Book Announcement by Roz Carroll (UK) and Jane Ryan (UK)
Many people strive to be normal, and deviation from accepted norms can feel like failure. When probed, the notion of normality starts to look fragile. It is not clear who decides what being normal means or who is entitled to say. Nonetheless, concerns about conforming and being accepted are deeply pervasive.
What is Normal? torques its way through the highly current topic with reflections from a variety of psychotherapists, including Andrew Samuels, Susie Orbach, Doris Brothers and Stephen Seligman. Biographical accounts of formative moments, powerful sociopolitical analyses, queering and case vignettes challenge the very concept of ‘normality.’ From couples work to climate change and cultural schizophrenia, this Confer Books title traverses a wide range of territories. Co-editors Roz Carroll and Jane Ryan treat us to refreshing novelty in places: a music playlist accompanies reflections on Black experiences of slavery – cue Dennis Brown’s “Revolution.” Elsewhere, a much loved, recently departed therapist’s memoir rests alongside recollections of degrading institutional treatment and reflections on modern masculinity. Short punchy chapters break up sedimented ideas.
Through these stories and discussions, it emerges that our very uniqueness, oddness and differences as individuals are what make us fully human. At a time of rapid social change, the freedom to be oneself – whatever form that takes – is at the core of contemporary debate.
Roz Carroll is a Relational Body Psychotherapist who taught for many years at The Minster Centre and at The Bowlby Centre in London, UK. She was a founding co-editor in 2005 of the Journal of Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy. She is the author of numerous articles and chapters, including “Four Relational Modes of Attending to the Body in Psychotherapy” in Talking Bodies (2014) edited by Kate White, and “The Blood-Dimmed Tide: Witnessing War and Working with the Collective Body in Authentic Movement” in the Journal of Psychotherapy and Politics International (2015).
Jane Ryan is Creative Director of Confer, www.confer.uk.com/aboutus.html. She trained as a psychotherapist at the Centre for Attachment-Based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (CAPP). After 8 years in private practice, she founded Confer as a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue and to bridge the gap between schools of thought and professional communities in the field of psychotherapy. She is the editor of three books: How Does Psychotherapy Work? (Karnac, 2006); Tales of Psychotherapy (Karnac, 2007); and now, with Roz Carroll, What is Normal?
Roz Carroll
West London, England
Email Roz Carroll
Jane Ryan
East London, England
Email Jane Ryan
