Thinking About Institutions: Milieux and Madness (Therapeutic Communities) Book

In Thinking About Institutions Robert Hinshelwood reflects on the capacity for study of therapeutic communities to improve our understanding of an individual's internal and social interactions. He proposes that most of what we do arises from impulse and intuition, and that the impulse to focus on open communication, the liberatory impulse, is central to the working of the therapeutic community and other care settings. Hinshelwood explores the concept of communication, particularly as it occurs between the internal world of the individual and the external world of the community. He then develops an understanding of how that boundary functions and shows it to be an important element both in the culture of organizations and in the social psychology of individual persons. The lessons learned from therapeutic community movement can be expanded to apply to wider social and political issues. Thinking About Institutions not only documents how a therapeutic community functions; it contributes to understanding how people can be influenced by their social setting and how individuals can form coherent social organizations together.Read More