Professional Documents
Culture Documents
understanding the mind and biogenetic makeup of the individual. Less attention is paid
to what is going on in the world and the relationship between individuals and society.
Smail argues that societal factors are just as important in influencing our emotional
In our current system we deem each individual’s emotional state to be “largely if not
psychology would increase freedom and dignity rather than diminish them” (this links
individuals for their suffering within society, Smail warns that we are making it easy for
“Smail argues that societal factors are just as important in influencing our
emotional states…”
operate at varying distances from the person. Smail proposes a model called the
‘power horizon’, where the ‘self’ is at the centre and the largest, most influential powers
(global powers and governments) lay out somewhere beyond the horizon, too far away
for the self to see – where all sorts of things might be happening.
Distal powers can take hold of our proximal space via media manipulation or
advertising, for example (see back to a previous post on this by Laurie Hannigan). One
way that this has happened has been via the globalisation of the ‘free market’, which
has resulted in the sale of ‘highly desirable’ consumer goods, which are actually the
product of brutal exploitation of labour on the other side of the world – hidden from
the consumers.
We are unconscious of these distal powers and it is difficult for us to comprehend their
influence over us, because it is difficult for us to feel our conduct as anything other than
our own creation. As a result, Smail suggests that we invest a disproportionate amount
and anxiety”. Smail suggests that “when things go well we falsely credit ourselves with
virtue, and when things go wrong we wrongly torment ourselves with blame”. In actual
fact, “most things come out the way they do in accordance with the interests of the
powerful”.
“… it is difficult for us to feel our conduct as anything other than our own
creation.”
the psychologist’s job should not be “to diagnose the ‘inner person’ but to explicate his
or her relationship with the outside world”. This involves helping the individual to
determine what is and isn’t possible for them to change with regards to their
circumstances.
Smail uses this argument to denounce the practise of cognitive behavioural therapy
different light”. Smail suggests that we cannot find the cure to emotional distress at a
personal level, because “along with seeing the need to change”, individuals “need
the power to change”. By establishing the limits of individual responsibility and power,
we may be able to lift a heavy burden of apprehension or guilt from those who are
which has been manipulated by distal powers. So in summary, Smail urges the reader
to “take really seriously the fact that we are a society, not a collection of individuals,
wishfulness”.
Having finished the book I am left wondering whether we are doing enough to
accommodate this perspective in our research. How do the points raised by Smail