Acknowledgements; Introduction; SECTION I: DEFINING THE PERSONS IN RELATION PERSPECTIVE; Chapter 1: The persons in relation perspective: Towards a philosophy for counselling and psychotherapy in society; Chapter 2: The persons in relation perspective: Sources and synthesis; Chapter 3: The persons in relation perspective: Counselling and psychotherapy in the contemporary world; SECTION II: EXPLORING DIALOGUE; Chapter 4: Some notes on dialogue; Chapter 5: Dialogue in its larger context: Only connect!; SECTION III: APPLYING THE PERSONS IN RELATION PERSPECTIVE IN COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY; Chapter 6: The role of psychotherapy in the in-patient treatment of a teenage girl with anorexia: A dialogical narrative With three letters by Anna Other, and a reflection by David Tait; Chapter 7: Counselling as personal and social action; SECTION IV: APPLYING THE PERSONS IN RELATION PERSPECTIVE BEYOND THE COUCH; Chapter 8: Beyond the couch: An introduction to the work of John D. Sutherland; Chapter 9: Robert Burns in the counsellor's chair: A psycho-socio-cultural analysis of the Burns myth; Chapter 10: Scotland as a learning society: Identity, difference and relatedness; SECTION V: APPLYING THE PERSONS IN RELATION PERSPECTIVE IN ADULT EDUCATION AND ADULT LEARNING; Chapter 11: Challenging education, creating alliances: The legacy of Paulo Freire in the 21st century; Chapter 12: Freirean approaches to citizenship: An interview with Colin Kirkwood; Afterword; By the same author; Biography.

. People are constituted by their relationships, past and present, inner and outer, conscious and unconscious.
. People are agents who experience, know and act on the world. At the heart of your agency is your self: positive, puzzling, and problematic.
Colin Kirkwood explores these and other ideas of John Macmurray, Ian Suttie, Ronald Fairbairn, John D Sutherland and Paulo Freire, and shows how they apply in counselling and psychotherapy, adult education, community and society.
In today's world, a set of ideas, attitudes and practices has taken hold, which emphasise the individual, self-centredness, pleasure-seeking, consumption, success and the accumulation of wealth and power. They are deeply harmful and need to be tackled.
Colin demonstrates how these ideas affect us, and how they can be taken on and defeated, in a dialogical narrative of psychotherapy with a girl suffering from severe anorexia, written by the girl herself, her psychotherapist and one of her doctors.
John Shemilt, Psychoanalyst and Consultant Psychiatrist, writes:
Through his lucid, personalist account of the development of the Scottish tradition in psychoanalytic thinking, Colin Kirkwood provides an important 21st century commentary on the meaning of social context, the personal relationship and the experience of self in the process of counselling and psychotherapy.
John McLeod, Emeritus Professor of Counselling, University of Abertay Dundee, writes:
I highly recommend this book to all counsellors and psychotherapists who are interested in deepening their understanding of their work. Colin Kirkwood writes accessibly, with humour and grace, and draws on philosophical and cultural perspectives to offer a fresh appreciation of the meaning of adopting a relational approach to therapy. His work is grounded in everyday life experience, but at the same time views that experience as a microcosm of wider social and political currents.
This book will be of interest to those involved in counselling, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis; psychiatry, psychology, nursing and general medical practice; social work and pastoral care; schooling, adult, community and higher education; ecology, theology and social geography; literature and philosophy; and politics, international and intercultural relations.