James Davies

Roehampton University

Faculty Member, Human and Life Sciences

Senior Lecturer

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

Professor David Parkin (All Souls & ISCA)

About

I  completed  my  D.Phil  in  the  Department  of  Social  and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford,  in 2006.  My doctorate was on ‘healing epistemologies’  and the community I studied was the psychoanalytic  community  in London.  A version of my  thesis  is  being  published  by  Karnac  Press  in  November  (2008). Title: 'The Making of Psychotherapists: an anthropological analysis.

Since completing my first book I have co-edited two books on fieldwork methodology:
Davies, J. & Spencer, D.  (2008)  'Emotions in the Field: the psychology and anthropology of fieldwork expereince (under review).
Davies, J.  Spencer, D. (2008) Anthropological Fieldwork: A relational process. (Cambrdige Scholars Press [in press])

I am  currently  midway  through  writing  and  researching  my fourth book. This is an anthropological analysis of contemporary perceptions, responses to, and  modes of managing emotional suffering.  I  am  particularly  interested  in  how many of these responses  more    excacerbate    than    alleviate  emotional discontent  in  modern  society.  Among  other  things,  I  use anthropological theory and research to highlight the prevalence and  machinations  of  what  I  call  ‘anaesthetic  regimes’  – curative industries,  which, in the name of healing,  exacerbate the suffering from which they economically benefit.

I am also a qualified and practicing psychotherapist working in the NHS.

Contact Information

St Cross College
St Giles
Oxford
OX1 3LZ