Picturing the soul: revisioning psychotherapy and spiritual direction

In this accessible yet penetrating analysis Dr Peter Tyler takes us on a journey from the earliest Christian beginnings of spiritual direction to contemporary practice in therapy and counselling. On the way we will encounter the counter-cultural insights of the Desert Fathers and Mothers and the late medieval understanding of desire within the Spanish mystics. Throughout Dr Tyler weaves the analysis of Ludwig Wittgenstein as he sees all three 'talking cures' as a choreography between what is said and what is shown. Of equal interest to practitioners, academics and lay people, this book presents a fresh approach to therapy and spiritual direction that allows a critical engagement with both whilst respecting their competing claims as legitimate pathways to the healing of the psyche.