A Foucault analysis of the psychotherapy industry

[Jodistrict]

Traditional psychoanalysis was replaced by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) during the 1980s and 1990s in alignment with Neoliberalism and its preference for cost-effective therapy and productivity-oriented care. 

While psychoanalysis involved years of deep internal work, CBT offered quick returns, enabling individuals to return to the workplace in weeks or months.   By focusing on external actions rather than internal states, CBT provided quantifiable results that suited capitalist requirements for emotional regulation and workplace compliance.

CBT is considered the gold standard of therapy.  It delivers quick and quantifiable results. It trains patients to self-monitor and police their own thoughts, which functions as a form of "soft power" that benefits the system by reducing the need for external management.

 CBT shifts the burden of blame for systemic issues onto individuals by acting as a form of compliance training that targets internal reactions rather than external conditions. Instead of addressing structural problems—such as exploitative labor, lack of safety, or economic hardship—CBT encourages individuals to perform the following:

Question their own perception: Patients are taught to reframe their thoughts and view their distress as a cognitive distortion or a personal failure rather than a rational response to an unhealthy environment

Internalize control: By focusing on individual breathing exercises, cognitive restructuring, and mindset shifts, the therapy keeps the broader system invisible and uninterrupted, effectively training individuals to become their own "jailers"

Avoiding system critique: The framework discourages looking for external causes of suffering, which protects the status quo by ensuring that the individual is solely responsible for their ability to function within the capitalist order.

Imagine your hand is on a burning hot plate.   CBT therapy does not ask if the plate should be turned off or moved. Instead, it assumes the plate is correct and teaches you to reframe your thoughts about the burning or change how you feel about the pain, effectively keeping the system that caused the harm invisible and uninterrupted.

When someone fails to thrive—not due to their own lack of grit, but due to systemic issues like structural poverty or workplace exploitation—the system flips the switch and labels the patient as the "scapegoat" or the problem.

CBT doesn’t make you a happier person.  It makes you an obedient person.   It maintains the power structure by shifting blame from systemic failure to you the "scapegoat".

 

 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by Jodistrict
typo

[Joseph Maynor]

 

[Ulax]

Definitely agree