Working the Difference: Science, Spirit, and the Spread of Motivational Interviewing

A history of motivational interviewing and what its rise reveals about how cultural forms emerge and spread.

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a professional practice, a behavioral therapy, and a self-professed conversation style that encourages clients to talk themselves into change. Originally developed to treat alcoholics, MI quickly spread into a variety of professional fields including corrections, medicine, and sanitation. In Working the Difference, E. Summerson Carr focuses on the training and dissemination of MI to explore how cultural forms--and particularly forms of expertise--emerge and spread. The result is a compelling analysis of the American preoccupations at MI's core, from democratic autonomy and freedom of speech to Protestant ethics and American pragmatism.

Author: E. Summerson Carr
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 09/05/2023
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.66d
ISBN13: 9780226827629
ISBN10: 0226827623
BISAC Categories:
- Psychology | Psychotherapy | Counseling
- Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social
- Social Science | Sociology | General

About the Author
E. Summerson Carr is associate professor of social work and anthropology at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Scripting Addiction: The Politics of Therapeutic Talk and American Sobriety and co-editor of Scale: Discourse and Dimensions of Social Life.