“This compilation of insightful, thoughtful, and highly original explorations gently subverts the concepts of normal as conventional and of what we often call ‘disease’ as abnormal. Written with sensitivity and compassion, it is a challenging and much needed contribution to the psychotherapeutic literature.”
Gabor Maté, M.D., author of When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress
Many people strive to be normal, and deviation from accepted norms can feel like failure. But why do we want to be normal? And what does that mean? Ordinary? Sane? Similar? When probed, the notion of normality starts to look fragile. It is not clear who decides what being normal means or who is entitled to say.
Nonetheless, concerns about conforming and being accepted are deeply pervasive. With an extraordinary diversity of perspectives, the authors featured in this collection – all psychotherapists – use biographical accounts, political analyses and clinical vignettes to challenge the concept of normality. Through these stories and discussions, it emerges that our very uniqueness, oddness and differences as individuals are what make us fully human.
At a time of rapid social change, the freedom to be oneself – whatever form that takes – is at the core of contemporary debate, and this volume makes a vital contribution to that project.
Edited by:
Roz Carroll,
Jane Ryan
Imprint: Confer Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 11mm
Weight: 324g
ISBN: 9781913494209
ISBN 10: 1913494209
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 30 November 2020
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
ABOUT THE AUTHORS INTRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1. The new normal Tania Glyde 2. Therapy and hope: are they really normal? Andrew Samuels 3. No escape from ‘normal’ Doris Brothers 4. The normal couple therapist Jane Haberlin 5. Your normal, my normal. Disruptions, accommodations and respect between therapist and patient Susie Orbach 6. Black paranormal: a playlist Foluke Taylor 7. Normal sex Meg-John Barker 8. Minding the gap: a couple psychotherapist’s perspective Christopher Clulow 9. Born to love, driven to destroy Felicity de Zulueta 10. The myth of normality Chris Oakley 11. The shifting landscape of sexual normality Dany Nobus 12. Norms and normality: a socio-psychoanalytic approach Stephen Seligman 13. Why would I want to be normal? Lennox K. Thomas 14. The problem of words. It’s why we are all mad! Phil Mollon 15. Negotiating the normal Ann Shearer 16. Flourishing: the ‘normal’ therapist versus the ‘healthy’ therapist Brett Kahr 17. Cultural schizophrenia and internalised racism are not normal Isha Mckenzie-Mavinga 18. In the therapy room: are all patients normal? Valerie Sinason 19. When simply being human is abnormal Stephen Setterberg 20. Future flat-packed or future fluid? Why normal is the problem Roz Carroll REFERENCES INDEX
Roz Carroll is a relational body psychotherapist and supervisor and teaches on the MA in Integrative Psychotherapy at The Minster Centre. She is committed to interdisciplinary dialogue and has been a regular speaker for Confer for twenty years. Jane Ryan trained as a psychotherapist at the Centre for Attachment-based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (CAPP). After 8 years in private practice she founded Confer as a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue and to bridge the gap between schools of thought and professional communities in the field of psychotherapy.
Reviews for What is Normal?: Psychotherapists Explore the Question
Solid and scholarly ... with its life-affirming personal testimonies it could also help equip us with what Gramsci called 'optimism of will'. -- Therapy Today
