Advertisements for myself?

Is this no more than an advertisement for myself? It’s true I do want to publicise my new book – which I believe in, and feel perhaps hasn’t fully had the coverage it deserves. But it’s not entirely a narcissistic exercise – I want just to see how a sort of psychotherapist’s diary would work out.

It’s Xmas – my last two work days have yielded 1/8 clients. What is that makes some fight through, others not come? True, both were men, both had 4X4 vehicles. I’ve been away in Peru and so the snow was a perfect opportunity for people to express their ambivalence and annoyance at my having abandoned them. No doubt it will all manifest itself again in the new year – and no doubt I shall loose one or two clients.

Peru went well – a two day brief therapy workshop, and then a half day with the child and adolescent therapists. Oddly I didn’t meet a single psychiatrist. All psychologists and therapists. On the whole I was very impressed – one has the sense that psychoanalysis has a significant mainstream cultural presence in Peru and is an important part of middle class value system – especially in a post-Catholic, post-Marxist era. As always, most of the therapists were women maybe in the 30-50 age group – perhaps more soignée that their UK counterparts! I suppose the main thing I tried to bring was a sense of freedom and autonomy to their work. They are perhaps slightly hidebound by wanting to be analytically ‘correct’. Also to have a clear sense of the purpose of therapy – there is a slight danger I picked up in viewing therapy as an end in itself rather than something people seek when in trouble and relinquish when they are in a position to solve their own problems. Trying to help them to be less worried about being ‘real’ in relation to their clients when it comes to contract, boundaries etc. In one case I supervised – a 12 year old who was being bullied at school – I merely suggested that he come once rather than twice a week. The therapist was surprised – the main reason for my suggestion was that the logistics of getting to therapy were very difficult for him (Lima traffic is awful!), and it seemed to be he might be less likely to drop out if it was only a journey once a week. It was as though the therapist assumed that only twice a week was worth considering. So from one point of view the Peruvian therapists are generally more sophisticated – and not just sartorially – that their UK counterparts! But with that goes a lack of flexibility.

I’m working on a paper on theory at the moment. Had a very helpful response from Paul Renn – someone I’ve never met, but admire through his contributions to IARPP online fora – in which he has forced me to think about hermeneutics v science. My paper is in part a critique of the anti-theoretical stance implicit in ‘beyond memory and desire’ – but now I am thinking of turning the paper round, and saying that a theory of hermeneutics implies a clearing of the mind and allowing of the imagination to flourish, and that entails getting beyond memory…etc. Anyway – I am following advice I often give but I am usually to impatient to follow, which is to let the paper gestate before submitting. I shall go back to it after Xmas, hopefully with some more comments from a couple of good friends to whom I’ve sent it.