Consulting to Chaos: An Approach to Patient-Centred Reflective Practice

by John Gordon (Editor)

In clinical work, an awareness of patients' subjective experiences, particularly their perceptions of interpersonal relationships, is indispensable. The aim of this book is to improve care and treatment planning by describing a structured approach to eliciting patients' core relationship patterns. These patterns consist of the roles and scenarios into which they repeatedly cast themselves and others with whom they interact. Maladaptive patterns, in which vicious cycles and self-fulfilling prophecies of misperception, misunderstanding or provocation escalate, cause pain and havoc in personal relationships and can adversely affect both professionals' decisions and the overall delivery of treatment. This book shows how to use vital information that is often not made available to treatment teams in order to understand such potential pitfalls rather than succumb to them.

252 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2017

About the author

John Gordon is a Founder Member of the British Psychoanalytic Association and Senior Member of both the British Psychotherapy Foundation and the Institute of Group Analysis. Previously he was Consultant Adult Psychotherapist in a Forensic Psychotherapy Department and at the Cassel Hospital. He is Senior Lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University where, in collaboration with West London Mental Health NHS Trust, he co-organises, teaches and facilitates an experiential group on an MSc in Psychodynamic Approaches in Mental Health. He is co-author with the late Stuart Whiteley of Group Approaches in Psychiatry (1979), co-editor of Psychic Assaults: Countertransference in Forensic Settings (2008) and co-author of Interpersonal Dynamics Consultation: A Manual for Clinicians (2013). He has published many papers on the development of Bion’s thinking on psychosis and its application to clinical work with individuals, groups and organisations. He currently practices privately as a psychoanalyst and supervisor.