In his earlier book, "How Humans Relate," John Birtchnell proposed that relating occurs along two axes, a horizontal one concerning becoming close versus being distant and a vertical one concerning being upper versus being lower. He called closeness, distance, upperness, and lowerness the relating objectives, and he proposed that people need to acquire competence in attaining and maintaining these objectives. In this book, he argues that the task of psychotherapists is to identify and correct, within these axes, people's relating incompetencies, and to enable people to cope with the relating incompetencies of others. He considers this to be the case across all psychotherapies.

Dr. Birtchnell proposes the existence of an unconscious, automatic, inner brain that monitors the relating objectives. He argues that the psychotherapist assists the person, through the conscious, outer brain, to correct and improve the inner brain's least effective relating strategies. He uses the term interrelating to describe the interplay between the relating of two or more people. This has application in couple, family, group, and community therapy, in which the psychotherapist's task is to enable the interrelaters to understand and correct their mutually reinforcing, destructive interactions. He introduces a set of questionnaires, from the scores of which a computer can print out an easy-to-read diagram of the direction and degree of people's relating incompetencies.

This book brings together recent research developments in relating theory. It is divided into four parts, which introduce the reader to relating theory, how it has developed and how it can be applied to clinical and forensic psychology. Topics include how couples relate to one another, how young people relate to their parents, how assessments of relating can be used in therapy, how specific negative relating styles relate to offending behaviour, risk taking and alcohol use, psychopathic and sadistic tendencies, and how the interpersonal relating of offenders can change during treatment in prison. The book covers international research involving both quantitative and qualitative methods, and will be of interest to clinicians, academics and both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of psychology, clinical psychology, forensic/criminal psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, counselling, art-therapy, and mental health.

From the time we are born we never stop relating, just as our hearts never stop beating. Relating is a characteristic which humans share with all animal forms and any classification of human relating ought to exist in continuity with, and be derivable from, that of the relating of all other animal forms. Relating occurs along two main axes. The one concerned with distance regulation, the other with the adjustment of the power differential. People need both distance and closeness and both to hold power and to rely upon those who have power. It is argued that all the main forms of relating are organized around these four needs. Interrelating is the process by which people attempt to reconcile their respective relating needs. A central feature of the book is the distinction it draws between positive (constructive) relating and negative (destructive) relating. People need to acquire competencies in each of these four spheres of relating so that they may attain and feel secure in the four respective states of relatedness. Those who lack such competencies relate desperately and disrespectfully and this, it is argued, forms the basis of personality disorders and psychiatric diagnoses. The idea that negative relating is an extreme form of positive relating is discounted.

Contents:
Contents. Preface. Part I: The Outer Me/Inner Me Dichotomy. The Birth of an Idea. The Outer Me. The Inner Me. Part II: Other Conscious/Unconscious Distinctions. Psychodynamic Distinctions. Cognitive Distinctions. Part III: The Human Objectives. Survival. Reproduction. Relating. Part IV: The Receptive and Responsive Me. Sensory Input. Emotion. Memory. Part V: The Active Me. Motor Action. Communication and Language. Mental Activity. Part VI: The Complex Me. Deception and Self-Deception. Delusions and Hallucinations. Dreams. Part VII: The Social Me. The Arts. Humour. Religion. Bibliography. Author Index. Subject Index.

In John Birtchnell's last book How Humans Relate, he proposed a new theory as the basis for a science of relating. Relating in Psychotherapy explains how the relevance of this theory relates to the practice of psychotherapy. The theory cuts across all schools of therapy, and is a way of describing each school in terms of relating in both the client and the therapist.The theory is constructed around two major axes; a horizontal one concerning the degree to which we need to become involved with or separated from others, and a vertical one concerning the degree to which we choose to exercise power over others or permit others to exercise their power over us. With numerous clinical examples, John Birtchnell explains how we need to be competet in all four relating positions (close, distant, upper and lower), and argues that people who seek therapy usually lack competence in one or more of them, but through the course of therapy, their relating capabilities can be improved.Relating in Psychotherapy can have applications in psychotherapy and in couple and family therapy, and will be an invaluable resource for therapists, counsellors and other mental health professionals.

In John Birtchnell's last book How Humans Relate, he proposed a new theory as the basis for a science of relating. Relating in Psychotherapy explains how the relevance of this theory relates to the practice of psychotherapy. The theory cuts across all schools of therapy, and is a way of describing each school in terms of relating in both the client and the therapist.
The theory is constructed around two major axes; a horizontal one concerning the degree to which we need to become involved with or separated from others, and a vertical one concerning the degree to which we choose to exercise power over others or permit others to exercise their power over us. With numerous clinical examples, John Birtchnell explains how we need to be competet in all four relating positions (close, distant, upper and lower), and argues that people who seek therapy usually lack competence in one or more of them, but through the course of therapy, their relating capabilities can be improved.
Relating in Psychotherapy can have applications in psychotherapy and in couple and family therapy, and will be an invaluable resource for therapists, counsellors and other mental health professionals.


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This book brings together recent research developments in relating theory. It is divided into four parts, which introduce the reader to relating theory, how it has developed and how it can be applied to clinical and forensic psychology. Topics include how couples relate to one another, how young people relate to their parents, how assessments of relating can be used in therapy, how specific negative relating styles relate to offending behaviour, risk taking and alcohol use, psychopathic and sadistic tendencies, and how the interpersonal relating of offenders can change during treatment in prison. The book covers international research involving both quantitative and qualitative methods, and will be of interest to clinicians, academics and both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of psychology, clinical psychology, forensic/criminal psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, counselling, art-therapy, and mental health.

How much of what we do is directed by conscious, deliberate decisions and how much originates in unconscious, automatic directives? This is the question explored in The Two of Me via an engaging combination of phenomenological subjective investigation and objective considerations of mental processes and specific structures. John Birtchnell puts forward the thesis that many more of our actions than we might imagine are determined unconsciously. Not only are unnoticed automatic actions motivated unconsciously, but also seemingly conscious or 'thought out' behaviours are actually determined and reinforced by unconscious exigencies. Even where we produce a reasoned discourse taking responsibility for why we hold certain thoughts, there is always the possibility that these explanations serve and follow from an unconscious driving force. The conscious mind seems to act as spokesperson for both itself and the unconscious mind. Investigating this dual aspect of the person, the book addresses the issue across a range of mental processes including memory, language, problem-solving, dreams, delusions, hallucinations and more complex constructs such as the arts, humour and religion.