David Smail (psychologist)
Encyclopedia
David Smail is a clinical psychologist who is a proponent of a social materialist explanation of psychological distress. Born in Putney, London, on 23 April 1938, he grew up in Epsom
and Wimbledon
.
After graduating from University College London
with a degree in Philosophy and Psychology, he worked briefly in market research before moving into clinical psychology; training at Horton Hospital
in Epsom
and then at Claybury Hospital
in Essex
(circa 1961). He obtained a doctorate in philosophy
on the subject of guilt and aggression in 1965 from University College London. He was head of clinical psychology services in Nottingham
(UK) until 1993 and he retired from the NHS in 1998. He held the honorary post of Special Professor
in Clinical Psychology
, University of Nottingham
, from 1979 to 2000 and is a founder member of the Midlands Psychology Group.
He has written several books on the subject of psychotherapy, in which he emphasises the extent to which society is often responsible for personal distress. He is critical of the claims made by psychotherapy, and suggests that it only works to the extent that the therapist
becomes a friend of the patient, providing encouragement and support. Much distress, he says, results from current conflicts, not past ones, and in any case, damage done probably cannot be undone, though we may learn to live with it. He doubts whether 'catharsis', the process whereby it is supposed that understanding past events makes them less painful, really works. The assumption that depression
, or any other form of mental distress, is caused by something within the person that can be fixed, is he says, without foundation. He could thus be regarded as part of the 'anti-psychiatry
' movement, along with R. D. Laing and Thomas Szasz
, but where Laing emphasises family nexus
as making psychosis understandable, Smail emphasised 'Interest' and power in relation to more everyday distress. These are integral to Western society, and, he suggests, considered out of bounds by most psychotherapists, who are themselves both constrained and complicit in protecting their own interests.
Smail contrasts the predictions of psychological theory with his experience as a clinician. While various theories suggest; that insight leads to change; that people may ‘assume responsibility’ for their lives; that thought (‘cognitions’) lead to action (‘behaviour’); and that characteristics/actions (real or imagined) of the therapist are central to change (e.g. ‘transference’, ‘warmth, empathy and genuineness’). It is Smail's contention that his experience has shown that; we are not in control of our conduct and that therapeutic change is not demonstrable.
There is no such thing as ‘will power’. The causes of our conduct are frequently mysterious, and rationally unalterable, and that our conduct is controlled by distal and proximal influences in our environment (of which the clinical setting is but a minor part).
Smail also attacks the common conceptions of 'happiness' and 'relationships', pointing out that these are by-products of real life, and should not be ends in themselves. He suggests that taking part in real joint efforts is what seems to make people forget themselves and become truly happy, but he also takes a despairing view of how modern society makes it hard to see what the real point of these efforts might be for many people.
In Taking Care - An Alternative to Therapy (1987) Smail, after many years as an active psychotherapist, casts doubt on the supposed mechanisms by which therapy is claimed to be effective. While he does not condemn therapy as useless, he suspects that it is only effective to the extent that the therapist becomes a true friend to the client, involved in their world. Catharsis, the supposed process by which people are 'cured' of 'mental illness' once they gain 'insight' into their problems, is illusory, and therapists are to a large extent magicians involved in wishful thinking. In this book he recommends that we 'take care' in our involvement in life, and of others we are involved with.
In later books, such as his Power, Interest, and Psychology he has much more to say of the embodied nature of individuals in society, and the extent to which we have any control at all over our lives. Interest and power, he says, are what determine events in our lives more than we are allowed to acknowledge, and 'willpower' is a fiction . This book began as Power Responsibility and Freedom, freely available on the internet, and Smail has some interesting comments on the relative merits of a (living) internet versus 'proper' (dead) publication. The former, he suspects, is not necessarily conducive to the study of a detailed work, and the demands of the medium for constant updates can be tiresome, especially when there is no real evidence that the work is reaching its intended readership.
In a sidebar in 'Power Responsibility and Freedom Smail posits three laws that if understood fully would save everyone a lot of anxiety:
"Absolutely everybody wants to be liked (law 1).
Everyone feels different inside (less confident, less able, etc.) from how they infer other people to feel (law 2).
Few honest and courageous people who have achieved anything of real value in life do not feel a fraud much of the time (law 3)".
Epsom
Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...
and Wimbledon
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
.
After graduating from University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
with a degree in Philosophy and Psychology, he worked briefly in market research before moving into clinical psychology; training at Horton Hospital
Epsom Cluster
The Epsom Cluster, sometimes Epsom Clusters, was a cluster, or group, of five large psychiatric hospitals situated in the Horton area of Epsom...
in Epsom
Epsom
Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...
and then at Claybury Hospital
Claybury Asylum
Claybury Asylum was a psychiatric hospital at Woodford Bridge in Essex. It was opened in 1893 making it the fifth London County Council Asylum.-History:...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
(circa 1961). He obtained a doctorate in philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
on the subject of guilt and aggression in 1965 from University College London. He was head of clinical psychology services in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
(UK) until 1993 and he retired from the NHS in 1998. He held the honorary post of Special Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
in Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...
, University of Nottingham
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public research university based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
, from 1979 to 2000 and is a founder member of the Midlands Psychology Group.
He has written several books on the subject of psychotherapy, in which he emphasises the extent to which society is often responsible for personal distress. He is critical of the claims made by psychotherapy, and suggests that it only works to the extent that the therapist
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
becomes a friend of the patient, providing encouragement and support. Much distress, he says, results from current conflicts, not past ones, and in any case, damage done probably cannot be undone, though we may learn to live with it. He doubts whether 'catharsis', the process whereby it is supposed that understanding past events makes them less painful, really works. The assumption that depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
, or any other form of mental distress, is caused by something within the person that can be fixed, is he says, without foundation. He could thus be regarded as part of the 'anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry is a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs that emerged in the 1960s, and questioned the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry, such as its claim that it achieves universal, scientific objectivity. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R.D. Laing,...
' movement, along with R. D. Laing and Thomas Szasz
Thomas Szasz
Thomas Stephen Szasz is a psychiatrist and academic. Since 1990 he has been Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. He is a well-known social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, and of the social...
, but where Laing emphasises family nexus
Family nexus
The term family nexus was used by the psychiatrist R D Laing to describe a common viewpoint held and reinforced by the majority of family members regarding events in the family and relationships with the world...
as making psychosis understandable, Smail emphasised 'Interest' and power in relation to more everyday distress. These are integral to Western society, and, he suggests, considered out of bounds by most psychotherapists, who are themselves both constrained and complicit in protecting their own interests.
Smail contrasts the predictions of psychological theory with his experience as a clinician. While various theories suggest; that insight leads to change; that people may ‘assume responsibility’ for their lives; that thought (‘cognitions’) lead to action (‘behaviour’); and that characteristics/actions (real or imagined) of the therapist are central to change (e.g. ‘transference’, ‘warmth, empathy and genuineness’). It is Smail's contention that his experience has shown that; we are not in control of our conduct and that therapeutic change is not demonstrable.
There is no such thing as ‘will power’. The causes of our conduct are frequently mysterious, and rationally unalterable, and that our conduct is controlled by distal and proximal influences in our environment (of which the clinical setting is but a minor part).
Smail also attacks the common conceptions of 'happiness' and 'relationships', pointing out that these are by-products of real life, and should not be ends in themselves. He suggests that taking part in real joint efforts is what seems to make people forget themselves and become truly happy, but he also takes a despairing view of how modern society makes it hard to see what the real point of these efforts might be for many people.
In Taking Care - An Alternative to Therapy (1987) Smail, after many years as an active psychotherapist, casts doubt on the supposed mechanisms by which therapy is claimed to be effective. While he does not condemn therapy as useless, he suspects that it is only effective to the extent that the therapist becomes a true friend to the client, involved in their world. Catharsis, the supposed process by which people are 'cured' of 'mental illness' once they gain 'insight' into their problems, is illusory, and therapists are to a large extent magicians involved in wishful thinking. In this book he recommends that we 'take care' in our involvement in life, and of others we are involved with.
In later books, such as his Power, Interest, and Psychology he has much more to say of the embodied nature of individuals in society, and the extent to which we have any control at all over our lives. Interest and power, he says, are what determine events in our lives more than we are allowed to acknowledge, and 'willpower' is a fiction . This book began as Power Responsibility and Freedom, freely available on the internet, and Smail has some interesting comments on the relative merits of a (living) internet versus 'proper' (dead) publication. The former, he suspects, is not necessarily conducive to the study of a detailed work, and the demands of the medium for constant updates can be tiresome, especially when there is no real evidence that the work is reaching its intended readership.
In a sidebar in 'Power Responsibility and Freedom Smail posits three laws that if understood fully would save everyone a lot of anxiety:
"Absolutely everybody wants to be liked (law 1).
Everyone feels different inside (less confident, less able, etc.) from how they infer other people to feel (law 2).
Few honest and courageous people who have achieved anything of real value in life do not feel a fraud much of the time (law 3)".
Selected works
- The Treatment of Mental Illness - Science, Faith and the Therapeutic Personality. University of London Press, 1969.
- Psychotherapy: A Personal Approach. [1978] Dent, 1982 (revised). ISBN 978-0460021944
- Illusion and Reality - The Meaning of Anxiety. [1984] Constable, 1997 (revised). ISBN 978-0460022781
- Taking Care - An Alternative to Therapy. [1987] Constable, 1998. ISBN 978-0094774209
- The Origins of Unhappiness - A New Understanding of Personal Distress. [1993] Constable, 1999 (revised). ISBN 978-0094793408
- How to Survive Without Psychotherapy. [1996] Constable, 1998 (revised). ISBN 978-0094784802
- The Nature of Unhappiness. Robinson, 2001. ISBN 1-84119-350-X
- Why Therapy Doesn't Work. Robinson, 2001. ISBN 978-1841193502
- Power, Interest and Psychology - Elements of a Social Materialist Understanding of Distress. PCCS Books, 2005. ISBN 978-1898059714
External links
- David Smail's Website
- Power, Responsibility and Freedom - an Internet publication.