Main description:

Del Loewenthal's career has been wide-ranging, spanning existentialism, psychoanalysis, critical psychotherapy, humanism, postmodernism, phototherapy, cognitive behaviour therapy and childhood studies. This collection combines new and recent works with earlier writings, drawing together his outstanding research and contribution to existential theory, practice and research.

Containing chapters and papers chosen by Loewenthal himself, the book is divided into the following sections:

* Existentialism after postmodernism and the psychological therapies

* Practice, ideologies and politics: Now you see it, now you don't!

* Practice, practice issues and the nature of psychotherapeutic knowledge

* Practice and theory: Implications not applications

* Thoughtful practice and research

* Conclusion: Hopefully unending, continually changing and astonishing

After an introduction to the overall book, each section is accompanied by the author's exploration of his further thoughts on the pieces, his own subsequent learning and his comments on developments in the field since the time of writing.

Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling after Postmodernism will be inspiring reading for psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, counsellors, other mental health professionals in general, and existential therapists in particular.

Contents:

Permissions Acknowledgements Part One 1. Introduction: Existential psychotherapy and counselling after postmodernism and R. D. Laing 2. Roots to a new Existentialism 3. Postmodernism 4. Post-existentialism Part Two: Practice, ideologies and politics: Now you see it, now you don't! 5. Psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and counselling for oppressors and oppressed: Sex, violence and ideology in practice? 6. NICE Work if you can get it: Evidence and Research in Psychotherapy as Cultural, Politically Influenced Practices 7. Editorials on Practice, Ideologies and Politics Part Three: Practice, practice issues and the nature of psychotherapeutic knowledge 8. 'Talking Pictures': The therapeutic use of photographs in counselling and psychotherapy 9. A training in post-existentialism: placing Rogers and psychoanalysis 10. The Unknown in Learning to be a Psychotherapist 11. Editorials on Practice, Practice Issues and Psychotherapeutic Knowledge Part Four: Practice and Theory: Implications not Applications 12. Post-existentialism instead of CBT 13. From existentialism to post-existentialism: The Ethics of the Relational 14. The Saviour in the Gap: A comparison of Lacan with Freud and Laing 15. The Magic of the Relational? An introduction to appraising and reappraising relational psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and counselling 16. Editorials on Practice and Theory Part Five: Thoughtful Practice and Research 17. Relational Research, Ideology and the Evolution of Intersubjectivity in a Post-Existential Culture 18. Editorials on Thoughtful Practice and Research Part six: Conclusion: Hopefully unending, continually changing and astonishing 19. Editorials on Critical Psychotherapy and Hypermodernity versus Altermodernity