That's been my experience too. One of my CBT therapists said my disappointment with how covid was being handled was a "thinking error" because I wasn't considering how things could get better. They all recommended a kind of permanent optimism and avoidance of any negative thoughts or conclusions. It felt like a weird Sunday school.
That one thought that everything would be okay just because things always turn out okay :wholesome:
Because of the uneven power dynamic I didn't want to point out that they work from home making $100k+ while I'm a student who rents. Ultimately whatever their personal ideology is will dictate their whole sense of ontology and I can't unfuck a liberal's brain enough to understand structural relationships. If things are only getting better because they're a bourgeois hippie who believes in nonsense, that's an insufferable conversation that just feels like a doctor lying to a patient. I can all but guarantee that one is an antivaxxer by now and they're the authority on the human psyche.
That was my experience with psychiatry as well. Take the pills, think happy thoughts and then you're good. I'm not saying none of it works, the pills works wonders and getting a theoretically founded explanation for some destructive ways of thinking has really been a help. — But it's all introspective, it's all about what you think and feel. At no point does it lead you to think about broader social factors, let alone encourage you to organise with others to change them.
I have a nice anecdotal example of the "social blindness" of psychiatry. I was in a group therapy session. One of the people there told about how they were depressed about being poor and in debt. The psychiatrist leading the group who had been perfectly nice, empathetic and professional up until that point simply didn't understand why they were complaining. After all they took on the loans themselves and they should be grateful for the meagre pittances the government gave them while they were sick and unable to work. It marked the moment where I lost trust in that psychiatrist and by extension psychiatry itself. A wealthy psychiatrist in a fancy office can be as smart and educated as you want but they'll never be able to understand how life is for those who are struggling.
Capitalist psychology tends towards being exploitative self help style thought mixed with systemic victim blaming.
Psychological therapy is one of those fields that's useful, but it's implemented in an alienated and atomized way, like you're going to a confessional and telling a priest adorned in gold and silk about how you can barely afford to eat while they tell you to devote more of your life to God/some higher power that knows more than you.
I think group stuff is at least more in the right direction where the role of the therapist is to mediate a discussion of shared trauma or struggle. A situation that allows for you to meet and form relationships with other people instead of just listening to someone over the phone tell you to think better.
Ain't this the problem with mental health in capitalism? I straight up confronted my psychologist about this because I didn't know why I was even showing up. He told me: "I'm providing a service and you have paid for that service. That service is to make you feel better."
You're paying for a doctor to get you back in working order (literally). Solving the philosophical dilemmas of 21st century capitalism is beyond their pay grade.
Yeah I stopped going to my last therapist after she directly admitted she wanted me to get to work on time more often. The entire service was to make me more comfortable at my job.
That's been my experience too. One of my CBT therapists said my disappointment with how covid was being handled was a "thinking error" because I wasn't considering how things could get better. They all recommended a kind of permanent optimism and avoidance of any negative thoughts or conclusions. It felt like a weird Sunday school.
That one thought that everything would be okay just because things always turn out okay :wholesome:
Because of the uneven power dynamic I didn't want to point out that they work from home making $100k+ while I'm a student who rents. Ultimately whatever their personal ideology is will dictate their whole sense of ontology and I can't unfuck a liberal's brain enough to understand structural relationships. If things are only getting better because they're a bourgeois hippie who believes in nonsense, that's an insufferable conversation that just feels like a doctor lying to a patient. I can all but guarantee that one is an antivaxxer by now and they're the authority on the human psyche.
That was my experience with psychiatry as well. Take the pills, think happy thoughts and then you're good. I'm not saying none of it works, the pills works wonders and getting a theoretically founded explanation for some destructive ways of thinking has really been a help. — But it's all introspective, it's all about what you think and feel. At no point does it lead you to think about broader social factors, let alone encourage you to organise with others to change them.
I have a nice anecdotal example of the "social blindness" of psychiatry. I was in a group therapy session. One of the people there told about how they were depressed about being poor and in debt. The psychiatrist leading the group who had been perfectly nice, empathetic and professional up until that point simply didn't understand why they were complaining. After all they took on the loans themselves and they should be grateful for the meagre pittances the government gave them while they were sick and unable to work. It marked the moment where I lost trust in that psychiatrist and by extension psychiatry itself. A wealthy psychiatrist in a fancy office can be as smart and educated as you want but they'll never be able to understand how life is for those who are struggling.
Capitalist psychology tends towards being exploitative self help style thought mixed with systemic victim blaming.
Psychological therapy is one of those fields that's useful, but it's implemented in an alienated and atomized way, like you're going to a confessional and telling a priest adorned in gold and silk about how you can barely afford to eat while they tell you to devote more of your life to God/some higher power that knows more than you.
I think group stuff is at least more in the right direction where the role of the therapist is to mediate a discussion of shared trauma or struggle. A situation that allows for you to meet and form relationships with other people instead of just listening to someone over the phone tell you to think better.
Ain't this the problem with mental health in capitalism? I straight up confronted my psychologist about this because I didn't know why I was even showing up. He told me: "I'm providing a service and you have paid for that service. That service is to make you feel better."
You're paying for a doctor to get you back in working order (literally). Solving the philosophical dilemmas of 21st century capitalism is beyond their pay grade.
I barely had a chance to see mental health doctors but that was exactly the sense I got. Shut up, take this pill, and get back on your hamster wheel.
Yeah I stopped going to my last therapist after she directly admitted she wanted me to get to work on time more often. The entire service was to make me more comfortable at my job.