ABSTRACT
Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) was a pioneer in the field of brief integrated relational therapies. CAT from the start has been, in our view, an ‘open’ theoretical tradition, receptive to new ideas from a position that understands human beings as far too complex and varied to be defined or contained within any particular ‘model’ or theoretical tradition. The arcane debates and rivalries, for example, between different schools of psychoanalysis may be a source of intellectual fascination and personal gratification for some therapists, but are mostly irrelevant to their patients.
We start therefore from the position that other models are equally valid, and all can gain far more from constructive criticism, cross-fertilisation and collaboration than from rivalry and competition. Our priority in this book is to understand and critique the politics of mental health, using CAT concepts to further our understanding of this in a way that we hope can be reflected in a better service to our patients and clients. We are not seeking to promote CAT over other models through the lens of politics but hope that therapists of all persuasions could use some of the ideas discussed here within their chosen theoretical traditions.
We describe the concepts particular to CAT that will be referred to in later chapters to give an overview of the ethos and politics of CAT and how they interact with clinical theory and practice. We also try to show how central concepts in CAT can be a theoretical basis for the understanding of the politics of mental health and mental health provision explored in this book. All the authors have worked or are currently working in the NHS, which was where CAT was originally developed to meet the perceived need for an in-depth and time-limited therapy widely accessible to those in need of it.
