Therapy’s self-help ethos tacitly endorses Thatcher’s individualist politics

Evidence

The radical therapist David Smail argues that Margaret Thatcher’s view that there’s no such thing as society, only individuals and their families, finds “an unacknowledged echo in almost all approaches to therapy”. Therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy combine a focus on early life (a kind of psychoanalysis-lite) with the self-help doctrine that individuals can become masters of their own destiny. Smail gives the immensely suggestive name magical voluntarism to the view that “with the expert help of your therapist or counsellor, you can change the world you are in the last analysis responsible for, so that it no longer cause you distress”. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1501

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the key coined term ‘magical voluntarism’.
• SEED: Angle for an essay: how the modern therapy/wellness industry politically neutralizes distress by privatizing its causes.
• XREF: connects to: Mainstream therapy shares Thatcherism’s denial that social conditions shape distress — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1604; Therapeutic self-awareness has been stripped of its collectivising political potential — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1372; Psychotherapy’s self-mastery doctrine echoes Thatcher’s denial of society — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1501 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Psychotherapy’s self-mastery doctrine echoes Thatcher’s denial of society #corroborates (0.95) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1501
• Cognitive-behavioural therapy echoes Thatcher’s denial of society #corroborates (0.92) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1604
• Therapeutic self-naming privatises suffering and prevents collective solidarity. #expands (0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1372
• Neoliberal policy privatised stress into individual mental illness #expands (0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1601