The Baby and the Bathwater: An Unreserved Appreciation of Nick Totton's Critique of the Professionalisation of Psychotherapy

Abstract

Nick Totten's observations and reflections on the landscape of psychotherapy in his article “The Baby and the Bathwater” remind us that as a “cottage industry” psychotherapy has much in common with traditional, small‐scale farming practices. In both psychotherapy and farming, in‐depth understanding and indigenous knowledge are only possible through love for and an intimate familiarity with the local landscape. By contrast, the modern, technocratic “one size fits all” approach to productivity that characterises agri‐business can also be found in the relentless drive to professionalise psychotherapy, a form of hubris that is ultimately destructive of both culture and agriculture.