Love and Therapy

<p>Sigmund Freud noted the importance of love in the healing of the human psyche. So many of life's distresses have their origins in lack of love, disruption of love, or trauma. People naturally seek love in their lives to feel complete. Is therapy a substitute for love? Or is it love by another name? This important book looks at the place of love in therapy and whether it is the curative factor. The authors continually stress, however, that within psychotherapy both ethical and professional boundaries should govern this 'Love' at all times in order for it to be experienced as healing and therapeutic. This book offers explorations of the complexity of love from different modalities: psychoanalytic, humanistic, person-centred, psychosexual, family and systemic, transpersonal, existential, and transcultural. The discussions challenge therapists and other allied professionals to think about their practice, ethics, and boundaries.</p> UKCP Series Preface , Foreword , Introduction , What has love to do with it? , Love and its shadows: an existential view , Humanistic and transpersonal perspectives on love , Psychoanalytic perspectives of love , Love: psychosexual perspectives , Physical love , Love, separation, and reconciliation: systemic theory and its relationship with emotions , Working with children: the importance of love , The place of love in crisis support , Transcultural perspectives and themes on love and hate: the yin and yang of relationships , Memento mori and carpe diem: love and death , Love: retaking a stance , Therapy and neuroscience: what has the L-word to do with it? , Afterword