Communism @lemmygrad.ml Tee @lemmygrad.ml 1y ago

Psychotherapy and psychiatry in a capitalistic system effectively exists to reinforce the status of the bourgeoisie rather than to abolish it

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.

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What do you know/think about dialectical behavioural therapy? Is there any good in it?

Edit: speak of the devil, there's a new book out on politics and mental health: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745346717/mad-world/

Edit 2: and another one coming out soon, on neurodiversity and capitalism: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745348667/empire-of-normality/
- @redtea @lav
  
  I’m unimpressed. I’ve studied it but never tried it.
  
  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.
  
  ...and i agreed i was lucky to have a good one. Im confused by your statement, tho. DBT is a dialectical approach, not a contradiciton in itself. What? Pessimism v optimism is a mental health dialectic.
  
  My point in the first place was a dialectic thought antithetical to yours. Not an argument, so we can chill. You basically said therapy here isn't therapy its subjectivication, and i said sometimes therapy is good. Thats a dialectic contradiction. Synthesis? Idk revolution in healthcare.
  
  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.
  
  Thanks for this. I'll look into it.
  
  I have to say that just learning about Marxist dialectics did wonders for my mental health. I haven't suffered from a job rejection ever since, for example (I've still been rejected or outright ignored enough times!). It's just how things are under capitalism, which needs a reserve army of labour. And I haven't worried so much about having to move for work ever since, either. Workers are forced to be nomadic under capitalism. I find it a lot easier to accept these things now that I understand that I am floating on geopolitical currents. The contradictions between reality and bourgeois idealism were the cause of a lot of angst, as I sure they are for others. Simply understanding the dialectics involved makes life a lot more manageable.
  
  Yea totally! Being able to point the blame somewhere accurately instead of internalizing our lack of success as some personal failure is pretty nice.

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