I think therapy is important.
I'm taking it right now because it's needed and it helps.
My therapist is a leftist and autistic.
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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chapotraphouse
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I agree that therapy is important; it was a hard struggle excruciating at times, but it has helped me to release some of my past trauma. And my last therapist was who pretty much diagnosed me as autistic along with other dx.That was NEVER on the table for the 10 years I had done therapy. Of course they were neurodivergent as well. And that has done a lot for me, although I think sometimes allowing myself to unmask has made things worse in some respects. It's just nice to understand myself better.
BUT, therapy can be extremely damaging for some folks. You may know this, but bipoc people getting paired with shitty white therapists who don't know how to engage in therapy with different communities, therapists with their own baggage, psychiatrists looking to line their own pockets, constant turnover of therapists so people have to relive their trauma over and over....straight up abusive therapists. It can be so difficult to find someone who doesn't just tell you "you need to do breathing exercises" or much, much worse. So I think it's important to be critical of therapy, though it can be life changing when we get someone who is truly in it to help. The way that person framed it did not do that thought service though lol
I'm aware that it can be damaging for some folks, especially ABA therapy, and the right-wing nature of many therapists.
Seems like a convoluted form of ablism and perpetuating denial of the existence of mental health issues.
i think you can make a point about how a lot of therapy can worsen trauma responses by the therapist being really shitty. or a systemic critique of how a lot of therapy is designed to make you feel okay with your material conditions, and those with really really shitty material conditions affecting their mental health can't afford it anyway
probably wouldn't make those points by saying "the wealthy elites like therapy so it bad!!!!!" tho
I'm not anti-therapy but pro-better forms of therapy.
They're not wrong about therapy being a barely regulated shitshow full of quacks, junk science, and modalities that just flat out don't work. The discipline definitely needs a thorough purge of anything that can't produce evidence of efficacy. idk what to do about psych wards. I'm not sure it's possible to do anything under the current carceral state and with the general indifference and/or hatred of mentally ill and disabled people.
The "DAE therapy is when billionaires?" is
Yeah was about to say, a ton of people have been burnt by quack therapists. The solution is obviously not to utilise their services and see proper therapists, but much like chiropractors, quack therapists are everywhere.
Chiropractors are all a scam built up the insurance industry
Yeah they're worse than a scam, they can actually seriously hurt you
Oh I know don’t worry
“ anything that can't produce evidence of efficacy.”
This in itself is kind of a minefield. It’s very easy, for example, for pharma companies to prove that their meds can make more people feel better than random chance. It may be much harder to prove that other types of therapy, - particularly those that involve long term work - are more successful, even if they have the potential to have a much more significant impact on a persons life than just temporarily improving their mood a bit. Not disagreeing that the profession needs a purge, but unfortunately it wouldn’t be as straightforward a task to evaluate outcomes as it is in other forms of medical treatment.
Really what is needed - within the confines of capitalism - is to make therapy free and readily available so that people can find what works for them. I mean it even makes sense for capitalists to do that, in the sense that a happy worker is a good and content one. But neoliberal austerity will never allow it. To that system the working class are unthinking cattle to be herded with a club.
Using therapyspeak to explain why therapy is bad, sweaty.
The rich drink water, what does this tell us about water!
You see, the rich drink Raw Water(TM) so y'all poor should feel downright decadent if your tap water looks a little brown.
Wealthy people breathe air 
"state of the art cancer treatments are also extremely popular among absurdly wealthy celebrities ... what does that tel us about state of the art cancer therapy?"
In an ideal world I think most mental illness could be treated in a similar way to how the rich used to treat it back in the 19th century (probably still do) - basically go off to some resort in the countryside, have your basic needs like food and washing taken care of, have immediate access to social groups and spend some time every day working on your problems with someone. Spend the rest of the day swimming or drawing or playing music or whatever. Just give people some breathing space to work things out. Obviously this is not feasible for the majority under capitalism.
Personally I’m pretty cynical towards therapy’s ability to help people who are suffering from their environment. Of course there are mental illnesses that are unconnected to this, but I think they are the exception really. I actually see a psycho-therapist (not specifically Freudian but works along those kind of lines), and if nothing else, at least it’s more interesting than my experience with more conventional therapy, and certainly no less useful.
I don’t think the worry that Marxists sometimes have about therapy - that it tries to make people content with an unjust and fucked up world - is particularly valid. Even if the root of our problems is capitalism, the point of therapy should be to adapt oneself to the world as it is, and that doesn’t mean you can’t be discontent. I do think there is a problem, with psychiatric treatment in particular - and I’m not opposed to meds, I’m on them myself - but it can inculcate a feeling that one has to be feeling good or happy or safe all the time, which (speaking as a former addict) is the same mode of thought that people have in addiction, and can often lead to total stagnation and an inability to confront the pain of life.
I've read some of this person's stuff on their substack and I don't think that their point is that therapy is bourgeois, even though this tiny bit out of context can seem that way
I think most of us would largely agree with they have to say about how psychiatry is fundamentally a capitalist/colonial institution
My only big critique is that they take their anarchist based thinking to the conclusion of being against "authoritarian" leftists but outside of that, I think they're right for the most part and should be engaged with in good faith
I think they’re a grifter and don’t represent anarchistic views very well.
And do this type of stuff consistently. Have these pretty good critiques of capitalist institutions and then say some absurd stuff and act like the reader should just ignore that part.
Yeah the fact that they don't have a degree in an explicitly psych-related field and have consultation/workshop stuff to buy on the frontpage of their website gives me some grifter vibes or is at least kinda sus
I'm just leery of being overly critical of anticapitalistic POC in majority white spaces since it can be very easy to nitpick someone who is largely right but is missing some fundamental bits
I'm just leery of being overly critical of anticapitalistic POC in majority white spaces since it can be very easy to nitpick someone who is largely right but is missing some fundamental bits
I totally agree with this. It’s this particular person that just frustrates me with these bad takes because they also can be harmful to people who trust their voice and not just an isolated bad take.
I can never tell if the posts here are making fun of or agreeing with the screenshots they're posting, I always have to wait for comments to roll in with context. :(