Overview
This work challenges the notion that anxiety and depression amount to a mental illness denoting that something is wrong with the individual sufferer. Instead, anxiety and depression are described as perfectly rational responses to difficulties in the sufferer's world, experienced subjectively by that person. An essential contrast is drawn between objective conceptions of normality (what reality ought to be as per commercial and other objectifying sources) and the reality of the individual's subjective experience of the world (abuse, unemployment, and so on). Chapters include tackling the myth of normality; examining shyness; and analysing the way in which assumptions behind the use of language can foster anxiety and depression. The book's primary purpose is to explain the meaning of anxiety as experienced by the sufferer. These insights also lead to a view, by way of secondary purpose, that the role of the therapist is not in 'curing' the individual, but rather to negotiate demystification and to provide insight into the effects of the problems in the sufferer's world, based on the sufferer and the therapist's shared subjective understanding.
Full Product Details
Author: David Smail
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint: Routledge
Weight: 0.520kg
ISBN: 9780367103422
ISBN 10: 0367103427
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 14 June 2019
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
""Illusion and Reality is a particular gem in David Smail's oeuvre. It's a book I've recommended or loaned to people in therapy with me more than any other; it addresses the common, and often disabling, predicament of anxiety and does so in a way that is a model of humanity and compassion. It is also genuinely freeing. Its chapter titles are revealing: ""The Myth of Normality,"" ""The Reality of Threat,"" ""Shyness and the Self as Object,"" and ""The Possibility of Undeception."" I love this last one, with that marvellous new word, so simple, yet so apt. It's a fine example of a strong strand of his project, of restoring to people a respect for their own subjectivity, 'to take heed of one's intuitive sensitivity' and, by implication, to challenge the false objectivity that is so prevalent in the culture.""--Paul Gordon, member of the Philadelphia Association and author of The Hope of Therapy and Face to Face: Therapy as Ethics
Illusion and Reality is a particular gem in David Smail's oeuvre. It's a book I've recommended or loaned to people in therapy with me more than any other; it addresses the common, and often disabling, predicament of anxiety and does so in a way that is a model of humanity and compassion. It is also genuinely freeing. Its chapter titles are revealing: The Myth of Normality, The Reality of Threat, Shyness and the Self as Object, and The Possibility of Undeception. I love this last one, with that marvellous new word, so simple, yet so apt. It's a fine example of a strong strand of his project, of restoring to people a respect for their own subjectivity, 'to take heed of one's intuitive sensitivity' and, by implication, to challenge the false objectivity that is so prevalent in the culture. --Paul Gordon, member of the Philadelphia Association and author of The Hope of Therapy and Face to Face: Therapy as Ethics
"""Illusion and Reality is a particular gem in David Smail's oeuvre. It's a book I've recommended or loaned to people in therapy with me more than any other; it addresses the common, and often disabling, predicament of anxiety and does so in a way that is a model of humanity and compassion. It is also genuinely freeing. Its chapter titles are revealing: ""The Myth of Normality,"" ""The Reality of Threat,"" ""Shyness and the Self as Object,"" and ""The Possibility of Undeception."" I love this last one, with that marvellous new word, so simple, yet so apt. It's a fine example of a strong strand of his project, of restoring to people a respect for their own subjectivity, 'to take heed of one's intuitive sensitivity' and, by implication, to challenge the false objectivity that is so prevalent in the culture.""--Paul Gordon, member of the Philadelphia Association and author of The Hope of Therapy and Face to Face: Therapy as Ethics"
