At last, an academic book has been published that starts to lay out the ground for a pushback against the political/ideological capture of therapy by Critical Social Justice! Ideological and Political Bias in Psychology: Nature, Scope, and Solutions is an edited collection of essays published by Springer.

We have been waiting for a breakthrough publication such as this for a long while. In the interim, some progress had been made albeit in a piecemeal fashion with CTA’s book, Cynical Therapies and the rare critical paper in an academic journal e.g. Sedgwick’s paper. However, what has been sorely lacking is a significant work published by an established academic press. And here it is! Below is the description of its contents from Springer’s website:

‘This book examines the traditional assumptions made by academics and professionals alike that have embedded sociopolitical biases that impede practice. and undermine efforts to achieve an objective scientific status. If allowed to go unchallenged, the credibility of psychology as a discipline is compromised. This contributed volume thoroughly and comprehensively examines this concern in a conceptually and empirically rigorous manner and offers constructive solutions for minimizing undue political influences within the field of psychology.’

Below are a few of the chapters which should be of particular interest to CTA’s readers:

Psychology’s Language and Free Speech Problem

• Pamela Paresky, Bradley Campbell

Pages 149-172

Ideological Bias in American Psychological Association Communications: Another Threat to the Credibility of Professional Psychology

• Nina Silander, Anthony Tarescavage

Pages 315-342

Social Justice in Psychotherapy and Beyond

• Richard E. Redding, Sally Satel

Pages 513-539

Ideological Bias in the Psychology of Sex and Gender

• Marco Del Giudice

Pages 743-778

Please request this book for your library, either college or public. This should become the main reference for everyone critiquing CSJ in therapy. It is particularly important for beleagured students on therapy training programs. And, as an aside, here at CTA we are proud that writings published on our website have proved to have been a useful illustrative resource especially for Sally Satel and Richard Redding’s chapter, Social Justice in Psychotherapy and Beyond.