What damage does psychology do to people's lives, and what can we do about it? How do we recognise and support resistance? Written by expert practitioners-researchers, this co-authored book explores how psychology legislates on normality and then uses its "e;expert"e; knowledge to turn social marginalisation into pathology. Chapters address a range of cultural and institutional arenas in which inequalities structured around categories of gender, "e;race"e;, class and sexuality are reproduced by psychological practices: from self-help books to special hospitals, from school exclusions to Gender Identity Clinics, from mothering magazines to mental health services. But far from just documenting the damage, this book identifies the ways in which both professionals and users of services can act to counter psychology's abuses. As practical intervention as well as theoretical critique, Psychology, Discourse and Social Practice offers tangible examples of how change can be effected. This book will be of interest to advanced undergraduates and postgraduates in psychology, health, education and welfare disciplines. It is also relevant to social workers and education and health professionals, as well as professional psychologists.

Introduction. Part One: Instituting Agencies. I Have Depression, Don't I? Discourses of Help and Self Help Books. Pathologising Children: Psychology in Education and Acts of Government. Feminist Psychotherapy and Its Discontents. Part Two: Practising (At) The Limits of Representation. The Present Absence/Pathologised Presence of Black Women in Mental Health Services. Special Women, Special Places - Women and High Security. Constructing a Narrative: Moral Discourse and Young People's Experiences of Exclusion. Part Three: Dislocating Institutional Boundaries. Expert Advice to Mothers: Conceptualising Mothers' Resistance to Advice About Childrearing. Come to the Carnival: Women's Humour as Transgression and Resistance. The Rhetorics of Gender Identity Clinics: Transsexuals and Other Boundary Objects.