Post-Modernism for Psychotherapists: A Critical Reader

DEL LOEWWNTHAL AND ROBERT SNELL: Post-modernism for Psychotherapists: A Critical Reader. Hove, UK and New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2003, 224 pp., $29.95, ISBN 1-58391-101-4 This volume is the effort of two respected teachers of psychotherapy in the United Kingdom. Dr. Loewnthal is Director of the Centre for Therapeutic Education at the University of Surrey and Dr. Snell is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist who teaches at the same Centre. The book reflects their experience in teaching and discussing post-modern continental philosophy to groups of psychotherapists in training. I approached the text with optimism, hoping for illumination of what always has seemed to me a murky and at times obscure philosophical landscape. However, what I found was not as satisfying as I had hoped. At first, the enterprise struck me as well worth the effort since post-modern conceptualizations have become pervasive when thinking about the psychotherapuetic process. Any illumination would be most welcome. Perhaps I was expecting too much, or perhaps the task is more daunting and difficult to accomplish than I had anticipated. I was enthusiastic at the book's opening. The first chapter provides a brief introductory discussion of what lies ahead. Here the authors are at their best, but even so the yield seems modest. As far as I could discern, the post-modern perspective offers a handful of insights into the therapeutic process that are worth considering and using. The general cautions-remain open to the patient's material, avoid restricting or constraining one's understanding of that material to one or another theory, engage empathically and sensitively with the patient's pain, be aware of the limits of one's own understanding, do not mistake one's conjectures about the content and meaning of the patient's inner life for what is really going on, be attuned to one's own part in the therapeutic dialogue, be respectful and protective of the patient's individuality, creativity, and freedom-are worthy emphases that should be become part of the therapist's repertoire. The first problem with the book I found was that the authors seem to view the aforementioned aspects of therapeutic work as if they were an exclusive contribution of post-modern thinking. As far as I am aware, they are standard components of good therapeutic practice. That does not mean that some practitioners have not implemented these qualities in the best or most effective manner possible. I would concede that some therapists engage in the therapeutic encounter in ways that violate some (or all) of these aspects. One issue that particularly troubles me is the adoption by some therapists of authoritarian attitudes that often subtly introduce therapeutic misalliance into the interaction with the client or trigger transference reactions that are better avoided. Lacan, who is one of the guiding spirits in this book, was, in my view, one of the chief offenders in this regard. In any case, the argument of the book seems to joust with a model of unempathic, uninvolved, monolithic, rejecting, impersonal, theory-driven therapy. I have personally never encountered this, although, since none of us really knows what goes on in the privacy of consulting rooms, there is room for doubt. …