Therapeutic psychology suggests that we are essentially self-creating and able to heal ourselves emotionally. This view reflects the wishful thinking necessary for the success of consumer capitalism, but it does not reflect the way things are. Smail examines how our experience of ourselves and our conduct can be explained in terms of the social operation of power and interest.
The book's primary purpose is to explain the meaning of anxiety as experienced by the sufferer. These insights also lead to a view, by way of secondary purpose, that the role of the therapist is not in 'curing' the individual, but rather to negotiate demystification and to provide insight into the effects of the problems in the sufferer's world.
Originally published in 1987 by J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.
Through his examination of how visible and invisible social power - institutions, politics, the Establishment - wields an influence over our lives often beyond our immediate control, Smail leads us to a clear understanding of distress.'
This book is directly aimed at sufferers of mental distress. The book's aim is to remove from sufferers the burden of 'fault' for their pain and to demystify some of the practices that surround the 'treatment' of mental illness. It is not exactly a self-help book because it is a false claim of any 'treatment' of mental illness that 'cure' can be brought about by exercise of will. Much of what causes mental distress is lack of power and resource, outside the control of the sufferer. Surviving without psychotherapy involves the appreciation of several things. First, the limited nature of therapeutic assistance - whilst clarification and support may help the sufferer understand his/her predicament and encourage the use of what resources the sufferer has, therapy cannot change the distal root causes of distress. Second, that only socio-political solutions can address some of the most powerful causes of distress, e.g., redundancy, housing and poverty. In sounding a cautionary note about psychoanalysis, Smail observes that mental distress is far more about money than sex. David Smail analyses the claims of 'treatments' of mental distress. He explains why willpower alone cannot remove symptoms. There is discussion about resources open to an individual in positioning themselves against stressors to minimise the effect of the same. That said, feelings of stress and anxiety are regularly an entirely rational response to the sufferer's predicament