Mark Stowell-Smith – författare

`Fast becoming a contemporary classic... this book tries both to be critical and engender critical thinking in a number of ways. It offers an overview of a number of theories that address human distress as well as particular forms of "pathology". This book effectively highlights the way that western society has taken "normal"; and "abnormal" emotional states to be factual entities rather than the constructed understandings of human phenomena that they are.... should be on the reading list of every course/module that attends to human distress' - Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis

This practical and accessible critique of the institutions, practices and presuppositions that underlie the study of `psychopathology' will be invaluable for students and practitioners who are working to understand mental health and distress.

The authors - who come from backgrounds in clinical psychology, psychiatric social work, psychoanalysis, psychology teaching and action research - challenge the traditions of the field. They analyze the notion of `psychopathology' as a conventional term in psychology and psychiatry through the language and institutions that hold it in place; and explore the implications of deconstructive ideas for the theories and practices that sustain clinical treatments; and offer an alternative way of seeing `psychopathology', with accounts of critical professional work and good practice.

Deconstructing Psychopathology is invaluable reading for students, academics and practitioners across a range of disciplines who are working to understand mental health and distress, including

clinical and counselling psychology, psychiatry, psychiatric social work, counselling and psychotherapy.

`Fast becoming a contemporary classic... this book tries both to be critical and engender critical thinking in a number of ways. It offers an overview of a number of theories that address human distress as well as particular forms of "pathology". This book effectively highlights the way that western society has taken "normal"; and "abnormal" emotional states to be factual entities rather than the constructed understandings of human phenomena that they are.... should be on the reading list of every course/module that attends to human distress' - Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis

This practical and accessible critique of the institutions, practices and presuppositions that underlie the study of `psychopathology' will be invaluable for students and practitioners who are working to understand mental health and distress.

The authors - who come from backgrounds in clinical psychology, psychiatric social work, psychoanalysis, psychology teaching and action research - challenge the traditions of the field. They analyze the notion of `psychopathology' as a conventional term in psychology and psychiatry through the language and institutions that hold it in place; and explore the implications of deconstructive ideas for the theories and practices that sustain clinical treatments; and offer an alternative way of seeing `psychopathology', with accounts of critical professional work and good practice.

Deconstructing Psychopathology is invaluable reading for students, academics and practitioners across a range of disciplines who are working to understand mental health and distress, including

clinical and counselling psychology, psychiatry, psychiatric social work, counselling and psychotherapy.

Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) is an established form of integrated psychotherapy, which has been applied in a variety of clinical settings to a diversity of disorders with promising outcomes. In Cognitive Analytic Therapy for Offenders, the authors describe the application of CAT to forensic settings, illustrating the use of this type of therapy with a range of offence types and clinical disorders.CAT is presented as a new form of forensic psychotherapy which can enhance the understanding, conceptualisation, treatment and management of offenders. The book offers a novel description of clinical practice and describes the innovative application of cognitive analytic therapy to forensic work in a variety of contexts and settings for numerous offence types and clinical disorders, including:CAT in the treatment of child sex offenders in secure forensic settingsthe use of CAT with women in secure settingsCAT for parents within prisonsCAT for borderline and psychopathic personality disorderCAT for a stalking offendercommunity-based CAT with perpetrators of domestic violenceCAT for homicide perpetrators (rage-type, serial sexual, dissociative homicides)the application of CAT for Court reporting and managing boundary violations.This book provides an account of a fresh, new approach to conceptualisation and treatment in forensic psychotherapy, and offers the first description of CAT presented in the form of a compilation of illustrations of practice. It will be essential reading for clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, occupational therapists, and anyone who works within services for offenders.