Being a graduate from 3 years of studying psych and with an active experience of mental illness, I can say that no amount of studying theory and doing therapy+ taking meds for years helped me realize the root of my problems and my worth as a human. more than Marxist analysis. I live to be a part of the revolution, and as long as psychotherapy reinforces the client to believe in themselves and to accept the realities of it is what it is, it will never achieve its job of liberating the person. There is a need for psychology to gain a Marxist perspective, more so from modern day leftists in the mental health field.
I use it for myself all the time. Its the best medication free approach ive tried persoanally
@ThatMagickBastard
The talking cure is amazing when you and your therapist work well together, but the root of so much mental illness is capitalism that psych practitioners can only do so much. They basically just medicate/train you to function in this hell. That’s not really mental health
I find this take problematic. Therapy suffers from capitalism obviously, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely useless or just a tool to subjectivate you. I think what youre saying is true, but incomplete. Therapy absolutely helps me be a better communicator and organizer, and always supported my activism. Granted i was lucky to find a good one. I’ve learned mental/emotional tools now that help me more than i can say.
I resent this aspect of capitalism as deeply as anyone. My fear about your take is it could dissuade people from getting help who really need some in the meantime, even with things as they are. It’s a bit too doomer for my taste, maybe.
Also, DBT is literally dialectics. That’s like…our whole thing. As a modality it even de-emphasizes the expert/patient relationship. I see it as a potential line of flight out of commodity therapy, personally.
@ThatMagickBastard
I said therapy is great if you can find a practitioner you work well with. But DBT. It’s not even a dialectic, or at least not on any but the most simplistic level.
You’ll have a significantly harder time tearing down this hell to build something new if you can’t function in this hell. To that end, therapy has its uses.
Any good resources you could recommend?
Feel absolutely free to say no—I don’t know if I should even be asking—but would you run us through how your use it for yourself? (Without any personal details, of course.)
For starters it’s an offshoot of cognitive behavior therapy. So it’s not like analysis, it’s more like working through patterns and defining alternatives. The process of learning it felt like learning a skill, not being analized in that way. It was about gaining tools to do my own work. An example of how i use DBT is like when i feel like an imposter as an organizer i remind myself what i’ve accomplished already. Then boom, just from talking to myself i feel better, and as a bonus i used it to make myself more ready to revolt.
here’s a link explaining it better than i can.
Also, in general i agree with you comrade, just wanted to add that important nuance. Systemically therapy is a shit sandwich. All my therapists have been total libs too, but theyve also been nothing but encouraging and validating for me personally. Caution at the potential for abuse is very wise, indeed.