My therapist made a comment about how China is a failed socialist experiment because they have 2-3 year olds working in factories. I responded “So we’ve been told.” She looks at me like I’m crazy. (Not a great look for a therapist) “I’ve not seen any evidence of that.”
“Because they’re such a closed country!”
“Which means you have no evidence to your point either?”
“Well, missionaries… anyway!”
Funny how the rule of therapists not being supposed to talk about religion or ideology only applies when it isn’t racist hatemongering. A therapist encouraging racist and hateful views in their clients is perfectly fine actually.
I’m so glad that the worst therapists I’ve ever gotten have just been impotent toxic positivity sort of people, I don’t think I could handle a therapist saying shit like this at me without blowing up. It is such a breach of trust to say such awful things to people in a vulnerable mental state like that. In a just world they would have their license revoked.
Yeah. One time I briefly mentioned socialism, and she went on “If I had more faith in humanity, I’d be a socialist.” I just left it there for the time being. Then more recently I mentioned that I had quit my job, but was hoping to do some clerical work for PSL. Not for pay, mind you, (unless they want to pay me, but I assumed it’d just be volunteer work) but to give me a task to do. I mentioned actually being a socialist this time, and she repeated the faith line and said “Someone always gets greedy. Isn’t that why, historically, socialism has always failed?” I tried my best not to get angry, but I did challenge it a little bit, as per this post.
If she is trying to be a “professional” therapist, you should really needle her on this, ask her why she keeps forcing her personal political beliefs onto you instead of being neutral. Be combative if you’re that sort of person. Make it clear that she isn’t being the “neutral and impartial” person she thinks she is being, but she is actively choosing a worldview and pressuring you to adopt that same worldview and it is making you feel uncomfortable. Make it clear that just because she frames her opinions as questions it doesn’t magically make them impartial and true.
Or maybe look for a better therapist. I don’t think I could go back to a therapist that was this comfortable with upsetting their clients like this.
She’s probably the only queer therapist I’m going to find in my area, and therefore one of the friendliest towards trans folk like me. I can put up with this, but when they’re dismissive of my queer identity I get more upset. I think she’s mostly good for me, she just has some bad takes on leftism. Which I also won’t get anything better in that spot in my area either.
Oof, I wasn’t even really thinking about it like that, it’s always unfortunate when they are the “best of the worst”. I have major trust issues, so any therapist that feels manipulative or dismissive, even unintentionally, I will not have any tolerance of them after that, but you’re obviously going for different issues than I do.
I think you could still maybe make it clear that her opinions on socialism aren’t helpful and just make you worry and make it harder to open up about everything else (if it does so), if you feel like you can’t be honest with your therapist then it probably isn’t worth going at all, though again, that’s just my personal opinion and might not be relevant to your situation. I have heard how awful therapists can be in the states, I’m sorry you have to go through so much bullshit just so you can get help with your problems.
Sorry, I feel like I’m arguing when that’s not my intention. I really do appreciate your concern!
It’s alright, you never felt combative to me, I was more going “I think I’m overstepping my bounds here and assuming too much about the situation and what I would do.” when it isn’t about me, it’s about you feeling safe and comfortable and able to discuss your problems with someone who can help.
What does her faith line actually mean? Does she think you’re effectively a monarchist and it’s a question of having faith in a monarch?
No, I mean the thing she had said earlier about “If I had more faith in humanity, I’d be a socialist.” She seems to believe that socialism is the dictatorship of one dude and they’ll get greedy and corrupt and deplete national resources. In my head I said “It takes more faith to be a capitalist,” but that didn’t find its way out of my mouth.
That’s what I meant by “effectively a monarchist,” so I’m sorry for being unclear.
Speaking for myself, if I was confronted with a line like that, I’d simply say that I support democracy (majoritarian rule, which in our society necessarily means proletarian rule) and to the extent that a historical project wasn’t democratic, I don’t think that’s what we should do, but letting capitalists run society has the same basic problems as having any other type of minoritarian rule. “But what if people support something bad,” That’s what political agitation and education are for, you can’t depoliticize politics in a class society, but at least the people have a common class interest that encompasses the vast majority of the population and can be appealed to, unlike with a ruling elite.
Yeah. She made some comments about how she wishes everything wasn’t ruled by money, but even then she seems to be missing the big picture. I think she just doesn’t have a lot of politics besides the vibes we get growing up and doesn’t think that’s a problem. I get that about democracy and it necessarily being proletarian rule, but so many people have this thought that socialism runs counter to democracy because of that same vibes-based education. I think I’d have to do a lot of agitation to change her mind, and I’m just seeing her once a month to help deal with my anxiety and depression.
Yeah, it doesn’t seem like a great use of your time and I didn’t mean to sound like I was trying to explain socialism to you (again, sorry), I was just trying to think of a very succinct way of countering those sorts of lines.
Probably the most realistic solution is just to tell her that you don’t want to hear her opinion on socialism because you have such a limited time.
You’re good, no need to apologize! I’ll keep those responses in mind, though, because there are some people I’d like to turn left. Yeah, I just usually don’t bring up socialism because I know this is where it’d lead. I just felt like I should mention to her that I’m not just going to rot on the couch doing nothing, and that included bringing up the PSL. She did seem interested when I told her they did a lot of organizing in Minnesota.
Yeah, talking about being involved with an org is a totally appropriate thing to do, it’s her telling you that socialism is when dictator that’s not appropriate. It’s not like you’re particularly trying to radicalize her to begin with, you’re just talking about your own life.
A lot of people in western countries think socialism is basically a hippie commune where it’s all carrots and no sticks in society. And the system isn’t really changed by the revolution, it just has the currently bad parts ripped out: cops, prisons, bosses, ownership class, etc. are removed and society operates on trust and goodwill instead.
Imperial core-style anarchists unfortunately encourage this interpretation.
Under her understanding of socialism one would require a lot of faith in every one for an imaginary system like that to work.
Well I suppose in a just world, someone so casually racist wouldn’t be able to get a job as a therapist at all, or their casual racism would’ve been confronted and addressed years before they started trying to get their degree, but that’s just kind of semantics at this point.