A topical issue in the current femdiscourse is the attitude to psychology and, in particular, to psychotherapy. There are a variety of opinions: from the fact that psychology is a patriarchal science, and psychotherapy is used to adapt women to the existing reality, to focus on finding problems within ourselves, and ending with the fact that psychology can and should be used to promote the ideas of feminism and liberation of women.
First of all, I think everyone is right. After all, today's psychology is mainly a collection of unconfirmed hypotheses, which are built on the usual patriarchal worldview and legitimize it one way or another. What is the theory of "dick envy" by Sigmund Freud!Although it is not now taken seriously in the scientific community, it has many less obvious analogues, for example, there are psychologists who promote theories about female and male energy, and that an active woman who seeks power does not want to accept her "true" (=masochistic) essence, as well as the theory of gender identity.

On the other hand, just because men seek to use this realm to make women more comfortable for their narcissistic needs doesn't mean it's completely meaningless.Indeed, apart from specific theories and concepts, psychology is aimed at studying unconscious motives and various non-obvious factors that influence our behavior, and I think no one will doubt that they exist. It would be better to understand them and somehow apply them rayher than to ignore them.

What kind of attitude does modern psychology deserve? Of course, it can be used for the needs of both individual women and feminism as a whole. Psychotherapy, in particular, relies on two main processes - raising awareness and creating new experiences (new neural connections). Both help to integrate the internal resource, which is very important for a more effective change in the environment. Here often follows the objection that until you change the environment, mental problems will not go anywhere, since these are symptoms of a sick society. However, these are processes that close on each other, that is, when you change one of them, the second one also changes. And women who have inner integrity, do not displace or dissociate anything, are able to see more clearly where it is better to make efforts to change the situation, and distribute their forces more effectively.
However, the question is whether the current psychology solves this problem. So far, it is only at the beginning of its development, and many theories are constantly being revised and challenged. And this will continue for some time, so now psychology is more of a field for experimentation and reflection. As for the psychotherapy, a lot depends on the talent of the psychologist, the inner instinct. There are methods that definitely work, but they are few, and they affect only the surface layers of the psyche (CBT). As far as personal psychotherapy is concerned, the criteria for application in the interests of the women's movement are not so strict. I see some potential right now.
The main theses on this issue:
1) The psyche and the environment should be considered without separation from one another. The following scheme should work: you see the symptom - you realize the discomfort - you change the environment - you create a new experience - the feeling of subjectivity and satisfaction with life increases - there is more strength in order to be aware of larger tasks and solve them. This scheme is the basis of psychotherapy.
2) It is necessary to use psychotherapy methods to deal with female gender socialization (FGS). FGS is a more or less strong splitting of the personality into the part that the patriarchy wants us to be, and the part that contains real needs, feelings, desires. The problems of feminism as a movement have a lot to do with this split, which leaves many women unable to afford aggression, following imposed goals, experiencing a sense of learned helplessness, and so on. We need to be aware of the dissociated parts of our psyche (=reflex), and we need to help other women who come to feminism to do this.
3) Psychological knowledge needs to be used to help feminist women integrate the feelings that arise. Now almost no one is engaged in this area, so burnout, affective outbursts of rage, which is sprayed into meaningless actions, depression and depression, lack of understanding of where to move on, disbelief in success are common. You need to create mental comfort for yourself and for other women, for this you need clarity of purpose, a picture of the future from which you can draw motivation, support and discuss emerging emotions with other feminists without the risk of rejection, in general, the presence of social ties with women feminists.
4) Psychology can also be used as a conceptual apparatus for describing social processes. As I wrote earlier, the patriarchal mechanisms of subjugation of women are in many ways similar to the mechanisms of abuse that are used at the individual level. Thanks to such analogies, it will be easier for women to understand the situation at the macro level and find ways to change it.
It is of course possible to act without the use of psychology (engage in politics, increase resources and power), and this will also work, but I think the problem here is that women in patriarchy are very confused and it is very easy to mislead them, using just the same psychic defenses that protect the dissociated parts of the personality. It will be very easy for men in power to manipulate the women's movement if women are not aware of the "hooks" that patriarchy clings to. This does not mean that every feminist woman needs to go to a psychotherapist, but it is definitely worth increasing psychological literacy. And the increase in the number of psychologists and psychotherapists in the women's movement, I think, will do it good.


Author: Philosopher's Stone of Artémis
Translator: Yulia N.