ABSTRACT

New Public Managers are the shock troops unleashed by neoliberalism on the Public Sector; their task: to put neoliberalist theory into practice. The ethos of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) fits closely with that of Managerialism in very many ways. They both subscribe to a cognitivist and hyper-rationalist world view. Both claim to be evidence–based sciences. Both imagine that people can be controlled in predictable ways. In the British context, both managerialism and the cognitivist tsunami were unleashed at pretty much the same time by Tony Blair's New Labour. It has suited Managerialism to promote and push CBT into its dominant position, and in return CBT provides Managerialism with a rationale and technology for perpetuating its practices. In making its pact with CBT, managerialism has also made a pact with the prophets of happiness.