The Dialogical Therapist: Dialogue in Systemic Practice(The Systemic Thinking and Practice Series)

Several good books exist about systemic understanding in therapy and a few about dialogic understanding. However, none try to bridge the gap between these two world views, which have some similarities, but also a whole array of differences. This book is an attempt to find a bridge.According to systemic theory, we exist only in and because of the network of relationships we are embedded in. In dialogic theory, we inhabit different worlds, and we need dialogue (we need engaging in that hard struggle that is proper dialogue) in order to make them communicate with each other. Putting these different views together poses problems but provides a good dialogic exercise too. The author found it increasingly necessary as he felt more and more uncomfortable with the more conventional versions of Batesonian systemic wisdom he had adopted in previous years. At the same time he did not feel convinced by some of the new ideas about dialogue, where one was compelled to get rid of everything one thought valuable in systemic understanding.

Table of Contents:
Contents1 Understanding and influencing2 Text and context3 Practices and theories4 Hypotheses and dialogues5 Therapists and clients6 Frames and relationship7 Dialogues and systems8 Questions and statements9 Presence and absence 10 Selves and technologies

About the Author :
Paolo Bertrando MD, PhD, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, has been on the faculty of the Milan Centre for Family Therapy since 1993. He is the Director of the Episteme Association in Turin, and teaches psychodynamics of family relationships at the Vita-Salute University in Milan. Dr Bertrando is Associate Editor for Italy of the British 'Journal of Family Therapy'. He is the author of several scientific articles and books including 'The Times of Time' (1993) and 'Systemic Therapy with Individuals'(1996), both with Luigi Boscolo. His current interests are in the dynamics of systemic therapy, the broader implications of systemic theory, and the use of systemic individual therapy with specific populations.

Review :
'In his new book Paulo Bertrando confirms his reputation as a highly respected theoretician, a chronicler of the development of ideas in the field of family therapy and systemic practice, and a writer of unusual clarity. Here he demonstrates his ability to identify the strands of new thinking and new practice, critique them, and open them up to scrutiny in such a way that the reader understands more clearly how the ideas and techniques can take their rightful place among the vast array of ideas in the systemic field. But in addition to positioning his ideas, Bertrando cites the epigenetic process that enables his to build a new model of his own based on his original work with the Milan model, but moving on to incorporate much of the new thinking in this field. For example, he describes the dialogic therapist as someone whose therapy is guided by the use of systemic hypotheses but who also works in a more collaborative manner, in dialogue, to produce a hypothesis actively created by both therapist and clients.'- David Campbell and Ross Draper, from the Series Editors' Foreword