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.
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.