155. The Wrong Kind of Student: Arnold Cantu on Academic Freedom and the Capture of Social Work

Today my guest is Arnold Cantu, a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist with experience in school social work, private practice, and community mental health. What made Arnold drop out of his doctoral program despite his passion for academic and clinical research, even as he became a published author well ahead of his classmates?

Our conversation explores the challenging dynamics Arnold faced as a doctoral student who didn't perfectly align with certain ideological expectations, despite his progressive research interests critiquing the biomedical model of mental health. With seven years of clinical experience before entering his program in 2021, Arnold anticipated some political slant but was surprised by the extent of ideological conformity enforced.

What pressures do students face when they don't enthusiastically embrace every aspect of critical social justice ideology? How thin is the line between education and indoctrination? What happens when a student defines "anti-oppressive" using a dictionary definition rather than approved academic literature?

Arnold shares how he found himself under scrutiny not for being confrontational in class, but simply for not demonstrating sufficient enthusiasm for certain frameworks. Despite being a Mexican-American clinician focused on improving mental health services for immigrant communities, his approach wasn't considered progressive enough.

The situation escalated when Arnold shared a link about academic freedom in a class survey, prompting professors to call meetings to discuss his values and commitment to social justice. He eventually withdrew in 2024 after what he describes as "one of the lowest years of my life," finding much greater happiness returning to clinical work.

We discuss the paradox Arnold observed between an allegedly "anti-oppressive" framework that created an oppressive academic environment and the challenges of intellectual diversity in social work education. Despite leaving his program, Arnold has continued his scholarly work, publishing books and articles critiquing the medical model of mental health.

This conversation raises important questions about the future of social work education, the tension between truth-seeking and political activism in academia, and whether students with diverse perspectives can thrive in programs with increasingly rigid ideological expectations.

Look for a future episode where Arnold and I will dive deeper into his critique of the medical model and how certain "progressive" approaches to mental health may paradoxically reinforce oppressive frameworks.

Arnoldo Cantú, LCSW is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist with experience in school social work, private practice, and currently working in community mental health seeing children, adolescents, families, and adults. Cantú was born in Mexico and considers Texas home having grown up in the Rio Grande Valley, though currently resides in the beautiful city of Fort Collins located in northern Colorado. He is the lead editor of a trio of volumes in the Ethics International Press Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry Series titled Theoretical Alternatives to the Psychiatric Model of Mental Disorder Labeling, Practical Alternatives to the Psychiatric Model of Mental Illness, and Institutionalized Madness: The Interplay of Psychiatry and Society’s Institutions. He's written critically not only about the idea of so-called mental disorder, but also the idea of race categories.

Arnold’s recent article: A Case for Intellectual Humility, Tolerance, and Humanism: Perspectives from an Ethnically “Minoritized” Graduate Student

Arnold's ResearchGate profile

Special Issue "Beyond Ideological Mand