The Fragility of Identity, and the Tenacity of the Processes, in Psychotherapy

Heward Wilkinson, International Journal of Psychotherapy, 2001, 6, 1, 253.

Abstract: This issue focuses on the themes of certainty and doubt, fragility and tenacious identity, in the psychotherapeutic process. Newman’s paper explores some central tensions in the relation between consciousness and unconsciousness. Rowan offers a masterly account of what he plausibly claims are established salient features of the psychotherapeutic process, in terms of the analogy of alchemy. Balick’s account of the 7th UKCP Professional Conference evokes the tensions activated by the interface between neuro-science and psychotherapy. And Tan and Zhong face us with the challenge of a communally and certainty based method, in relation to some antisocial sexual patterns, which appears to be more effective than more cautious established ‘Western’ approaches.