The snake in the clinic : psychotherapy's role in medicine and healing / Guy Dargert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dargert, Guy, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mental healing.

Psychotherapy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (195 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

London : Routledge, 2018.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"This book offers an alternative to the usual view of psychotherapy's role in relation to medicine by proposing that psychotherapy is less an adjunct to mainstream medicine than it is co-partner in the process of deep healing. The chosen emblem of Western scientific medicine is the rod and serpent of the Greek god Asklepios. Its symbolism represents the importance of raising to consciousness those dark chthonic energies that are essential to "deep" and lasting health. The Snake in the Clinic offers a critical re-evaluation of the role of psychotherapy in medicine. It questions the value of quantifiable evidence-based practice; pointing out that the primary aim of this approach is to reduce symptoms rather than to "heal" or "make whole". Instead the author proposes that illness is an unavoidable aspect of the human condition. Psychotherapy's fundamental role is to discover and work with the energy that underlies and sustains pathology in order to allow it to find a more direct and conscious expression. It argues that illness is more than a personal concern and that it is embedded in the social and environmental context in which it occurs. Worked with in this way illness can have a deeply healing or "wholing" effect both for the individual and for the society of which he or she is a part. Drawing on psychological theory, scientific research, mythology, Buddhist and Eastern ideas, shamanism and case work, it aims to put our understanding of the work of psychotherapy into a broader global and historic context. It aims to show how this broader vision relates to everyday practice with the individuals who come to psychotherapy."--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

COVER; CONTENTS; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; ABOUT THE AUTHOR; FOREWORD; PREFACE; CHAPTER ONE Psychotherapy and health; CHAPTER TWO Imaginal healing; CHAPTER THREE Signs, symptoms, and metaphors; CHAPTER FOUR The origins of Western medicine; CHAPTER FIVE Apart from or a part of?; CHAPTER SIX The personal daimon; CHAPTER SEVEN The daimonic bodymind; CHAPTER EIGHT The psychophysical environment; CHAPTER NINE Anima mundi-the world psyche; CHAPTER TEN Dancing with the devil; CHAPTER ELEVEN In conclusion; REFERENCES; INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed February 5, 2016).

ISBN:

9780429922213

0429922213

9780429907982

0429907982

9780429483219

042948321X

9781782414872

1782414878

OCLC:

935921469