Psychotherapy, Anthropology and the Work of Culture

Book excerpt: Anthropology and psychotherapy have a long and important historical relationship, and in this fascinating collection practitioners with experience in both fields explore how the concept of ‘culture’ is deployed to guide and frame contemporary therapeutic theory, training and practice. This task is particularly important as the global spread of psychotherapy, as both an outgrowth of and a potential point of critique to globalised hyper-capitalism, requires us to think differently about how to conceptualise cultural difference in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, Anthropology and the Work of Culture provides a valuable resource for psychotherapeutic professionals working in a world in which cultural difference appears in fluid and transient moments. It will also provide essential reading for students and researchers working across the fields of psychotherapy and anthropology.