A different kind of chemistry? Reformulating 'formulation'

We have been moved to write about this since both of us have seen formulation rise in importance with some ambivalence. These issues appear to come most to the fore in
the context of training and it is our experience as both a supervisor and assessor of case reports which has prompted us to write this article. It is trainees who experience most
keenly the difference between the rhetoric of our profession and their lived experience of reality. In this article we would like to pose some questions about formulation. We do not think there are any easy answers to the questions we raise and we are certainly not the first to note dilemmas in the turn towards formulation. Ways of addressing these concerns will, no doubt, largely reflect readers’ theoretical persuasions. Our own debt to ideas from what have come to be termed social constructionist and critical psychology traditions will become evident in what we think might be possible ways forward.