Two social work professionals published an article arguing that critical social justice ideology has distorted cognitive behavioral therapy by promoting thinking patterns the therapy is designed to treat.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Two therapists have published a scholarly article arguing that critical social justice ideology has weakened parts of the psychology field by encouraging cognitive patterns associated with poorer mental health outcomes.
Arnold Cantú and Nathan Gallo, both social work professionals, authored the article in the latest special issue of Current Opinion in Psychology. Their work was reported by The College Fix, which said the authors examined how left-wing ideology has influenced mental health counseling and classroom instruction.
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The article offers what the authors describe as “an alternative explanation for potential causes behind the rise in psychiatric diagnoses and poorer mental health outcomes for people who identify as liberal or left-leaning in the United States.”
Cantú and Gallo said research has repeatedly found a relationship between left-leaning political identity and worse reported mental health outcomes.
“Research regularly suggests that left-leaning people have poorer mental health than conservatives,” the two said in an emailed statement to The College Fix, adding it is a “notable finding that has become increasingly applicable to the younger generation.”
The authors argue that the incorporation of what they call critical social justice ideology into psychology has worsened the trend by reshaping cognitive behavioral therapy, a widely used approach for treating psychological distress.
“This article argues that woke ideology—what we refer to as critical social justice ideology—has warped a well-established psychotherapy approach often used to treat various kinds of psychological distress, known as cognitive-behavioral therapy,” they said.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is designed to help patients identify and challenge distorted thought patterns. Cantú and Gallo contend that critical social justice ideology instead reinforces some of those same patterns.
“This ideology’s main tenets are full of ‘cognitive distortions,’ which are faulty, automatic patterns of thinking that CBT attempts to treat,” they said. “Instead, woke ideology intentionally promotes these patterns, resulting in poorer mental health for clients, families, and therapists who buy into it.”
Their thesis builds on the work of scholars Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, who have written about mental health trends among young liberals and the role of cultural and ideological pressures.
Cantú and Gallo describe the effect as “reverse cognitive-behavioral therapy,” arguing that critical social justice ideology inverts a treatment model long used to reduce psychological distress.
The paper identifies several cognitive distortions that the authors say are encouraged by aspects of critical social justice ideology. Those include dichotomous thinking, emotional reasoning, overgeneralization, tunnel vision, magnification and minimization.
According to the authors, those patterns can affect clients, families and therapists when ideological assumptions replace the standard therapeutic goal of examining and correcting distorted thinking.
The article argues that the issue is not limited to individual counseling sessions. The authors also point to the influence of critical social justice ideology in psychology education, saying it may affect how future therapists are trained to understand distress, identity, social conflict and personal responsibility.
The College Fix reported that Cantú and Gallo’s work attempts to explain why liberal and left-leaning individuals, particularly younger people, have shown poorer mental health outcomes in research. The authors’ central claim is that ideological frameworks within therapy and education may reinforce distress rather than help patients develop tools to evaluate their thoughts more accurately.
Their article adds to a broader debate over whether mental health practice should incorporate political and social ideology into treatment. Cantú and Gallo argue that when therapy validates distorted thinking instead of challenging it, the result can undermine a core function of cognitive behavioral therapy.
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