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Monday, November 21, 2011

On Therapy

Marx believed that revolution would change social relations. Instead we prefer a status quo that widens the opportunity for entry into it, but cannot be challenged except at the edges. The challenge of a developing self is to be prepared to change. We can tinker with our own edges and make ourselves more inclusive, more open, and all that is good. But we made need more than that. The purpose of therapy as Freud knew, is to find a safe place for a revolution. That’s a contradiction in terms, but it is accurate. I never used to understand therapy. I thought everything could be done by effort and an act of will and on your own. Very stupid. - Jeanette Winterson

1 comment:

  1. I disagree with this Winterson observation in favor of Foucault's critique of middle brow pressure on mental illness. This is not to say that the mind does not deteriorate, of course it does, but mood regulation is as much about conformity as it is about ease of suffering.

    I just lost my cat, and part of the reason the animal is dead is my attempt not to panic, to heed those who kept admonishing me about mood range. If I had allowed myself, instead, to react at my own key note, my pet child may not have died on my bathroom floor while I slept.

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