Ernesto Spinelli – författare

The number of people in therapy has grown at an unprecedented rate over the last decade. Yet the dynamic between therapist and client remains an enigma. In Tales of Un-Knowing, Ernesto Spinelli presents eight tales of a therapeutic approach that has proven highly effective in assisting troubled individuals in confronting the problems of everyday life. According to Spinelli, therapy at its most fundamental level involves the act of revealing and reassessing the "life stories" that clients tell themselves in order to establish or maintain meaning in their lives. The role of the therapist is not only to listen, but to help the client to explicate and reconstruct this life story. Tales of Un-Knowing presents the lives of eight individuals whose experiences illuminate a variety of dilemmas and anxieties that most of us encounter at different points in our lives. We meet a man who refuses to grow old gracefully, a woman who fears that she is only loved for her body, and an octogenarian who lives simultaneously in the present and in the past.We also meet Giles, whose obsessive identification with Einstein led him to theorize about his sex until it became a "living mathematics" full of enthralling permutations and combinations. In the course of the book Spinelli tackles head on the last great taboo of therapeutic practice--sexual attraction between therapist and client. Existential therapy, then, requires that the therapist experience life through the client's eyes. This frequently leads to challenges to the therapist's own ways of being, and the underlying values, beliefs, and assumptions that maintain them. The term "un-knowing" refers to the challenge to the therapist, who must force him or herself to remain open to new interpretations of that which is familiar, and to treat the seemingly familiar as novel, unfixed in meaning, and accessible to previously unexamined possibilities.

Ernesto Spinelli is one of the leading exponents existential therapy today and one of its most brilliant practitioners. Rather than expounding a set of theories, Spinelli here gives an account of some of the most unforgettable therapeutic encounters that he has experienced during his professional life. His method comes to life in a way that is compelling and often profoundly moving. These stories of conflict and anxiety derived from human relationships illustrate the existential concern with 'being in the world' and act as catalysts to challenge the reader's personal experience even if he or she has had no direct experience of therapy. Told with an Oliver Sacks - like skill, these encounters introduce us to Mr Jones who refused to grow old gracefully, to moody and introverted Amanda who believed she had been given the wrong body, to Jim the octogenarian who lived in two time zones and to Giles whose obsessive identification with Einstein meant that his sexual activity was like a 'living mathematics' full of enthralling permutations.In the course of this book, Spinelli also tackles head on the last great taboo of therapeutic practice - sexual attraction between therapist and client.In Spinelli's previous and highly acclaimed book "Demystifying Therapy", he began the process of peeling away the layers of mystery that surround therapeutic practice. Now, with astonishing effectiveness, he explains the core of his work and why the existential approach is the way forward in the treatment of the psychological condition. This is not the way of psychotherapeutic certainty and reductionism. It is a way of 'Un-knowing'.

`I think this book may well act as both a stimulus for therapists and an important reminder of the vulnerabilities that we all have, but do not always choose to share' - Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis

This book sets out to explore the various ways in which a therapist can be a living expression, or embodiment, of his or her chosen theoretical approach. The book consists of expert practitioners articulating their own particular 'embodied theory' answering the questions: how do we live different psychotherapeutic theories? How do they guide or clarify the lives of therapists? What aspects of theory resonate with the ways therapists understand themselves and relate to others?

Contributors

Michael Jacobs, Windy Dryden, MalcoLm Partlett, Dorothy Rowe, Miles Gorth, Anthony Stevens, John Rowan and Alvin Mahrer.

`It is surely worth reading, not only by the author's fellow psychiatrists, but also by psychologists in general' - Contemporary Psychology

`I found this book a joy to read. Each chapter sets out the orthodoxy in question, then proceeds to explain lucidly the author's difficulties with this orthodoxy and to suggest an alternative way of looking at the issues' - Self and Society

Psychotherapy's influence seems all pervasive today. But to what end? Is helping people really therapy's main mission? This provocative book explores the alternatives to psychotherapeutic orthodoxies on such vital issues as sexuality; the self; the unconscious; creativity; and the dilemma of evil. Erensto Spinelli challenges psychotherapy, asking if it has retreated from its early promise of being a pivotal agent in our attempts to discover what it means to be human, in exchange for its current role as a pacifier of personal and social unease.

Praise for First Edition:

`This book is highly recommended to a wide range of people as a clear and systematic introduction to phenomenological psychology... the book has set the stage for possible new colloquia between the phenomenological and other approaches in psychology' - Changes

`As a trainee interested in matters existential, I have been put off in the past by the long-winded and confusing texts usually available in academic libraries. Thankfully, here is a text that remedies that situation... [it] provides a readable and insightful account' - Clinical Psychology Forum

'Spinelli's classic introduction to phenomenology should be essential reading on all person-centred, existential and humanistic trainings, and any other counselling or psychotherapy course which aims to help students develop an in-depth understanding of human lived-experience. This book is sure to remain a key text for many years to come' - Mick Cooper, Senior Lecturer in Counselling, University of Strathclyde

'This is by far the most monumental, erudite, comprehensive, authoritative case that Existentialism and Phenomenology (a) have a rightful place in the academy; (b) are tough-minded bodies of thought; (c) have rigorous scientific foundations; (d) bequeath a distinctive school of psychotherapy and counselling; and (e) are just as good as the more established systems of psychology' - Alvin R. Mahrer, Ph.D. University of Ottawa, Canada, Author of The Complete Guide To Experiential Psychotherapy

'This book's rich insight into the lacunae of modern psychological thinking illustrates the contribution that existential phenomenology can make to founding a coherently mature Psychology that is both fully human(e) and responsibly 'scientific' in the best sense of that term' - Richard House, Ph.D., Magdalen Medical Practice, Norwich; Steiner Waldorf teacher.

The Interpreted World, Second Edition, is a welcome introduction to phenomenological psychology, an area of psychology which has its roots in notoriously difficult philosophical literature.

Writing in a highly accessible, jargon-free style, Ernesto Spinelli traces the philosophical origins of phenomenological theory and presents phenomenological perspectives on central topics in psychology - perception, social cognition and the self. He compares the phenomenological approach with other major contemporary psychological approaches, pointing up areas of divergence and convergence with these systems. He also examines implications of phenomenology for the precepts and process of psychotherapy.

For the Second Edition, a new chapter on phenomenological research has been added in which the author focuses on the contribution of phenomenology in relation to contemporary scientific enquiry. He describes the methodology used in phenomenological research and illustrates the approach through an actual research study.

The Interpreted World, Second Edition demystifies an exciting branch of psychology, making its insights available to all students of psychology, psychotherapy and counselling.

Praise for First Edition:

`This book is highly recommended to a wide range of people as a clear and systematic introduction to phenomenological psychology... the book has set the stage for possible new colloquia between the phenomenological and other approaches in psychology' - Changes

`As a trainee interested in matters existential, I have been put off in the past by the long-winded and confusing texts usually available in academic libraries. Thankfully, here is a text that remedies that situation... [it] provides a readable and insightful account' - Clinical Psychology Forum

'Spinelli's classic introduction to phenomenology should be essential reading on all person-centred, existential and humanistic trainings, and any other counselling or psychotherapy course which aims to help students develop an in-depth understanding of human lived-experience. This book is sure to remain a key text for many years to come' - Mick Cooper, Senior Lecturer in Counselling, University of Strathclyde

'This is by far the most monumental, erudite, comprehensive, authoritative case that Existentialism and Phenomenology (a) have a rightful place in the academy; (b) are tough-minded bodies of thought; (c) have rigorous scientific foundations; (d) bequeath a distinctive school of psychotherapy and counselling; and (e) are just as good as the more established systems of psychology' - Alvin R. Mahrer, Ph.D. University of Ottawa, Canada, Author of The Complete Guide To Experiential Psychotherapy

'This book's rich insight into the lacunae of modern psychological thinking illustrates the contribution that existential phenomenology can make to founding a coherently mature Psychology that is both fully human(e) and responsibly 'scientific' in the best sense of that term' - Richard House, Ph.D., Magdalen Medical Practice, Norwich; Steiner Waldorf teacher.

The Interpreted World, Second Edition, is a welcome introduction to phenomenological psychology, an area of psychology which has its roots in notoriously difficult philosophical literature.

Writing in a highly accessible, jargon-free style, Ernesto Spinelli traces the philosophical origins of phenomenological theory and presents phenomenological perspectives on central topics in psychology - perception, social cognition and the self. He compares the phenomenological approach with other major contemporary psychological approaches, pointing up areas of divergence and convergence with these systems. He also examines implications of phenomenology for the precepts and process of psychotherapy.

For the Second Edition, a new chapter on phenomenological research has been added in which the author focuses on the contribution of phenomenology in relation to contemporary scientific enquiry. He describes the methodology used in phenomenological research and illustrates the approach through an actual research study.

The Interpreted World, Second Edition demystifies an exciting branch of psychology, making its insights available to all students of psychology, psychotherapy and counselling.

Drawn from the author’s experience as an internationally-recognised theorist, lecturer and practitioner, this practical book elucidates the notoriously difficult and distinctly different therapeutic approach, existential therapy. Balancing theory and practice, the book provides trainees with an accessible introduction to the author’s own three phase structural model for existential therapy, one which has become widely established and used in training and practice. Substantially revised and updated throughout, Part One examines the philosophical underpinnings, essential theory and distinctive features of existential therapy while Part Two goes on to present the author's structural model for practice. Both parts are now prefaced by useful schematic overviews which introduce the content and pinpoint key themes in each chapter, helping readers to navigate the text with ease. Practical exercises encourage further engagement with the text and the themes, issues and practices under consideration.

Seen by existential therapists across the world as one of the most influential books on the topic, this new edition is an essential read for all those training, practising or interested in existential therapy.

Drawn from the author’s experience as an internationally-recognised theorist, lecturer and practitioner, this practical book elucidates the notoriously difficult and distinctly different therapeutic approach, existential therapy. Balancing theory and practice, the book provides trainees with an accessible introduction to the author’s own three phase structural model for existential therapy, one which has become widely established and used in training and practice. Substantially revised and updated throughout, Part One examines the philosophical underpinnings, essential theory and distinctive features of existential therapy while Part Two goes on to present the author's structural model for practice. Both parts are now prefaced by useful schematic overviews which introduce the content and pinpoint key themes in each chapter, helping readers to navigate the text with ease. Practical exercises encourage further engagement with the text and the themes, issues and practices under consideration.

Seen by existential therapists across the world as one of the most influential books on the topic, this new edition is an essential read for all those training, practising or interested in existential therapy.