Counselling, Class and Politics Quotes

“There is no politically neutral fence available for us to sit on, and our attempts to do so have the consequence (intended or not) of supporting the existing political system.”
― Anne Kearney, Counselling, Class and Politics: Undeclared Influences in Therapy

“Part of this rise of individualism is evident in the mistrust about the social support of vulnerable social groups, such as lone parents, and elderly, or unemployed, people, and in the suggestion that a 'nanny state' was emerging because 'too many' people were dependant on state benefits. (This is in context of a world economy that is creating mass unemployment, where support for the family has consistently been undermined, where elderly people have had services withdrawn that allowed them to be cared for by their families, and so on.) In other words, the ethic of social support being undermined by 'rugged individualism' results in blaming the victim for their own difficulties.”
― Anne Kearney, Counselling, Class and Politics: Undeclared Influences in Therapy

“If we concentrate exclusively on the 'individual-as-presented', we are much more likely to see their present emotional difficulties as deriving from internal adaptations - but without reference to what necessitated those adaptations in the first place. Since adaptations are essentially ways of protecting ourselves, we need to be aware of what external threats the individual may be protecting themself against.”
― Anne Kearney, Counselling, Class and Politics: Undeclared Influences in Therapy

“The more powerful the group to which we belong, the less likely, generally, we are to question the system that legitimises and confers these privileges.”
― Anne Kearney, Counselling, Class and Politics: Undeclared Influences in Therapy