How would you explain the cultural, ethical, and gender concerns in psychotherapy?
1 Answer
The plethora of "diversity" definitions conflicts with an individual's need for stability and boundaries.
Explanation:
"Psychotherapy" is usually engaged in promoting or restoring "mental health". If mental health is the ability of a person to function productively, or at least not detrimentally, then there must be some basis for motivation.
Whether acceptable to everyone or not, a person needs their own sense of basis and limitations - what is "right", and what is "harmful". "Total Freedom" creates anarchy and anxiety, not peace.
The therapeutic concerns in psychotherapy around culture, ethics and gender are that diversity as a good thing can become a bad thing if applied too broadly.
Some things may need to be "accepted", but not necessarily "applied" personally. The broader the reach of "diversity" definitions, the more difficult it is to find that ethical basis for living if they are applied to the individual.
As an example, neither trying to "cure" a homosexual nor trying to get an individual to "try" homosexuality are necessarily ethical psychotherapies. In both cases it may be an imposition of the therapist's values on the patient, and my cause more harm than good.
