Cognitive Analytic Therapy and the Political Psychology of Denial

Cognitive Analytic Therapy and the Political Psychology of Denial explores denial within a political and socio-economic psychological context focusing on how denial, deceit, repudiation and distortion function almost freely with few opportunities for veracity to break through unless confronted by the crisis of reality.

As an approach, Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) is radically social and political through its understanding of how clinical mental health issues are a reaction to the structural defences put up to protect, defend or outright mislead ourselves. This book offers to explore links between mental health presentations and the wider current socio-economic and political environment in which denial flourishes. It looks at how denial, which is widely accepted as a psychological defence or coping mechanism used by almost all of us to protect ourselves, can become pathological when the mismatch between actual reality and the stories we and others would have us believe becomes too disjointed. It aims to inform, stimulate, provoke curiosity and offer material for consideration to professionals whose work is informed by CAT.

Written from the perspective of CAT practitioners, this book will help professionals within the NHS but does remain accessible to anyone curious about how the pervasive influence of denial influences what mental health workers deal with.