Psychological Investigations: A Clinician's Guide to Social Therapy

Book Overview

Psychological Investigations lets readers listen in on one of the most exciting developments in psychology today as it is unfolding.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415944058
• ISBN13: 9780415944052
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.4" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A fresh new look at creating transformative groups

Much of the current writings in psychology and organizational development revolve around `positive psychology' and `emotional intelligence'. In this book, Fred Newman - the founder of social therapy - offers what I consider to be a more evolved, challenging and vital understanding of human/group activity. As a physician, group therapist and healthcare consultant, I firmly believe that this approach offers leaders, managers, practitioners and consultants in healthcare, education, business and politics an inspiring new approach to developing themselves and the people with whom they work.Edited by Dr. Newman's colleagues, Lois Holzman and Rafael Mendez, "Psychological Investigations" is a book of dialogues between Fred Newman and his students (mostly therapists-in-training). Newman's postmodern words and vision are transformative. In keeping with this non-descriptive, non-objectifying, and non-assuming methodology for human growth and development, these dialogues are not talk about some thing as much as they are the thing itself - a performance of social therapy. One gets the sense in reading this book that Dr. Newman and his colleagues are creating social therapy right before our eyes. This, to my understanding, is the essence of this performatory methodology, which is not based on 'knowing' or an accumulation of knowledge but on creative, dialectic, group activity - building a group through the questioning and dialogic challenging of assumptions. A Stanford-trained philosopher, Newman draws heavily from the philosophic works of Karl Marx and Ludwig Wittgenstein and from the early 20th century developmental psychologist Lev Vgotsky. Newman's understandings resonate with the postmodern writings of Ken Gergen, Harlene Anderson and Richard Rorty. Those unfamiliar with Dr. Newman's previous books may wonder what a philosopher could teach us about `real' life - about human behavior, growth and development. In Part I, editors Lois Holzman and Raphael Mendez answer this question by providing the reader with the social, political, and intellectual history of Newman's development as the founder and leader of the social therapy movement. In particular, I find Lois Holzman's writings to represent the most cutting edge, uncompromising and intellectually rigorous thinking in the developmental psychology literature. In my opinion, Dr. Holzman is years ahead of her modernistic, behaviorally-oriented colleagues. I would highly recommend her articles and co-authored texts with Fred Newman to anyone who has a serious interest in human behavior in any context - be it organizational, family, education, therapy, corporate business, or politics - and to anyone who has a serious interest in their own growth and development.

At last: a psychology book that even sociologists can like!

As a sociologist, I've always thought that much of what's written about psychology is simple-minded...if not downright silly. Well, here at last is a psychology book that even sociologists can like! And for good reason: Fred Newman, the philosopher who is the founder of social therapy, the clinical approach under discussion in Psychological Investigations, rejects virtually all of psychology's most treasured (and scientifically questionable) notions -- even (gasp!) the self -- in favor of a social, dialectical, activity-centered understanding of human life. Having written two books with him, I'm happy to say that I now have a new favorite Newman book. Psychological Investigations consists of a series of dialogues between Newman and practicing social therapists, therapists-in-training, and other participants in colloqiums and supervisory sessions, who ask him questions having to do with his theory and practice. In his responses to them, he touches on a wide variety of subjects, including alienation and humiliation, the oppression of identity, creativity as a collective impulse, and the limits of individual growth; what he has to say is sophisticated, provocative, and humane. Here's an excerpt: Newman: The notion that we discover who we are from getting a deeper look at the component parts that make us up is, in my opinion, a pernicious myth. We aren't who we are. We are what it is that we are continuously becoming. It's very easy to hear this as...metaphorical. But metaphor is a relative term...Ours is a culture of commodified "being" in which "becoming" tends to be related to as a metaphor, at best. What I try to do in my therapeutic work is to help people to relate to becoming not as a metaphor, but as activity...the complex, ever-continuous social process that we are all continuously involved in; I mean by it life. Life is filled with things. but life itself is not a thing...I have no interest in living my life as if I were a thing, and I have no interest in relating to other people as if they were things.

A Great Book for Teachers

As an early childhood educator and teacher trainer, I came away from "Psychological Investigations" with fresh new ways of thinking about my role as a teacher in the classroom. I found the book to be a practical, philosophical, and provocative look at development, play and groups and extremely pertinent to my work with young children and prospective teachers. It tackles some of the key questions facing educators-how do we create developmental learning environments? Why is play so critical to development? What is a group, and how do you work with a group? In his dialogues with students, Newman discusses challenging philosophical issues in a way that invites you into the conversation and allows you to grapple with questions practically and not abstractly.

A must read for anyone interested in change

"Psychological Investigations" is an adventure through uncharted psychological terrain. A sure-footed guide, Newman is far more interested in helping you make the most of the journey than he is getting you where you think you need to go. Whether pursuing issues of creativity, individuality, truth, knowledge, identity, group, crisis, health or alienation, his ability to play around with language and his passion for helping people to grow (even as he recognizes how difficult that is!) is lovingly captured in these conversations. A must read for anyone interested in change.