Table of Contents

Introduction
Psycho-Politics
Entering the 21st Century
PART ONE: PSYCHOTHERAPY IN POLITICS
`Right′ and `Left′ Therapists up to 1945
Alternative Realities
Therapy for the People
Deconstructing Mental Illness
Conflict and Community
Pressing for Policy Changes
Conclusion to Part One
PART TWO: PSYCHOTHERAPY OF POLITICS
Culture on the Couch
Psychohistory and the Family
Gender and Sexuality
The Roots of Hatred
Conclusion to Part Two
PART THREE: POLITICS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychotherapy under Totalitarianism
Psychotherapy in the Public Eye
The Institutions of Psychotherapy
Challenging the Institutions of Psychotherapy
Conclusion to Part Three
PART FOUR: POLITICS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY
Challenging Bias and Ideology
Challenging the Therapeutic Relationship
Beyond Therapy?
Conclusion to Part Four

About the Author

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.

Reviews

`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