Have you ever found yourself resonating with something you were watching, only to learn years later why that was? Years ago, I watched UK based documentary by Adam Curtis called HyperNormalisation (2016). Not long after that, it happened again while watching the US-based television series Shameless (even though it first aired In 2011). Both left me thinking there were important understandings to be gained.

It was not until I commenced a role in a counselling programme (it was one of the theories that formed the programme’s foundation) some years later (2020) that I started to understand. What I learned was that both were based on Critical Theory, a theory that was about how individuals - everyday people - are ‘positioned’ in ways that create inequality-disadvantage. More specifically, how the political-economic power structure (e.g., Neo-Liberalism) negatively, and often subtlety-invisibly, positions individuals in how they live their daily lives (while individuals are still believing that self-determinism is completely obtainable).

Now that I have returned to private practice full time, I’m taking the opportunity to delve even further into it. As I do, I am becoming more convinced of the importance of what Critical Theory has to offer. In fact, I can no longer imagine a Social Worker, Support Worker, Counsellor, etc. doing their role effectively without having at least a basic understanding about the theory.

At the least, it can assist clients to let go of the, ‘it must be me’ way of responding (along with the myth that each individual has complete free will). At its most, it can assist clients to improve their understanding about their positioning so they can, paradoxically, be empowered to better navigate their way out of the resulting poor position in the world.

In other words, understanding Critical Theory can transform professional practice and those whose lives professional practice is meant to benefit.

So why did these documentary and television series resonate so strongly with myself? It’s a complex question to answer but with respect to Shameless I could clearly see my own family in the Gallagher family, the family the series is based on. I could see the beliefs (frustrations?) of those whose circumstances were primarily one of poverty, a poverty that was magnified by those whom had privilege and power.

And if you do not yet know if Critical Theory is your thing? Perhaps, by having a watch of HyperNormalisation or Shameless you, too, can see if it resonates. If not, there are many books out there on Critical Theory; its origins are more than a hundred years ago.

As for myself, I am starting with Critical Theory (2nd Ed): A Very Short Introduction by Stephen Eric Bronner. Lets hope it is as engaging as the television documentary and series were!