ABSTRACT
The paranormal could be seen as being fundamental to the psychological therapies. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is implied from the start by the author, in that, the paranormal can be considered as an obtrusive notion within psychotherapy. It is entitled ‘Phantom narratives and the uncanny in cultural life: psychic presences and their shadows’. The book provides the reader with a useful history of anthropological perspectives into the ‘paranormal’, pointing out that anomalous experiences are not limited to ‘primitive’ cultures but nevertheless they appear to be taboo within Euro-American academia. It reopens the question of the paranormal and the psychological therapies which continues not to go away, not only for psychoanalysis but the psychological therapies in general.
