Psychotherapy and Mental Handicap - Hardcover

`an interesting and helpful review of psychotherapeutic work. It is particularly welcome in beginning to address an area of neglect: the emotional needs of people with learning disabilities' - Changes

`convincingly challenges the view that learning disabilities render psychoanalytic approaches inapplicable. It shows, with many illustrations, how people with various forms of handicap and disability can benefit from therapy that offers thought and reflection, how meaning can be found and restored... The demonstration of psychotherapeutic commitment and imagination is impressive and inspiring. It is also extraordinarily painful in what it reveals about the experience of handicap and disability, the defences elaborated to deal with unbearable realisations, and the many assaults, blows, traumas and failures dealt by inadequate or hostile environments... Neville Symington contributes many thoughtful insights into countertransference issues with mentally handicapped patients in a chapter which should be required reading for anyone in the field, or indeed anyone who thinks they could never work with handicapped patients... The many other chapters illustrate the wide range of approaches which all have in common the commitment to attending to the emotional needs of those with mental handicaps. The diversity of approaches, settings and client groups described invites the reader to sustain an openness of mind in taking in the very rich material that is on offer here, even when it does not always accord with his or her preconceptions about therapy' - British Journal of Psychotherapy

`There is a wealth of well-written and valuable information within this book's pages [with] many practical examples of its usage, all neatly packaged into readable sections... This book is essential reading for all those working in the field of mental handicap and it will also be of value to others who encounter people with a mental handicap less frequently in their area of practice' - Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health

`I was delighted to receive this book to review, as a publication such as this is long overdue... it is encouraging to know that people with learning difficulties are, at last, beginning to gain access to skilled psychotherapists. The book is a pleasure to read from beginning to end. It would be of benefit to anyone working in the area of learning disability... The ideas and explanations in this book clearly come from people who know their subject. I was greatly impressed by the sense of pride in their work that comes across in each chapter... A major strength of this book is its emphasis on equality as the basis of our relationships. It often poses awkward questions about our feelings and behaviour. It also shows how emotionally mature many people with learning disabilities are despite their intellectual limitations... little substantial research in this area exists. Hopefully, this book will provide the incentive for more empirical work' - Journal of Advanced Nursing

The contributors discuss a range of therapeutic approaches, including group analytic therapy and transactional analysis, within this context. They also examine specific issues such as countertransference with mentally handicapped clients, understanding secondary mental handicap as a defence against trauma, group work around the stigmatized identity of being a handicapped person, reminiscence as a way of helping clients address the personal implications of moving from an institutional setting `into the community' and work with families with mentally handicapped children.