The New Politics of Experience and The Bitter Herbs by Theodor Itten and Ron Roberts critiques the practices of psychotherapy and psychology and asks searching questions about the neoliberal motives that drive them. Theorising of the human condition too often follows the ideological fashions of the day, which could currently be described as biological/corporate fundamentalism. This toxic mixture not only mystifies the general public but also makes epistemological slaves of professional psychologists. As neoliberal capitalism continues its forward march, this book considers its influence on the divide between academic psychology and the psychotherapeutic art of healing, and considers how the relationship between the practical and academic sides of psychology has become so deeply problematic as well as dishonest. Itten and Roberts' book constitutes a call for a return to a new, authentic and vibrant Politics of Experience. Contents: Part One: Experience Chapter One: Beginnings Chapter Two: Where do we come from? Origins and visions Chapter Three: What do we do in psychotherapy? Chapter Four: Playing: Theory and praxis Chapter Five: Therapeutic compassion Part Two: Method Chapter Six: Sanity, memory and the social Chapter Seven: Feminism, madness and the family Chapter Eight: The politics of memory: Field notes from an urban anthropologist Part Three: Truth Chapter Nine: The politics of truth in psychotherapy Chapter Ten: Psychology: Individuals, morality and ideology Chapter Eleven: The new politics of experience Chapter Twelve:Where do we go from here? The Bitter Herbs
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