When I was working within the British NHS the prevailing ethos around Personal Construct Psychology was that people interested in PCP had to publish or see PCP perishing. Such advice often came from the academics within the PCP group. They of course, had to publish as part of their academic career. There were two main opinions about what sort of publication. One group thought that PCP publications should always be in mainstream journals where they would be seen and read by the widest possible audience. The other view was that there should be specialist PCP journals, where the chances of being published were far higher.
There are currently two specialist journals. One of these is open access and therefore available to anyone who comes looking Personal Construct Theory and Practice. The other journal, which began as the Journal of Personal Construct Psychology, was then renamed as the Journal of Constructivist Psychology, presumably to widen its potential readership. It is only available by subscription, or by membership of the Constructivist Psychology Network. The Journal is published quarterly in a paper version. Subscribers have access to the journal electronically.
The other main form of publication is that of either edited or authored books. For a relatively small PCP group there has been a significant number of such publications. They can be classified in four categories. Mainstream published: 1. Edited volumes, 2. Authored volumes 3. Edited collections of conference papers; and 4. Privately published edited volumes of conference papers by organisations such as EPCA. However the problem with all these books is that of access.
The self published volumes are largely unavailable. Typical of these is Thomson and Cummins (1992), European Perspectives in Personal Construct Psychology, selected papers from the Inaugural conference of the EPCA, which was printed privately and distributed anywhere that was possible. It is no longer available. This is also true of volumes such as Fisher J. & Savage D. (1999) Beyond Experimentation into Meaning, and Fisher j. & Cornelius N. (2000) Challenging the Boundaries : PCP Perspectives for the new Millennium, published by EPCA and again printed privately.
The mainstream books are available for purchase.. but at a price, which is often significant. Examples of such mainstream publications include those of Procter and Winter, (2020), (£34.99 ); Winter, Cummins, Procter and Reed (2017), (£76.51) Winter and Reed (2016), £31.55); Winter and Reed (2015) (£109.64) and Raskin Bridges and Kahn (2015) (£34.73); (prices taken from Amazon).
The range is from £31.55 to £109.64.
These prices have to be seen within a context of younger professionals relying more and more on internet based information. I have heard many tales of undergraduates who do not buy books, relying either on University libraries or on the internet.
But neither of these sources serve PCP well. It is relatively common to find second hand PCP books which are ex library . It is clear that libraries are no longer good places to come across PCP. This is particularly problematic, given that the development of PCP at least within Britain was related to a library discovery. Don Bannister used to tell the tale of how he came across PCP; bored with what he was being taught ,he had started going though the Institute of Psychiatry library alphabetically, came to Kelly and looked no further. I wonder whether such an experience would be possible now!
Given this situation the Coventry Constructivist Group decided that it was time to explore other options.
The most obvious alternative publishing strategy was to publish on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Despite its name this publishing platform allows publication both as an e book and as a conventional paperback. It allows much greater control of the entire publishing process than that allowed by conventional publishers. One of the most important of these is price. The Coventry group has now published five books using this platform.
Allen D. & Cummins P. A Beginners Guide to Personal Construct Therapy with Adults and Couples £6.99; Kindle edition £3.99
Cummins P. & Leitner L. 2019 (eds.) Experiential Personal Construct Psychology, selected papers, Amazon Publications
Cummins P. & Moran H. (eds.) A Foundation Course in Personal Construct Psychology paperback £5.99; Kindle edition £3.99
Moran H. A. Beginners Guide to Personal Construct Therapy with Children and Young People paperback £8.99; Kindle edition £6.99
Moran H. Using Personal Construct Psychology with Children & Adolescents Kindle Edition £1.52
The range is from £1.52 to £8.99.
Apart from price the other great advantage is that of editorial control. We revised the Coventry Foundation guide for our 2022 foundation course and republished it on Amazon within a few weeks.
I recently bought a copy of Richard Butler’s book Sports Psychology in Action in which he weaves Personal construct perspectives into a wider model of Sports Psychology. This book is published by Hodder Arnold and is priced at £34.99.with a Kindle edition at £31.49. What actually arrived was a book that had been “printed in Great Britain by Amazon”. On the back of the book is stated “ This book has been printed digitally and produced in a standard design, so that Hodder Arnold can ensure its continuing availability.” What this means is that I had paid £34.99 for a book which is produced by Amazon, and identical in printing quality to the Coventry publications described above, all of which are available for under £10, and presumably will also stay available!
The one clear advantage of mainstream publishing is the possibility of coming across the book in bookshops something which is not going to happen with Amazon publications! However given the turnover of bookshop stock this is a relatively short lived advantages. My own experience of mainstream publishing; Cummins P. (ed.) (2006) Working with Anger, which was briefly available on bookshop shelves after publication, is currently available on Amazon for £87.37!!!
The Coventry group deliberately keep the price of our publications low to encourage people interested in PCP to take the plunge of buying PCP publications. This is most unlikely to happen when the books in question cost from £31.55 to £109.64
We therefore now have the ability to produce PCP publications, which are easily available, at an affordable price. It would be good to see more people using electronic publishing.
Peter Cummins is a retired Clinical Psychologist and is a member of the Coventry Constructivist Group, which provides teaching and supervision in Personal Construct Psychology.