Recalling the Call for Ideas (October 2008): What do the British Want? not all

In the preparation period leading up to the sumbission of ideas to the HPC last autumn, this comment was made by Dr Richard Klein. It's a beautiful piece of writing: enigmatic, rhythmic, wise.



"The specular image of the mirror stage is the banal instrument that keeps us in the scene, that keeps us where we like to be, and that protects us from the world. The scene, of course, is imaginary - it is dominated by the image, and it introduces inertia into our mind.

"Politicians use it for electioneering purposes, or for moral goals. In psychoanalysis, we call this goal an ego ideal. Our political leaders embrace this ideal quite frequently - if not all the time. If you want to call a network of signifiers out of which come rules, regulations and laws - if you want to call that the symbolic, you would be following Lacan a little bit. The neo-labour politician speaks at the level of the ego ideal in order to shore up what he or she perceives to be unravelling and in order to ensure its citizens protection from all sorts of criminals.

"He promises from the point of the ideal to keep all “his people” (usually an American politician that uses this expression) safely in the scene, offering them protection from the world. For instance, Britishness is perceived to be unravelling. It has become an ego ideal that does not keep enough people in the scene anymore. We hear the signifier “British” uttered with increasing frequency and desperateness by our political leaders. It’s not only Europe that the British don’t want. The British don’t even want Britain. Freud’s famous question has never been answered. What does the woman want? Our politicians have to cope with a question that produces an even greater enigma that Freud’s: What do the British want?

"Life is difficult for a politician in this country. The ideal signifiers have weakened. Moreover, I am not too sure what the world is from which I need political protection. I think it is probably the atmosphere which is wearing out as an effect of whatever is falling out of the scene: storms, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, oceans, mountains, animal life, drains and sewers to catch what is falling out of the scene. None of this fits very well into the categories of the symbolic and the imaginary.

"But there is still one trick left to symbolise the world: we can’t have God without a plague of locusts. We can’t have the Father without real effects.

"These very politicians who do not know what the British want, now invite us to provide them with some ideas about what we want. "you tell us how we can protect everyone from the world. We are reasonable people. We will play with your ideas." this invitation is no more and no less an attempt to demonstrate to the world that our government runs on reason from the Scottish Enlightenment.

"What does the psychoanalyst want? Not all. That's what the psychoanalysts want. We must confront the government with that same enigma; the one that the woman confronts Freud with, and as it turns out, the one that the British do too. Not all."

HPC call for ideas for regulating psychotherapy and counselling

If you go into the web-link in this blog's title, you will download a document about the proceedings to include counselling and psychotherapy in the HPC register.

I suppose it is because the HPC is already set up on the basis of a legal statute that they must proceed as if it is ipso facto a good idea to regulate this practice. The questions are already set up on the contentious assumption that the HPC is the right way to register professionals. The call for ideas, then, is a highly particular call, and precludes the possibility that anyone should have a different idea. This is extremely worrying, especially given the field of work that is in question here.

Summary of questions
The following is a summary of the questions we have asked in this document:
1. What are your views about how the Register should be structured for
psychotherapists and counsellors?
2. Which titles should be protected and why?
3. What criteria might be used in considering which voluntary registers should transfer and which should not?
4. We invite voluntary membership organisations to provide us with details about:
o The number of members and the extent to which this number is likely to overlap with membership of other organisations.
o Information about arrangements for determining entry to membership.
o Information about arrangements for considering complaints about members.
5. How long should the grandparenting period be open for and why?
6. Are there are any other matters which the group should consider in recommending appropriate grandparenting arrangements?
7. We would welcome any information about:
o The number and names of existing qualifications leading to the practice of psychotherapy and counselling.
o Types of qualifications including the academic level or academic awards of those qualifications.
o The structure of qualifications including theoretical content and practical experience.
o Quality assurance of qualifications including existing internal and external quality assurance mechanisms.
8. What issues should the PLG consider in determining the threshold level of qualification for entry to the Register?
9. What existing standards or other work should the PLG take into account in putting together draft standards of proficiency?
10. Do you have any further comments?

http://www.hpc-uk.org/assets/documents/1000234Fcouncil_20080703_enclosure08.pdf