PSYCHOTHERAPY AND THE SOCIAL CLINIC IN THE UNITED STATES. SOOTHING FICTIONS

Chapter 1. Introduction
• Part I. Psychotherapy
Chapter 2. Psychotherapy and Tests of Effectiveness
Chapter 3. Psychotherapy for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Chapter 4. Psychotherapy for Depression and Addiction
Chapter 5. Psychotherapy and Society
• Part II. Clinical Social Work
Chapter 6. Precursors to Modern Social Work
Chapter 7. Contemporary Social Work and the Social Clinic
Chapter 8. Clinical Social Work in Child Foster Care, Family Preservation, and Schools
• Part III. Other Practices of the Social Clinic
Chapter 9. Community Psychological Practice and a Note on Rehabilitation in Corrections
Chapter 10. Mind and Spirit on the Fringes of the Social Clinic
Chapter 11. Soothing Fictions.

This book offers a compelling critical analysis of American society by examining the role of psychotherapy within social policy and the culture that has fashioned it. It takes a deeply critical look at ‘the social clinic,’ defined here as a ubiquitous organizational arrangement that includes clinical and community psychology, counseling, clinical social work, psychiatry, much of the self-help industry, complementary and alternative medicine and others. Epstein’s analysis concludes that the social clinic lacks credible evidence of effectiveness and its continued popularity expresses popular but predatory American values such as romantic individualism, the triumph of the subjective, a sense of personal and political chosenness, persistent bigotry, and a preference for tribal as opposed to civic identities. This careful examination of American society through the lens of psychotherapeutic practice characterizes the social clinic as a soothing fiction of the United States.
The book offers caring services as the unrealized alternative to clinical treatment, capable of achieving greater personal adjustment as well as social and economic equality. It will appeal to readers with an interest in social welfare, public policy, and public administration, as well as to students and scholars of psychotherapy, counseling, social work, rehabilitation, and community psychology.

Features
• Offers a thought provoking critique of a the role of social clinic in American society
• Argues that the caring services offer the unrealized alternative to clinical treatment, capable of achieving greater personal adjustment as well as social and economic equality
• Asserts that the social clinic and its myths are collusive products of an entire society