Psychotherapy and Politics International (E-Journal)
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Questioning the Victim Status of Complainants in Professional Ethics Investigations
Get PDFThe power differential between practitioner and client is examined by reviewing empirical studies, professional practice frameworks and related legal and procedural questions, in the context of complaints about health professionals. Professional regulatory bodies – including ethics committees, association boards, and government licensing authorities – oversee the ethical behaviour of professionals, specifically monitoring their use of power. Complaints which these regulatory bodies address are generally framed in terms of the way that power is used poorly or harmfully by a practitioner. Alleged ethical breaches are usually evaluated from a specific epistemological premise – the existence of a power incline between practitioner and client. We explore some alternative perspectives regarding the power that clients hold, in the process exposing assumptions about the question of harm done. Linear views of causality and responsibility are questioned, and it is suggested that a more complex understanding would better serve investigatory processes. This discussion does not delve into the psycho-dynamics underlying the complaints process, but rather addresses the operation of regulatory bodies in terms of perceptions of power differences in the professional relationship
Maintaining Group Analytic Training during the Financial Crisis in Greece
Get PDFThis article describes the application of group analytic methods and principles to a training institution for group analysis, the Hellenic Organization for Psychotherapy and Education in Group Analysis (HOPE in GA), in Athens, Greece, when suffering from a decline in student numbers. By creating an on-going large group named “The Training Community” its members were able to deal effectively with the difficult financial and social situation. Speaking out through dialogue, frank communication, and working with the group dynamics and group processes in the organization gave members hope. They managed not only to survive but much more: HOPE in GA was able to become creative and to flourish despite the destructive forces in the wider social context both inside and outside the country. Group analysis creates political thought and can influence societies in a more humanitarian direction
Democracy's Freudian Slip? Who'd Have Thought It?
Get PDFThe Referendum in the UK on 23rd June about Membership of the European Union appears to have resulted in a mistake. Democracy itself is up for questioning. Certain conditions should apply for democratic methods to succeed in reaching good decisions. It is however clear that Democracy like everything else is not perfect. It is better not to idealise Democracy as if it was perfect (and unlike everything else), and to struggle with what to do when it lets us down, and why it has done so on this occasion
The Irish Uprising of Easter 1916: A Psychopolitical Dialogue
Get PDFAt the time of the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Ireland, this article offers a psychopolitical dialogue between two friends and colleagues, one Irish and one British, who share their personal, political, and psychological associations and reflections on the event. The article reflects on some of the implications of the Uprising; the nature of the Irish state, and especially the influence of the Irish Catholic Church on that state; and the role of rebel songs; the transgeneration transmission of trauma; as well as some of the implications of being activists and allies. The article is constructed in the form of a dialogue in which the authors interweave personal memories and associations together with theory and literature, and seek to make intellectual and relational meaning out of an event which changed and has had a lasting impact on both Irish and British political states
Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the service of life ( 2nd Edition). By Andy Fisher. (2013). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN13: 978-1-4384-4476-5; 407 pp.
Get PDFRadical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the service of life ( 2nd Edition). By Andy Fisher. (2013). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN13: 978-1-4384-4476-5; 407 pp
Psychotherapy and Global Transformation
Get PDFThis article very briefly reviews the past 100 years of psychotherapy and then looks forward to the next 100 years. It suggests that while psychotherapy can continue to aspire to save the planet “one person at a time”, it must also scale up its efforts to work therapeutically with larger numbers of people on a larger playing field which includes all of the urgent social, political, cultural and ecological issues of this new century. A new politics of indigeneity is needed which recognizes locality and localism, is deeply respectful of the unique contribution and leadership of indigenous and First Nations people and peoples, but is also bold enough to claim that we are all indigenous to the universe and, therefore, share responsibility to learn how to be better stewards and caretakers of ourselves and each other on the Garden Planet
Inside and/or Outside? Working Sensitively with Political Material in Psychotherapy
Get PDFThis article focuses on one particular dimension of psychopolitics: that which manifests itself in the personal contents or materials clients bring into psychotherapy. It seems that many psychotherapists find themselves struggling when faced with political issues which come up in psychotherapy, both overtly and covertly. Many psychotherapists find value in clarifying political aspects of clients' lives and psychotherapy itself, but are hesitant to touch upon this loaded issue or do not know how to approach it. The present article seeks to formulate a theoretical basis for politically-conscious therapy, as well guiding principles that help to implement this position
Reflexivity, Austerity, and the Value of the Useless
Get PDFIn this article reflexivity is defined as a neoliberal mode of thought, often evident in our research data as a circular pattern which fails to comprehend contemporary modernity. This type of reflexivity is illustrated with reference to austerity and food poverty. The article argues that while it might be relatively easy to observe this kind of reflexivity in others, it is much more difficult to gauge its effects on the researcher's own epistemological perspective. When attempting to do so, the premises upon which we construct academic knowledge and the importance of certain data that might, at first sight, appear to be “useless” come under scrutiny. Lacanian psychoanalysis and the works of Jean Baudrillard are used in order to explore alternatives