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Publications \ Books Counselling and Identity: Self-Realisation in a Therapy Culture Alex Howard Palgrave, December 2004 £18-99, $27.95 Questions relating to personal identity are of central importance within counselling, which is often seen as an essentially (and perhaps excessively) 'me-focussed' activity. People often come to counsellors to find, reclaim, come to terms with, or control (aspects of) 'themselves.' They want to see how they have been shaped, helped or damaged by their circumstances. Yet there has been surprisingly little systematic examination of the conceptions of 'self' that are, could be, or should be available to counsellors. This accessible book meets this need and more deeply than most other texts into the foundations and underlying presuppositions of the subject. Alex Howard takes a fresh look at counselling and psychotherapy and advocates greater philosophical and sociological awareness for trainees. Contents Introduction: Identity and Why it Matters In Search of Self - Counselling and Identity Telling What's Wrong - Narratives and Metaphors of Sickness and Health Truth Telling - Identity and Reality Honoured and Esteemed? Identity and Happiness Feeling Good and Being Good: Identity and Ethics What Was it Like for You? - Measuring and Assessing Change in Identity Transcending Self: Identity, Society and the Transpersonal Conclusion: Identities, Past, Present and Future Probing beneath contemporary clichés about 'personal development', this interdisciplinary survey seeks to integrate personal, social and 'transpersonal' dimensions of identity formation and frustration. It weaves psychological, sociological and philosophical authors in a scholarly, erudite, yet highly accessible, almost conversational, prose style and examines the very identity of counselling - Is it a treatment of people? Or a way of treating people? Each chapter ends with practical questions of concern to anyone wanting to make sense of themselves, their counsellor, or counselling. We live in a therapy culture, what are we to make of this? What would different therapists make of the same client? What do clients make of different therapists and therapy? How are counsellors and counselling best identified in a postmodern era? What are we to make of ourselves and each other? An interdisciplinary examination of the forces that make and break the humanity, confidence, and the very identity, of individual human beings. To order (UK)http://www.palgrave.com/products/Catalogue.aspx?is=140393309X To order (USA) http://www.palgrave-usa.com/

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