The Snake in the Clinic

This book offers an alternative to the usual view of psychotherapy's role in relation to medicine by proposing that psychotherapy is less an adjunct to mainstream medicine than it is co-partner in the process of deep healing. The chosen emblem of Western scientific medicine is the rod and serpent of [...]
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This book offers an alternative to the usual view of psychotherapy's role in relation to medicine by proposing that psychotherapy is less an adjunct to mainstream medicine than it is co-partner in the process of deep healing. The chosen emblem of Western scientific medicine is the rod and serpent of the Greek god Asklepios. Its symbolism represents the importance of raising to consciousness those dark chthonic energies that are essential to "deep" and lasting health. The Snake in the Clinic offers a critical re-evaluation of the role of psychotherapy in medicine. It questions the value of quantifiable evidence-based practice; pointing out that the primary aim of this approach is to reduce symptoms rather than to "heal" or "make whole". Instead the author proposes that illness is an unavoidable aspect of the human condition. Psychotherapy's fundamental role is to discover and work with the energy that underlies and sustains pathology in order to allow it to find a more direct and conscious expression.