLITICSCulture on the CouchPsychohistory and the FamilyGender and SexualityThe Roots of HatredConclusion to Part TwoPART THREE: POLITICS OF PSYCHOTHERAPYPsychotherapy under TotalitarianismPsychotherapy in the Public EyeThe Institutions of PsychotherapyChallenging the Institutions of PsychotherapyConclusion to Part ThreePART FOUR: POLITICS IN PSYCHOTHERAPYChallenging Bias and IdeologyChallenging the Therapeutic RelationshipBeyond Therapy?Conclusion to Part Four

`This book bristles with challenges, is richly referenced, rigorously and compellingly argued. Its interest for student counsellors is in helping us to understand the politics of our own positions, both institutional and ideological′ - Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal`This stimulating addition to SAGE′s catalogues aims to give the practisng counsellor/therapist a multi-dimensional overview of the various ways in which the political and psychotherapeutic worlds interface′ - Association for University and College Counselling Newsletter`This is a truly outstanding book. In a world riven with anger, hatred, fear and aggression it provides a window of rationality, inspired by intelligence, understanding and humanistic principles′ - The Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling & Psychotherapy`SAGE′s invariably stimulating book series ′Perspectives in Psychotherapy′, edited by Colin Feltham, is certainly fortunate to be graced by the latest addition from Nick Totton, who offers us a tour de force of the diverse and manifold ways in which therapy and politics interpenetrate and inform each other′ - Richard House, Self & Society