IPNOSIS: a journal for the Independent Practitioners Network

The Ills of Alienation and the Industrialization of the Psychological Therapies

The roll out of Increasing Access to the Psychological Therapies [IAPT] reveals a picture of social mediation/social insanity on a grand scale.

Government announcements of exponentially increasing finance for IAPT up to £170 million in three years time coupled with insider chat at the recent September 18 Reference Group meeting, point to a string of coordinated elements unified by a technocratic ethos.

Moves in the NHS towards the commissioning of services
The Adoption of CBT as a ideologically acceptable vehicle (it won't rock any political boats)
A scientized justification of economic benefit out of the mouth of a Labour elder statesman, Lord Layard.
Training of 3600 counsellors to deliver these services
An established Regulator, the HPC, to hold government control over service delivery
A genuine concern in the parties to this huge mistake, for people who are suffering from the ills of alienation

Given the mainstream accrediting bodies lobbying for state control of the nation's subjectivity, this is a predictable incursion. But shocking nonetheless.

Is this how rural inhabitants with a viable cottage industry felt when they saw the the first manifestations of industrialisation? First the dam, then the power station, then the pulp mill, then the tranport distribution centre, then the motorway, as the capitalist virus colonized yet another corner of their community. Isn't this followed by alienation and the extremes of wealth and dereliction, as some people fly and some drown? And then come the government 'schemes' such as IAPT, help recover the lost well-being that its business partners systematically discard as 'externalities'.

If your alienation level is low enough to have got this far you might like to check out several resources that extend or ground this huge unfolding picture that promises to transform the landscape of psychopractice.

This BBC report, one of several in the media on October 10th 2007 reports Alan Johnson's announcement to the Commons of the Government funding.

This item on R4 World at One features Lord Layard (download mp3 file)

This newletter from the British Psychological Society reveals that after last year's panic measures, the BPS have capitulated in the face of determined government regulatory pressure. An alternative view, supported by this extraordinary sellout conference presented almost entirely by clinical psychologists, is that a deal has been struck in which the BPS come top of the pecking order of the psychological therapies, training and administering the CBT component of Increased Access to Psychological Therapies.

NEXT STEPS - to Happiness? attempts to visualise the emerging landscape of UK psychopractice.

Extract from Hansard

Alan Johnson Secretary of State for Health

More than a third of GP time is spent dealing with mental health problems, from which one in six people suffer at any one time. Mental illness accounts for 40 per cent. of those on incapacity benefit. Prescription medication provides a successful treatment for many, but we know that psychological therapies work equally well, and often prove to be more effective in the long term. The time has come to do much more to help those with depression and anxiety.

I can announce today—which is, of course, world mental health day—that we will build a groundbreaking psychological therapy service in England. Backed by new investment rising to £170 million by 2010-11, the service will be capable of treating 900,000 additional patients suffering from depression and anxiety over the next three years. Around half are likely to be completely cured, with many fewer people with mental health problems having to depend on sick pay and benefits.