ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews Ann France's own conclusions about the dangers of therapy, which she bases on both her own experiences as reported in her own book, and also the observations of friends. France's stated aim is to give a personal view of what it feels like to be in therapy, and "to look at the underlying assumptions governing psychotherapy". Consuming Psychotherapy is to some degree limited by being saturated with the tacit ideological assumptions of therapeutic discourse, drawing heavily upon that discourse in its descriptions of the therapy process. There is an important body of Social Psychology literature which supports an "ignorance-is-bliss"-type view that some level of self-delusion, cognitive distortion, and so on, is actually a "normal" attribute of mental health. As Taylor & Brown write, for example, "the mentally healthy person appears to have the enviable capacity to distort reality in a direction that enhances self-esteem, maintains beliefs in personal efficacy, and promotes an optimistic view of the future.
