Overview

This book is an ethnographic account of the practice of clinical psychology under the auspices of the reductionism of biomedicine. Sylvia Olney uses Peircean linguistic analyses to naturalize consciousness by validating the dimensions of mind and intention to restore psychotherapy to its place as a significant healing art.

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9780739197035

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Reviews

Dr. Olney has captured the fundamental contradictions within the system of capitalistic health care. The economic powerhouses of insurance and pharmacy companies now drive everything from diagnoses, to treatment plans, to the personal philosophies of the practitioners in the direction of profit rather than the direction of healthy patients/clients. The managed care and best practices required by insurance companies and supported by pharmaceutical companies selectively ignore large areas of psychological research while emphasizing brief and biologically-based treatments. Interestingly, Olney's deeply probing interviews with mental health practitioners suggest that in spite of these powerful economic influences, a humanistic undercurrent continues to thrive as a kind of underground opposition. Her interviewees reveal their willingness to play the CBT/medication game for insurance reimbursement while believing that empathy, human connection, and self-awareness carry tremendous power for healing. The book provides a fascinating view of cynical practice being undermined by humanist care.--Marsha Driscoll, Bemidji State University

Author Information

Sylvia Olney is an adjunct professor at Bemidji State University as well as a psychotherapist, social science researcher, and community educator.

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