Routledge Therapy and the Counter-tradition: The Edge of Philosophy

Therapy & the Counter-tradition: The Edge of Philosophy brings together leading exponents of contemporary psychotherapy, philosophers and writers, to explore how philosophical ideas may inform therapy work. Each author discusses a particular philosopher who has influenced their life and therapeutic practice, while questioning how counselling and psychotherapy can address human ‘wholeness’, despite the ascendancy of rationality, regulation and diagnosis. It also seeks to acknowledge the distinct lack of philosophical input and education in counselling and psychotherapy training. The chapters are rooted in the Counter-Tradition, whose diverse manifestations include humanism, skepticism, fideism, as well as the opening of philosophy and psychology to poetry and the arts. This collection of thought-provoking essays will help open the discussion within the psychological therapies, by providing therapists with critical philosophical references, which will help broaden their knowledge and the scope of their practice. Therapy & the Counter-tradition: The Edge of Philosophy will be of interest to mental health professionals, practitioners, counselling and psychotherapy trainees and trainers, and academics tutoring or studying psychology. It will also appeal to those interested in psychology, meditation, personal development and philosophy. Review '...a fascinating, quality read.' - Private Practice 'This welcomed book is recommended for those who wish to consider some potentially life changing implications of, rather than use, philosophy for their therapeutic practices.' - Professor Del Loewenthal, Chair of Psychotherapy & Counselling, University of Roehampton "By reaching outside the increasingly narrow world of psychotherapy, this book offers us much needed resources to re-examine current practice from the proper perspective of the whole of human experience. The writing here returns us to a maturity of thought that is currently lacking in the profession of psychotherapy. We are invited to expand our questions and assumptions beyond ‘evidence-based treatments’, to include philosophical and creative insights. In the process, we regain a little of the personal humility that makes psychotherapy therapeutic in the first place. A real breath of fresh air." - Dr Greg Madison, author and psychotherapist "Offering a clear dialogue between therapy and philosophy, Therapy and the Counter-Tradition is a much needed and most welcome book. In an age of what the editors refer to as "superficial pragmatism", this book promotes and provides philosophical integrity, which is often lacking in training and practice. Focusing on the work of twelve specific philosophers, a poet and a novelist, the book is wide-ranging, informative, and stimulating, while remaining coherent. This is book for thinking and thoughtful therapists. I commend the editors and recommend it highly." - Dr Keith Tudor, Professor of Psychotherapy, Auckland University of Technology, Aotearoa New Zealand, and co-author of Person-Centred Therapy: A Clinical Philosophy (Routledge, 2006) "A tour de force of critical insights--from Nietzsche to Wittgenstein, from Keats to Kierkegaard--Manu Bazzano and Julie Webb have provided a rich banquet of ideas that are orthogonal to the complacency of tradition and the banality of contemporary psychotherapy. Drawing on a wide range of themes―ethics, politics, art, poetry and language―Therapy and the Counter-Tradition revitalizes philosophy as a way of life, offering a new infusion of vitality into the healing of the soul." - Ronald E. Purser, Ph.D., Professor of Management, San Francisco State University "In an age where therapy’s literature is dominated by programmatic, allegedly evidence-based pretensions to scientificity and control, with meaning routinely reduced to superficiality and utility, we desperately need far more material that will fructify imaginations, embrace paradox and the ineffable, and challenge the Tra