I recently watched the excellent BBC Horizon documentary on decision making. The programme featured the very interesting work of Professor Daniel Kahneman (pictured, left) from Princeton University and his late colleague Amos Tversky. They had demonstrated for over 30 years several replicable ways in which human judgements and decisions differ from rational choice theory. Cognitive and behavioural approaches tend […]
I am continuing with my read of Rowan’s very interesting 2010 book Personification: Using the Dialogical Self in Psychotherapy and Counselling. I was particularly impressed with the piece about reification. Reification is that process by which we take a theoretical concept and turn it into a real thing. For instance, Rowan mentions the example of Kohut
It is quite common to hear counsellors and psychotherapists say to themselves, or in group supervision, that they were only listening to the client and that there was a perceived absence of creative intervention in the therapy on their part. When I feel like this I must remember what Clarkson said about the therapeutic relationship.
On Tuesday I interviewed Dr John Rowan about integrative psychotherapy practice. In the interview John tells me about his ideas on psycho spiritual development, levels of consciousness and his views on personification. Well known in the psychotherapy environment for his work on Subpersonalities, his other books are Ordinary Ecstasy, Healing the Male Psyche (Therapy as initiation)
The results of a recent study into the effectiveness of talking therapies and CBT as a treatment programme for schizophrenia show its usefulness is so minimal that it’s continued recommendation cannot be justified. Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire led by Prof Keith Laws found that CBT only had a “small therapeutic effect” on schizophrenic symptoms. For
I have always been intrigued by what makes people commit murderous acts of rage. This is not a morbid reflection on man’s inhumanity to man, on my part, or indeed an attempt by me to gain vicarious pleasure from learning of the gory details of forensic events. Rather, it is my way of exploring and
Jonathan Bowlby has been described by Storr as “one of the three or four most important psychiatrists of the twentieth century.” For the purposes of this post, I intend to focus on his work on Attachment Theory. Bowlby was troubled by the dogmatism and cultism of the psychoanalytic world and argued strongly for open scientific
Do you fancy an opportunity to explore the cultural impact and history of Taoism and deepen your understanding of Chinese culture? You could do worse than to pop along to an exhibition at Asia House in Central London. Harmonious Co-existence – Sharing Taoist Culture runs until the end of the month and is free to enter.
One of the dangers in trying to define transpersonal psychotherapy is that one can become overly analytical and miss the core essence of the approach. For transpersonal psychotherapists will maintain that the interaction with the client is heart felt, not theory driven. Unlike psychoanalysis there is no strict adherence to the rule of neutrality or
A major criticism of an existential approach in counselling and psychotherapy (as if it can be seen as a coherent approach) is that it lacks a systematic statement of the principles and practices of therapy. There is an absence of a coherent set of highly developed techniques. The approach can be applied in a haphazard