Psychotherapy & Politics International

Editorial

Karen Minikin, David Pavón-Cuéllar — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Psychotherapy in the UK

Colin Feltham — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 02:42:41 +0000

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.

Competing ideologies in and about psychotherapy

Keith Tudor, Colin Feltham — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 23:47:33 +0000

Following Colin Feltham’s article in this issue (Feltham, 2025), and Keith Tudor’s response (Tudor, 2025b), also published in this issue, the article comprises a series of exchanges between the two authors. It encompasses some discussion—or statements—about beliefs and values; differences of ideology; the use of language; equality and equity; and the nature of psychotherapy. The impetus for the exchange was based on the hope of some rapprochement between the two authors’ views but, in this sense, the project failed. The necessary unfolding of divergent views does not reach any positive conclusions but, at least, airs significant sticking points held by practitioners in the field, about both the content and process of differences, positions, and argument. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding their profound and unresolved differences, both authors hope that, together with the two preceding articles, the whole exchange will stand as a case study regarding conflict about culture and identity in the profession and serve to stimulate further questions.

The importance of methodology and method, sense and sensibility

Keith Tudor — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 23:50:29 +0000

This article is a critical review of and response to Colin Feltham’s article, ‘Psychotherapy in the UK: Multicultural, Eurocentric, and Americentric influences on a complex field in a troubled time’, also published in this issue. The article critiques the lack of method and/or underlying methodology in Feltham’s article, and, by contrast, offers a methodological basis for this critique of his article, which frames this response in terms of Feltham’s rhetoric (language), his references to tradition and to authority, and his lack of objectivity. In doing so, this article addresses and challenges Feltham’s use of unfounded generalisations and familiar tropes about multiculturalism, Anglo- and Americo-centrism, political correctness, wokeness, and all the other ills he attributes to ‘dominant leftist-progressive view[s]’ of psychotherapy and counselling in the United Kingdom—and, by implication, elsewhere. It also challenges what appears to be a certain obsession on Feltham’s part both with various forms and categories of Leftists, as well as with an idealised white indigenous Britishness.

Understanding the impacts of racial microaggressions on British Asians

Vahishta Bomi Pardiwalla, Ohemaa Nkansa-Dwamena — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Using a phenomenological approach this research explored racial microaggression experiences of British Asians. Eight participants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. By employing the interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), three superordinate themes were identified. This article focuses on the superordinate theme of ‘impact of racial microaggressions’ which encompasses four subthemes. Racial microaggressions were found to impact participants emotionally, personally, professionally, and socially.

Social justice informed psychotherapy and people living with HIV

Ka Ka Chong — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 02:36:24 +0000

This article examines the intersectional inequalities experienced by people living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) (PLWH) and explores how social justice principles can be integrated into psychotherapy to address these challenges. Drawing on the concept of epistemic justice, the article emphasises the importance of recognising the individuality of each PLWH, acknowledging their unique experiences shaped by factors such as race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status. The article advocates for the use of intersectionality as a tool for conceptualising clients’ experiences, critically reflecting and mitigating the relational dynamics. In addition, this article recommends the use of a pluralistic approach when working with HIV-positive clients, encouraging pluralism and diversity in the therapeutic process towards changes. This article introduces a social justice framework tailored to psychotherapy with HIV-positive clients, calling for a broader reconsideration of the implicit biases present within the discipline. It aims to inspire greater effort in navigating the tension between therapists’ self-interest and accommodating clients’ needs.

Lessons from psychology in Palestine

Pedro Henrique Antunes da Costa, Kíssila Teixeira Mendes — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 02:31:26 +0000

In this article, we provide a historical overview of community psychology in Palestine, drawing lessons for the critical analysis of psychology’s development, especially for capitalism periphery, and its possible contributions to Palestinian resistance against genocide. The rise of Palestinian community psychology, linked to liberation and anti-colonial struggle, and its subsequent decline, demonstrate the need to go beyond academia and institutionalisation, overcoming the boundaries of psychology itself. Community psychology, criticism of psychology, and decolonisation are not metaphors or rhetoric. They are praxis. It is important to consider community psychology as a part of another ethical-political project of psychology. In this regard, more than psychotherapy, we need a truly community psychology. Finally, solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians as a political praxis is essential, as is the production of knowledge that engages with Palestinian resistance, especially from the perspective of Palestinians and their voices.

Reflections after 15 months of war

Ceri Lyck-Bowen — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 02:34:00 +0000

Personal narratives help shape therapists, and their narratives are the lenses through which they see the world. The legacy of intergenerational war trauma is one such lens. Lenses and personal narratives are foundational to building knowledge and understanding, of events on a small and large scale, and this is a soft power of influence to be shared. Many therapists have lived experience of mental health difficulties, and consequently they are not immune from what they study.

Social realities are co-constructed, and we are all active participants in building peaceful alternatives for generations to come. An agenda of nationalism is being forcefully applied in the Middle East, and this is triggering for anyone with lived experience of conflict which includes intergenerational trauma. I argue that there is a need to remain vigilant to the impact of global conflict, in personal, professional, and political spheres of life.

Rupture and repair

Hannah Charlton — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 02:27:47 +0000

During the years of colonial rule in India, the white colonial classes delegated their childcare to Ayahs—or nursemaids—despite regarding them as inferior and less civilised. Marjorie, daughter of colonial parents, traces her early attachment to her Ayah despite her family’s racist attitudes. As World War 2 ended, Marjorie was abruptly removed from her Ayah and brought back ‘home’ to England where she was sent to boarding school following the conformist pathways of a colonial family. Her loss of her Ayah and her feelings of abandonment and being unloved cause her to close down emotionally and focus on surviving. Much later, in her fifties, she began to recognise her own state of emotional dysfunction and sought help with therapy. She was fortunate to meet Nick Duffell who had been developing an understanding of what became known as Boarding School Syndrome. With a group of other former boarders, they formed a support group to help those traumatised by boarding school years to process their feelings. Marjorie assisted many boarders and in doing so reduced her sense of isolation and loss. In the meantime, campaigners had fought to acknowledge the Ayahs who were brought to London to care for their charges on the long sea journey and who were then shown the door and abandoned on the streets of London. A care home was established and this effort to give support has finally been recognised.