Cynical Therapies Quotes

“Those who experience persistent feelings of indignation, which they view as righteous, tend to shield themselves from personal responsibility for their actions. They hold a pre-identified scapegoat responsible for all of their pain, traumas, and hurts; that scapegoat is ultimately accountable for their misdeeds.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“If masculinity is just a learned behaviour, people might naturally be less tolerant of men’s bad behaviour. In promoting a social constructionist view of masculinity and the spectre of patriarchy, CSJ has replaced biological reality with a patriarchal conspiracy theory. The result has been an unforgiving view of masculinity and, by association, men and boys.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“White fragility. Coined by Robin DiAngelo (a white American woman), this term suggests that whites are systemically (not necessarily individually) racist, but because this is largely unconscious, when challenged, whites often become very uncomfortable and defensive.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“While other psychotherapies consider the internal or intrapsychic world of the individual client, family therapy focuses on the real-time interactions between family members in a therapy room.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“A presence-based relationship with core characteristics like openness and receptivity where the therapist strives for an attitude of un-knowing cannot manifest where both client and therapist are pre-determined in their identities and their relationship is essentially seen as oppressive from the outset.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Both the client and therapist are not primarily seen as human persons in relation to each other and the socio-cultural world around them. Instead, they are viewed as defined by their intersecting group identities and, importantly, the differences and inequalities these identities create. Dynamics of oppression are at the heart of the CSJ-driven therapy relationship.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“For [Critical Social Justice] CSJ, people are not individuals as such but rather representatives of particular identity groups located within a matrix of power. Therefore, when two people engage with one another, it is understood primarily as encounters between constellations of intersected identities.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“No matter what therapeutic approach is provided, if the relationship between therapist and client is not established or is perceived by the client as problematic, then it is unlikely that the therapy will be successful.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“A CSJ-driven approach to psychotherapy would exacerbate and worsen problems for individuals seeking psychotherapy. A CSJ-driven approach teaches clients to see their emotional experiences as harmful and blame their emotional experiences on oppression. Clients would learn to be constantly focused on racism, sexism, homophobia, and oppression as the cause of their problems.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“A core tenet of CSJ is that emotional harm is comparable to physical harm; when you cause someone to feel a negative emotion, you are causing harm to that individual. Any level of discomfort is considered harmful and, in some cases, the equivalent of violence.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Even the most benign of interactions can be interpreted as being a problem because if we look hard enough, we can find sexism or homophobia to be the cause of all problems if we want to.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Blaming and judging others, rather than taking responsibility for your actions and developing resilience, produces a culture of victimhood and division, bullying, and abusive behaviours.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“There is also a risk that repeatedly telling people they are victims may lead them to develop a sense of “learned helplessness” and a belief that they have no control over their lives, leaving them vulnerable to depression. Yet, CRT would accuse anyone from a minority group who expressed such contrary views of having “internalised oppression” or of “acting white”.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Telling people that they are racist—on the basis of immutable characteristics, using incomprehensible definitions that they may not know or understand—then claiming they are “fragile” and in denial when they try to defend themselves, or accusing them of “gaslighting” when they don’t agree with you, is a punitive way of treating people, whatever their colour.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“In my clinical experience, always trusting your feelings or jumping to conclusions that you know what others are thinking, without any supporting evidence, are seen as examples of cognitive distortions.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“External narratives such as [Critical Social Justice] CSJ are not designed to talk about an individual’s internal struggles.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“In developed countries, suicide mortality has been estimated as 2–3 times higher in young males than females; 75% of suicides are by men under fifty and the suicide rate is highest among middle-aged white men, who accounted for almost 70% of all suicides in 2017. Yet, despite this evidence, there is a noticeable lack of discussion focusing on the male perspective.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Male-friendly therapy is an approach that recognises there are some differences in how men and women deal with their mental health issues. Further, it tries to accommodate these differences in therapy. For example, there is evidence that men tend to prefer a more solution-focused approach to deal with their problems.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“The retort that “patriarchy hurts men too” rings hollow and highlights the flaw of “infallibility” of patriarchy theory in that it contorts itself to claim that men as a group are simultaneously both dominant and oppressed.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“One example of taking a male-friendly approach [in therapy] is the view that traditional masculinity is not the root cause of men’s mental health problems, and, in fact, might contain valuable resources that can enhance mental health. This viewpoint allows therapists to understand men in a way that is more likely to foster better rapport between therapist and client, facilitating a more successful therapy.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“We need to build an honest relationship, remain interested in the client as a unique, individual person, and stay curious about underlying issues, family dynamics, personality traits, and childhood experiences.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Compulsory confessions of privilege evoke parallels with religious confessions of sin.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Those who speak of their anger, their mistrust, or their dislike of certain groups tend not to see any contradiction in this behaviour and their claims to be moral, professional, or effective psychologists.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“The material and ethical assertions of [Critical Social Justice] CSJ are controversial. Most people with apparently oppressed identities don’t think about the world through this ideological lens—it is an artifact of academia.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Postmodernism. An intellectual movement critiquing modernism and the notion of objective truth, and seen in academia, the arts, architecture, etc. It regards knowledge as traditionally concocted by Western assumptions and thought systems. Postmodernism is particularly focused on the power of language, and it rejects grand narratives.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Liberalism. A broad political philosophy that has been the mainstay of Western democracies. Some of its key features include individualism, freedom of speech, equality, rationalism, universality, tolerance, the rule of law, and pluralism. There can be confusion regarding the use of the term “liberal”: in the US, this term indicates left-wing policies, whereas in the UK and Australia it indicates a right-of-centre political position (the equivalent of “libertarian” in the US).”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Critical Social Justice (abbreviated in the text as CSJ). CSJ serves as an umbrella term for the set of contemporary Critical Theories and was originally formalised by Robin DiAngelo and Özlem Sensoy. CSJ (or “wokeness” in common parlance) is shorthand for a particularly radical political approach to achieving social justice. Its goal is to uncover the systems of power that are believed to structure society and, by so doing, create the opportunity for a revolutionary transformation into an idealised state. CSJ is characterised by activism that aims to find problems, disrupt and dismantle societal norms, centre the marginalised, privilege subjective over objective truth, and control speech.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“CSJ is fundamentally incompatible with the enlightenment values and scientific worldview of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Therapy approaches which strengthen the client’s resilience are much more suitable than the identity affirmation model which has been generally adopted.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice