On one hand the politicization of therapy has become the settled orthodoxy in the professional field, but on the other hand there are hopeful signs that a clear critique is starting emerge in mainstream academia. Special issues in journals are a case in point: Last year, the Journal of Teaching in Social Work published a collection of articles under the rubric “Beyond Ideological Mandates: Critical Reflections on Anti-Racist and Social Work Education” and this year Current Opinion in Psychology addresses “Identity and Politicization in Behavior Therapy”.
In this latter special issue, Richard Redding (a co-editor of a seminal book addressing sociopolitical bias in mental health treatment) and colleagues tackle the vexed question of politicized CBT practice head on. This paper is a must-read for everyone – students, academics, trainers – who are concerned with preserving the rigor and effectiveness of this modality. Read the abstract below and the full article text can be accessed here.
“Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) rests on the premise that individuals possess personal agency to change their life circumstances. At the same time, given growing political homogeneity within psychology, views of individual agency are increasingly being displaced by greater emphasis on conceptualizing distress as reflecting systemic oppression. Drawing on research concerning these frameworks, this article briefly examines the implications of these trends for CBT in the United States. Specifically, we outline three potential concerns, including declining interest in traditional CBT, reduced value alignment between therapists and non-liberal clients, and possible shifts in the theoretical and practical focus of CBT. We conclude by discussing implications for graduate training and the importance of sociopolitical competence and diversity in clinical education.”
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