Prophecy, Behaviour and Change

Professional helpers may harm their clients instead of helping them. This is one of the important implications – for the selection, training and practice of members of the helping professions – of the evidence reviewed in this book. Originally published in 1977, Gerald Smale argues that the expectations of the professional helper, whether social worker, doctor, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, psychotherapist or counsellor, can act as self-fulfilling prophecies on his or her clients, for better or w