Introduction

UKCP Chair Petitions the Prime Minister on the Government Misuse of Behavioural Science

The detailed Open Letter that follows was sent last year to the British Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Rishi Sunak. The letter, written by the current Chair of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), raises grave questions about the arguably unethical deployment of behavioural science and psychological techniques by the British government during the Covid period. It is one of two pieces on this issue appearing in this final issue of our Humanistic Psychology journal Self & Society – the other being a paper by retired Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Dr Gary Sidley. As editor, I am delighted to be publishing these two vital contributions to an issue that has understandably troubled many principled professionals over the past few years, and which raises essential questions that governments in a free democratic society must surely reflect deeply upon in the wake of Covid.

Richard House, Ph.D., C.Psychol.
Editor, Self & Society