The Value of Ellul’s Analysis in Understanding Propaganda in the Helping Professions

Bibliographic Data

ID20360495
AuthorsEileen Gambrill (0000-0002-4564-0672, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume32
Issue3
Pages187-202
Publication date2012-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBulletin of Science Technology & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0270-4676 • E-ISSN: 1552-4183
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0270467612458064
OpenAlexW2005662415
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited65

This article draws on Ellul’s analysis of propaganda in understanding propaganda in the helping professions. Key in such an analysis is the interweaving of the psychological and sociological. Contrary to the discourse in mission statements of professional organizations and their codes of ethics calling for informed consent, competence of professionals and taking advantage of research findings, in everyday practice we find a variety of avoidable lapses, including decontextualized problem framing, bogus claims concerning risks, accuracy of assessment measures, and effectiveness of interventions. Perhaps most troubling is obscuring the causes of human problems, for example, framing problems-in-living such as anxiety, alienation, and loneliness that result from living in a technological society as brain disorders, so mystifying the causes of distress

Alienation · Distress · Loneliness · Political science · Psychological intervention · Psychotherapist · Public relations · Sociology · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Law · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub