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Movement

Problems

There's countless problems with psychology and therapy practices across the globe. Inconsistency across national boundaries and in various cultures immediately comes to mind. Is psychology a science? Then it should transcend national boundaries and be the same regardless of country — yet for some reason what is and is not "illness" changes depending on the culture that defines it. That's like saying if a spider walks across the US-Canadian border suddenly it's a butterfly. That's not science.

So we can start out with psychology is a pseudo-science. We're not the only one to criticize it that way. That's not to say psychology is always abusive, or always unhelpful. It's to say don't pretend that it's science. Psychology is a blend of guesswork, philosophy, observation, anecdote, and throwing spaghetti against the wall alongside somewhat repropducable studies or experiments that might (maybe) pass as science on a good day.

That's just what's on paper, in books, studies, journals, pubications, presentations, etc.

That's before we even get to practice, where individual therapists bring their experience, biases, narratives, culture, and much more to the delightfully (that's sarcasm) unequal relationship they have with their patient (or, sometimes, client).

For many illustrations of how inequality plays into the therapeutic relationship we can take this article on Medium and dissect the whole thing if we want into a mess of classism, transmisia, racism, bias, stereotypes, assumptions, and on down the line.

https://humanparts.medium.com/therapy-and-therapists-arent-for-everyone-4019de10b7ce#_=_

What we're left with is — when and if someone seeks out a therapist — a game of cat-and-mouse where a "hopefully well-intentioned" therapist being cagey about themselves usually being taught to not be absolutely transparent is attempting to win the trust of their new client in an imbalanced relationship where only one person is laying their cards on the table, if anyone at all. This isn't the most fabulous way to build relationships, if one has the ability to get to the office at all.

People are not treated in a scientific manner. People do not have equal access. Studies are not unbiased. Demographics of this pseudoscience are wildly tilted, folk ashamedy unrepresented. To the point that there are actually books about DID — and this is the books with good repute — that say that it's a phenomenon of middle aged white (cis) women. Why? Because that's who was showing up at the therapists' office, not because that's who has DID. We are inching our way further and further from the "White men are therapists not patients" time — now there's a lot more women who are therapists, but insufficient representation amongst therapists — much less clients — of BIPOC, trans and queer, peers, neurodivergent experience.

More AMAB are showing up in therapy, cis men admitting to childhood abuse and sexual abuse than 30-40 years ago. The abuse was happening, but men weren't being believed. It was rare for a man to walk into a therapists' office both for cultural issues and shame — and because of therapy abuse & neglect in disbelief ever if a man got into the office in the first place.

The same with trans women — but with additional barriers as the focus may go astray from the matters at hand (which is to say whatever the client wants to focus on) as the therapists get nosy or pushy about their own agenda.

When therapists have an agenda, they should get their own therapist to carry it out with them. When they're in the therapist's chair, it's all about the clients' agenda(s).

Anyway, likely to be preaching to the choir here — there's a lot messed up with the current psychology system and training of new therapists, insufficient education around cultural humility, exposure to folk of a different race, culture, gender, orientation background so that graduating therapists are more open to the differences in various client histories.

We can't cookie cutter experiences. That's what's demanded by science. Repetition, predictability, precision, calculations, the ability to check each other's work, and to say with assurance what the outcomes will be.

Psychology has none of that. Explain it however you want, it's not science it's far more an art and the therapist is an artist, and their modes of expression, creativity, intuition, ingenuity, likability, and how welcoming they are to a client will play into the cilents' success far more than anything that one can read in a treatment manual or learn in a CEU course.

This is just the introduction to the problems in the mental health field. Good luck in there.


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