part 1)
Posted originally on December 18, 2002 on Duncan Double's Critical Psychiatry message board (now largely defunct due to spam); this portion brought to you courtesy of the Wayback Machine, www.WaybackMachine.org

words and ideas from _The Radical Therapist_, produced by Jerome Agel, 1971
(edited to bring more notice to certain parts, with comments in "[ ]")

[editor's note: Obviously, this author engages in a few techniques of manipulation, while calling attention to the manipulations of the status quo. Notably, his manipulations fall quite in line with the manipulations of what was called the "New Left"--heavily influenced by ideologically-challenged Communism-- of this era, such as opportunistically hyping one's imagination against fat or monetarily rich people. Still, I find much importance in this text compared to everything else I recall reading, and expect that you will also. The copyright has long since ended, so do post it around the world!!!!]

chapter "On Training Therapists", by Michael Glenn p.8-15

intro:
Michael Glenn is on *The Radical Therapist* Minot [Iowa?] staff. While much of what follows describes a psychiatrist's experience, it is also true of other "professional" therapists' training. The suggestions at the end speak to all therapists.


The psychiatrist in training is embedded in a medically oriented matrix with a closed-guild tradition, whose model is master and apprentice. He is assumed to be inexperienced and naive, a stumbling creature whose every step must be watched and checked. The model of supervision approximates that of therapist/patient, and the supervision constantly resorts to unbeatable ploys, like commenting on the trainees psychological hang-ups. Mathemeticians, businessmen, [fine] artists, actors, teachers, historians: all are acknowledged to have some sense of the world and of their place in it by the time they are thirty: yet the therapist in training is encouraged to see himself as grossly inadequate, ill informed, and bumbling.

The professionalism of the medical model, with it aura and mystique, permeates psychiatric training. One is constantly mystified and perplexed. The completion of training allows the now-professional psychiatrist to begin mystifying others, even though he usually has no idea how he does it. He seems to become mature, capable, and a member of the guild in good standing the moment the diploma enters his hand.

Its model makes psychiatry invincible. Attempts to change are readily discredited as psychopathology, delayed adolescence, and acting out. The trainer rarely encounters the trainee as another person, a brother or sister. Training is marked by psychological put-down, intimidation, and guilt-invoking techniques. Its graduates then repeat their experience with their clients. Such a dehumanizing, destructive system must be changed.

Szasz, Laing, and others have shown how psychotherapy dehumanizes both patient and therapist. Goffman has shown this in asylums. The same is true for therapist training, which effects the professional annihilation of trainees by incorporating them into a corrupting structure, which they must accept to succeed.

They must play the game correctly. But learning to play the game correctly often ties them to its rules for life. It is a Medean shirt which cannot easily be removed once it is put on.

(see all parts, specifically parts 2, 3, and 4 here: https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=67168&highlight=#67168  ; other portions include: "Professional mystification and the psychiatrist's role", and "therapy and politics")