Psychology, Discourse And Social Practice

Gill Aitken, Pam Alldred, Robin Allwood, Tom Billington, Erica Burman, Brenda Goldberg, Collen Heenan, Angel Juan, Gordo Lopez, Debs Mark, Sam Warner

' ... there can be no doubting the commitment to change and subversion of oppressive practices in psychology which the co-authors of this book display, and in this respect if puffs fresh air into those dark, dusty cloisters of mainstream psychology.' - Alexa Hepburn, Staffordshire University, in Feminism and Psychiatry 1998'I am deeply moved by the messages of this book which convey sharp and focused information regarding the regulatory power of psychological practices and resistance to receiving customary psychological knowledge. I do not remember reading a book with such interests and energy in recent months, the most attractive part of this book is that each paper takes the readers to an exciting ride, in which the readers are given the choice of either taking a selection route, or a route of tension of resistance. I would like to congratulate each author for delegating such powerful analysis across and beyond the boundary of psychological knowledge and practice.' - Manfusa Shams, University of Luton in BPS Psychology and Women Section Newsletter No.21 1998'... this is an important polemical and predagogical text which is aimed at an audience of readers who are engaged with the practice and theory of psychology. This would include psychologists of various persuasions, professionals who draw on psychological concepts and methods, and postgraduate students seeking a more reflexive and institutionally located analysis of the psycholgical discipline. It deserves analysis of the psychological discipline. It deserves no less that to be read, and talked about, and used, and resisted.' - Lindy Wilbraham, Rhodes University, Grahamstown in PINS No 25 1999.

• Introduction. Part One: Instituting Agencies. I Have Depression, Don't I? Discourses of Help and Self Help Books. Pathologising Children: Psychology in Education and Acts of Government. Feminist Psychotherapy and Its Discontents. Part Two: Practising (At) The Limits of Representation. The Present Absence/Pathologised Presence of Black Women in Mental Health Services. Special Women, Special Places - Women and High Security. Constructing a Narrative: Moral Discourse and Young People's Experiences of Exclusion. Part Three: Dislocating Institutional Boundaries. Expert Advice to Mothers: Conceptualising Mothers' Resistance to Advice About Childrearing. Come to the Carnival: Women's Humour as Transgression and Resistance. The Rhetorics of Gender Identity Clinics: Transsexuals and Other Boundary Objects.