At the risk of being accused of playing the master at his own game (if I'm honest I don't really know what is meant by that and new baby means I don't have time to do the necessary background reading) something which doesn't seem to have been raised yet (maybe due to above) is taking this research at face value as a 'bit of science' it is fairly easy to critique on the basis of significant methodological flaws. By current definition to be diagnosed with 'mental illness' a person must experience 'significant distress' so surely the finding that people who meet this criteria are more likely to be miserable is a bit of a non-finding? It seems to me they correlate by definition, 'Mental illness' (significant distress) being one subgroup of misery.
Kat
On 13 Dec 2016, at 09:06, J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
This is what has been published so far: http://voxeu.org/article/origins-happiness It's quite a read!!! Today is the second day of the conference is tomorrow, and all the big government hard hitters are there apparently. Layard still has the ear of government, IAPT being constructed as an absolute success. A book will be coming out based on this new work - exactly the same sequence of events as when 'Happiness: Lessons from the New Science' came out in 05 leading on to IAPT and the restructuring of mental health services.
Of course the scenario is far worse this time. The focus is explicitly on how treating 'mental illness' is cheaper and more effective than trying to reduce poverty! And the wider context, as if I need to mention this to you lot, is the decimation of NHS, social care and third sector services. Combine this with the recent green paper, and the press coverage this has already garnered, and we have a very dangerous potential situation.
If you are able to tweet about the conference today, that would also be useful. They have avoided having a hashtag for it, interestingly, but most are using #wellbeing<https://twitter.com/hashtag/wellbeing?src=hash> @OECD_Social<https://twitter.com/OECD_Social> @CEP_LSE<https://twitter.com/CEP_LSE> @WhatWorksWB<https://twitter.com/WhatWorksWB> If people can respond to the tweets from @<https://twitter.com/CEP_LSE>CEP_LSE<https://twitter.com/CEP_LSE> and @<https://twitter.com/actionhappiness>actionhappiness<https://twitter.com/actionhappiness> to thicken the narrative that would also help, alongside the fab and powerful letter Annie has orchestrated from this grouping.
In solidarity
Jay
________________________________
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Barbara RIshworth <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Sent: 13 December 2016 08:52
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: COMMUNITYPSYCHUK Digest - 12 Dec 2016 to 13 Dec 2016 - Special issue (#2016-139)
Has anyone got hold of the whole report? I would be interested in reading it.
Best
Barbara
Sent from my iPhone
> On 13 Dec 2016, at 08:36, COMMUNITYPSYCHUK automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> There are 16 messages totaling 10628 lines in this issue.
>
> Topics in this special issue:
>
> 1. Layard Strikes Again (13)
> 2. COMMUNITYPSYCHUK Digest - 12 Dec 2016 (#2016-138) (3)
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 03:32:35 +0000
> From: Frederic Stansfield <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> Could somebody tell me what qualifications in Psychology Professor Layard
> has?.
>
> Frederic Stansfield
>
> On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 12:26 PM, David Fryer <
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
>> Dear Jay,
>>
>> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous,
>> damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You
>> ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here
>> is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take
>> the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>>
>> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a
>> relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex,
>> socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems
>> which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a
>> relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the
>> role of social, structural, material and political factors, to
>> individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups
>> implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of
>> responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined
>> with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g.
>> CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual
>> cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned
>> as the cause of social problems.
>>
>> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor
>> Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those
>> peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101.
>> However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the
>> psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to
>> resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To
>> engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be
>> more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the
>> master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we
>> should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces
>> through which human subjects are reconstituted under current
>> politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put
>> it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms,
>> violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the
>> contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution
>> of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution
>> as neoliberal subjects.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> *To:* [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> *Sent:* Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
>> *Subject:* Layard Strikes Again
>>
>>
>> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup,
>> especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to
>> ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to
>> Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of
>> press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the
>> LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the
>> study here
>> <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>.
>> This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression
>> and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would
>> also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now.
>> Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will
>> help.
>>
>> In solidarity - Jay
>>
>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David
>> Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>,
>> either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change
>> your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>
>>
>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David
>> Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>,
>> either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change
>> your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 07:15:49 +0000
> From: Jan Bostock <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> Please add my name to this Annie.
> Thank you for writing the letter.
> Jan
>
> From Jan Bostock
>
>
>> On 12 Dec 2016, at 21:14, Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>
>> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>>
>> Dear Editor,
>> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>>
>> Annie Mitchell
>> Clinical and community psychologist
>>
>>
>>
>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>>
>> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>>
>>
>> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>>
>>
>> can community psychology section speak out?
>>
>>
>> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>>
>>
>> Annie
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>>
>> Dear Jay,
>>
>> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>>
>> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>>
>> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
>> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>>
>>
>> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>>
>>
>> In
>> solidarity - Jay
>>
>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>
>>
>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>
>>
>> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>
>>
>> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 07:11:41 +0000
> From: Danielle Gaynor <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: COMMUNITYPSYCHUK Digest - 12 Dec 2016 (#2016-138)
>
> Please add my name as well, if not too late,
>
> Dr Danielle Gaynor, Clinical Psychologist
>
>> On 13 Dec 2016, at 00:01, COMMUNITYPSYCHUK automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>
>> There is 1 message totaling 595 lines in this issue.
>>
>> Topics of the day:
>>
>> 1. Layard Strikes Again
>>
>> ___________________________________
>> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
>> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2016 23:05:19 +0000
>> From: Helen Beckwith <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>>
>> Hi Annie,
>>
>> A well-written letter, I would be happy for my name to be added. Thank you.
>>
>> Helen Beckwith, Clinical Psychologist
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Sent: 12 December 2016 21:14
>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>>
>> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>>
>> Dear Editor,
>> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>>
>> Annie Mitchell
>> Clinical and community psychologist
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>>
>>
>> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>>
>>
>> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>>
>>
>> can community psychology section speak out?
>>
>>
>> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>>
>>
>> Annie
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>>
>> Dear Jay,
>>
>> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>>
>> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>>
>> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
>> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>>
>>
>> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>>
>> In solidarity - Jay
>>
>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>
>>
>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>> ________________________________
>> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>>
>> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>> ________________________________
>> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>>
>> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>
>> ___________________________________
>> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
>> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> End of COMMUNITYPSYCHUK Digest - 12 Dec 2016 (#2016-138)
>> ********************************************************
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 07:27:37 +0000
> From: Eleanor Shoultz Christian <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: COMMUNITYPSYCHUK Digest - 12 Dec 2016 (#2016-138)
>
> Annie,
>
> Thanks. Please also add my name, if not too late.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Dr Eleanor Shoultz
> Clinical Psychologist
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On 13 Dec 2016, at 07:22, Danielle Gaynor <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>
>> Please add my name as well, if not too late,
>>
>> Dr Danielle Gaynor, Clinical Psychologist
>>
>>> On 13 Dec 2016, at 00:01, COMMUNITYPSYCHUK automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>>
>>> There is 1 message totaling 595 lines in this issue.
>>>
>>> Topics of the day:
>>>
>>> 1. Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>> ___________________________________
>>> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
>>> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2016 23:05:19 +0000
>>> From: Helen Beckwith <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>> Hi Annie,
>>>
>>> A well-written letter, I would be happy for my name to be added. Thank you.
>>>
>>> Helen Beckwith, Clinical Psychologist
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>> Sent: 12 December 2016 21:14
>>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>>>
>>> Dear Editor,
>>> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>>>
>>> Annie Mitchell
>>> Clinical and community psychologist
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
>>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>>
>>> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>>>
>>>
>>> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>>>
>>>
>>> can community psychology section speak out?
>>>
>>>
>>> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>>>
>>>
>>> Annie
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
>>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>> Dear Jay,
>>>
>>> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>>>
>>> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>>>
>>> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
>>> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>>
>>> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>>>
>>> In solidarity - Jay
>>>
>>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>>
>>>
>>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>> ________________________________
>>> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>>>
>>> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>> ________________________________
>>> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>>>
>>> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>>
>>> ___________________________________
>>> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
>>> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> End of COMMUNITYPSYCHUK Digest - 12 Dec 2016 (#2016-138)
>>> ********************************************************
>>
>> ___________________________________
>> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
>> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 07:38:31 +0000
> From: info <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> I'd like my name added if still possible. Many thanks
>
> Sammy Man Clinical Psychologist
>
>
> Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
> -------- Original message --------From: Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Date: 12/12/2016 21:14 (GMT+00:00) To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late
> to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>
>
>
> Dear Editor,
>
> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th
> December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and
> despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those
> who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating
> many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>
>
>
>
> Annie Mitchell
>
> Clinical and community psychologist
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> <!-- P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;} -->
>
> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>
>
>
>
> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>
>
>
>
> can community psychology section speak out?
>
>
>
> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>
>
>
>
> Annie
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
>
>
>
> Dear Jay,
>
>
>
> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You
> ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>
>
>
> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised
> psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise
> and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention
> (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>
>
>
> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical
> psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether
> 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through
> which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the
> genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>
>
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
>
> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>
>
>
>
> <!--#yiv8583537602 P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}-->
>
>
>
>
>
> Folks,
> forgive me for not being an
> active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I
> don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study
> here.
> This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling
> poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> In
> solidarity - Jay
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
>
>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the
> information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care,
> Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments
> constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
>
>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the
> information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care,
> Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments
> constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form.
>
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jis
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 07:33:37 +0000
> From: Aisling Kelly <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> Dear Annie
> Please could you add my name? Thank you for doing this.
>
> Thank you
>
>
> Dr Aisling Kelly
> Clinical Psychologist
>
> On 12 Dec 2016, at 21:14, Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>
> Dear Editor,
> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>
> Annie Mitchell
> Clinical and community psychologist
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>
>
> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>
>
> can community psychology section speak out?
>
>
> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>
>
> Annie
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> Dear Jay,
>
> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>
> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>
> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>
> In solidarity - Jay
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/we
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 07:46:07 +0000
> From: "Daiches, Anna" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> Dear Annie,
>
> Please could you add my name as well. I think your letter is spot on.
>
> Thanks
>
> Anna
>
>
>
> On 12 Dec 2016, at 21:14, Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>
> Dear Editor,
> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>
> Annie Mitchell
> Clinical and community psychologist
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>
>
> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>
>
> can community psychology section speak out?
>
>
> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>
>
> Annie
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> Dear Jay,
>
> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>
> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>
> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>
> In solidarity - Jay
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 07:49:07 +0000
> From: jennifer maris <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> Great letter. Please add my name if not too late, thank you.
> Best wishes
> Jennifer
>
> On 12 Dec 2016 9:14 pm, Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>
> Dear Editor,
> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>
> Annie Mitchell
> Clinical and community psychologist
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>
>
> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>
>
> can community psychology section speak out?
>
>
> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>
>
> Annie
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> Dear Jay,
>
> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>
> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>
> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>
> In solidarity - Jay
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 08:04:14 +0000
> From: Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> Yes. Got everyone so far. I am adding attribution of Clinical or community psychologist to names where I know. Doesn,t have have to be. _sending it in 15 mins _______________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of jennifer maris <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 19:49:07
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> Great letter. Please add my name if not too late, thank you.
> Best wishes
> Jennifer
> On 12 Dec 2016 9:14 pm, Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>
> Dear Editor,
> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>
> Annie Mitchell
> Clinical and community psychologist
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>
> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>
> can community psychology section speak out?
>
> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>
> Annie
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> Dear Jay,
>
> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>
> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>
> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>
> In solidarity - Jay
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form.
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 07:57:22 +0000
> From: jennifer maris <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> I should my title; Senior Psychologist
>
> On 12 Dec 2016 9:14 pm, Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>
> Dear Editor,
> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>
> Annie Mitchell
> Clinical and community psychologist
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>
>
> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>
>
> can community psychology section speak out?
>
>
> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>
>
> Annie
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> Dear Jay,
>
> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>
> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>
> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>
> In solidarity - Jay
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 08:18:26 +0000
> From: Carl Harris <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: COMMUNITYPSYCHUK Digest - 12 Dec 2016 (#2016-138)
>
> Great letter, Annie. Please add my name if there's still time.
>
> Carl
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On 13 Dec 2016, at 07:11, Danielle Gaynor <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>
>> Please add my name as well, if not too late,
>>
>> Dr Danielle Gaynor, Clinical Psychologist
>>
>>> On 13 Dec 2016, at 00:01, COMMUNITYPSYCHUK automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>>
>>> There is 1 message totaling 595 lines in this issue.
>>>
>>> Topics of the day:
>>>
>>> 1. Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>> ___________________________________
>>> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
>>> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2016 23:05:19 +0000
>>> From: Helen Beckwith <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>> Hi Annie,
>>>
>>> A well-written letter, I would be happy for my name to be added. Thank you.
>>>
>>> Helen Beckwith, Clinical Psychologist
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>> Sent: 12 December 2016 21:14
>>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>>>
>>> Dear Editor,
>>> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>>>
>>> Annie Mitchell
>>> Clinical and community psychologist
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
>>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>>
>>> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>>>
>>>
>>> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>>>
>>>
>>> can community psychology section speak out?
>>>
>>>
>>> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>>>
>>>
>>> Annie
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
>>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>> Dear Jay,
>>>
>>> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>>>
>>> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>>>
>>> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
>>> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>>>
>>>
>>> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>>>
>>> In solidarity - Jay
>>>
>>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>>
>>>
>>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>> ________________________________
>>> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>>>
>>> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>> ________________________________
>>> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>>>
>>> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>>
>>> ___________________________________
>>> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
>>> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> End of COMMUNITYPSYCHUK Digest - 12 Dec 2016 (#2016-138)
>>> ********************************************************
>>
>> ___________________________________
>> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
>> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 08:20:42 +0000
> From: Carl Harris <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> Hi Tom
>
> Thanks for this, sounds interesting. Could you signpost us to the George Monbiot articles please?
>
> Best wishes
>
> Carl
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On 12 Dec 2016, at 14:39, Thomas Allan <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>
>> I am glad that this has come up on the list - this article came onto my radar this morning. First thought really based on the Guardian article but is there an either/or category being created between either addressing poverty (e.g. not having or not having access to essential resources) or addressing wellbeing as if mutually exclusive?
>>
>> Would be interesting to delve deeper and hear how the research was funded and how it came about. I don't know if it applies to this particular paper, but on other matters, I've read some interesting pieces by George Monbiot uncovering hidden interests underpinning certain 'outcomes' as they are presented to us as 'truth' in the public sphere
>> Tom.
>>
>>> On 12/12/2016 10:49, Jeanette Fegan wrote:
>>> Hi may be wrong but I wonder if the report is trying to take away the Government's responsibility to having input into financial inequalities! We all know that money alone does not create happiness. However lack of it has detrimental effects on all areas of an individuals life. Yes we should, once we have more information on the report, be challenging such views!!
>>> Thanks for bringing the report out into this arena.
>>> All views on my comments would be welcome.
>>> Kind regards
>>> Jeanette
>>> CPsychol
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On 12 Dec 2016, at 09:36, J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>>>>
>>>> In
>>>> solidarity - Jay
>>>>
>>>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>
>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 08:28:19 +0000
> From: P PRIEST <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> This is a great letter, thanks Annie, please add my namePenny
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
>
> On Tue, 13 Dec, 2016 at 8:04, Annie Mitchell<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: Yes. Got everyone so far. I am adding attribution of Clinical or community psychologist to names where I know. Doesn,t have have to be. _sending it in 15 mins _______________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of jennifer maris <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 19:49:07
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> Great letter. Please add my name if not too late, thank you.
> Best wishes
> Jennifer
> On 12 Dec 2016 9:14 pm, Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>
> Dear Editor,
> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>
> Annie Mitchell
> Clinical and community psychologist
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>
> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>
> can community psychology section speak out?
>
> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>
> Annie
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> Dear Jay,
>
> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>
> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>
> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>
> In solidarity - Jay
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form.
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 08:31:37 +0000
> From: Irmgard Tischner <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> Hi Annie
>
>
> If it's not too late, can you add my name to your letter, please? If you think titles are important you could add 'Social Psychologist' to my name.
>
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Irmgard
>
>
> Dr Irmgard Tischner
> Department of Health & Social Sciences
> Frenchay Campus
> UWE, Bristol, BS16 1QY
> T: +44 (0) 117 32 83956
> E: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> To book a tutorial (during term-time), please go to meetme.so/IrmgardTischner and follow the instructions.
>
> ‘Fat Lives – A feminist psychological exploration’, published by Routledge: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415680943/
>
> [1471620665649_PastedImage]
> http://ischp2017.weebly.com/
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 21:14
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>
> Dear Editor,
> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>
> Annie Mitchell
> Clinical and community psychologist
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>
>
> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>
>
> can community psychology section speak out?
>
>
> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>
>
> Annie
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> Dear Jay,
>
> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>
> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>
> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>
> In solidarity - Jay
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
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> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 08:33:53 +0000
> From: John Cromby <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> Hi
>
> The issue is probably more complicated than one of creating dichotomies
> because its also one of method.
>
> Happiness, as measured by Layard and others, is (or at least has been -
> I have not engaged with this new study yet) happiness measured by short
> self-report surveys in non-clinical contexts.
>
> The attached paper summarises some of the problems of this kind of
> research, see also various writings by the Midlands Psychology Group
> including:
>
> http://www.midpsy.org/psychologist0707.pdf
>
> Hope this is useful, best wishes
>
> J.
>
>
>
>
>> On 12/12/2016 14:51, [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> I agree with what has just been said about creating an either/or
>> dichotomy. There is plenty of evidence to say that healthy
>> relationships, an optimistic outlook etc does enhance resilience and
>> wellbeing - but this doesn’t mean that poverty and deprivation does
>> not impact negatively - in both chronic and acute ways. Poverty
>> creates stress, raises cortisol levels. etc all of which undermine
>> healthy relationships. Vicious cycle. Possibly the most useful
>> outcome from Layard’s research is the other side of the coin - greed
>> does not make for happiness so why is everyone pursuing this to the
>> detriment of wellbeing for all?
>>
>> Anyway thanks for the post - I am hoping to get to the LSE for
>> tomorrow’s conference so will be interested to hear what else is being
>> said. I did note though that the subject matter was SUBJECTIVE
>> wellbeing - and it is this we need to question in relation to the
>> common good.
>>
>> Sue
>>
>>
>> Dr Sue Roffey
>> Associate Professor Western Sydney University
>> Twitter @sueroffey
>> www.sueroffey.com<http://www.sueroffey.com> <http://www.sueroffey.com>
>> 0409 047 672 (Australia)
>> 07757 608 170 (UK)
>>
>>
>>> On 12 Dec 2016, at 2:39 PM, Thomas Allan <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I am glad that this has come up on the list - this article came onto
>>> my radar this morning. First thought really based on the Guardian
>>> article but is there an either/or category being created between
>>> either addressing poverty (e.g. not having or not having access to
>>> essential resources) or addressing wellbeing as if mutually exclusive?
>>>
>>> Would be interesting to delve deeper and hear how the research was
>>> funded and how it came about. I don't know if it applies to this
>>> particular paper, but on other matters, I've read some interesting
>>> pieces by George Monbiot uncovering hidden interests underpinning
>>> certain 'outcomes' as they are presented to us as 'truth' in the
>>> public sphere
>>>
>>> Tom.
>>>
>>>> On 12/12/2016 10:49, Jeanette Fegan wrote:
>>>> Hi may be wrong but I wonder if the report is trying to take away
>>>> the Government's responsibility to having input into financial
>>>> inequalities! We all know that money alone does not create
>>>> happiness. However lack of it has detrimental effects on all areas
>>>> of an individuals life. Yes we should, once we have more information
>>>> on the report, be challenging such views!!
>>>> Thanks for bringing the report out into this arena.
>>>> All views on my comments would be welcome.
>>>> Kind regards
>>>> Jeanette
>>>> CPsychol
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>> On 12 Dec 2016, at 09:36, J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup,
>>>>> especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping
>>>>> up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to
>>>>> respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and
>>>>> is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it
>>>>> is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today.
>>>>> However you can read a bit about the study here
>>>>> <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>.
>>>>> This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling
>>>>> depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling
>>>>> poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous,
>>>>> damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at
>>>>> this narrative as it emerges will help.
>>>>>
>>>>> In solidarity - Jay
>>>>>
>>>>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by
>>>>> David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>>>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey
>>>>> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of
>>>>> whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change
>>>>> your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>>>>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by
>>>> David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey
>>>> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of
>>>> whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your
>>>> details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>>>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>>
>>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by
>>> David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey
>>> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of
>>> whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your
>>> details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>>
>> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by
>> David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with
>> queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this
>> COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> --
> ********************************************************
> John Cromby
> University of Leicester School of Business
> University Road, Leicester
> LE1 7RH England UK
> Tel: 0116 223 1971
> ********************************************************
>
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 08:36:47 +0000
> From: "Browne, Nina" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> Pls add me too Annie
> Nina Browne
> Clinical Psychologist
>
>
> On 13 Dec 2016, at 08:31, Irmgard Tischner <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Annie
>
>
> If it's not too late, can you add my name to your letter, please? If you think titles are important you could add 'Social Psychologist' to my name.
>
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Irmgard
>
>
> Dr Irmgard Tischner
> Department of Health & Social Sciences
> Frenchay Campus
> UWE, Bristol, BS16 1QY
> T: +44 (0) 117 32 83956
> E: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> To book a tutorial (during term-time), please go to meetme.so/IrmgardTischner and follow the instructions.
>
> ‘Fat Lives – A feminist psychological exploration’, published by Routledge: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415680943/
>
> <OutlookEmoji-1471620665649_PastedImage.png>
> http://ischp2017.weebly.com/
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 21:14
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Layard Strikes Again
>
> I am thinking of sending this below. . I know a letter is a small thing.. It,s hard to get in and I imagine others may have written along similar lines Anyhow let me know by early tomorrow if anyone wants me want me to add yr name. It may already be too late to be accepted ( and maybe too long)
>
> Dear Editor,
> Richard Layard is promoting the idea that better provision of mental health services is more important than reducing social inequalities in promoting human happiness (Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, Guardian, Monday 12th December). This is a false dichotomy. Evidence suggests that austerity damages our collective health. Deepening economic and social divides, bullying, abuse, misogyny, racism, dehumanisation and consequent insecurity, trauma, social exclusion, neglect and despair underpin the current tsunami of desolation in the UK and beyond, specially in our children. These are largely economic and political matters, requiring cultural, social and political solutions. Psychological therapies, humanely delivered to those who want them, have a part to play in ameliorating human suffering, and we do need more flexible, kind and supportive services. But we must not pathologise those who are damaged by the injustices they experience. Degradation by the benefits system is now devastating many with long term illnesses in the UK. To imagine that therapy, rather than social transformation, can address or prevent the conditions that lead to despair is to be wilfully blind.
>
> Annie Mitchell
> Clinical and community psychologist
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Annie Mitchell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:43:11
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> yes: . thanks Jay, and David. . as reported in the Guardian, with Layard's comments ( and knowing of Layard's previous work and positioning ) this is damaging neo-liberal capitalist obscuring of the structural causes of trouble . we need to resist it.
>
>
> is there any scope for those who wished to do so to write to Guardian as of community psychologists? or would that just be continuing to play the psy-complex game?
>
>
> can community psychology section speak out?
>
>
> I'd be happy to help/ sign if so. thanks for finding the programme David/ And I gather Layard was on BBC Today programme this morning - I missed it but others may have heard it? NHS colleagues here were concerned... -
>
>
> Annie
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of David Fryer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Sent: 12 December 2016 00:26:49
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Layard Strikes Again
>
> Dear Jay,
>
> Thanks for alerting list members early to this, as you say, dangerous, damaging, discourse being currently disseminated. See also attached. You ask us to do what "we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges". Here is another thruppence worth from me which - I hope - also helps to take the discussion some of us have been having on the list half a step forward.
>
> Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE, has long been a relayer of discourses which simplistically re-position oppressive, complex, socially-constituted, phenomena as individualised psychological problems which have individual psychological solutions i.e. Professor Layard is a relayer of psy-complex discourses. These discourses function to obscure the role of social, structural, material and political factors, to individualise, psychologise and depoliticise and to absolve interest groups implicated in the oppression of responsibility for what is the case and of responsibility for for playing a role in effective intervention. Combined with Professor Layard's historically preferred mode of intervention (e.g. CBT) to address individual psychological problems, individual cognitive-behavioural dysfunction is victim-blamingly ultimately positioned as the cause of social problems.
>
> In this deployment of the psy-complex, the discourses peddled by Professor Layard are of course essentially no different in principle from those peddled by many psychologists. So far this is critical psychology 101. However to go a little further, it is important not only to resist the psy-complex wherever it is inscribed but also to resist temptation to resist it within the frame of reference within which it is presented. To engage in debate about whether 'tackling depression and anxiety' would be more or less effective than 'tackling poverty' would be to play the master's game by the master's rules and so to reinforce them. Rather we should try to uncover the interlocking systems of constituting forces through which human subjects are reconstituted under current politico-economic conditions and - as Biehl, Good and Kleinman (2007) put it - "inner processes are reshaped amid economic and political reforms, violence and social suffering". That is: to understand the genealogy of the contemporary neoliberal subject and to find ways to resist the constitution of such subjects, including finding ways to resist our own reconstitution as neoliberal subjects.
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: J Watts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, 12 December 2016, 19:36
> Subject: Layard Strikes Again
>
>
> Folks, forgive me for not being an active member of this egroup, especially with such rich discussions going on. I am just popping up now to ask if you could use your networks, and social power, to respond to Layard's new 'landmark' study which has hit today, and is getting lots of press. I don't have the methodology as yet, it is being presented at the LSE/OECD wellbeing conference today. However you can read a bit about the study here<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/12/happiness-depends-on-health-and-friends-not-money-says-new-study>. This sample quote from the Guardian may be telling: “Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. Dangerous, damaging, and happening now. Everything we can do to chip away at this narrative as it emerges will help.
>
> In solidarity - Jay
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
>
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ________________________________
> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
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>
> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
> ___________________________________ The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries. To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
>
> ___________________________________
> The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of COMMUNITYPSYCHUK Digest - 12 Dec 2016 to 13 Dec 2016 - Special issue (#2016-139)
> ***************************************************************************************
___________________________________
The list is jointly managed by David Fryer [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and Grant Jeffrey [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, either of whom are able to deal with queries.
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