Irreverence

Book excerpt: Irreverence: A Strategy for Therapists' Survival marks the end result of a collaboration between three creative and highly respected therapists and writers in the family therapy field. It continues the tradition of the Milan group and later systemic thinkers by examining the way a therapist's own thinking can block the process of therapy and lead to feeling stuck. The authors define and demonstrate the use of a concept in the therapeutic field - irreverence - which allows therapists to free themselves from the limitations of their own theoretical schools of thought and the familiar hypotheses they apply to their client families. They illustrate their ideas with some very challenging family therapy cases and include an interesting consultation with the staff caring for a hospitalised patient. The book also extends the notion of irreverence beyond therapy to the fields of training and research where its application is both fresh and profound.