| MARTIN WEAVER. Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy Development Log. 2001 |
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Books I've found interesting and/or useful. |
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| Jonathan Dancy |
| This is very much a textbook where as the book on
truth below by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, below, is more of a
popular story. In this book Dancy introduces the main topics and where they
stand. The ideas are discussed and argued quite fully. He discusses theories of
knowledge, theories of justification and then talks about how we perceive our
surroundings. He ends by questioning the whole concepts of epistemology - can
we ever know. A bit of a heavy read. |
| Blackwell ISBN 0-631-13622-3 |
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| Phillip K Dick |
| This is a good fun story with accessible descriptions of various
other maps, also known as psychopathologies. The story falls into the Science
Fiction category and one of the plots concerns a psychiatric hospital that has
been left to disintegrate as the political situation around it dissolves into
war. The result of the disintegration is that the patients not only take over
the asylum - as it were - but they establish a whole structure for themselves
on the planet that once house just the hospital. I found it a fun tale with useful if stereotypical characters. Dick was also responsible for the story "Do androids dream of electric sheep ?" which was made in to the film Bladerunner. |
| HarperCollins - Voyager: ISBN 0-00 648248-1 |
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| Edited by Windy Dryden |
| This is a very useful compendium of some 12 schools of
psychotherapy. NLP is not amongst them. Each chapter is written by a different
author which makes it bit of a curates egg - good and bad in parts. I found the
Freud chapter very good but the following chapter on Klein difficult to follow.
The CBT chapter was informative. If, like me, you've not had the time or desire to find out about all the other schools then this I found to be a very useful tool. More than simply a "bluffers guide" it has some very deep concepts and some quite outstanding detail. |
| Sage ISBN 0 8039 7843 X |
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| Felipe Fernandez-Armesto |
| It was the first sentence that drew me to this book as I have not
read any other work by this author. It reads "Most western parents feel guilty
about Santa Claus." He then goes on to relate how parents break the news to
their children that Santa Claus is a myth. I found this book an enthralling and fun guide. Further I agreed with most of his analysis until about page 166. Its at this point that Mr. Armesto lays into subjectivity - its a belief that he does not hold. Mr. Armesto lies firmly with what I call the Right-wing view of life. There are things in life that Mr. Armesto wants, perhaps needs, to be certain, concrete and unarguable. One of the quotes in the blurb is from Roger Scruton - a philosopher who appears on BBC Radio 4's the Moral Maze, at least that's where I have heard him. A true believer in True Blue i.e. Conservative Party philosophy. Those who are born to lead really have a God-given right to subjugate others. But its a good romp through seeking truth via feelings, then what we are told, then truth through reasoning, next the truth we perceive through our senses. He finishes with the death of Conviction and ends with a chapter called Life after Doubt. He is not a happy man. I think that he is still looking for the real Santa Claus. |
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book: "Our decline into doubt has been obvious for about a hundred years - the period in which all our traditional certainties have been dethroned; but its prehistory, if not its beginnings, can be traced back to the era of the equivocators. Subjectivism - by which I mean in this context the doctrine that self-discovery is the first step to constructing knowledge - started the rot; the self-aware subject tends to be like the one-dimensional dot in Flatland, so enraptured by self-contemplation that it 'thinks itself the universe' and remains incapable of discerning any other reality." He's not happy about linguistics either "We are left with dumbstruck tongues and hands too numb to write, despairing of ever saying anything true because language is trapped in self-reference, unable to reach reality, never expressing truth and, at best, only able to 'represent' it." |
| A Black Swan Book - ISBN 0 552 99729 3 |
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| Gaie Houston |
| This is a kind of work book for groups that tells the major
concepts of Gestalt in easy to use exercises and stories. There are some fun
doodles in it as well. Gaie takes the position that in order to understand the
ideas of Gestalt you have to experience them and so she had organised the book
into a series of group exercises. I found the concepts well laid out and defined although I did have to re-read one or two a few times to fully understand them. Mind you I was reading this on my own and Gaie points out that it is best to have a group of people or a facilitator to act as a guide. It is a useful book to dip in and out of when you need to remind yourself of a particualr defintion. |
| Gaie Houston ISBN 0 9510323 6 4 |
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| Bradford P. Keeney |
| This is a real textbook on "cybernetic epistemology". I read it
and my head hurt. Its a boom about understanding understanding and relates this
to family therapy. I found it a fascinating description of making distinctions
and defining therapy. The book is dedicated to Gregory Bateson and focuses on the ideas of the therapist in the therapy, recursion and defining how and what we know. I've only read the once but I know that I go back to it again and again. |
| The Guildford Press ISBN 0-89862-043-0 |
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| Joseph O'Connor & Ian McDermott |
| If, like me, you are coming to systems thinking anew then this is
a great place to start. I found it a clear and simple explanation of systems
and how they work. They take you through What is a system ? and then discuss
Thinking in Circles. Next there is a discussion about Mental Maps, Cause &
Effect and a chapter called Beyond Logic - in this chapter Self-Reference and
Recursion are discussed. The next step is abut Learning and Perspectives and
finally Mapping and how to Make Connections. They also add a useful chapter on
the history of systems thinking. In true NLP fashion they also lay out their outcomes for readers of the book. |
| Thorsons ISBN 0 7225 3442 6 |
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| William Hudson O'Hanlon |
| This is a great little book that provides a large
chunk view of Erickson's background and work. Its also chock full of stories
about how Erickson worked and the strategies that he employed. O'Hanlon
describes the various patterns that Erickson employed such as; Intervening,
Splitting & Linking, Parallel Communication, Implication, Framing and
Ambiguity. He goes on to describe the different phases and elements of the work
and ends up with a description of some of the research. Its a very readable book that covers quite a wide range of issues. |
| I think that the best quote is made by Erickson himself: "In psychotherapy you change no one. People change themselves. You create circumstances under which an individual can respond spontaneously and change. And thats all you do. The rest is up to them." (Erickson, in Ritterman, 1985, p.69) |
| W.W. Norton ISBN 0 393 70031 3 |
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| Sue Wheeler & David King - Editors |
| This a a great book that's packed with lots of
general information. It sets a framework for supervision and provides what
seems to be a good grounding from which to work. There is a good section on
work in the private sector as well as organisational issues for those working
in the NHS or larger teams. The book has some research relating to the
expectations and assumptions of both supervisors and supervisees which makes
very interesting reading. Ethical and legal issues are also set out in a clear way with reference to the BACP's code. However, not all the contributors had caught up with BAC's new name. I read this book as a precursor to attending the supervisor training course at Birmingham University - its run by Dr. Sue Wheeler. |
| SAGE 2001 ISBN 0-7619-6408-8 |
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| Peter Young |
| I wish this book had been around when I started
studying NLP. It unveils the "mystery" and places the "magic" well within
grasping distance. The writing style is clear and concise and although you can
dip in and out of it I believe that it benefits from a read through from start
to finish. Its a book that puts the "bits" of NLP into a much wider context and
begins the journey of filling in the gaps. I found the book a real treat and
partly because its only at chapter 5, page 71, that Peter Young even asks the
question "What is NLP?". Much more that just a new technology cookbook "Understanding NLP" goes a long way to revealing some of the basic principles behind the techniques and takes its reader through a number of connected and reflective exercises that help meld the material into a complete story. Peter likes stories and activities that have a flow. They start and as designated point change through a series of specific and identifiable nodes and end up at place that moves the story and the reader to a new position. The book ends with a reflection on the possibilities of what to do next. As a practising Neuro Linguistic psychotherapist of some 10 years I found a lot of information omitted and directions that I would want to go in are not explored. However, that tells you where I am rather than where Peter is or wants to go. There is an excellent index, extensive bibliography and useful advice on the exercises. Although I do detect here a trace of what I choose to call "NLP-ism". He says "Follow the instructions rather than making up your own version". This is a good suggestion for beginners. Those with more experience may wish to integrate their own expertise and test the results for themselves. Peter would like to hear the result I am sure. For more experienced practitioners this provides a new and wider, albeit a general, perspective on NLP. I hope it will lead to NLP'ers in general, and those practising Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy in particular, to allow themselves to be lead by others in their search for excellence. This book is a very welcome addition. |
| Crown House 2001 ISBN 1899836667 |