From Animal Farm to Brave New World

December 10, 2007

A great letter to Therapy Today from Janet Low on the issues associated with blind adoption of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in the UK which was the subject my earlier post Animal Farm. For those not on up on the plot we are seeing an attempt to create a single approach to therapy which focuses on solving problems by making people happy rather than by understanding what the problem is in the first place. The arguments seem to be ideological and economic rather than based in any real professional discourse. It is even more worrying with the use of computers to replace therapists, and linked initiatives to teach people to set up happiness lessons in school. This is Big Brother magnified, a Brave New World (to mix my literary metaphors) in which contentment is instituted by Government fiat to remove problems by creating a compliant population.

I find the main prophet of this new cult of happiness really scary. He is Professor Emeritus the Lord Layard who previously took the position that the main purpose of schools should be to teach children ‘the secrets of happiness’ and is now the driver behind the Government happiness centers in therapy. Now I am happy (sic) that children should be happy, but happiness comes through engaging teachers, good education etc. etc. That is to say happiness is a symptom of a good education system not a means to create one when you have otherwise failed.

I am also reminded on the new Nichole Kidman film I saw on the flight from Sydney to Singapore. The film is an old plot badly remade (rather like happiness therapy) in which alien spores take over humans and make them happy thus ensuring world peace. I get the impression that the good Lord may secretly approve, or possibly is an alien life form. In which case would someone please, and quickly find the antidote before we are anesthetised by platitudes, poor science and a poverty of theory, let along practice

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

About the Cynefin Company

The Cynefin Company (formerly known as Cognitive Edge) was founded in 2005 by Dave Snowden. We believe in praxis and focus on building methods, tools and capability that apply the wisdom from Complex Adaptive Systems theory and other scientific disciplines in social systems. We are the world leader in developing management approaches (in society, government and industry) that empower organisations to absorb uncertainty, detect weak signals to enable sense-making in complex systems, act on the rich data, create resilience and, ultimately, thrive in a complex world.
ABOUT USSUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER

Cognitive Edge Ltd. & Cognitive Edge Pte. trading as The Cynefin Company and The Cynefin Centre.

© COPYRIGHT 2024

< Prev

Social computing & the Enterprise

My podcast with Jon Husband on social computing continues to have a high take up, ...

More posts

Next >

Homo narrans

Czarniawska (1997) attributes the phrase homo narrans to Fisher (1984). Niles (1999) offers a more ...

More posts

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram