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A Psychologist for the Unemployed

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Clarissa

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People are so weird:

The UK government [has] promised to put psychologists into job centres “to provide integrated employment and mental health support to claimants with common mental health conditions” but with the potential threat of having assistance removed if people do not attend treatment.

It has been criticised as ‘treating unemployment as a mental problem’ or an attempt to ‘psychologically reprogramme the unemployed’ and has triggered an upcoming march on a London job centre.

What kind of a freak marches against assistance to the unemployed? Long-term unemployed desperately need a psychologist. After 7-8 months of unemployment, workers need psychological assistance to re-inscribe themselves into the workplace. Long-term unemployment is both an effect and a cause of psychological issues. And if the UK government wants to rehabilitate the unemployed, this is a great thing that is to be applauded.

6 responses to “A Psychologist for the Unemployed”

  1. valter07 Avatar
    valter07

    Can one call an average product of modern civilization “a freak”? See, by introducing psychological help to employment centers the government is shattering a very important illusion – that being employed or unemployed is, if not a result of a totally random process, then at least something depending not on the person, but on something else. (What this something else is varies, depending on whom you are talking to – left- or right-winger 🙂 ).
    This reminds me of an instance when I tried to support a friend on Facebook by, among other things, reminding her how much she achieved with her hard work. Some other friends called me a libertarian for that. Because, apparently, in some circles one’s success or failure is only determined by dumb luck, and statements to the contrary are not PC.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      “See, by introducing psychological help to employment centers the government is shattering a very important illusion – that being employed or unemployed is, if not a result of a totally random process, then at least something depending not on the person, but on something else.”

      • Yes, you are absolutely right. People would rather condemn the unemployed to continued unemployment than see their mythology challenged.

      “Some other friends called me a libertarian for that. Because, apparently, in some circles one’s success or failure is only determined by dumb luck, and statements to the contrary are not PC.”

      • When I published my post about my husband finding a job after being unemployed for 2 years, the reaction was so weird. People were contorting themselves into all sorts of weird shapes to prove that this was nothing but dumb luck. Learned helplessness at its finest, that’s what this is.

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  2. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    It depends on what this psychological help is.

    It could be actual help or it could be a copy of Who Moved My Cheese or someone telling you that your name that you can’t afford to legally change is stopping you from getting a job.

    Who knows? Perhaps people fear that the stigma of being unemployed being linked to the stigma of getting therapy (because to a lot of people getting therapy means you are crazy) will stop them from getting a job even if it’s beneficial.

    If it’s employed people who are upset over this, maybe it’s just a case of “fuck you moocher, you don’t deserve anything crazy unemployed person”.

    If it’s the post I think it is, N exhibited the complete opposite of learned helplessness. Two years is a long time to make huge efforts before they pay off.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      “If it’s the post I think it is, N exhibited the complete opposite of learned helplessness. Two years is a long time to make huge efforts before they pay off.”

      • The learned helplessness bit was obviously not meant to describe him. 🙂 I meant the people whose life philosophy hinges in the belief that effort and hard work are meaningless against the dictates of fate or whatever. N was very heroic throughout the entire process. I would have already driven everybody up a wall with my drama if I were unemployed for 2 years.

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  3. valter07 Avatar
    valter07

    On the other hand, it is also true that we may be imagining the best psychologist we ever met magically stationed at each center. In reality these are probably not amazingly good psychologists who are part of the government campaign. They may perform some pseudo-psychological duties mechanically, and this indeed may not be very helpful…

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    1. valter07 Avatar
      valter07

      And in my humble opinion, CBT is not good for the type of problems chronically unemployed may have. There is a tendency to stick CBT everywhere, both where it fits and where it does not. Phobias, maybe. But not “attitude towards work”.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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