Hugh Crago

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Hugh is a retired academic and still-practising counsellor and psychotherapist. He studied at the University of New England (Australia), Oxford University (UK), Antioch New England Graduate School (USA), and Deakin University (Australia). He has taught literature, lifespan human development and counselling at several universities and has published nine books and over 100 articles in academic and professional journals. He describes himself as having 'the mind of a social reformer and the soul of a Tory'.

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Luca Cristiano

Università di Pisa

Iranildo Galdino

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Mariia Pshenychna

V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

Mark Schmitt

Humboldt Universität zu Berlin

Ligiane Silva

Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Gwen Robbins Schug

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Gabriel Gutierrez-Alonso

University of Salamanca

John Sutton

Macquarie University

Kevin Arbuckle

Swansea University

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Papers by Hugh Crago

Straight talk on training: Who should we train?: Being cruel to be kind

Psychotherapy in Australia, Nov 1, 2011

More Than Meets The Eye?

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Sep 1, 1993

The author reviews observations and other evidence suggesting that family therapy may have come t... more The author reviews observations and other evidence suggesting that family therapy may have come to a crisis of identity. He suggests that the renewal of calls to form a national regulatory body for family therapists may represent an attempt to substitute structure and institutionalised power for ideational fervour. Five key organising principles are identified that distinguish family therapy from other therapeutic stances. Finally, the author asks whether family therapy in Australia has failed to resolve its own issues with connectedness and with anger, leading in part to its present crisis.

Ticking all the right boxes: An authoritative guide to counsellor education?

Psychotherapy in Australia, 2011

From time to time a book comes along that is worthy of special attention. One such book is the Ha... more From time to time a book comes along that is worthy of special attention. One such book is the Handbook of Counselor Preparation: Constructivist, Developmental and Experiential Approaches, edited by Garrett J. McAuliffe and Karen Eriksen, published by Sage, in co-operation with the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, 2011. The editors of this book have taken a major step towards describing the learning principles which should guide effective counsellor education. In this extended review, HUGH CRAGO teases out more of the book's implications and explores its assumptions in detail against the background of counsellor training in Australia. Attention has been drawn to the editors' blind spots in the hope that future editions may benefit.

Children's Books, Brain Development and Language Acquisition by Ralf Thiede

Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 2019

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Training: The Cinderella Subject

Psychotherapy in Australia, Feb 1, 2011

The concept of training in psychotherapy and the way in which trainers tend to replicate their ow... more

The End and the Beginning

‘Not in Utter Nakedness’

‘The Middle of the Journey of our Lives’

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth ed. by Catherine McIlwaine

Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 2019

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Straight talk on training: Assessment: Part II

Psychotherapy in Australia, Aug 1, 2012

A s I mentioned in my last column on this subject, many trainers are uncomfortable with the whole... more A s I mentioned in my last column on this subject, many trainers are uncomfortable with the whole issue of assessment. They do not really want to be in the position of making a judgement on whether or not a student has 'met course requirements', especially if, by implication, this means that she or he is not ready to be a counsellor. It sounds far too much like 'being judgemental' in response to something a client has said or done. The blurring of the boundary between counselling a client and training a student to be a counsellor is only one factor involved here. We must also grapple with the fact that over the last forty years educational practice has come increasingly to resemble therapy (perhaps an oversimplification of the Rogerian idea of unconditional positive regard), to the extent that responding with consistent praise to students' efforts is considered more important than maintaining standards.

A tale of two hemispheres: Psychotherapy, psychology and the divided brain

Psychotherapy in Australia, Aug 1, 2012

How does the field of psychotherapy and counselling provide 'proof' for its benefits, and... more How does the field of psychotherapy and counselling provide 'proof' for its benefits, and gain recognition alongside other professions such as psychology, psychiatry and social work? As a foundation on which to explore this challenge, Hugh Crago presents the work of Iain McGilchrist. In 'The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World', McGilchrist has drawn on thirty years of brain research to reveal a profound difference between the two hemispheres of the brain - two whole, coherent, but incompatible ways of experiencing the world. The left hemisphere is detail-oriented, prefers mechanisms to living things, and is inclined to self-interest, where the right hemisphere has greater breadth, flexibility and generosity. Crago incorporates these understandings into his efforts to represent the difficulty of conveying the value of a 'transformative relationship' in a world where, despite its inferior grasp of reality, the left hemisphere is increasingly taking precedence. On this basis, a critique of the use of the assumptions and methods of psychology in determining the value of counselling and psychotherapy is offered, and alternative methods are explored.

The roots of response

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Couples Therapy: From the Ashes to the Ballroom?

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Dec 1, 1998

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Such Was Charn, That Great City

Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 1994

Bibliotherapy and Psychology

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Programmed For Despair? The Dynamics of Low Morale/High Burnout Welfare Organisations

Australian Social Work, 1988

A class of welfare organisations is identified as characterised by low staff morale and a high bu... more A class of welfare organisations is identified as characterised by low staff morale and a high burnout rate among workers. On the basis of personal observations and clinical data, the author analyses the dynamics of ‘low morale/high burnout’ institutions in terms of three interlocking factors: the proportion of staff whose career choice was motivated unconsciously by ‘family despair’; the way that personal staff issues interact dysfunctionally with the behaviour of clients and administrators; the existence of ‘societal despair’ – the belief that unjust and oppressive social conditions will never improve. A series of parallel processes at the levels of clients, staff and administration is identified, and the failure of training to address these processes is explained. Finally, the author proposes a single intervention at the organisational level, which has potential for reversing the ‘cycles of despair’ previously identified.

Why readers read what writers write

Childrens Literature in Education, Dec 1, 1993

Hugh Crago is coauthor (with Maureen Crago) of Prelude to Literacy (1983). His new book, A Family... more Hugh Crago is coauthor (with Maureen Crago) of Prelude to Literacy (1983). His new book, A Family in Time, will be published in 1994 by MePhee-Gribble/Penguin (Melbourne). "Why Readers Read What Writers Write" is an edited version of Chapter 1 of a ~:ortheoming book entitled Stories Make Us Make Stories.

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Training: The Unglamorous Enterprise

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Sep 1, 2003

Training: The Unglamorous Enterprise Training has not been a favoured topic in the family therapy... more

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Becoming the Family Archivist

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Dec 1, 1992

The author describes some of the ways in which conventional amateur family histories fail to port... more The author describes some of the ways in which conventional amateur family histories fail to portray the emotional realities offamily life. Recent trends in biography and autobiography are explored briefly, and the possibility ofa family history informed by systemic as well aspsychoanalytic insights is considered. The author's own work, A Family in Time, attempts such a history. The author outlines his sources ofinformation, both documentary and oral, and the special challenges posed by their interpretation. The decisions governing the ordering and selection ofdata for publication are explored, the author's aim being to present the facts in such a way that a systemic conception offamily process over time will be implicit in the material. Implications for the author, for the family itself, and for therapists working with intergenerationalprocess are briefly considered.

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The Stages of Life

Routledge eBooks, Aug 11, 2016

Straight talk on training: Who should we train?: Being cruel to be kind

Psychotherapy in Australia, Nov 1, 2011

More Than Meets The Eye?

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Sep 1, 1993