Deconstructing Psychopathology

`I enjoyed this book, and think that it should find a grateful and attentive readership in the practical field as well as being a central text in academic settings. It will also be well received by those, like myself, for whom the interest is more in deconstructing than psychotherapy' -Dialogues This book takes the discursive and postmodern turn in psychotherapy a significant step forward and will be of interest to all those working in mental health who are concerned with challenges to oppression and processes of emancipation. It achieves this by: reflecting on the role of psychotherapy in contemporary culture; developing critiques of language in psychotherapy that unravel its claims to personal truth

`I enjoyed this book, and think that it should find a grateful and attentive readership in the practical field as well as being a central text in academic settings. It will also be well received by those, like myself, for whom the interest is more in deconstructing than psychotherapy′ - Dialogues This book takes the discursive and postmodern turn in psychotherapy a significant step forward and will be of interest to all those working in mental health who are concerned with challenges to oppression and processes of emancipation. It achieves this by: reflecting on the role of psychotherapy in contemporary culture; developing critiques of language in psychotherapy that unravel its claims to personal truth; and the reworking of a place in the transformative therapeutic practice. Deconstruction is brought to bear on the key conceptual and pragmatic issues that therapists and clinical psychologists face, and the project of therapy is opened up to critical attention and reconstruction. The book provides clear reviews of different viewpoints and will help readers to understand the complex terrain of debates.

Introducing Psychopathology is an essential course companion for counselling, psychotherapy and counselling psychology trainees. It explains how to describe and diagnose client problems in clear, accessible language, demystifying the concept of psychopathology and revealing it as an integral aspect of training and practice. The book is entirely comprehensive in its coverage of client problems, groups, methods of assessment, up-to-date research and settings, covering crucial topics from assessment and diagnosis to the clinical symptoms of emotional distress, including severe or enduring disorders like schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder providing a framework for psychiatric diagnosis and classification and covering risk assessment in detail concluding with a chapter on holistic approaches and emotional wellbeing. Case studies and exercises throughout the book make sense of the theory in real-life practice and the author′s enthusiasm for her subject makes for a uniquely engaging, readable guide to the complexities of psychopathologies.

Psychopathology, Fifth Edition is the most up-to-date text about the etiology and treatment of the most important psychological disorders. The chapters are written by leading experts in the field of psychopathology who provide up-to-date information on theory, research, and clinical practice. The book is unique in its strong emphasis on critical thinking about psychopathology as represented by chapters on such topics as culture, race, gender, class, clinical judgment and decision-making, and alternatives to traditional categorical approaches to understanding psychopathology. The contributors have incorporated information about and from the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases along with information about and from the DSM-5. As with the previous editions, this book remains a true textbook in psychopathology. Unlike the many weighty volumes that are intended as reference books, Psychopathology, Fifth Edition has been designed specifically to serve as a textbook on psychopathology for graduate students in clinical and counseling psychology programs and related programs such as social work. It will also serve as an extremely useful reference source for practitioners and researchers.

Ian Parker has been a leading light in the fields of critical and discursive psychology for over 25 years. The Psychology After Critique series brings together for the first time his most important papers. Each volume in the series has been prepared by Ian Parker, and presents a newly written introduction and focused overview of a key topic area. Psychology After Deconstruction is the second volume in the series and addresses three important questions: What is ‘deconstruction’ and how does it apply to psychology? How does deconstruction radicalize social constructionist approaches in psychology? What is the future for radical conceptual and empirical research? The book provides a clear account of deconstruction, and the different varieties of this approach at work inside and outside the discipline of psychology. In the opening chapters Parker describes the challenge to underlying assumptions of ‘neutrality’ or ‘objectivity’ within psychology that deconstruction poses, and its implications for three key concepts: humanism, interpretation and reflexivity. Subsequent chapters introduce several lines of debate, and discuss their relation to mainstream axioms such as ‘psychopathology’, ‘diagnosis’ and ‘psychotherapy’, and alternative approaches like qualitative research, humanistic psychology and discourse analysis. Together, the chapters in this book show how, via a process of ‘erasure’, deconstructive approaches question fundamental assumptions made about language and reality, the self and the social world. By demonstrating the application of deconstruction to different areas of psychology, it also seeks to provide a ‘social reconstruction’ of psychological research. Psychology After Deconstruction is essential reading for students and researchers in psychology, sociology, social anthropology and cultural studies, and for discourse analysts of different traditions. It will also introduce key ideas and debates within deconstruction to undergraduates and postgraduate students across the social sciences.

This book aims to serve as a foundational text in the emerging field of African psychology, which centers the knowledges and experience of continental African realities and postcolonial concerns in psychology. Drawing from the author's key essays as a leading thinker in the field, African Psychology: The Emergence of a Tradition describes this discipline's meaning and scope, as well as its epistemological and theoretical perspectives. Part I presents the theoretical context for the book, proposing the Madiban tradition as a framework of inclusion for the study of psychology in African universities. Part 2 focuses on the epistemological, methodological, and theoretical perspectives in African psychology. Part 3 of the book introduces the reader to the field of African therapeutics, and Part 4 highlights the healing rituals and practices provided to the traumatised in contemporary Africa. The ultimate objective of the book is to give postcolonial Africans a fresh vision of themselves and their psychology and culture.

This book charts a clear and accessible path through some of the key debates in contemporary psychology. Drawing upon the wider critical and discursive turn in the human sciences, Social Constructionism, Discourse and Realism explores comprehensively the many claims about what we can know of `reality' in social constructionist and discursive research in psychology. Relativist versus realist tensions go to the heart of current theoretical and methodological issues, not only within psychology but across the social and human sciences. By mapping the connections between theory, method and politics in social research and placing these within the context of the broader social constructionist and discursive debates, the int

There has been an outpouring of children from schools over the last few years. The reasons for their exclusion from schools include: learning difficulties, behavioural problems or physical disability. Other reasons that are not dependent on a 'deficit' model of the children relate to Conservative-led initiatives involving school league tables, greater accountability, inspections, etc. Whatever the reasons, the new government are committed to reducing the number of children who are forced out of mainstream schooling. The author addresses the key issues and relates them to the main theory/literature in the area. He 'unpicks' the major theories and applies them to possible ways of working with children in the classroom. Four case studies are used in order to make these proposed ways of working more accessible. As with other books in the series, exercises, readings and questions are set throughout.