Psychotherapy in the UK

Multicultural, Eurocentric, and Americentric influences on a complex field in a troubled time

Abstract

It is now typical to assert that the UK, USA, and other Western nations are systemically oppressive towards minoritised groups, and that their psychotherapy traditions are in the same mould and in need of overhaul. Mass immigration and multiculturalism are uncritically endorsed by a powerful progressive left-wing. The putative evils of Brexit, Eurocentrism, and Americentrism are constantly pointed out. This article reminds us that psychotherapy in Britain has in fact largely been imported from continental Europe and the USA, and Britain is not especially resistant to knowledge coming from elsewhere. Evolutionary and historical phenomena are presented here to suggest that a valid counter-narrative to the currently dominant leftist-progressive view is available.