ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the shadow of the relational turn in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. It proposes that psychotherapy and counselling have overdone the stress on providing a secure container within which a therapy relationship can thrive. This leads to behavioural conformism and a corresponding moralism. Hypocrisy is the act of opposing a belief or behaviour while holding the same beliefs or performing the same behaviours at the same time. Hypocrisy is frequently invoked as an accusation in politics and in life in general. One key feature of hypocrisy is the refusal to apply to ourselves the same standards we apply to others. Hence hypocrisy is one of the central evils of our society, promoting injustices such as war and social inequalities in a framework of self-deception. In 'political clinics' worldwide on 'introverted politics', we find that we neglect or dismiss at our peril the private political engagements of poets, philosophers, mystics, shy people, the insane, and many women.
