'...if you feel that something is deeply wrong in the relationship between the state and civil society, and that there is too much interference in professional work, you will find this book both therapeutic and empowering.'- Max Travers, School of Sociology and Social Work, from the Foreword'This incisive study shows that "regulation", against which many have warned but which some psychotherapists still imagine to be a solution to all their ills, is actually already here. Janet Low traces her way through this apparatus, and makes a compelling case for taking the HPC seriously as a machine that incarnates the very kind of unhealthy practice it pretends to set itself against.'- Professor Ian Parker, Manchester Metropolitan University'If you want to know about the reality of state regulation, how it works in practice - as opposed to what people say about it - you should read this book. A shocking and unsettling account.'- Paul Gordon, author of The Hope of Therapy and former chair of the Philadelphia Association'Do not let the simplicity of this lucid account of a difficult problem deceive you. This is an important, readable, and informative account of applied regulation at the Health Professions Council.'- Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex- 'This book investigates the claim that regulation by agencies of State is one of the prerequisites for improving professional practice. It displays how the underlying administrative interests of such bureaucracies are detrimental to the structure of professional communities. The "quality indicators" produced by such regulatory bodies lead in general to the weakening of professional activity and research, and to the replacement of quality by its opposite. Janet Haney shows with some verve how this transformation was attempted in the field of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.'- Bernard Burgoyne, Professor Emeritus of Psychoanalysis, Middlesex University