drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social
Dad - Husband - Writer - Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology & Psychology (Ph.D @UniofOxford). Practicing Psychotherapist (UKCP). Author of Cracked (Icon Books) & Sedated (Atlantic Books)
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bsky.app/profile/drja...
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...Even permitting the unnatural context, it all left me concerned that vulnerable people where being duped & therapy misrepresented. Therapy, at its best, is a careful, collaborative exploration - not a power play? End
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...There was little evidence of any deep attempt to understand the client’s world on its own terms, to facilitate process or co-emerging understanding. Instead, the focus seemed to be on almost forcing immediate change in a way bolstering therapist’s predefined narrative....6/7
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...The therapists portrayed often came across like charismatic influencers (in the Weberian sense) - seducing clients to accept a power deferential where what paraded as 'insight & knowledge' would be authoritatively imparted and pliantly received ... 5/7
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..Rather than pondering his role in this reaction, the therapist reframed the event as confirmation of his own belief that the client is experiencing "fear of reaching her feelings”- a tidy & 'just-so' explanation that conveniently absolved him of any responsibility....4/7
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What stuck hard was the lack of humility with which these 'insights' were delivered. E.G. one therapist by session 3 had assumed such power in the relationship & in authoritatively defining a client’s inner world that the client became overwhelmed & experienced a panic attack 3/7
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...as if they had some kind of mystic second-sight. Their rapid-fire 'insights' were followed by simplistic, take-home exercises offered as quick fixes & giving the impression that healing is a kind of formula to be rapidly appllied rather than process to be lived. 2/7
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Yes, I saw it too - shocking.
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16 Pharma companies were sponsoring the recent Austrian Conference.
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..There are some interesting developmental reasons as to why someone might develop this bias, which I'll talk about another time. Needless to say, it remains intriguing to me why the psych-professions have generally under-theorised & under-acknowledged this common defence..
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....encouraging people to interpret setbacks as personal shortcomings. This supports societal systems of structual harms from scrutiny & further depoliticises dissent: if failure is yours, the system remains relatively blameless.
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...resulting in external conditions being exonerated or dismissed as irrelevant or secondary. Internalisation bias is not merely intrapsychic - it is regularly socially & systematically reinforced - e.g. neoliberal ideology frames success as entirely individual terms....
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...disorder or inadequacy, regardless of external contrary evidence. This defence oversimplifies causality by shielding the person from confronting a complex, chaotic or threatening external reality: 'It must be my fault' replaces enqiry into systemic, institutional etc causes...
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I doubt it....
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...challenging over-pathologisation, funding effective psycho-social alternatives, & rejecting the myth we can medicate & diagnose our way out of this.
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...will be exacerbated via by more cuts.
6/ We must recognise that solving our disability crisis won’t be found in inhumane & fiscally illiterate cuts, which will worsen the lives of the most vulnerable, but in tackling social determinants...
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...harmful policies, structures and practices (that perpetuate suffering) from critical scrutiny. 5/ The enduringly poor social & material conditions of disability are compounding harm - evoking chronic strain via growing financial stress and social stigma; effects that...
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4/ Depoliticising distress as always an individual issue (to be fixed with therapy or meds) rather than a systemic issue (to be fixed with social policy) has led many to chase self & identity reform (as a solution) over collective & structural social change. This exonerates...
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3/ The dominance of a failing medical model has led to underinvestment in more effective psychosocial alternatives, community-based supports, financial assistance, and relational care – resources that seek to uproot rather than anaesthetise suffering.
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...led to worsening outcomes as primary causes are left intact.
2/ Instead of addressing social harms, we've pathologised them. This has turned victims of enduring unjust policy into chronic patients, fuelling long-term prescriptions & treatment-induced iatrogenic disability.