Not protecting oneself in the pursuit of truth

I mentioned Foucault’s 1983 lectures devoted to the study of the Greek notion of parrhesia in a recent post on my Thinking Differently About Mental Health blog. This built on the recent post on this blog about truth-telling in psychiatry. In its positive sense, parrhesia is a virtuous personal attitude and quality to speak the truth boldly. The trouble is that there is a risk in being this kind of person, because speaking the truth may cause hurt or anger leading to retaliation, including scapegoating. 

I have experienced this in the workplace, as I have mentioned previously (see eg. previous post). Although I survived these experiences, they did leave their scars. They caused considerable stress, not least for my family as well as myself. It's no wonder that people find it easier not to challenge authority, even if it is leading people down the wrong road.  Of course the trouble is despots and tyrants survive on that fear. Even people who are not necessarily despots or tyrants can be more interested in maintaining the organisation rather than facing up to the truth (see eg. another previous post).

People may now be encouraged to speak out, for example in the NHS to improve care (see eg. previous post). Wes Streeting, current Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, may have finally realised that the Care Quality Commission, charged with regulating health and social care providers, is not fit for purpose (see eg. BBC report). It may be important for the Care Quality Commssion to remember its history (see eg. previous post). But freedom to speak out can be exploited by people using the facility for their own ends, eg. to target people they don't like. How one separates those that are speaking from the position of parrhesia or manipulating 'freedom to speak out' for their own ends is not easy.