Siddique, Salma

English

Aberdeen University Research

THE TRANSACTIONAL ANALYST AUTUMN 2016 35Column: Grace notesHANNAH ARENDT (1993) DEFINED socialresponsibility as both an individual’s values anda political presence of belonging or sufferingand acting or doing which ‘…needs the presence ofothers before whom they can appear.’ (Arendt, 1993:154).As an educator in the field of counselling andpsychotherapy I am surprised at the lack of debate,recognition or acknowledgement, that the problems ofclients, their families and communities, may not haveoriginated solely from themselves. There is very littleliterature in the field of counselling and psychotherapyidentifying a discourse of fairness and justice.I have always felt a sense of responsibility as aneducator training therapists, to encourage them to act asethical practitioners and to minimise adverse effects. Indialogue with therapy trainees at the start of anotheracademic year I pose the question of whether the task ofcounselling and psychotheraphy is to support the clientto ‘adjust to fit’, or to challenge, the system (British). Iinvite students to question where their role begins andends with therapy and our relationship with society.What’s our role as therapists in the world? I will questionthe fraying boundary between the external and internalworld. If we navigate our life courses between our man-made crises and natural disasters do we sleepwalkthrough life? In therapy I hear all too often the tragicmonologue of survivor’s guilt of managing to hold on to arelationship, job or health or social support. Notions offreedom and responsibility (Massey, 2006) varydepending on the context, education, kinship, culture,and religious conviction which ultimately offer a framethrough which to view the world. Therefore our lifeexperience shapes, views and influences, behaviours inour ego states. The therapy room is much like a lost andfound office where clients unburden themselves offeelings of shame, blame and guilt of not being able to doenough.In realising my personal power as a partner, friend,colleague and sibling and with my professional power asa therapist and academic I close my eyes and take a ‘leapinto faith’ into the open arms of the totality of experience.I usually find the experience challenging if not worryingand even frightening! We live in a capitalist societywhere the measure of worth is usually calculated by howmuch one is paid by the hour and one must be seen to beproductive in order to be valuable to society. FranzKafka’s stories speak of chaos and the absurdity of thingsin the emerging contemporary scientific-technologicalworld-view of suffering and alienation and offer aninteresting metaphor for how one arrives at self-realisation. Maybe Kafka and other novelists understandmore than others the human condition of the therapyroom as a space where loneliness is experienced anddespair is shared. In Kafka’s book (1915) TheMetamorphosis, Gregor’s life position in society isnarrated. Gregor’s transformation from man to insect,from mobility to immobility, from resource to burden onfamily, friends, colleagues and in turn society is shown.Society is quick to reject individuals. Gregor alone andisolated in his bedroom starves to death from neglect.The parental existential messages are that members ofsociety earn their space and place for leisure andhappiness through work – this informed Gregor’s self-identity – in failing at this he subsequently dies.More and more I am experiencing the loss of hope inthose who are marginalised and in communities that arerendered invisible, and I despair at witnessing thepersecution and distrust which can seem all enveloping.We as a profession have generally chosen to fall silent astherapists in the services and institutions we inhabit. As atherapist is there not a social responsibility in creatingand maintaining an ‘I’m OK, You’re OK’ (Berne, 1964)social contract of wellbeing and of equity? (English 2006;Massey 2006), are we too caught up in the presentdespair – how can we take on more social responsibility?ReferencesArendt, H. (1993) We are Refugees, in Marc Robinson(ed.), Altogether Elsewhere. Writers on Exile, Washington;HarvestBerne, E. (1964) Games People Play. London: Grove pressEnglish, F. (2006) Unconscious Constraints to Freedomand Responsibility. TAJ, vol 36(2): pp172-175.Kafka, F. (1915 ) The Metamorphosis. Leipzig: Verlag PressMassey, R.F. (2006) Freedom with Responsibility:Interconnecting Self, Others, and Social Structures inContexts. TAJ, vol 36(2), pp134-151GRACENOTES XXHow can we take on more social responsibility?asks DR SALMA SIDDIQUEDr Salma Siddique CTA(P) PTSTA is aclinical anthropologist, researcher andacademic in counselling andpsychotherapy at the University ofAberdeen. She works with RTEs on aconsultancy basis for research skillsand CTA prep. groups.

Grace Notes XX : How can we take on more social responsibility?

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