As many observers have noted, one of the biggest issues facing the therapy professions has been the almost complete lack of public critical debate regarding the political social justice turn. It is good to be able to report that more academic literature is now being published that challenges the current ideological orthodoxy. We would like to draw viewers to two important recent contributions both of which are special issues in academic journals.
The first special issue is ‘Identity and Politicization in Behavior Therapy‘ in the journal, Current Opinion in Psychology, edited by William O’Donohue, Michael Strambler and Dean McKay. We have already flagged up one of the articles in a previous CTA post on politicised CBT practice. This special issue covers a wide range of pertinent topics and challenges some of the dominant orthodoxies in contemporary theory and practice such as the uncontested multicultural turn in therapy It also contains papers by friends of CTA including Andrew Hartz, OTI president, on sociopolitical bias in mental health treatment and Arnold Cantú on the cognitive distortions of Critical Social Justice.
The second special issue is titled ‘Academic Freedom and Critical Thinking‘ in The Journal of Teaching in Social Work and is edited by Nafees Alam and Bruce A. Thyer (Nafees is a friend of CTA – see a CTA podcast with him here). The editors liken the current ideological orthodoxy within social work to a cuckoo and state that: ” … social work education must actively protect its intellectual ‘nest’ by cultivating an environment where multiple methodologies and perspectives can co-exist and thrive together.” All of the papers in this special issue speak to similar concerns arising in the training of therapists; these include how to bridge logic and justice and promoting civil discourse in the classroom.
It goes without saying that enterprises such as these special issues are helping to create some solid defensible ground that can support all of us who are committed to preserving the healing ethos of therapy. We applaud the work of these scholars and urge our readers to view and engage with the critiques that are being articulated here.
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