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Lloyd, J., Ryle, A., Hepple, J. and Nehmad, A., 2011. Letter from the Editors. Reformulation, Winter, p.3.
This edition comes out at a time of worsening economic confidence, with increasing constraints on what the NHS is able to offer - and within the private sector, what CAT clients can purchase. Hence the timely book review by Janet Toye, with comment by Tony Ryle, offers us an opportunity to explore the beginning of understanding the impact on individuals and society of what is going on from a CAT perspective.
We are also particularly glad that this edition contains two accounts of research projects. One, a first paper on the standardisation of the Personality Structure Questionnaire in Italy, shows how the reliability and validity of questionnaire measures are being assessed. The authors are hoping to offer a subsequent paper that will explore the contribution which each of the eight questions on the PSQ makes to the assessment as a whole. The second paper in this edition, is an example of small-scale qualitative research, looking at therapists’ opinions about what matters in Goodbye Letters, and offering a useful mnemonic summary of their findings.
Several interesting papers take forward both the theoretical understanding and the practical usage of CAT. Jason Hepple’s theoretical paper posits that old question; ‘which came first the chicken or the egg’ and uses this to ponder some dialogic conundrums. Beth Greenhill’s wonderfully titled paper, ‘They have behaviour; we have relationships’ explores what Behaviourism and CAT have to offer each other, especially in the field of Learning Disabilities, in a way that seems congruent with Vygotsky’s Activity Theory. CAT’s relational and dialogic approach is used to enrich the practical and pragmatic approach that behaviourism offers; especially for people for whom a talking, reflective therapy would be less useful. A further practical enrichment is found in two papers by Alison Jenaway; the first about applying and using CAT for people with medically unexplained symptoms, and the second about whether it is possible for Reformulation letters to be deployed more collaboratively by inviting a reply rather than merely corrections. Helen Frain’s paper explores the experience of working in the Zone of Proximal Development with someone whose reciprocal roles are often found in learning disability services. We have a second paper from Jim Turner on the use of pictorial metaphor and, a discussion of his previous paper by Rose Hughes CAT Psychotherapist and Art Psychotherapist. We welcome further discussion on this and on any other papers. We particularly welcome receiving an increasing number of advertisements for CAT events showing what a vibrant community we are.
We’d like to thank Annie Nehmad for her input as Editorial Advisor for this issue and the previous one.
Editor: Julie Lloyd.
Assistant Editor: Tony Ryle.
Editorial advisors: Jason Hepple and Annie Nehmad