Comment on CBT v Psychoanalysis Debate

Oliver Burkeman opened up the debate on CBT and psychoanalysis the the Guardian.

Melancholia & Depression

One of the finest new journals of Lacanian Psychoanalysis is this one, in which I have a piece discussing melancholia and what is now called depression.

Winnicott on Behavior Management

Evaluation & Scientism

Eric Laurent, psychoanalyst, on ‘evidence-based practice’:

“There is no Us and Them”

Further to a Twitter discussion from today – there is a gulf between patient and clinician, between administrator and administered that cannot be wished away with the language of facile humanism. I have tried to touch on this point before, but as always, others say it better.

Thoughts – June 2015: Psychoanalysis, Psychology, Mindfulness, Sexuation…

Contrary to popular belief, psychoanalysis is least accessible to the very rich man, to the man who goes through life throwing money at his problems. It is precisely he who has no way to pay.

On “Borderline” Diagnoses

In retrospect, it is ironic, perhaps, that it was within psychoanalysis that the category of the ‘borderline’ was invented. More specifically, it derived from the ego psychology of the US, which situated the borderline as a category of exclusion between neurosis and psychosis. There are strong grounds for concern about the aims, ethical underpinnings and conceptual rigour of ego psychology (see here for a brief summary). As I’ve tried to point out elsewhere, the blunders of ego psychology did not prevent it from having a formative influence on many other forms of North American psychotherapy, including those that prevail in the Anglophone world today. In general, for an idea to have emerged from ego psychology constitutes a serious objection to it; if it is also taken up by bureaucrats and panel-beaters of the psyche, this amounts to a refutation.

Dismal Sciences: Anti-welfarism and Secondary Gain

There are a variety of contemporary ideological positions used to justify whittling down the welfare state, including market libertarianism, Reaganomics, Randism, Blairite ‘meritocracy’, and so forth. Some of these positions seek recourse to dubious economic ‘science’ (such as the Laffer Curve), whilst others are based on the distorted readings of Nietzsche or Darwin by adolescents. What all tend to have in common, however, is the notion that for the state to assist those in a position of weakness is, in essence, to encourage weakness. The rhetoric of neoliberalism does not pose attacks on the welfare state as the economic elites having won the class war and having their way with political economy, but rather, tries to argue that such attacks are for the benefit of the poor as well. These arguments, and the policies that they support, are often reviled as discredited nonsense, but they persist, nonetheless.

Drone Psychology: A Profession Digging Its own Grave

The following reflections were inspired by a Facebook thread, responding to this article. The article gushes that, according to some corporate consultants, mental health services in Australia could be delivered for $9.70 annually, saving on the inefficiency of training psychologists for face-to-face clinical work. People suffering with problems could anonymously read fact sheets, and undertake generic courses in CBT.

Why psychologists (and others) should have a psychoanalysis

First anecdote.

It was my first year in a Masters of Clinical Psychology, and this was my first patient at the university clinic.