Turbulent Times Inside and Outside the Consulting Room
The Politics of Polarization and Hate and the Illusion of the Therapist’s Freedom from Impingement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9020331 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Barbara L Goldsmith (0000-0002-1752-1414, Widener University, Chester, PA, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 747-760 |
| Publication date | 2020-03-24 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Humanistic Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-1678 • E-ISSN: 1552-650X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022167820913358 |
| OpenAlex | W3013484660 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 14 |
Today’s toxic political climate has intruded into the therapeutic space. Both therapists and clients wonder about whether politics is an appropriate subject for therapy. Stronger treatment alliances were noted when clients perceived political similarity with their therapists. Inside the consulting room, polarizing political splits can occur and lead to impasses and alliance ruptures that can be difficult to bridge. Therapists, like their clients, can become overwhelmed, exhausted, and numb as they continue to listen, support, and contain political shock waves day after day. The ability to maintain empathy, think analytically and stay alert for enactments can be difficult to sustain when politics enters the room. Various politically based countertransference reactions are addressed, and self-care and connection rather than retreat through detachment or dissociation is the desired goal
Alliance · Countertransference · Empathy · Polarization (electrochemistry · Political science · Politics · Psychotherapist · Wonder · Counseling Practices and Supervision · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Law · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology
Psychoanalytic witnessing
Partners in Thought
Beyond Doer and Done To
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis
A relational psychoanalysis perspective on the necessity of acknowledging failure in order to restore the facilitating and containing features of the intersubjective relationship (the shared third)
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |