Not a Tame Lion : Writings on Therapy and Its Social and Political Contexts

This volume brings together 24 of Nick Totton's articles and book chapters from the last thirteen years, all exploring in different ways the relationship between therapy, the world and society.

A central argument is that therapy, if it is to be effective, cannot and should not be risk-free or risk-averse.

Among the themes addressed are professionalisation and regulation; the fetishisation of boundaries; democracy and therapy; intimacy; embodiment; overwhelm; and ecopsychology. Throughout, there is a two-way dialogue between therapy and politics, with each enriching the other. Nick Totton argues that therapy is intrinsically without goals, and therefore cannot usefully be harnessed to the task of relieving symptoms and getting people back to work.

This also means that therapy offers a model for a different kind of politics based not on policies and demands, but on process. Although regulation in the UK is temporarily halted, the long term battle over who controls psychotherapy and counselling is not over.

So this collection of direct or implicit arguments about the wild nature of therapy, and its intrinsic unsuitability for domestication, is both relevant and urgent.