Joint award winner of the Annual Counselling Psychology Award for outstanding professional and scientific contribution to Counselling Psychology in Britain for 2000.

`This book is highly recommended to a wide range of people as a clear and systematic introduction to phenomenological psychology... the book has set the stage for possible new colloquia between the phenomenological and other approaches in psychology' - Changes

`As a trainee interested in matters existential, I have been put off in the past by the long-winded and confusing texts usually available in academic libraries. Thankfully, here is a text that remedies that situation... [it] provides a readable and insightful account' - Clinical Psychology Forum

This text demystifies an exciting approach in psychology, offering a lucid account of the philosophical origins of phenomenological theory as well as introducing the phenomenological perspective on key issues in psychology.

Spinelli describes the development and principal tenets of phenomenology and outlines the aims and practice of the phenomenological method. He then presents the position of phenomenological psychology on the central topics of perception, social cognition and the self. The profound implications of phenomenology for the precepts and process of psychotherapy are also explored. Finally, the author addresses the relationship between phenomenological psychology and other major contemporary approaches within psychology, clarifying points of divergence from, and potential convergence with, these other systems.