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It has to be about choice
Author(s) -
Tenney Lauren J.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(200011)56:11<1433::aid-jclp6>3.0.co;2-5
Subject(s) - mental health , psychology , institution , consistency (knowledge bases) , psychoanalysis , social psychology , psychiatry , law , political science , computer science , artificial intelligence
My time in the mental health system began a little over 20 years ago, when I was seven. Over the past eight years I have been fighting for, demanding that, respect and ethics play a part in psychology and all that falls under it. I realized that for all the reasons that have been given, for all the excuses that have been made, for a long time I acted as little more than an apologist for a system that refused to change. I learned that it is impossible to make any great systemic changes without the change being wanted—no matter how warranted it is. A system may desperately need to be overhauled, gutted out, and rebuilt. However, inside of that system are the people who work for it, who need the consistency that they have become used to. Psychology, to me, is a self‐perpetuating institution. It creates the laws and then defines who breaks them. I am no longer an apologist for the mental health system. Candidly, I have not yet learned how to put a pretty bow on all of my views, which are a direct result of my voluntary and involuntary time in the system, both personally and professionally. All I know is that it has to be about choice. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol/In Session 56: 1433–1445, 2000.