This book offers a compelling critical analysis of American society by examining the role of psychotherapy within social policy and the culture that has fashioned it. It takes a deeply critical look at the social clinic, defined here as a ubiquitous organizational arrangement that includes clinical and community psychology, counseling, clinical social work, psychiatry, much of the self-help industry, complementary and alternative medicine and others. Epsteins analysis concludes that the social clinic lacks credible evidence of effectiveness and its continued popularity expresses popular but predatory American values such as romantic individualism, the triumph of the subjective, a sense of personal and political chosenness, persistent bigotry, and a preference for tribal as opposed to civic identities. This careful examination of American society through the lens of psychotherapeutic practice characterizes the social clinic as a soothing fiction of the United States.The book offers caring services as the unrealized alternative to clinical treatment, capable of achieving greater personal adjustment as well as social and economic equality. It will appeal to readers with an interest in social welfare, public policy, and public administration, as well as to students and scholars of psychotherapy, counseling, social work, rehabilitation, and community psychology.

William M. Epsteinwas Professor of Social Work at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA until his retirement in 2019. He is the author ofThe Masses are the Ruling Classes (2017),Empowerment as Ceremony New (2013), andDemocracy without Decency: Good Citizenship and the War on Poverty(2010).

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part I.  Psychotherapy.- Chapter 2. Psychotherapy and Tests of Effectiveness.- Chapter 3. Psychotherapy for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.- Chapter 4. Psychotherapy for Depression and Addiction.- Chapter 5. Psychotherapy and Society.- Part II. Clinical Social Work.- Chapter 6. Precursors to Modern Social Work.- Chapter 7. Contemporary Social Work and the Social Clinic.- Chapter 8. Clinical Social Work in Child Foster Care, Family Preservation, and Schools.- Part III. Other Practices of the Social Clinic.- Chapter 9. Community Psychological Practice and a Note on Rehabilitation in Corrections.- Chapter 10. Mind and Spirit on the Fringes of the Social Clinic.- Chapter 11. Soothing Fictions.