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Susan Barton, Rudy Gonzalez and Patrick Tomlinson, London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2011, 288 pp., £22.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1849052559
This truly global book is the product of an interesting and creative collaboration between leaders and practitioners in residential group treatment settings in Australia (The Lighthouse Community) and the UK (The Cotswold Community, SACCS). It is a long overdue contribution towards the theory base required to equip people working in multiple roles in environments that aim to be healing in its broadest sense. I enjoyed it as much for the elements of human testimony as for the attempts made to link eclectic theory with practice.
Mindful that this journal is entitled Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, it is possibly worth reinforcing the eclectic nature of the theoretical territory covered in this book. Chapter 1 ranges from individual, family, community and society wellness theory, psychodynamic thinking and concepts to attachment and trauma-informed theories. The journey is a rich and varied one and no doubt reflects the complexity inherent in this type of work in these types of settings. Those of you working with children will enjoy details like the front cover picture of a multi-coloured child's ‘home’ with love heart-shaped windows, and the opening quote in the introduction of an ancient Chinese proverb, ‘A child's life is like a piece of paper, on which every passer-by leaves a mark’.
As someone already converted to the cause of group care and treatment homes needing to be greenhouses not warehouses, my only personal struggle with the style of this book is the relentless use of subheadings that appear literally on every other page. Whilst this gives the book a very accessible, dip in-able quality, it also obstructs the ‘uninterrupted feed’ experience that can accompany the reading of a good old-fashioned solid chapter. I assume that the authors have intended that the book appear more accessible and less daunting to the more pragma