- .
- Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Psychosis, Narrative Psychology, Critical Psychology, Discursive Psychology, and 20 moreFamily Therapy, Common factors (Psychotherapy), Psychoanalysis, Feminist Theory, Mental Health, Psychiatry, Emotion, Schizophrenia, Lacanian theory, Lacanian psychoanalysis, Early Intervention, Therapeutic Relationship, Sociology of Emotion, Early Intervention in Psychosis, Adult Mental Health and Psychological Therapies, Literature, Art History, Gender Studies, Epistemic Injustice, and Borderline Personality Disorderedit
- I am a consultant clinical psychologist, relational psychotherapist, honorary senior lecturer, and journalist. More i... moreI am a consultant clinical psychologist, relational psychotherapist, honorary senior lecturer, and journalist. More importantly, though, I am a psychiatric survivor who was one of the first Lived Experience practitioners in Europe in the 1990s. Disability justice is central to my work, which has included both mainstream roles such as leading an early intervention in psychosis team, a family therapy service and tier two psychology, and my more radical work tackling iatrogenic harm and the toxicity of the welfare system alongside Mad allies. I try to make noise in lots of ways, from writing research papers to creating bad art, and endeavour to be both politically fierce and personally kind.
š Website: https://jaywatts.co.uk
š Articles: http://city.academia.edu/JayWatts
š¦ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shrink_at_Largeedit
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has been a controversial diagnosis for over 40 years. It was to be removed from the latest version of the ICD, only to be reintroduced as a trait qualifier as a result of last-minute lobbying.... more
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has been a controversial diagnosis for over 40 years. It was to be removed from the latest version of the ICD, only to be reintroduced as a trait qualifier as a result of last-minute lobbying. Retaining BPD as a de facto diagnosis keeps us stuck at a deadlock that undermines the voices of patients who have persistently told us this label adds 'insult to injury'. Miranda Fricker's concept of epistemic injustice helps illuminate how this affects subjectivity and speech, hermeneutically sealing patients in ways of thinking that are not evidencebased, resulting in testimonial smothering (altering or withholding one's narratives) and testimonial quieting (dismissing a speaker's capacity to provide worthy testimony) that prevent more affirmative explanations.
Research Interests:
When does crude electioneering become a threat to public health? Rishi Sunakās and Mel Strideās relentless attack on disabled people, with a specific targeting of mental health claimants, will have damaging and potentially deadly... more
When does crude electioneering become a threat to public health? Rishi Sunakās and Mel Strideās relentless attack on disabled people, with a specific targeting of mental health claimants, will have damaging and potentially deadly consequences. Those of us working in acute psychiatric wards and community services can attest to the severe impact their suggestion of stopping disability benefits would have, and the pain caused by the callous manner in which they have delegitimised mental anguish. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/may/01/rishi-sunak-welfare-support-depression-anxiety?CMP=fb_cif
Research Interests:
The diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder has been controversial since its inception in the 1980 DSM-III. In this article for the British Psychoanalytic Council's in-house magazine, I argue that the concept of PD is used as a... more
The diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder has been controversial since its inception in the 1980 DSM-III. In this article for the British Psychoanalytic Council's in-house magazine, I argue that the concept of PD is used as a shield serving a dual purpose: it protects professional egos from intense emotions and perpetuates patterns of trauma disavowal. I contend that this is enabled by 'backstage borderline talk', which misuses psychoanalytic terms such as 'splitting' and 'projective identification', and this dialogue creates relational patterns that retraumatize patients. Therefore, I propose replacing the PD construct with more affirmative, compassionate languages - a possibility we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pursue, given the growing recognition of the cruelty associated with the PD label and the unacceptable heterogeneity of the underlying construct.
Research Interests:
Since the diagnosis of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) was introduced in the latest version of the ICD ā the diagnostic manual used in Europe and half the world ā a veritable industry has emerged, attempting to define this... more
Since the diagnosis of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) was introduced in the latest version of the ICD ā the diagnostic manual used in Europe and half the world ā a veritable industry has emerged, attempting to define this new construct. Unfortunately, academic articles, conference talks, TikToks, and YouTube videos often approach this task by comparing C-PTSD to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This comparison has devastating consequences for many trauma survivors who have been told that their symptoms are a result of their personality, as it not only excludes them from accessing this new, compassionate way of labeling complex trauma but also solidifies the existence of the BPD category.
As demonstrated in my paper, the construct of BPD is deeply problematic from both scientific and ethical perspectives. It was on the verge of being removed from the latest version of the ICD until the final moments, when last-minute politicking related to health insurance claims allowed it to remain. However, the comparison between C-PTSD and BPD reinforces the apparent existence of distinct categories, inadvertently taking us back in time in our thinking and creating a new form of exclusion for trauma survivors who are left in the BPD category.
To address this issue, it is crucial to provide trauma survivors and professionals with the information necessary to question the scientific basis of this division, as I endeavor to do in this article. Moreover, it is essential to completely discard the diagnosis of BPD. Only then can we establish demedicalized trauma pathways that empower survivors, freeing them from the damaging discourse that perpetuates self-blame and reinforces the notion that they are responsible for the consequences of adverse life experiences. By widening the criteria of C-PTSD, we can give more people a diagnostic home that many find more comforting ā an especially important consideration given the access to rights diagnosis can bring.
As demonstrated in my paper, the construct of BPD is deeply problematic from both scientific and ethical perspectives. It was on the verge of being removed from the latest version of the ICD until the final moments, when last-minute politicking related to health insurance claims allowed it to remain. However, the comparison between C-PTSD and BPD reinforces the apparent existence of distinct categories, inadvertently taking us back in time in our thinking and creating a new form of exclusion for trauma survivors who are left in the BPD category.
To address this issue, it is crucial to provide trauma survivors and professionals with the information necessary to question the scientific basis of this division, as I endeavor to do in this article. Moreover, it is essential to completely discard the diagnosis of BPD. Only then can we establish demedicalized trauma pathways that empower survivors, freeing them from the damaging discourse that perpetuates self-blame and reinforces the notion that they are responsible for the consequences of adverse life experiences. By widening the criteria of C-PTSD, we can give more people a diagnostic home that many find more comforting ā an especially important consideration given the access to rights diagnosis can bring.
Research Interests:
Objective and Method: Female autism can be misdiagnosed as borderline personality disorder, leading to mistreatment and unnecessary harm. By educating clinicians on how female autism can mimic borderline personality disorder, we can... more
Objective and Method: Female autism can be misdiagnosed as borderline personality disorder, leading to mistreatment and unnecessary harm. By educating clinicians on how female autism can mimic borderline personality disorder, we can increase the accuracy and effectiveness of diagnosis, ultimately improving patient outcomes. Result: There is a common myth that clinicians can easily recognise borderline personality disorder, leading to a shortcut in the diagnostic process and the potential for missing signs of autism in early childhood. Conclusion: Clinicians must be encouraged to pursue thorough differential diagnoses, especially for women and transgender individuals who experience emotional lability with self-harm.
Research Interests:
A series of scandals should focus minds on the punitive conditions far too many patients are confined in. What is going wrong? And what night better inpatient care look like?
Research Interests:
The Tories are scapegoating mental health claimants yet again. Work is not a health outcome.
Research Interests:
Whilst we are rightly encouraged to believe that the causes of someone's suicide are always individual, this can allow us to turn away from pressures that we know increase risk
Research Interests:
If you want to screw up someoneās mental health, there is a basic four-part formula. First, you deprive the person of the means to feel safe. Second, you lower their status in relation to other people. Third, you make them feel that the... more
If you want to screw up someoneās mental health, there is a basic four-part formula. First, you deprive the person of the means to feel safe. Second, you lower their status in relation to other people. Third, you make them feel that the reasons for their predicament are their fault. Fourth, you deprive them of a space outside this situation to see what is going on. This sounds like a dystopian fantasy, but it is the lived reality of many benefits claimants; and it is, demonstrably, making people both sick and sicker. What evidence is there for this claim? And why is now a pivotal moment in deciding whether what happens next makes the situation better or worse?
Research Interests:
Britainās most vulnerable have been driven to food banks for survival, all the while being relentlessly harassed by an unforgiving job centre. We must recognize this as the sociopolitical trauma it is for the way that we gets treated... more
Britainās most vulnerable have been driven to food banks for survival, all the while being relentlessly harassed by an unforgiving job centre. We must recognize this as the sociopolitical trauma it is for the way that we gets treated becomes internalized and acted out in the inner landscape of the soul.
You can also read the piece here: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/labour-universal-credit-scrap-benefits-jeremy-corbyn-a9124626.html
You can also read the piece here: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/labour-universal-credit-scrap-benefits-jeremy-corbyn-a9124626.html
Research Interests:
Vulnerable patients are being āoff-rolledā at a rate unheard of five years ago, thanks to the relentless focus on outcomes.
New Comment Piece for the Guardian on off-rolling
New Comment Piece for the Guardian on off-rolling
Research Interests:
A critical article on the classification of personality disorder in the new edition of the psychiatric diagnostic manual, ICD-11. Why, the article asks, should patients be subject to the insistence that their problems are due to their... more
A critical article on the classification of personality disorder in the new edition of the psychiatric diagnostic manual, ICD-11. Why, the article asks, should patients be subject to the insistence that their problems are due to their personality when the evidence suggests otherwise.
Research Interests:
The middle classes can pay to find the space they need to break down and recover from mental illness, but those on benefits are left with a system which puts sticky plasters on the gaping wounds of pain
Research Interests:
In the UK, sexual assault or harassment is 'commonplace' on our wards (to quote the national lead for mental health). I argue here that dynamics of denial, avoidance and silencing are enabled by psychiatric ideology and the unchallenged... more
In the UK, sexual assault or harassment is 'commonplace' on our wards (to quote the national lead for mental health). I argue here that dynamics of denial, avoidance and silencing are enabled by psychiatric ideology and the unchallenged misogyny of the psychiatric system. Previous attempts to change the culture on wards by adding - say - a couple of days of sexual awareness training - have manifestly failed. What is required instead is a paradigm shift to a new approach called trauma-informed care where sexual and psychological safety is priority to stop the (r)victimisation of people, predominantly women, on our wards.
#TraumaInformedCare #PsychiatricWards #SexualSafety.
#TraumaInformedCare #PsychiatricWards #SexualSafety.
Research Interests:
This piece takes the form of a letter to fellow health and social care professionals going through various ways we can be helpful to UK benefits claimants at this point in history. It includes tips on everything from tackling ideology to... more
This piece takes the form of a letter to fellow health and social care professionals going through various ways we can be helpful to UK benefits claimants at this point in history. It includes tips on everything from tackling ideology to being an activist. The overwhelming focus, though, is on how to offer practical support to boost the chance that people professionals work with do not have to go through a dehumanising face-to-face assessment and can get the financial support they deserve in a punitive culture.
To read this article, please press the hyperlink above or http://asylummagazine.org/2018/08/supporting-claimants-a-practical-guide-by-jay-watts/.
To read this article, please press the hyperlink above or http://asylummagazine.org/2018/08/supporting-claimants-a-practical-guide-by-jay-watts/.
Research Interests:
This piece is in thinktank Big Brother Watch's policy document 'The State of Surveillance 2018'.
Research Interests:
Itās bad enough that we demonise the poor and disabled ā now they canāt even leave their homes or use social media in peace
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Lack of awareness by health professionals means, for example, that female abuse survivors can be forcibly restrained and injected, often by a team of men, without consideration of how this might be triggering
Research Interests:
A n important Lancet Psychiatry paper has just come out. It is the largest review looking at service user, carer and clinician experiences of mental health diagnosis. For some people, psychiatric diagnosis was helpful, and the problem was... more
A n important Lancet Psychiatry paper has just come out. It is the largest review looking at service user, carer and clinician experiences of mental health diagnosis. For some people, psychiatric diagnosis was helpful, and the problem was that it was not given early enough. For others, a diagnosis was deeply oppressive. The tensions between these camps frequently threaten to ignite social media. This dynamic, which causes significant distress, is only likely to increase as social media gives a platform to those who have negative experiences of diagnosis at the same time as more and more people identify as having a mental illness as a consequence of changing public ideas around mental health. To drain something of the charge in these inflaming dynamics, it is important to confute the idea that psychiatric diagnosis is a single thing.
Research Interests:
In its death throes, neoliberalism clings increasingly to the idea of mental illness as an explainer for the levels of rage, sadness, agitation and zombification it elicits. This is in many ways a genius move, allowing members of the... more
In its death throes, neoliberalism clings increasingly to the idea of mental illness as an explainer for the levels of rage, sadness, agitation and zombification it elicits. This is in many ways a genius move, allowing members of the establishment to present themselves as benevolent helpers whilst silencing dissent and shifting the gaze away from the root causes of the lionās share of mental distress, which lie in adverse childhood experiences, structural inequalities and the oppressions of neoliberal ideology.
Research Interests:
This rush of interest in mental health has allowed the Government to make various smoke and mirror manoeuvres to appear to be at the forefront of change, while decimating funding for those most in need
Research Interests:
People are encouraged to seek help if they are feeling suicidal like never before. Yet a deadly new mix of funding cuts and dangerous ideas about suicide are leaving many people with long-term conditions at greater risk.
Research Interests:
There are few things as difficult to navigate as the space between ourselves and others. Get too close, and we feel suffocated; move too far apart, and we feel abandoned.
Research Interests:
The worse your mental health problems are, the more likely you are to get help. Right? Not necessarily in todayās mental health services. Laura is 46. She has a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. āMy day centre closed last yearā,... more
The worse your mental health problems are, the more likely you are to get help. Right?
Not necessarily in todayās mental health services.
Laura is 46. She has a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. āMy day centre closed last yearā, she said. āWe protested and lobbied the locality, and they knew it was keeping people like me alive, but now there is nothing.ā Laura has been sectioned three times since the day centre was closed, due to the absence of day-to-day care and contact with peers that was so vital for her.
Lauraās situation is far from unique. Mental health professionals, service users, family and friends are becoming increasingly desperate as the infrastructure that supported those with long-term needs is decimated by an increasing focus on those with mild mental health problems. Community mental health teams, short-staffed and short-changed, are under huge pressure to discharge people to GPs. Day centres and so-called therapeutic communities for those with the most entrenched problems are all but gone. Psychotherapy for those with moderate to serious difficulties is almost impossible to access. Assertive outreach and rehabilitation teams, developed to engage and intensively support those with the most complex needs, have had their funding cut. Treatment packages are sheared to their bare bones.
You can read the Independent newspaper article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mental-health-treatment-tory-government-nhs-funding-access-work-benefits-a8037331.html
Not necessarily in todayās mental health services.
Laura is 46. She has a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. āMy day centre closed last yearā, she said. āWe protested and lobbied the locality, and they knew it was keeping people like me alive, but now there is nothing.ā Laura has been sectioned three times since the day centre was closed, due to the absence of day-to-day care and contact with peers that was so vital for her.
Lauraās situation is far from unique. Mental health professionals, service users, family and friends are becoming increasingly desperate as the infrastructure that supported those with long-term needs is decimated by an increasing focus on those with mild mental health problems. Community mental health teams, short-staffed and short-changed, are under huge pressure to discharge people to GPs. Day centres and so-called therapeutic communities for those with the most entrenched problems are all but gone. Psychotherapy for those with moderate to serious difficulties is almost impossible to access. Assertive outreach and rehabilitation teams, developed to engage and intensively support those with the most complex needs, have had their funding cut. Treatment packages are sheared to their bare bones.
You can read the Independent newspaper article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mental-health-treatment-tory-government-nhs-funding-access-work-benefits-a8037331.html
Research Interests:
An article for the UK broadsheet The Independent. You can read it by following this link http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/harvey-weinstein-sexual-harassment-mental-health-women-suffering-anxiety-a7996511.html
Research Interests:
If you wish to read this article for UK broadsheet The Independent, you can access it here http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/child-abuse-nhs-counselling-psychotherapy-trauma-informed-care-let-down-a7987951.html
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Comment piece for The Independent. Click the hyperlink above to access the article.
Research Interests:
Mental Health First Aid is being rolled out internationally, with two million people having been trained already. But is there really justification for this? Or are there hidden dangerous?
Research Interests:
These character sketches of people with 'personality disorders', so influenced by the mores and gendered norms of what is acceptable at any given time, are not backed up by any scientific evidence
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This week has seen the publication of an important report #StatusOfMind. 1,479 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 24 were asked their opinions of a number of social media platforms (SMPs) such as YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat and... more
This week has seen the publication of an important report #StatusOfMind. 1,479 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 24 were asked their opinions of a number of social media platforms (SMPs) such as YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. The ranking of SMPs has produced a wealth of headlines outing Instagram as the worst culprit and cementing an association between the current mental health epidemic and SMPs in the public imagination.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Psychoanalytic work can help people meaningfully engage with aspects of psychotic experience which feel overwhelming. However, such contact is only possible if we offer a practice that is acceptable to both potential patients, and the... more
Psychoanalytic work can help people meaningfully engage with aspects of psychotic experience which feel overwhelming. However, such contact is only possible if we offer a practice that is acceptable to both potential patients, and the family, team and social groups they exist within. As a psychoanalytic community we are failing to do this, partly because of the political terrain, but also due to our perceived unapproachability. I argue that the type of tentative, humble positions advocated by approaches such as āopen dialogueā allows psychoanalytic techniques to be more palatable to those experiencing psychosis. This is especially important given how language functions in psychosis, and the histories of intrusion and oppression that language interacts with. Clinical material from work with a female patient suffering from paralysing visual hallucinations is discussed, with a particular emphasis on how contact was only possible once certain discourse knots were deconstructed. Such work requires giving up some traditional ideas around technique in the interest of serving one of the most disenfranchised client groups.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Mental health services are supposed to help. But sometimes psychiatric professionals cause damage by denting the credibility of individuals, a legacy which can last a lifetime. This is a particular problem for women who have experienced... more
Mental health services are supposed to help. But sometimes psychiatric professionals cause damage by denting the credibility of individuals, a legacy which can last a lifetime. This is a particular problem for women who have experienced trauma, and get placed into what many see as the dustbin diagnosis of āBorderline Personality Disorderā. The relatively new notion of āEpistemic Injusticeā may help us understand why.
Research Interests:
Social media is being blamed today for the huge increases in the number of teenagers who are self-harming. Is social media really responsible? Can it really explain the sudden leap in child self-harm hospital admissions in just two... more
Social media is being blamed today for the huge increases in the number of teenagers who are self-harming. Is social media really responsible? Can it really explain the sudden leap in child self-harm hospital admissions in just two years?
Almost 19,000 teenagers were admitted to hospital for self-harm in 2015/16, a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has revealed, up 14 per cent since 2013/4. Self-harm is when you hurt yourself, normally your body, when feelings, memories or body tensions become too much. This ātearing the body apartā is a way to attack oneself, to try to gain some agency over unbearable pain, and to communicate. Why is self-harm in teenagers on the rise?
Our pain and agency is deeply indexed to the messages we receive about what is and is not acceptable. From birth, we are surrounded by ideals of successful personhood and the good life which we internalise, and compare ourselves against. Our self-respect is thus indexed to how we are seen from outside. Whilst newspaper headlines blame the 24/7 nature of social media for the cult of competitiveness causing distress in this cohort, social media is but a symptom of the root cause.
Almost 19,000 teenagers were admitted to hospital for self-harm in 2015/16, a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has revealed, up 14 per cent since 2013/4. Self-harm is when you hurt yourself, normally your body, when feelings, memories or body tensions become too much. This ātearing the body apartā is a way to attack oneself, to try to gain some agency over unbearable pain, and to communicate. Why is self-harm in teenagers on the rise?
Our pain and agency is deeply indexed to the messages we receive about what is and is not acceptable. From birth, we are surrounded by ideals of successful personhood and the good life which we internalise, and compare ourselves against. Our self-respect is thus indexed to how we are seen from outside. Whilst newspaper headlines blame the 24/7 nature of social media for the cult of competitiveness causing distress in this cohort, social media is but a symptom of the root cause.
Research Interests:
A short 'pass note' for the Guardian
Research Interests:
Though therapy culture was storied as a helpful solution to the problem, its models of the self were partly responsible for the current mental health epidemic. Mainstream psychology was and is neoliberalismās great enabler
Research Interests:
This is a piece for one of the key magazines for psychotherapists. It's aim was and is to mobilise the psychotherapy workforce to challenge the use of the label 'borderline personality disorder' at individual, team and societal levels.... more
This is a piece for one of the key magazines for psychotherapists. It's aim was and is to mobilise the psychotherapy workforce to challenge the use of the label 'borderline personality disorder' at individual, team and societal levels. And, more, to attend to their/own own language around 'borderline personality disorder' - a form of moral judgment often deeply damaging and retraumatizing for service users. As well as my paper, the piece includes quotes from psychiatric survivors.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Last year, a woman, Helen Millard, died after being found hanging in a psychiatric ward bathroom. An inquest this week reported that when she had first been admitted, she was under constant observation. But on this day, she was able to... more
Last year, a woman, Helen Millard, died after being found hanging in a psychiatric ward bathroom. An inquest this week reported that when she had first been admitted, she was under constant observation. But on this day, she was able to spend thirty minutes in a bathroom alone, unchecked, despite staff knowing she had been tying ligatures around her neck up to four times per day. Helen was obviously an amazing woman, āvery loving and caringā and āhard-working, determined and very drivenā as her husband tells us. Yet she was described as āmanipulativeā, āargumentativeā and āhostileā by nursing staff, not just as an idle aside, but in a formal statement. What in psychiatry makes it seem legitimate to speak that way about a struggling woman?
Research Interests:
In shrinksā offices across the country, just as in homes, pubs and offices, people are trying to come to terms with the surprise and shock of the Brexit result. Strangers gather together to talk of how āthe world is falling apartā. Many... more
In shrinksā offices across the country, just as in homes, pubs and offices, people are trying to come to terms with the surprise and shock of the Brexit result. Strangers gather together to talk of how āthe world is falling apartā.
Many people feel transported into a dystopian Britain that they ādo not recognise, cannot understandā. Thousands are hatching plans to leave the country. Social media are full of suddenly violent flaming between former friends.
Therapists everywhere are reporting shockingly elevated levels of anxiety and despair, with few patients wishing to talk about anything else. Mental health referrals have already begun to mushroom. Why is the Brexit vote affecting us so personally? And, what does this tell us about the make-up of our psyches?
Many people feel transported into a dystopian Britain that they ādo not recognise, cannot understandā. Thousands are hatching plans to leave the country. Social media are full of suddenly violent flaming between former friends.
Therapists everywhere are reporting shockingly elevated levels of anxiety and despair, with few patients wishing to talk about anything else. Mental health referrals have already begun to mushroom. Why is the Brexit vote affecting us so personally? And, what does this tell us about the make-up of our psyches?
Research Interests:
Therapy is about reducing suffering, right? Living a fuller life? Not according to current moves to place employment as a central aim of therapy. How come this move is so damaging? Why will so many of us activists and therapists be... more
Therapy is about reducing suffering, right? Living a fuller life? Not according to current moves to place employment as a central aim of therapy. How come this move is so damaging? Why will so many of us activists and therapists be protesting outside the New Savoy conference on Tuesday, the conference that hopes to set the agenda for the next wave of mental health reform?
In recent years, the government has started to use psychology to get people off benefits, and back to work. In 2006 an economist, Lord Layard, published The Depression Report, an attempt to justify a new wave of therapy for the masses through cost-benefit analysis, the argument the government would actually save money in the long term. Though in many ways a brilliant strategic move, the coupling of saving money with mental health outcomes has become acceptable in a way we would not see with, for example, cancer treatment. We do not, would not, hear that chemotherapy is worth funding because it helps the public purse through getting people back to work. The emphasis is rather on quality of life and the reduction of suffering, precisely the kind of outcomes mental health service users are most interested in. Yet these ideas are not challenged in mental health because of the ongoing link between mental distress and moral failure, or failure to have sufficient willpower.
In recent years, the government has started to use psychology to get people off benefits, and back to work. In 2006 an economist, Lord Layard, published The Depression Report, an attempt to justify a new wave of therapy for the masses through cost-benefit analysis, the argument the government would actually save money in the long term. Though in many ways a brilliant strategic move, the coupling of saving money with mental health outcomes has become acceptable in a way we would not see with, for example, cancer treatment. We do not, would not, hear that chemotherapy is worth funding because it helps the public purse through getting people back to work. The emphasis is rather on quality of life and the reduction of suffering, precisely the kind of outcomes mental health service users are most interested in. Yet these ideas are not challenged in mental health because of the ongoing link between mental distress and moral failure, or failure to have sufficient willpower.
Research Interests:
It may seem that there has never been a better time to identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender (LGBT). Same-sex marriage is now legal, anti-discrimination laws offer more protection, and more people are out and proud in the... more
It may seem that there has never been a better time to identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender (LGBT). Same-sex marriage is now legal, anti-discrimination laws offer more protection, and more people are out and proud in the public eye than ever before. Yet a significant new report out last week confirms what many feared. Londonās LGBT population are living in ever worsening conditions, with more complex needs. Worse, the specialist support people want is being eroded.
Research Interests:
A comic strip about psychocompulsion in the UK
Research Interests:
The nation was both shocked and relieved on Sunday when The Archers domestic violence storyline reached a dramatic climax. Having attempted to walk out on her husband Rob, Helen cracked, stabbing the man who has been systematically... more
The nation was both shocked and relieved on Sunday when The Archers domestic violence storyline reached a dramatic climax. Having attempted to walk out on her husband Rob, Helen cracked, stabbing the man who has been systematically eroding her sense of self for over two years.
The psychological coercion Helen experienced is a particular type of manipulation known as āgaslightingā, after the 1944 film Gaslight. In the film, Charles Boyerās Gregory Anton sets out to convince Ingrid Bergmanās Paula that she has gone mad. One of his many tactics is to secretly dim the gaslights in their home and tell Bergman she is insane when she comments that the lights are flickering. As a result, gaslighting is now used to describe a particular type of mental abuse that makes the victim doubt her ā and it is often a her ā own sanity, memory and perception.
The psychological coercion Helen experienced is a particular type of manipulation known as āgaslightingā, after the 1944 film Gaslight. In the film, Charles Boyerās Gregory Anton sets out to convince Ingrid Bergmanās Paula that she has gone mad. One of his many tactics is to secretly dim the gaslights in their home and tell Bergman she is insane when she comments that the lights are flickering. As a result, gaslighting is now used to describe a particular type of mental abuse that makes the victim doubt her ā and it is often a her ā own sanity, memory and perception.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The NHS is in deep trouble. Junior doctors are striking about their contract, the Department of Health keeps requiring emergency cash injections, deaths are up, and morale is at an all-time low. Though there is talk of cash injections... more
The NHS is in deep trouble. Junior doctors are striking about their contract, the Department of Health keeps requiring emergency cash injections, deaths are up, and morale is at an all-time low. Though there is talk of cash injections into therapy services, on the frontline psychological therapists are feeling the strain. When psychologists and therapists meet nowadays, the talk is often less about work and more about whoās just resigned, the latest edict about time limits and targets, and the pernicious market culture that is eroding what we do. While junior doctors are protesting in public, weāve heard less from psychologists or psychological therapists.
Research Interests:
Talk given at the Faculty of General Adult Psychiatry Conference 2022
Research Interests:
My talk from the 'Mobilising New Economics' conference can be listened to from 1:34 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZdB3LaqGDU&t=4859s
Research Interests:
New 15 minute video of a talk (from 5:40) at a national workshop planning the next stage of service provision for people who have been given a diagnosis of 'borderline personality disorder'. We have 50 years of testimony from survivors... more
New 15 minute video of a talk (from 5:40) at a national workshop planning the next stage of service provision for people who have been given a diagnosis of 'borderline personality disorder'. We have 50 years of testimony from survivors saying that being told their very character is disordered is even more damaging than the experiences which caused the breakdown in the first place. My talk was to try to ensure services are structured such that people can get help without having to accept an ideology that makes them ill.
Research Interests:
You can watch the talks here or press the link above. My talk starts ar 40.02 - though I wouldn't miss Will and Ruth were I you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDrfp9NCeUA Can today's crisis in mental health be seen as the result of... more
You can watch the talks here or press the link above. My talk starts ar 40.02 - though I wouldn't miss Will and Ruth were I you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDrfp9NCeUA
Can today's crisis in mental health be seen as the result of neoliberalism?
The New School of Economics at Goldsmiths asked the panelists to reflect on the aftermath of the 2007/08 financial crisis and the austerity policies which followed, but then to engage with how the slashing of expenditure on public services and increase in private debt has been met with questions around whether these factors are exacerbating mental health problems.
This event titled, āMental Health and Neoliberalismā, sought to situate the growing awareness of psychological distress in relation to such exogenous cultural and economic structures of oppression, but also examine how new technologies may be amplifying certain self-obsessive psychological states, such as attention and feedback addiction from social media and mobile devices.
Each speaker gave a presentation of their research on this topic, before engaging in a Q&A with the audience.
Event chair: Lucy Crimmens
Panel:
Dr William Davies
Co-director of Political Economy Research Centre, Goldsmiths University, Author of The Happiness Industry: How the Government sold us well-being
Dr Ruth Cain
Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Kent
Medical Ethics and Law, Mental Health Law
Dr Jay Watts
Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Writer and Activist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDrfp9NCeUA
Can today's crisis in mental health be seen as the result of neoliberalism?
The New School of Economics at Goldsmiths asked the panelists to reflect on the aftermath of the 2007/08 financial crisis and the austerity policies which followed, but then to engage with how the slashing of expenditure on public services and increase in private debt has been met with questions around whether these factors are exacerbating mental health problems.
This event titled, āMental Health and Neoliberalismā, sought to situate the growing awareness of psychological distress in relation to such exogenous cultural and economic structures of oppression, but also examine how new technologies may be amplifying certain self-obsessive psychological states, such as attention and feedback addiction from social media and mobile devices.
Each speaker gave a presentation of their research on this topic, before engaging in a Q&A with the audience.
Event chair: Lucy Crimmens
Panel:
Dr William Davies
Co-director of Political Economy Research Centre, Goldsmiths University, Author of The Happiness Industry: How the Government sold us well-being
Dr Ruth Cain
Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Kent
Medical Ethics and Law, Mental Health Law
Dr Jay Watts
Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Writer and Activist
Research Interests:
A walk through sculptor Daniel Silver's 'Dig' with Dr Jay Watts, Anthropologist Ludovic Coupaye and British Museum Curator Ian Jenkins.
Research Interests:
First, we will explore the dominant schools of psychoanalysis within the UK: the Kleinians, the Anna Freudians and the Independents (Winnicott's school). Then we will we explore controversies within and between these schools. Lastly, we... more
First, we will explore the dominant schools of psychoanalysis within the UK: the Kleinians, the Anna Freudians and the Independents (Winnicott's school). Then we will we explore controversies within and between these schools. Lastly, we will look at how a Lacanian approach may provide a good union between Freudian psychoanalytic techniques and Identity Movement/Critical Theory.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This timeline is a quick whizz through psychoanalytic history in the UK, with some contextualisation about why certain movements happened at particular historical moments. We will briefly cover: the Kleinians, the Anna Freudians, the... more
This timeline is a quick whizz through psychoanalytic history in the UK, with some contextualisation about why certain movements happened at particular historical moments.
We will briefly cover: the Kleinians, the Anna Freudians, the Lacanians and the Independents/Winnicotians.
We will briefly cover: the Kleinians, the Anna Freudians, the Lacanians and the Independents/Winnicotians.
Research Interests:
Psychotherapy has never been under such scrutiny. NHS and voluntary agencies have changed what they offer to tick the criteria of āevidence-based practiceā as conceptualised through the NICE Guidelines and āSkills for Healthā to win... more
Psychotherapy has never been under such scrutiny. NHS and voluntary agencies have changed what they offer to tick the criteria of āevidence-based practiceā as conceptualised through the NICE Guidelines and āSkills for Healthā to win funding and ensure survival. Ideas of āillnessā and ācureā provide impossible goals, forcing organisations to constantly reinvent what they offer to mask their lack. Training programmes shape themselves to fit what the HPCP appears to demand of them, skewing the perspective of new generations of shrinks. In reaction to this, we must be careful not to retreat to the ghetto of private practice, glorifying an ideal of what once was. For, despite the odd low cost or outreach scheme, psychotherapy as a discipline has failed to deconstruct some of the societal ideas and material realities which have kept it a space for the liberal and middle classes. I will argue that the need to teach new generations the ability to deconstruct ideas of āevidence baseā, āillnessā and ācureā allows us a great opportunity to trouble ideas and practices which have long operated at a societal and organisational level. Further, the ability to confidently ward off colonising discourses is an attractive one to services and practitioners who soon realise the latest configuration of what to offer is necessarily lacking.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Invited film review for the Lancet Psychiatry
Research Interests:
Invited Lancet Psychiatry review of the National's CBT play 'Rules for Living'
Research Interests:
Dear Editor, As mental health professionals, we write to you today with deep concern regarding the representation of benefit claimants in The Telegraph in recent weeks. It is troubling to observe the return of a divisive narrative last... more
Dear Editor,
As mental health professionals, we write to you today with deep concern regarding the representation of benefit claimants in The Telegraph in recent weeks. It is troubling to observe the return of a divisive narrative last seen at the height of austerity politics, which is likely to lead to an increase in hate crimes and have a profound impact on psychological well-being and societal cohesion.
We would like to express our distress regarding the recent inclusion of the 'benefit calculator' in your publication on June 1st, 2023. Providing readers with a tool to calculate the supposed cost of benefit claimants on them personally establishes an unsettling premise. It creates a perception that an outgroup, represented by benefit claimants, is taking something away from readers on an individual level. This framing fosters a sense of personal threat, undermines empathy, and fuels societal divisions. Encouraging a narrative that emphasizes personal costs over understanding how a shared safety net supports all of us, whatever our political leanings, hinders the collective well-being of our society.....
As mental health professionals, we write to you today with deep concern regarding the representation of benefit claimants in The Telegraph in recent weeks. It is troubling to observe the return of a divisive narrative last seen at the height of austerity politics, which is likely to lead to an increase in hate crimes and have a profound impact on psychological well-being and societal cohesion.
We would like to express our distress regarding the recent inclusion of the 'benefit calculator' in your publication on June 1st, 2023. Providing readers with a tool to calculate the supposed cost of benefit claimants on them personally establishes an unsettling premise. It creates a perception that an outgroup, represented by benefit claimants, is taking something away from readers on an individual level. This framing fosters a sense of personal threat, undermines empathy, and fuels societal divisions. Encouraging a narrative that emphasizes personal costs over understanding how a shared safety net supports all of us, whatever our political leanings, hinders the collective well-being of our society.....
Research Interests:
A literature review conducted by Meybodi and Jolfaei[1] discusses the prevalence of personality disorders among transgender individuals, suggesting transgender individuals have a higher risk of suffering from a personality disorder. Or... more
A literature review conducted by Meybodi and Jolfaei[1] discusses the prevalence of personality disorders among transgender individuals, suggesting transgender individuals have a higher risk of suffering from a personality disorder. Or perhaps more appropriately phrased: at higher risk of being diagnosed with a personality disorder. Yet the paper lacks reflection on the criticisms which delegitimise the personality disorder construct and the implications these discussions have for transgender people.... (Letter from Hat Porter, me and Jee Smith).
Research Interests:
Letter from me to The Times emphasising the importance of #LivedExperience in mental healthcare following the recent outrage from people outside our field.
Research Interests:
This is a protest letter signed by hundreds of people - service users past and present, carers, professionals and activist groups - against proposals to change and expand the diagnostic category of 'borderline personality disorder'. We... more
This is a protest letter signed by hundreds of people - service users past and present, carers, professionals and activist groups - against proposals to change and expand the diagnostic category of 'borderline personality disorder'.
We *very* much need more people to campaign on this issue to insist upon value-free ways of talking about women's experience of emotional turbulence. If you wish to be involved, connecting with people on social media who use #TraumaNotPD is a great start. Together, we can change this.
We *very* much need more people to campaign on this issue to insist upon value-free ways of talking about women's experience of emotional turbulence. If you wish to be involved, connecting with people on social media who use #TraumaNotPD is a great start. Together, we can change this.
Research Interests:
In appreciation of Sue Gerhardtās increasing emphasis on how material disadvantage effects mental health
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Panellist on this episode. Link below. Is better awareness of mental illness a good thing - or encouraging people out of work? A newspaper columnist questioned whether a rise in people out of work because of bad mental health might... more
Panellist on this episode. Link below.
Is better awareness of mental illness a good thing - or encouraging people out of work? A newspaper columnist questioned whether a rise in people out of work because of bad mental health might include some who could have āsoldiered onā? It reignited a discussion online about the benefits of work and the importance of emotional wellbeing. On one side are those who think a better understanding of mental health is a necessary correction following decades of neglect. On the other, people who say all the talk of conditions like depression and anxiety has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whatās the evidence?
Is better awareness of mental illness a good thing - or encouraging people out of work? A newspaper columnist questioned whether a rise in people out of work because of bad mental health might include some who could have āsoldiered onā? It reignited a discussion online about the benefits of work and the importance of emotional wellbeing. On one side are those who think a better understanding of mental health is a necessary correction following decades of neglect. On the other, people who say all the talk of conditions like depression and anxiety has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whatās the evidence?
Research Interests:
Show Notes: Are you interested in exploring the often-overlooked connection between Autism and BPD/EUPD? In this episode, Dr. Jay Watts and I dive deep into the topic, discussing the reasons why women and AFAB individuals are less likely... more
Show Notes: Are you interested in exploring the often-overlooked connection between Autism and BPD/EUPD? In this episode, Dr. Jay Watts and I dive deep into the topic, discussing the reasons why women and AFAB individuals are less likely to be diagnosed with autism and exploring common autistic traits that are missed in women.
Research Interests:
Dr. Jay Watts talks about the traumatic revictimization that we can experience as survivors from psychiatric providers - something called iatrogenic harm. In a wide-ranging discussion, we talk about the problematic nature of the diagnosis... more
Dr. Jay Watts talks about the traumatic revictimization that we can experience as survivors from psychiatric providers - something called iatrogenic harm. In a wide-ranging discussion, we talk about the problematic nature of the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder; trauma-informed care, and the power of survivor healing communities.
Research Interests:
The suicide hotline says half the people who contact its helpline cannot get through because it doesn't have enough staff
Research Interests:
This is quite a long interview with a survivor-journalist for Americaās Mental Health Network Radio. You can listen to it on the internet here https://www.spreaker.com/user/mhnrnetwork/dr-jay-watts-bpd-mhnr-edit-02-28-19_1 and also on... more
This is quite a long interview with a survivor-journalist for Americaās Mental Health Network Radio. You can listen to it on the internet here https://www.spreaker.com/user/mhnrnetwork/dr-jay-watts-bpd-mhnr-edit-02-28-19_1 and also on iTunesā if you put in 'dr jay watts'. We cover the diagnosis, iatrogenic trauma, narcissistic abuse syndrome, autism and the #TraumaNotPD movement.
Research Interests:
Post conference podcast interview on whether 'borderline personality disorder' is a feminist issue, and the benefits and dangers of Trauma Informed Care might look like. You can listen here... more
Post conference podcast interview on whether 'borderline personality disorder' is a feminist issue, and the benefits and dangers of Trauma Informed Care might look like.
You can listen here https://soundcloud.com/national-elf-service/jay-watts
You can listen here https://soundcloud.com/national-elf-service/jay-watts
Research Interests:
Interview about personality, 'borderline personality disorder', and trauma. I am advocating in it for #TraumaNotPD. You can watch the interview by pressing the link, if you so wish.
Research Interests:
One in ten people are thought to experience anxiety disorders, women are almost twice as likely as men to be affected and those under 35 are particularly vulnerable. Lauren Laverne discusses living with and overcoming anxiety with guests... more
One in ten people are thought to experience anxiety disorders, women are almost twice as likely as men to be affected and those under 35 are particularly vulnerable. Lauren Laverne discusses living with and overcoming anxiety with guests Daisy Buchanan who has written about her struggles with anxiety, Annie Ferguson who has written about her own experiences and those of other black women, Olivia Remes - an epidemiologist at Cambridge University, who studies anxiety and clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Jay Watts.
The broadcast edition of this programme will be available on Iplayer soon after transmission. A longer version is available from the 28th July as a podcast. You can download the podcast by clicking the download button on the programme page or you can subscribe to the Woman's Hour daily podcast.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Luke Mulhall.
The broadcast edition of this programme will be available on Iplayer soon after transmission. A longer version is available from the 28th July as a podcast. You can download the podcast by clicking the download button on the programme page or you can subscribe to the Woman's Hour daily podcast.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Luke Mulhall.
Research Interests:
Being interviewed for Self & Society by Andy Rogers. We cover therapy in the digital era, and whether to state one's belief about diagnosis.
Research Interests:
From 5:30.
Research Interests:
Keynote presentation for the Critical Voices Network Ireland conference 2017. You can watch the video here https://ucc.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=6ad17fd2-b12b-4de6-8e7f-a8456d4e185e. Despite decades of political,... more
Keynote presentation for the Critical Voices Network Ireland conference 2017. You can watch the video here https://ucc.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=6ad17fd2-b12b-4de6-8e7f-a8456d4e185e.
Despite decades of political, conceptual and empirical critique of psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric classification systems remain pretty much unchanged. If anything, identity politics and social media have reinforced diagnostic categories, for they give some people access to help, identity, and a way of speaking about mental distress. This excludes other people who have found diagnoses oppressive, keeping everyone at war. I will argue that our focus needs to move from being pro or con diagnoses to an environmental approach to understanding mental distress that places pathology outside the individual in our collective responsibilities. Treatments like Open Dialogue and Psychotherapy work, after all, by altering the environment a person suffering inhabits, which can then come to enter the internal landscape given sufficient socio-economic means. I will pay special attention to the environmental insults inflicted on people given a diagnosis of āborderline personality disorderā, who are responded to with suspicion, fear, and sometimes loathing, and social justice issues. I will conclude by making some tentative suggestions about what we can do to change the environments we live in and work in to allow more space for healing, play and hope whilst continuing to try to tackle the environmental throttle that is neoliberalism.
Despite decades of political, conceptual and empirical critique of psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric classification systems remain pretty much unchanged. If anything, identity politics and social media have reinforced diagnostic categories, for they give some people access to help, identity, and a way of speaking about mental distress. This excludes other people who have found diagnoses oppressive, keeping everyone at war. I will argue that our focus needs to move from being pro or con diagnoses to an environmental approach to understanding mental distress that places pathology outside the individual in our collective responsibilities. Treatments like Open Dialogue and Psychotherapy work, after all, by altering the environment a person suffering inhabits, which can then come to enter the internal landscape given sufficient socio-economic means. I will pay special attention to the environmental insults inflicted on people given a diagnosis of āborderline personality disorderā, who are responded to with suspicion, fear, and sometimes loathing, and social justice issues. I will conclude by making some tentative suggestions about what we can do to change the environments we live in and work in to allow more space for healing, play and hope whilst continuing to try to tackle the environmental throttle that is neoliberalism.
Research Interests:
Video of my keynote speech for the 23rd International Mental Health Nursing Research (MHNR) Conference 2017. I explore the problems with 'borderline personality disorder' as a construct, and the damaging practices it affords. I then... more
Video of my keynote speech for the 23rd International Mental Health Nursing Research (MHNR) Conference 2017.
I explore the problems with 'borderline personality disorder' as a construct, and the damaging practices it affords. I then explore four types of trauma - PTSD, Complex PTSD, Sociopolitical Trauma and Iatrogenic Trauma - before concluding Trauma Informed Care is the way forward to tackle the human rights issue that is 'borderline personality disorder'.
You can watch here https://www.pscp.tv/w/1jMJgPwMREwxL
I explore the problems with 'borderline personality disorder' as a construct, and the damaging practices it affords. I then explore four types of trauma - PTSD, Complex PTSD, Sociopolitical Trauma and Iatrogenic Trauma - before concluding Trauma Informed Care is the way forward to tackle the human rights issue that is 'borderline personality disorder'.
You can watch here https://www.pscp.tv/w/1jMJgPwMREwxL
Research Interests:
Slides of keynote speech for the 23rd International Mental Health Nursing Research (MHNR) Conference 2017. I explore the problems with 'borderline personality disorder' as a construct, and the damaging practices it affords. I then... more
Slides of keynote speech for the 23rd International Mental Health Nursing Research (MHNR) Conference 2017.
I explore the problems with 'borderline personality disorder' as a construct, and the damaging practices it affords. I then explore four types of trauma - PTSD, Complex PTSD, Sociopolitical Trauma and Iatrogenic Trauma - before concluding Trauma Informed Care is the way forward to tackle the human rights issue that is 'borderline personality disorder'.
There is also a video available that can be seen here https://www.pscp.tv/w/1jMJgPwMREwxL
I explore the problems with 'borderline personality disorder' as a construct, and the damaging practices it affords. I then explore four types of trauma - PTSD, Complex PTSD, Sociopolitical Trauma and Iatrogenic Trauma - before concluding Trauma Informed Care is the way forward to tackle the human rights issue that is 'borderline personality disorder'.
There is also a video available that can be seen here https://www.pscp.tv/w/1jMJgPwMREwxL
Research Interests:
This is my chapter in David Frayne's excellent book of critical essays on work and wellness. Many of the chapters are written by psychiatric survivors and activists. As you may be aware, work is becoming seen as cause and cure of mental... more
This is my chapter in David Frayne's excellent book of critical essays on work and wellness. Many of the chapters are written by psychiatric survivors and activists. As you may be aware, work is becoming seen as cause and cure of mental distress with funding directed to work-oriented 'therapy' not goals as decided by patients. It is dreadful and damaging and, as a survivor said to me hence the title of my chapter, 'you must say 'not in my name, not in my professions name' for psychology is used to justify this ideological shift.
Reference:
Watts, J. 'Not in my Name, Not in my Professions Name'. In
Frayne, D. (2019) The Work Cure. PCCS Books London.
Reference:
Watts, J. 'Not in my Name, Not in my Professions Name'. In
Frayne, D. (2019) The Work Cure. PCCS Books London.
Research Interests:
Since the 1980s, a type of psychotherapy called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has become dominant. Like it or loathe it, CBT is now so ubiquitous it is often the only talking therapyĀ available in both public and voluntary health... more
Since the 1980s, a type of psychotherapy called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has become dominant. Like it or loathe it, CBT is now so ubiquitous it is often the only talking therapyĀ available in both public and voluntary health settings. It is increasingly spoken about in the media and in living rooms across the country with the UKās CBT-focused Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) juggernaut grabbing the lionās share of funding. Yet when we speak about CBT, do we know what we are speaking about? For CBT, as I will argue, is an umbrella term for a number of approaches with nothing in common, not even a family resemblance. Unpicking CBT as a thing is not an exercise in intellectual masturbation but rather a vital step in looking at what gets obscured in our obsession with CBT - what the real effects our of CBT on patients continuous, increasingly desperate, demand for spaces to speak freely.
For referencing as: Watts, J. (2018). The Social Construction of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. In Lowenthal, D & Proctor, G. Why Not CBT? Against and For CBT Revisited. PCCS Books, London.
For referencing as: Watts, J. (2018). The Social Construction of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. In Lowenthal, D & Proctor, G. Why Not CBT? Against and For CBT Revisited. PCCS Books, London.
Research Interests:
Book chapter in 'Narcissism, Melancholia and the Subject of Community' Every couple of weeks, newspapers announce that the digital revolution has heralded a new era of narcissism (e.g. Keen 2007; Quenqua, 2013; Fishwick, 2016). Digital... more
Book chapter in 'Narcissism, Melancholia and the Subject of Community'
Every couple of weeks, newspapers announce that the digital revolution has heralded a new era of narcissism (e.g. Keen 2007; Quenqua, 2013; Fishwick, 2016). Digital culture and smart phones, we are told, have created the most self-absorbed generation in history likely to divorce or breakdown due to their inability to handle real relationships (e.g. Carpenter, 2012; Szoka and Marcus, 2011). A narcissistic turn in culture has been being routinely announced since the 1970s (e.g. Lasch, 1979). Has the digital revolution really provoked a new culture of narcissism which is ādividing, disorienting and diminishing usā (Keen, 2006)? Can the notion of narcissism be rescued from those who associate it with developmental-arrest and pathology (e.g. Lundbent, 2015, Walsh, 2014)? Or, can narcissism be rescued as a form of attempted solution, a radical confrontation to oppression in society?
To explore these questions, we need to examine what people mean when they speak of narcissism, in psychoanalysis, cultural criticism and journalism, and whether it can meaningfully be applied to digital subjectivities. Let us start with a brief history of narcissism within psychoanalysis, for it is this background which is used to legitimise cultural criticism.
Every couple of weeks, newspapers announce that the digital revolution has heralded a new era of narcissism (e.g. Keen 2007; Quenqua, 2013; Fishwick, 2016). Digital culture and smart phones, we are told, have created the most self-absorbed generation in history likely to divorce or breakdown due to their inability to handle real relationships (e.g. Carpenter, 2012; Szoka and Marcus, 2011). A narcissistic turn in culture has been being routinely announced since the 1970s (e.g. Lasch, 1979). Has the digital revolution really provoked a new culture of narcissism which is ādividing, disorienting and diminishing usā (Keen, 2006)? Can the notion of narcissism be rescued from those who associate it with developmental-arrest and pathology (e.g. Lundbent, 2015, Walsh, 2014)? Or, can narcissism be rescued as a form of attempted solution, a radical confrontation to oppression in society?
To explore these questions, we need to examine what people mean when they speak of narcissism, in psychoanalysis, cultural criticism and journalism, and whether it can meaningfully be applied to digital subjectivities. Let us start with a brief history of narcissism within psychoanalysis, for it is this background which is used to legitimise cultural criticism.