Radical therapy: A research note on the use of ideological work in maintaining a deviant subculture

Abstract

A social protest movement which survived the demise of the New Left is explored in terms of ways in which a countercultural group preserved a particular kind of deviant subculture. Radical therapy developed from an opposition to American middle class values as they were institutionalized in psychiatric practice. While identifying themselves as Marxist revolutionaries, members reacted to the decline of social activism by adopting a hidden agenda of psychological transformation activities and duplicating traditional structures in their “radical” therapy. The longevity of radical therapy is explained in terms of its effectiveness in benefitting from the dominant culture while preserving members's deviant identities through various forms of ideological work.