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

[Miles Jackson]

Carl Remick wrote:
>> 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
>
>   
Yes, I agree that therapy settings can encourage that sort of 
hierarchical relationship.  However, there are clinicians who completely 
agree with your critique, believe it or not, and advocate building 
empathy as a precondition for effective therapist-client relations (it's 
called humanist or client-centered therapy). 
That's a mainstream clinical approach.

Miles