Psychotherapy and Politics International (E-Journal)
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Psychology and Marxism in Mexico
Get PDFThese “notes” are a report on a recent (and second) International Conference on Marxism and Psychology, this one organised by the Psychology Faculty of the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, with the support of a number of other organisations including Psychotherapy and Politics International, and held in Morelia, Mexico, 9–11August 2012. The article discusses the political context for the conference, and in particular the #YoSoy132 and Cherán movements
A Body Politic: The Political Writings of Nick Totton
Get PDFThis article reviews Nick Totton's writing on psychotherapy and politics, and draws on his identification of four aspects of the interface between these two fields, that is, psychotherapy in politics, the psychotherapy of politics, the politics of psychotherapy, and politics in psychotherapy as a way of framing the ground and practice of politically informed psychotherapy or “psy” practice – and, potentially, of psychotherapeutically informed politics. The article then discusses what the author identifies as five central themes regarding the relationship between psychotherapy and politics which are apparent in Nick Totton's writings: the critique of professionalisation, the significance of language, the centrality of power, the inseparability of the political, and the movement beyond dichotomy
Spectre of the Stranger: Towards a Phenomenology of the Stranger. By Manu Bazzano. (2012). Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press. 144 pp.
Get PDFSpectre of the Stranger: Towards a Phenomenology of the Stranger. By Manu Bazzano
Not a Tame Lion: Writings on Therapy in its Social and Political Context. By Nick Totton. (2012). Ross-on-Wye, UK: PCCS Books. 192 pp.
Get PDFNot a Tame Lion: Writings on Therapy in its Social and Political Context. By Nick Totton
The Baby and the Bathwater: An Unreserved Appreciation of Nick Totton's Critique of the Professionalisation of Psychotherapy
Get PDFNick Totten's observations and reflections on the landscape of psychotherapy in his article “The Baby and the Bathwater” remind us that as a “cottage industry” psychotherapy has much in common with traditional, small‐scale farming practices. In both psychotherapy and farming, in‐depth understanding and indigenous knowledge are only possible through love for and an intimate familiarity with the local landscape. By contrast, the modern, technocratic “one size fits all” approach to productivity that characterises agri‐business can also be found in the relentless drive to professionalise psychotherapy, a form of hubris that is ultimately destructive of both culture and agriculture
Racism and Cultural Diversity: Cultivating Racial Harmony Through Counselling, Group Analysis, and Psychotherapy. By M. J. Maher. (2012). London, UK: Karnac Books. 456 pp.
Get PDFRacism and Cultural Diversity: Cultivating Racial Harmony Through Counselling, Group Analysis, and Psychotherapy. By M. J. Maher
The Im/possibility of Race: Raising Race in Psychotherapy
Get PDFThis paper explores the tension between the ethical and therapeutic imperatives when the possibility of race as a motif in the client's presentation arises in the mind of the psychotherapist. This tension highlights the risk of oppression in speaking and not speaking in which the “floating” nature of race both in definition and in personal identity is revealed as compounding variables. Respect for the dignity of self‐determination in relation to the conception of the self emerges to resolve the tension between the ethical and the psychotherapeutic, paving the way for reflective questions for psychotherapists
From Kingdom to Community: Lessons from The Crucible
Get PDFThe Crucible was set up as a workshop for men to practise leadership. An initial motivation was to assist a men's organization to move from reliance on the founder into being a co-created community. The Crucible was structured so that participants had many opportunities to take initiative and practise sustaining presence with self and others. Men benefitted from a background field of friendliness and movement between playfulness and challenge. An orientation was kept to experimentation and learning in comparison to “getting it right”. It is hoped that this paper will be of use to those involved in men's work, training leaders, or wanting to assist an(y) authority-bound organization to move into being more of a cooperative learning community
Goddess Politics: Analytical Psychology and Japanese Myth
Get PDFMyth always plays an important role in establishing people's core identities; and the interpretation of myths is central in Jungian studies, which focus on archetypal images. In this context, this paper examines Hayao Kawai's 1976 work on the Japanese goddess Amaterasu-oh-kami (Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity), who has been referred to as the main deity in Shintoism. Kawai argued that Japan is a maternal society, and that, in general, Japanese have a more feminine psyche than Westerners. The purpose of this paper is critically to rethink Kawai's argument and ideas. In doing so, first, I examine the concept of kami in relation to shamanism and animism in Shintoism. Second, I focus on the formulation of state Shintoism, and on how those who edited Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) and Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan reconstructed Japanese myths for political reasons in the fifth and eighth centuries (Common Era), and how, in the process, the image of Amaterasu-oh-kami was distorted by patriarchal codes. More recently, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the idea of Amaterasu-oh-kami as the highest deity in Kojiki was widespread, a view promulgated by the Japanese government. I identify certain problems in Kawai's interpretations of the myth – his choice of texts, his characterization of Amaterasu-oh-kami, his projection of men's needs onto the goddess – and offer a rethinking of his interpretation in terms of recent Jungian, historical, mythological, and feminist viewpoints. I argue that Kawai's discourse about the goddess's image is a kind of conservative renewal of the myth – for covert political reasons. Finally, I advocate the importance of careful examination of the patriarchal codes in the myth, with the hope that this might bring a new potency to the Jungian approach more suited to a new century