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The word ‘Poetics’- in the subtitle of this volume - is much in vogue. The book sits comfortably on my shelves alongside The Poetics of Space and The Poetics of Reverie (Bachelard), A Poetics of Belief (Scott) and Introduction to Poetics (Todorov). There are many more with which I am not at home. And the reader will find that there is more than a clang association to Laing's work The Politics of Experience. Both books are as disturbing as they are intended to be.
The Greek word poiesis is the etymological source of ‘poetics’ and it refers to the process of calling something into existence that was not there before. Thus the creative act of writing a poem, or the newly-minted experience linking reader and listener as a poem is read, are both aspects of the dynamic energy inherent in the word poetics.
And what of the poetics of experience presented to us in this thought-provoking volume Between Psychology and Psychotherapy? Although there are several recent publications which emphasise the subjective nature of psychotherapeutic work, both for patient and therapist, the tripartite structure of his book is unusual. Between the first and third part, called ‘A poetics in practice’ and ‘A discipline of discourse’ respectively, is a section entitled ‘A personal story’. This is a sequence of poetic entries from the author's personal psychic diary written over the space of ten years.
It is when we set such intimate and painfully personal material against sentences which come from a totally different frame of reference - and could be jottings for a potential c.v. - that we realise how this book crosses many traditional boundaries which are normally jealously guarded. There are several realms of discourse and psychological themes where this dysjunction is apparent. By way of illustration I am placing one sentence (page 199) alongside another (page 249). And, having done so, I think the material speaks for itself: ‘… it was the last Thursday in July 1969, 1 was sitting in my room i