http://thenewobserver.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/therapy_short.pdf http://thenewobserver.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/therapy_short.pdf Psychotherapy and counseling are growth industries. The BBC for example finds it necessary to frequently add after stories involving any degree of shock "those effected are receiving counseling" or "are being offered counseling". Psychotherapy and counseling are widely seen as acceptable, meaningful and valid. That they may be unscientific folk practices offered by unscrupulous individuals is not a popular view. But it may be a more accurate assessment. This essay considers psychotherapy and counseling as social movements. We look at the ideology of therapy and ask whether it is really there to benefit the patient. We reflect on the 'long and arduous' training for psychotherapy and find that in fact it is neither long nor arduous. We look at the view of people that therapy holds to; necessarily people are seen as in need of therapy, that is weak and lacking. We suggest that the valuation of emotionalism in therapy is a retreat from a difficult world not a mature response to it. We consider whether therapy is a cult, a religion or a science; it seems that therapy has most in common with folk movements. And finally we ask how it is that people do not leave their therapists; here we catch a glimpse into the power of the therapist, a power not unlike that of the witch-doctor in a primitive society.
