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Constructing The Self, Constructing America - A Cultural History Of Psychotherapy (Paperback)
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Constructing The Self, Constructing America - A Cultural History Of Psychotherapy (Paperback)
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A scholarly, demanding work - aptly described by its author as a
"strange, unorthodox book" - that examines the complex interaction
between psychotherapy and culture by placing American psychotherapy
within the context of the nation's larger history. Cushman
(History/California School of Professional Psychology), a
psychotherapist in private practice in northern California, sees
American psychotherapy as a cultural artifact rather than a
universal truth. To understand it, he looks closely at its
historical antecedents, economic components, and political
consequences, examining the 19th-century world into which
psychotherapy was born and then showing how it has developed since
1900. The asylum movement, Freud's theories of the unconscious,
mesmerism, and the interpersonal psychiatry of Harry Stack Sullivan
are all covered. However, Cushman pays closest attention to the
theories of Melanie Klein, asserting that her ideas about the
inborn psychic structure of the self paved the way for new
psychoanalytic theories emphasizing self-development and freedom
that conformed to the social trends of the second half of the 20th
century. The author argues that the post-World War II era has been
marked by a pervasive sense of personal emptiness and a commitment
to self-liberation through consumerism. While psychotherapy's role
is to treat the unhappy effects of this emptiness, Cushman believes
that its philosophy of individualism and emphasis on the self have
in fact reinforced consumerism. The task now, he says, is to
replace this solipsistic configuration with a new, socially
cooperative and morally superior one, and he urges psychotherapists
to become actively involved in this process. To promote the
necessary dialogue, Cushman includes an appendix describing some of
the many alternative configurations of the self that have existed
during the past 2,500 years of Western civilization. A deeply moral
work that engages, informs, and persuades - recommended to anyone
concerned about the evolving American psyche. (Kirkus Reviews)
In this ground-breaking cultural history of psychotherapy,
historian and psychologist Philip Cushman shows how the development
of modern psychotherapy is inextricably intertwined with that of
the United States and how it has changed the way Americans view
events and themselves. By tracing our various definitions of the
self throughout history, Cushman reveals that psychotherapy is very
much a product of a particular time and place--and that it has been
fundamentally complicit in creating many of the ills it seeks to
assuage.
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