Today is world mental health day. Lots of friends have already posted extraordinary things. I just wanted to write about one point: the ubiquity of cognitive behavioural therapy within current treatments. For nearly all minor mental health problems (anxiety, depression, various neurotic and trauma-induced conditions etc) this is the first line of treatment that will be offered. It is mainly offered because it is cheap and somewhat effective. And often what is offered is not even really a talking therapy with a real person, but instead an “online therapy” where you have various sessions with a computer.
There are many things to worry about here: contemporary behaviourism not only treats the mind as trivial, but is part of a set of social processes that trivialises the mind into stupidly acting out the second blindness of second nature. But more than this, the ubiquity of these treatments is related also to their expansion out of the clinic, and into state-centralised administration – mainly of surplus populations. Today the technologies of behaviourism are actively weaponised – and in particular in their online form. The same techniques and technologies offered to the anxious and depressed are plugged into systems such as universal jobmatch (which those claiming the dole have to use under duress) and for people claiming long term sickness benefits. The very worst aspect of this is that the ultimate conclusion is to lay the blame for joblessness on the person themselves and their habits. If only you could think more positively, that street sweeping job that will mortify your body and ruin your mind will be yours! Enjoy your forced rehabituation.
The weaponisation of the technologies of therapy against the poor and the needy of course rebounds back into the clinical situation. Today CBT will only work on either the utterly oppressed or the out-of-sight-out-of-mind bourgeoisie. But for those caught in the middle – those who know these techniques from the dole – treatment itself comes in the most brutal form of state management, without even a tinge of humanity (thank god the computers do it for us.) The fact that the everyday CBT therapists might not intend this helps little, because they are led by a vanguard. All of this is not to say that the socialisation of mental health problems is all a bad thing – but it is to say that the complete disrespect for their anti-social moments (or the treatment of the anti-social moments of madness or illness or resistance as though they were just another “anti-social behaviour” worthy of an order from a judge, or whichever administrator is closest to hand) is dreadful for all those who experience them.
So for World Mental Health Day, I am recommending that everyone goes and familiarise themselves with http://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/ – the Behavioural Insights Team – a private company owned by the British Cabinet Office, who design the systems used for universal job match. These people are the vanguard of contemporary behaviourism. Familiarise yourself with them, because these are the people who are currently determining the state of technologies and techniques used for the treatment of those with mental health problems. On their websites you can find some real gems too. I was reading an essay they wrote called ‘The Use of Descriptive Norms in Public Administration: A Panacea for Improving Citizen Behaviours?’ in which they propose the most novel, the most barbaric, the most authoritarian and conformist solution to the fundamental dialectics of politics:
“We noted that there is an information asymmetry between citizens and administrators as administrators often have greater access to information relative to citizens. The act of rectifying the asymmetry is low cost and can usually have beneficial effects as citizens can update their beliefs to reflect a reality which is often in the public’s, and therefore the administrator’s interest.”
Anyway, this is all just an idea. I do think people should read this stuff. If you get sick you will probably have to deal with CBT, and if you are lucky enough to have a therapist instead of a computer I recommend asking them about the weaponisation of the techniques they will be using to treat you. No doubt they will tell you that mindfulness is peaceful.