Against Therapy

Short description: 1988 book by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Against Therapy

First edition

Author| Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Country| United States
Language| English
Subject| Psychotherapy
Publisher| Common Courage Press

Publication date

| 1988
Media type| Print (hard and paperback)
Pages| 340
ISBN| 1-56751-022-1

Against Therapy: Emotional Tyranny and the Myth of Psychological Healing is a 1988 book by author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, in which the author argues against the practice of psychotherapy. The work was criticized by reviewers.

## Contents

* 1 Summary
* 2 Reception
* 3 References
* 4 External links

## Summary

Masson argues that psychotherapy is a form of socially sanctioned abuse.

Masson argues that therapists ask patients to do more than is reasonably possible, they "distort another person's reality" to try to change people in ways that conform to the therapist's concepts and prejudices. Therapists are, in Masson's opinion, inevitably corrupted by power and "abuse of one form or another is built into the very fabric of psychotherapy". He gives an example of a therapist who used his "insensitivity, historical bewilderment, and general incomprehension" as "weapons with which he punish [a] woman for not viewing the universe the way he did".[1]: 83

He argues that therapists impose an internal understanding of people's problems, refusing to help a patient reach an external understanding of the world citing the example of psychiatry's failure to acknowledge the existence of sexual abuse of children.[1]: 86

Masson explores Carl Jung's relationship with the Nazi party[1]: 289 and argues that the interpretation of dreams by therapists used by Jung could impose an interpretation of their wishes on an individual[1]: 317 giving the example of a female patient whose dreams Jung interpreted as a secret desire to marry.

Of Rogerian psychotherapy, Masson argues that the theory is inconsistent because the therapeutic relationship prevents real connection and therefore the empathy that it claims is necessary for effective therapy, because the therapist is not in any way invested in the relationship. He points out that in his later work with committed patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, the patients were compelled to engage in therapy, which is at odds with the principles of client-centered voluntary exploration in therapy.

He concludes by arguing that therapy has a lack of interest in social injustice,[1]: 551 that the training process can act as a form of social indoctrination[1]: 567 arguing that psychiatry is fundamentally unreformable.[1]: 580

## Reception

Time wrote, "Although the author's slash-and-burn style of argument can be entertaining, readers should keep their hands on their wallets. Assertions tend to be sold as established facts."[2] The New York Times argued that "Masson has failed to put a stake through the heart of therapy—in fact, he's greatly missed the mark."[3] Psychiatric Times called Against Therapy "a 'battle cry' for the abolition of psychotherapy".[4][5]

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff (July 10, 2012) (in en). Against Therapy: Emotional Tyranny and the Myth of Psychological Healing. Untreed Reads. ISBN 978-1-61187-376-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=CTa5jj7Jm_cC.
2. ↑ Gray, Paul (August 22, 1988). "The Shrink Has No Clothes". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,968183,00.html?iid=chix-sphere. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
3. ↑ Collins, Glenn (November 13, 1988). "Back alleys of psychodynamics". New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/13/books/back-alleys-of-psychodynamics.html?pagewanted=1.
4. ↑ Lothane, Zvi (December 1, 1996). "Psychoanalytic Method and the Mischief of Freud-Bashers". Psychiatric Times 13 (12). https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychoanalytic-method-and-mischief-freud-bashers.
5. ↑ Stubbs, Jeanne. "Book Review of Against Therapy by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson". THE PERSON CENTERED JOURNAL. https://adpca.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Stubbs-J.-Book-Review-and-Announcements.pdf.

## External links

* Official website
* Against Therapy World Library Catalog

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Anti-psychiatry

Topics|

* Biopsychiatry controversy
* Controversy surrounding psychiatry
* Critical psychiatry
* Hearing Voices Movement
* History of mental disorders
* Involuntary commitment
* Involuntary treatment
* Martha Mitchell effect
* Medical ethics
* Medicalization
* medical model
* Outline of the psychiatric survivors movement
* Political abuse of psychiatry
* Psychiatric survivors movement
* Psychiatry: An Industry of Death
* Psychoanalytic theory
* Recovery approach
* Rhetoric of therapy
* Rosenhan experiment
* Self-help groups for mental health
* Therapeutic community

Organizations|

* American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization
* Aspies For Freedom
* Autism Network International
* Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
* Citizens Commission on Human Rights
* Disability Rights International
* Hearing Voices Network
* Icarus Project
* International Disability Alliance
* Learning Disability Coalition
* Mad Pride
* MindFreedom International
* National Empowerment Center
* Radical Psychology Network
* Rehabilitation International
* Royal Association for Disability Rights
* Paranoia Network
* Soteria
* World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry

People|

* Linda Andre
* Giorgio Antonucci
* Franco Basaglia
* Ernest Becker
* Lauretta Bender
* Richard Bentall
* Peter Breggin
* Paula Caplan
* Ted Chabasinski
* Judi Chamberlin
* David Cooper
* Lyn Duff
* Michel Foucault
* Leonard Roy Frank
* Erving Goffman
* James Gottstein
* Jacques Lacan
* R. D. Laing
* Peter Lehmann
* Kate Millett
* Loren Mosher
* David Oaks
* Elizabeth Packard
* Sascha Scatter
* David Smail
* Thomas Szasz
* Stephen Ticktin
* Robert Whitaker

Publications|

* Against Therapy
* Anatomy of an Epidemic
* Anti-Oedipus
* Asylums
* Crazy Therapies
* Doctoring the Mind
* Interpretation of Schizophrenia
* Liberation by Oppression
* Mad in America
* Madness and Civilization
* Radical Psychology
* The Gene Illusion
* The Myth of Mental Illness
* The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise
* The Protest Psychosis
* The Radical Therapist
* We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy – And the World's Getting Worse

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