`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.

Ian Parker is Professor of Psychology in the Discourse Unit at Bolton Institute. He is author of Psychoanalytic Culture (SAGE, 1997) and co-author of Deconstructing Psychopathology (SAGE, 1995).

CONTRIBUTORS

Steven D Brown Keele University

Vivien Burr University of Huddersfield

Andrew Collier University of Southampton

Bronwyn Davies James Cook University

Don Foster University of Cape Town

Kenneth J Gergen Swarthmore College

Rom Harre Oxford University

Maritza Montero Universidad Central de Venezuela

Jonathan Potter Loughborough University

Joan Pujol University of Huddersfield

Carla Willig Middlesex University