There is a sense in which the aims of this book may already be compromised by its very existence, a sense in which even as you read this you are open to an argument which potentially undermines much that we have to say. Let us explain...

The theme of this book is that it is time for social constructionist psychology to loosen its almost exclusive focus on language and discourse, and begin also to include other vital issues. This chapter identifies three issues which social constructionism (for the most part, and with some honorable exceptions) currently fails to adequately consider: embodiment, materiality and power. But how do we demonstrate this? Do we bundle together into boxes examples of embodiment (toenails, dead sharks in formaldehyde?), materiality (blades of grass, sticks and stones?) and power (hmm: perhaps a miniature Panopticon, made from matchsticks by homeless people and sold to get money for food?) Do we give these boxes to our publishers with a request to distribute them, since in their immediacy (see Patten, 1981) they make our point more forcibly than any argument we could possibly contrive? We do not: instead, we write a book-and in so doing, move onto the very territory we are identifying as problematic and insufficient.[p. 2]