Reviews : Psychology and Psychotherapy: Current Trends and Issues DAVID PILGRIM (ED) RKP, 1983; £7.95, pb; pp236
| Date | 01 June 1984 |
| Author | Robin Parker |
| Published date | 01 June 1984 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455058403100220 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
77
Depression.
Understanding
and Helping
shows
interviews
between
a
social
worker
on
GP
attach-
ment
and
a
reactive-depressive
male,
between
a
child
guidance
clinic
social
worker
and
an
agitatedly
depressed
mother,
and,
particularly
impressme,
the
home
visit
of
a
hospital
social
worker
to
a
catatonically
depressed
lady.
In
Understanding
and
Handling
Aggression
we
see
an
aggressive
patient
who
wants
to
discharge
himself
from
hospital
being
interviewed
badly
and
then
successfully
by
a
social
worker,
and
we
also
see
an
interview
with
a
silently
aggressive
youngster.
In
Key
Elements
in
the
Helping
Inter-
view
there
is just
one
lengthy
role
play
of
an
intake
interview
with
a
young
mother
who
seems
to
have
been
deserted
by
her
husband.
It
enables
us
to
look
at
good
practice
but
also
permits
criticism
of
the
interviewer
I
found
the
examples
on
the
tapes
helpful
and
realistic
and
they
could
certainly
provide
a
focal
point
for
a
study
day.
Although
the
tapes
are
for
sale
only,
a
28
minute
demonstration
tape
(VHS
only)
containing
excerpts
from
the
role
plays
in
these
three
tapes
is
available
free
of
charge
for
a
five
day
loan.
Training
departments
might
like
to
bear
this
in
mind.
CHARLES
DODD
Senior
Probation
Officer,
Inner
London
Psychology
and
Psychotherapy:
Current
Trends
and
Issues
DAVID
PILGRIM
(ED)
RKP,
1983;
£7.95,
pb;
pp236
This
book
brings
together
a
set
of papers
which
address
a
number
of
concerns
experienced
by
a
group
of
radical
psychologists
and
psycho-
therapists.
In
this
context
’radical’
means
a
com-
nutment
to
a
humanistic,
interpretive
psychology,
a
desire
to
demystify
psychotherapy
(Illich
seems
to
get
a
reference
on
every
second
page)
and
a
sen-
sitivity
to
the
social
context
m
which
psychotherapy
is
practised.
In
these
pages
Freud
and
Marx
are
asked
to
shake
hands
on
the
mutual
understanding
that
the
’personal
is
political ’
This
is
a
useful
reminder
of
the
irony
that
whilst
in
social
work
circles
the
psychodynamic
influence
has
been
criticised
for
its
conservative
and
indeed
reac-
tionary
implications,
by
contrast
in
psychology
the
psychodynamic
tradition
has
been
adopted
as
a
radical
counterweight
to
the
mechanistic
and
positivist
approaches
associated
with
expernnental
psychology
and
epitomised
by
the
behaviourist.
Several
of
the
papers
have
a
direct
bearing
on
social
work,
or
at
least
casework
practice,
and
the
articles
on
women
and
psychotherapy
by
Llewelyn
and
Osborn
and
social
class
and
therapy
by
Bromley
offer
particularly
useful
reviews
of
the
literature.
A
further
point
of interest
is
the
almost
uncanny
parallel
between
the
concerns
of psycho-
therapists
and
social
workers.
There
is
hand
wnng-
ing
over
the
lack
of
proof
as
to
the
effectiveness
of
practice,
confusion
over
the
diversity
of
models
of
practice
on
offer,
worry
over
the
association
with
functions
of
social
control
and
the
constant
problem
of being
overlooked
and
misunderstood
by
more
powerful
professionals.
Doesn’t
all
this
sound
rather
familiar ?
ROBIN
PARKER
Hatfield
Polytechnic
Video
in
Mental
Health
Practice
IRA
HEILWEIL
Tavistock
Publications
1984,
pb;
pp
186;
£4.95
The
author
alms’to
provide
a
practical
handbook
of
how
to
use
video
within
different
therapeutic
contexts’.
The
main
part
of the
book
is
divided
into
chapters
on
specific
areas
of
work
such
as
individual
psychotherapy
and
group
therapy
with
children
and
adolescents
and
most
of each
chapter
is
devoted
to
describing
actual
activities
which
use
video -
somewhat
akm
to
Brandes’
Gamsters’
Handbook.
Writen
from
a
psychodynamic
view-
pomt,
the
book
tends
to
see
video
as
a
means
of
con-
firming
the
therapist’s
viewpoint
of
and
to
the
client,
rather
than
to
as
a
way
of
enabling
people
to
see
themselves
and
then
choose
what,
if
anything,
they
wish
to
change.
As
a
book
aimed
primarily
at
workers
in
psychiatric
hospitals,
some
of the
activities
are
not
relevant
to
the
people
with
whom
we
normally
work.
However
among
the
hundred
or
so
activities
described,
there
are
lots
of
suggestions
which
pro-
bation
officers
could
use,
and
in
itself
the
book
encourages
the
imaginative
use
of video.
Heilweil
is
aware
of the
shortcomings
of video,
that it is
only
an
aid
to
helping,
and
that
the
technology
is
not
an
end
in
itself.
The
chapter
I
found
most
relevant
was
the
one
on
family
therapy,
in
which
there
are
several
activities
which
might
help
family
members
to
have
a
more
truthful
view
of
themselves.
There
is
also
a
chapter
on
the
use
of
video
in
supervision.
that
might
prevent,
or
at
least
alter,
some
of the
games
wluch
are
currently
played
under
the
guise
of
supervision.
CHRIS
MACKETT
Probation
Officer,
Bristol
To continue reading
Request your trial