Conscious and Unconscious - Tapa dura

All forms of psychotherapy deal with the limitations of our awareness. We have limited knowledge of our creative potential, of the details of our own behaviour, of what motivates us, or of the many factors within and around us which influence the decisions we make and the ways we act. Some therapists, especially those influenced by Freud and Jung, speak of the 'unconscious', giving the unintended impression that it is a kind of realm or domain of activity. Others, reacting against the specifics of Freudian theory, shun the word 'unconscious' altogether. However, so limited is the reach of everyday awareness and such is the range of unconscious factors, that one way or another these limitations must somehow be spoken about, sometimes in metaphor, sometimes more explicitly. This book offers a broad survey of psychotherapy discourses, including the psychoanalytic, the interpersonal, the experiential, the cognitive-behavioural and the transpersonal, and explores a wide range of concepts including repressed instincts, dissociated selves, automaticity, tacit knowledge, unformulated experience, preontological concealment and interactive fields.

Conscious and Unconscious is invaluable reading for advanced students of counselling and psychotherapy and experienced therapists.

Michael Jacobs was for many years the Director of the Counselling and Psychotherapy programme at the University of Leicester, having previously worked as a a counsellor and pyschotherapist in the same university. He is now in independent practice and living in Swanage, Dorset, where he supervises counsellors, sees clients and continues to write and edit. His books on psychodynamic counselling and therapy are used as key texts on many training course - notably The Presenting Past (1998, 2/e, Open University Press), Psychodynamic Counselling in Action (1999, 2/e, Sage) and Still Small Voice (1993, 2/e, SPCK). He has also written books on Freud and Winnicott, both of which have been translated into Chinese. He is is a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, a psychodynamic psychotherapist registered with UKCP, and an honorary life memeber of the Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling. David Edwards was born in Britain, studied psychology at Oxford, and has taught at Rhodes University in South Africa since 1977. He is co-editor of a South African introductory psychology textbook. He received Clinical Psychology training through the University of Surrey and at the Centre for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and currently teaches and supervises trainee clinical psychologists in cognitive therapy and group therapy. He also has a longstanding interest in humanistic psychotherapy and has done experiential training in transpersonal psychology with Stanilslav Grof and Roger Woolger. He regularly offers experiential workshops using meditation exercises, and expressive arts such as dance and clay sculpture. He is author of over thirty articles and book chapters, which cover diverse topics that include case study research, behavioural training, stress management, eating disorders, guided imagery and aspects of transpersonal psychotherapy.