[03/20/2019] Feminist Therapy

A therapist who has always lived in financially comfortable circumstance gives a book on self-care to her working-class client, who has always lived in financially precarious circumstances. The therapist suggests that she try some of the strategies in the book for homework. The therapist, who has read the book, thinks that the examples of self-care, such as getting oneself a massage, going out for a nice dinner, or taking a weekend retreat to a lovely setting, all seem like wonderful ideas, and she has been pushing her client to engage in more self-care. Her client returns the book the following week, never commenting on the fact that each of these suggestions are financially beyond her means, something the therapist has never taken into account because of a failure to explore her social class privilege. She tells her therapist that the book was “interesting.” Soon thereafter, the client leaves therapy by simply not showing up again and not responding to communications from the therapist. Several years later, when she is again struggling, she seeks out therapy and carefully searches for someone who grew up poor. “That other therapist had no idea of the value of a dollar,” she tells her subsequent therapist. Privilege unexamined can lead to failures of empathy and loss of relationship. 

From [ Feminist Therapy, Brown 2018 ]

주옥같은 구절이 너무 많아서, 책이 온통 형광줄이 그어져있다.

사실 위에 본문은 feminist therapy 자체와 관련이 있다기 보다는, 내가 한창 관심있는 다른 큰 주제인 privilege study가 feminist therapy에 이렇게 긴밀하게 연결되어 책에 소개된다는 사실이 신기해서...ㅎㅎㅎ 역시 파다보면 관심사는 한곳으로 모이는건가 싶기도 하고... 즐거운 시간들이다.