[lbo-talk] High Hat (Was other things)

[Carl Remick]

>From: Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
>
> > The problem with the social sciences and helping professions 
>(psychiatry,
> > psychology, etc.) is their unavoidable tendency to objectify people, 
>which
> > of course acts as a barrier to empathy and creates a counterproductive
> > hierarchic relationship between the scientist/therapist and the
> > subject/patient.  In fact, the former might well be called "social"
> > "sciences" since they so often manage to make a mockery of both true 
>science
> > and honest human interchange.
>
>This is just muddled to me.  Yes, if you study something using
>scientific methods, what you observe is an object of study; you
>literally must objectify it.  However, this does not mean that empathy
>must be impeded or hierarchy maintained as a result of this scientific
>work.  Example: developmental social psychologists have developed
>effective techniques for increasing empathy in children, and they have
>used scientific research to verify the effectiveness of these
>empathy-building strategies.  So Carl, you have it exactly backwards:
>the application of scientific research in this case is not a barrier to
>empathy; it is a means of facilitating empathy!

No, I'm not talking about psychologists' "techniques for increasing empathy 
in children." I'm talking about empathy between *psychotherapists* and their 
patients.  In fact, therapists are specifically warned against developing 
full-fledged peer relationships with their patients, are they not?  Isn't 
"countertransference" the ultimate psychotherapeutic no-no?  The whole basis 
for the therapist-patient relationship is not one of peer empathy but one of 
inequality and clinical detachment -- i.e., "Me, high-and-mighty medical 
expert; you, lowly neurotic."

Carl

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