Over the last few years we have seen nearly all the therapy modalities and professions become harnessed to political ends. CTA has been tracking this process and some examples would include: psychoanalysis; group therapy; and psychologists’ professional bodies. Even cognitive behavioural therapy has not been immune to the political turn – see the alarm raised by academics about younger CBT therapists’ victim mindset and the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies’ new guide to navigating climate anxiety.
In his substack, Mark Hurst discusses a recent politically motivated act of censorship in a family therapy professional body. In 2024, Mark wrote an article for Context, The Association for Family and Systemic Psychotherapy (AFSP) journal that considered the use of preferred pronouns through a relational lens. A few activist therapists objected and the AFSP immediately withdrew the article from the journal. The AFSP apologised for its original decision to publish such a “controversial” piece, and then later on posted a selection of letters both for and against the original article.
We encourage CTA readers to read Mark’s substack piece here – it provides an in-depth analysis of the furore surrounding the cancelled article. His philosophically-informed critique helps to illuminate what is a depressingly familiar authoritarian move in our therapy professions.
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