Roehampton University

Faculty Member, Human and Life Sciences

Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology and Psychotherapy

Thesis Title: A Grammar of Transformation: analysing anthropologically the construction of the psychotherapeutic practitioner

About

I  completed  my  D.Phil  in  the  Department  of  Social  and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford,  in 2006.  My doctorate was on ‘healing epistemologies’ and the community I studied was the psychoanalytic  community  in London.  A reworked version of my  thesis  is now published  by  Karnac  Press:

Davies, J. (2009). 'The Making of Psychotherapists: an anthropological analysis'. London: Karnac Press.

Since completing my first book I have co-edited two books on fieldwork methodology:

Davies, J. & Spencer, D.  (2010)  'Emotions in the Field: the psychology and anthropology of fieldwork expereince. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Spencer, D. & Davies, J. (2010) Anthropological Fieldwork: A relational process. Cambridge: Cambrdige Scholars Press (in press)

My fourth book has just been published by Routledge:

Davies, J. (2012) The Importance of Suffering: the value and meaning of emotional discontent. London: Routledge


I am also a qualified and practicing psychotherapist (UKCP) and have worked as such in the NHS.