Employing Dadaistic subversion as an instrument of critique
It is deliciously tricky and exciting – employing Dadaistic subversion as an instrument of critique, to explore the current landscape of orthodox Western psychological schools. Especially because I am a trained organizational- and clinical psychologist with a bunch of experience in different methods of psychotherapy such as family therapy, behavior therapy, analytical therapy, body therapy or gestalt therapy practiced with individuals and groups. Here my poetic and analytical arguments what makes four main "schools" of psychology fall short to serving what I call the Caring Trickster behavior repertoire as reliable and liberating.
The moment Dadaistic acts of intervention are interpreted through an orthodox psychological lens — behaviorist, cognitive, psychoanalytic, humanistic, or AI based — they can lose their subversive edge. They risk being framed as symptoms, deficits, or neuroses. A Dadaist intervention, such as outperforming a power player by letting his/her mean statements grasp at nothing may be recast as a mere 'coping mechanism,' of having problems with authority. With this alertness on my mind I start exploring.
In the West we rely on four big psychological schools: Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism, Neuroscience, and AI-based psychological interventions.
Psychoanalysis, with its faith in uncovering repressed memories as the key to psychic truth, falters on the recognition that memory does not faithfully represent reality but instead reconstructs it, turning therapeutic insight into an act of narrative creation rather than factual recovery.
Loftus, E. F., & Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric Annals, 25(12), 720–725.
Behaviorism, in its quest for scientific precision, reduces the richness of human experience to observable behavior, neglecting the inner thoughts and meanings that give actions psychological depth.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Prentice Hall. Luxton, D. D. (2014). Artificial intelligence in psychological practice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 45(5), 332–339.
Neuroscience, though powerful in mapping the brain's mechanisms, succumbs to reductionism, translating the complexity of the mind into mere neural circuitry while leaving subjective experience unexplained.
Nagel, T. (1974). What is it like to be a bat? The Philosophical Review, 83(4), 435–450. Searle, J. R. (1992). The Rediscovery of the Mind. MIT Press.
Finally, AI-based psychological interventions, though innovative and accessible, by copying effectively the other three schools, lack genuine empathy and moral understanding essential to human connection, offering algorithmic simulation in place of authentic care.
Bendig, E., et al. (2019). The next generation: Chatbots in clinical psychology. Internet Interventions, 18, 100–276. Luxton, D. D. (2014). Professional Psychology, 45(5), 332–339.
There are not only established schools of psychotherapy, but also single psychotrends. Think of terms such as mindfulness, psychedelic-assisted therapy, digital wellness, or trauma-informed practices. One example: Gabor Maté's book The Myth of Normal is among the most discussed new releases in the field of trauma and healing. But the physician Maté focuses so strongly on trauma that he explains almost every psychological disorder through it.
My DADA asks: "And the molecules in space? And the color of the wind?" — an ironic reminder that complex realities cannot be reduced to simple lines. Maté's focus on individual healing potential is appealing, yet the machinery of society remains untouched. Whether a single topic or an entire model, caution is advised when applying it in psychotherapy. DADA recommends: hit pause – reality is too absurd to be squeezed into simple models.
I deeply respect those of my professional colleagues who are followers of one of these schools and apply their methods in mastership thereby avoiding charlatanism. But psychology as a science must be very sensitive to shortcuts and doctrines because we work with the human fabric itself.
Each method, in its own way, illuminates an aspect of the psyche but is undermined by the very lens through which it seeks mastery — showing that no single framework can encompass the full truth of human psychological life.
Traditional talk therapies primarily engage cognitive and narrative processes, often neglecting the body as a site of psychological experience. Yet clinical and neurobiological research consistently demonstrates that emotional distress exerts continuous physiological strain.
Somatic approaches address this gap by working directly with embodied experience. Rather than relying solely on storytelling or rational interpretation, somatic therapy helps individuals observe how emotions, thoughts, and physiological states interact in real time.
Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score articulates this principle clearly, emphasizing that traumatic stress is not merely remembered cognitively but is organized and expressed through the body. Integrated thoughtfully and ethically, embodiment-based work represents a significant asset to psychotherapeutic effectiveness.
I have developed a few practical rules of how to break free from being caught in concepts and models that you can test and encounter in my workshops.
Dadaism (c. 1916–1924), with its anti-rational, anti-systemic, and anti-teleological stance, fundamentally opposed the notion that human experience can be stabilized, repaired, or "fixed" through orderly methods. Transposed from an artistic movement into psychological practice, a Dadaistic intervention refuses both normalization and optimization.
Rather than merely resisting imposed structures of meaning, it would actively invite the emergence of unburdened behavior — actions freed from instrumental purpose, coherent narrative, or corrective intent. In this sense, Dada can function as a "last-mile" delivery to the psyche: not a method of cure, but a behavior disruption that opens space for spontaneous, non-compliant forms of being.