Two Stories: Psychotherapy and Patients; Psycho"therapy" and "patients"

To be a patient in any therapeutic relationship structured by the medical model and to be working with a mental health professional not consciously committed to democratic principles is to be enmeshed in procedures that are inherently anti-democratic and potentially reinforcing to the suffering that makes any individuals seek help in the first place. In earlier episodes I have outlined my view of psycho"therapy" as a relationship that helps individuals understand as well as own those aspects of their personal history that have contributed to the internalized judgments that create self-hatred, anxiety, hopelessness and helplessness. Most of the psychotherapists I have known are inherently democratic in their world view but by accepting and promoting the medical model of mental illness and disorder defeat their best intentions to help those with whom they work to free themselves from the intra and interpersonal authoritarian and totalitarian processes that make life unbearable for themselves and others. By understanding the difference between authoritarian and democratic thought and behavior, between psychotherapy and psycho"therapy," between being a patient and a "patient" individuals can be an active agents in creating the kind of relationship that I believe might most help them.