Cynical Therapies
* Book: Cynical Therapies. Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice. Edited by Dr Val Thomas. Ocean Reeve Publishing, 2023
URL = https://criticaltherapyantidote.org/new-book-2/
Description
"Traditional therapy practice is facing a crisis due to the increasing influence of Critical Social Justice (aka ‘wokeness’). Activists are reframing the narrative of therapy, seizing control of professional bodies and institutions, and teaching future therapists to view their primary role. as changing society. Any critique is cancelled: critics are characterised as reactionary and bigoted. A diverse international group of authors comprising psychotherapists, academics, and psychologists are assembled here to present critical perspectives on the antitherapeutic nature of Critical Social Justice.
The authors consider questions such as:
• How did therapy become vulnerable to a political authoritarian ideology?
•How can theories drawn from psychology and psychotherapy shed light on the phenomenon of ‘wokeness”?
• What are the implications of gender ideology for therapeutic practice?
• How compatible are Critical Social Justice suppositions with established therapy theories and research?
• What are the implications of the politicisation of professional bodies and training institutes for counselling and psychotherapy?
Finally, some thoughts are offered about how to push back against an ideology which threatens to turn the clinical space into a site for the moral re-education of vulnerable clients. This book represents an ethical call to action: anyone who wishes to preserve the integrity of therapy needs to stand up and make their voices heard."
(https://criticaltherapyantidote.org/new-book-2/)
Review
Joanna Williams:
Reviewed very favourably by Joanna Williams on Spiked; read the whole piece titled “We Need to Kick Wokeness off the Therapist’s Couch” here.
She writes:
‘Over the course of 21 chapters, British and American psychotherapists and counsellors lay out the alarming changes they have noticed within their own profession. They show that therapy today is no longer a client-centred, politically neutral practice. Instead, it has come to be shaped by critical social-justice (CSJ) ideology – a way of understanding society grounded on notions of group identity and hierarchies of oppression. Contributors explore the devastating effects of this ideological capture on vulnerable patients.’
‘The contributors to Cynical Therapies have bravely shown the world what’s really happening in the profession of therapy. As Thomas rightly argues, the capture of therapy by woke activists is turning it ‘into a practice of moral re-education that serves the interests of an authoritarian elite’. Cynical Therapies should serve as a clarion call to those therapists trying to resist the ideological capture of their profession. It’s a reminder that the first duty of a therapist should be to the needs of their patients.’
(https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/04/10/we-need-to-kick-wokeness-off-the-therapists-couch/)