ABSTRACT
I hope that the preceding chapters will have indicated that those individuals who form the subject matter of this book are often very difficult to understand and to deal with. Their behaviour is often baffling, anxiety provoking and will frequently stretch our capacities for empathic understanding. Obviously the technical literature frequently referred to in this text will bring some aid, as will the views and (hopefully) support of supervisors and colleagues in a variety of disciplines; and of course our own ongoing experiences can be useful "storehouses" of aid. Despite all these sources of assistance, it is important not to overlook additional resources, for example, the insights that may be gained from literary and similar works, as has been demonstrated in some of the preceding chapters. This chapter is intended to provide a more detailed coverage of the topic and hopefully will be found helpful as a "prompter" (an expression used by the late doctor Murray Cox and Alice Theilgaard (Cox and Theilgaard 1994)).
