Editing Anti-psychiatry (section)

=== Civilization as a cause of distress ===
In recent years, psychotherapists [[David Smail (psychologist)|David Smail]] and [[Bruce E. Levine]], considered part of the anti-psychiatry movement, have written widely on how society, culture, politics and psychology intersect. They have written extensively of the "embodied nature" of the individual in society, and the unwillingness of even therapists to acknowledge the obvious part played by power and financial interest in modern Western society. They argue that feelings and emotions are not, as is commonly supposed, features of the individual, but rather responses of the individual to their situation in society. Even psychotherapy, they suggest, can only change feelings in as much as it helps a person to change the "proximal" and "distal" influences on their life, which range from family and friends, to the workplace, socio-economics, politics and culture.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smail |first=David John |author-link=David Smail (psychologist) |title=Power Interest and Psychology |publisher=PCCS Books |year=2005 |location=Ross-on-Wye, UK |isbn=978-1-898059-71-4}}</ref><ref name=LevineAlterNet>{{cite web |url=http://www.alternet.org/authors/bruce-e-levine |title=Bruce E. Levine's columns |work=Alternet |access-date=2013-12-12 |archive-date=2014-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140123132623/http://www.alternet.org/authors/bruce-e-levine |url-status=live }} at [[AlterNet]]</ref>

R. D. Laing emphasized [[family nexus]] as a mechanism by which individuals become [[victimized]] by those around them, and spoke about a dysfunctional society.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Fadul  |editor-first=Jose |title=Anti-psychiatry |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Theory & Practice in Psychotherapy & Counseling |date=2014 |publisher=Lulu Press Inc. |isbn=978-1-312-07836-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Laing |first=R.D. |year=1960 |title=The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness |publisher=Penguin Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Laing |first1=R.D. |last2=Esterson |first2=A. |name-list-style=amp |author-link2=Aaron Esterson |year=1964 |title=Sanity, Madness and the Family |place=London |publisher=Penguin}}</ref>