CBT: The Cognitive Behavioural Tsunami

Is CBT all it claims to be? The Cognitive Behavioural Tsunami: Managerialism, Politics, and the Corruptions of Science provides a powerful critique of CBT's understanding of human suffering, as well as the apparent scientific basis underlying it.

Zusatztext "This book is breath-taking in its scope, perception and wit. It is critique at its most urgent and readable." --Professor Michael Traynor, Middlesex author of Nursing in Context: Policy, Politics, Profession"Dalal gives us a devastatingly forensic critique of the weaknesses of CBT and the supposed 'science' that backs it up, and of the ruthless professional politics that have led its proponents to win the battle for the nation's souls. His term 'cognitivist delusion' says it all. But in addition, as with his previous books, he lays bare the deeper intellectual and cultural histories that have conspiratorially allowed the 'mental health professions' to short-change citizens in the service of materialist capitalism and a society dominated by elites." --Professor Andrew Samuels, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University Of Essex"CBT is often presented as an alternative to psychiatric drugs for depression and other mental disorders. But in this erudite, thoughtful investigation of the "CBT Tsunami," Farhad Dalal details how it is built upon the same flawed foundation that gave us "safe and effective antidepressants": neoliberalism, the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and bad science. A refreshing, and much needed, critique." --Robert Whittaker, Author of Mad In America"This book is an analysis of the triumph of CBT as a method of 'treating' 'depression' but its argument also offers an urgent critique of the dysfunctions of our hyper-rational culture. By splitting nature from humankind, and then splitting emotion and ethics from reason in the latter, Dalal notes we have ended up with a perversion of Enlightenment values where the only things that count are the things that can be counted." --Paul Hoggett, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy and Chair of the Climate Psychology Alliance"We live in alienating world where malignant individualism and rapacious neoliberal capitalism are destroying the belongingness and social cohesion that give our lives meaning, as well as degrading the planet we live on. In the therapy professions, these forces are thwarting relational ways of working, and replacing them with government-run machinery to provide industrialised therapy. This book is what we have all been waiting for: a robust, detailed and psychologically sophisticated critique of the frightening place where modern managerialism, regulation, compliance and performativity have taken us. It provides evidence that our narrow view of 'evidence-based practice' is not enough." --Rex Haigh, Consultant Psychiatrist in Medical Psychotherapy, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust"This is an absolute masterpiece and should be read by anyone interested in anything to do with mental health or psychotherapy or economics or neoliberalism. Farhad has a wonderfully clear, engaging, intellectually rigorous, at times witty, style; but with a great talent for making complex phenomena easy to understand." --Sami Timimi, Director of Medical Education Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation NHS Trust "This book could be the Apricity that is needed in these times: in a scholarly way it honours value-based ideas, and names those ideas that have been hijacked and corrupted. Watch out! It takes no hostages and introduces no heroes; it is a great read for those of us who appreciate challenging, perspicacious and compassionate analyses." --Professor Margie Callanan Programme Director of Clinical Psychology Doctorate, Salomons Centre for Applied Psychology"Dalal's book provides a vital contribution to our understanding of the politics and ethics of contemporary mental health treatment, and of the managerial and reductive pursuit of happiness which is a symptom of our times." --David Ferraro, President of the Lacan Circle of Melbourne & blogger Archives of a Divided Subject"Under the sway of neoliberalism, the 'happiness industry' is in full flow and cognitive beha...

Autorentext

Farhad Dalal has been in independent practice as a group analyst and psychotherapist for over thirty years. He also works with organizations. His previous books have questioned received wisdom in a range of territories including psychotherapy (Taking the Group Seriously), racism (Race, Colour and the Processes of Racialization) and equal opportunities (Thought Paralysis The Virtues of Discrimination).

Klappentext

Is CBT all it claims to be? The Cognitive Behavioural Tsunami: Managerialism, Politics, and the Corruptions of Science provides a powerful critique of CBT's understanding of human suffering, as well as the apparent scientific basis underlying it. The book argues that CBT psychology has fetishized measurement to such a degree that it has come to believe that only the countable counts. It suggests that the so-called science of CBT is not just "bad science" but "corrupt science". The rise of CBT has been fostered by neoliberalism and the phenomenon of New Public Management. The book not only critiques the science, psychology and philosophy of CBT, but also challenges the managerialist mentality and its hyper-rational understanding of "efficiency", both of which are commonplace in organizational life today. The book suggests that these are perverse forms of thought, which have been institutionalised by NICE and IAPT and used by them to generate narratives of CBT's prowess. It claims that CBT is an exercise in symptom reduction which vastly exaggerates the degree to which symptoms are reduced, the durability of the improvement, as well as the numbers of people it helps. Arguing that CBT is neither the cure nor the scientific treatment it claims to be, the book also serves as a broader cultural critique of the times we live in; a critique which draws on philosophy and politics, on economics and psychology, on sociology and history, and ultimately, on the idea of science itself. It will be of immense interest to psychotherapists, policymakers and those concerned about the excesses of managerialism.

Inhalt

Ch. 1 Introduction: Hyper-rationality.

Part I The Tsunami.

Ch. 2 The Tsunami Begins.

Ch. 3 The Merchants of Happiness.

Part II Politics of Identity Formation.

Ch. 4 Master-Myths and Identity Formation.

Ch. 5 The 'Psy' Wars.

Part III Cognitivism.

Ch. 6 Homo Economicus.

Ch. 7 Managerialism.

Part IV Dispensing CBT.

Ch. 8 NICE: naughty, but not nice.

Ch. 9 CBT Treatment.

Ch. 10 IAPT: Managerialism and the Privatization of 'Mental Health'.

Part V - CBT Research.

Ch. 11 Good Science.

Ch. 12 The Corruptions of Science.

Ch. 13 Statistical Spin; Linguistic Obfuscation.

Ch 14. The Cognitivist Delusion. References