24. Andrew Hartz, PhD: Counseling in a Cluster B Culture

When did it become okay to hate someone based on the color of their skin — as long as that skin is the color deemed the acceptable one to hate? More concerningly, when did it become okay for therapists, of all people, to openly endorse such race-based animosity?

I invite clinical psychologist Andrew Hartz to explore how ideology has intruded into the practice of psychotherapy, posing ethical issues and threatening the integrity of our field. We discuss the barriers faced by many people in need of appropriate therapy for issues that do not fit “woke,” or critical social justice, narratives. Where does a white-skinned survivor of racially motivated violence go for trauma therapy when they have legitimate reasons to fear that a professional might merely school them on their so-called privilege? Where can a man seeking to integrate his masculinity go in a world where masculinity is too often written off entirely as toxic?

As colleagues, we explore clinical issues we suspect are at play. Has the world increasingly normalized a climate of dysfunctional social and emotional patterns once considered psychopathological, as in Cluster B personality disorders? How do we, as therapists, help people work through psychological defenses such as splitting, projection, negative attention-seeking, and reaction formation when these are considered customary by the world around them?

Finally, we answer a listener question from a therapist-in-training, and explore: where do we go from here?

Andrew Hartz, Ph.D. is a professor of clinical psychology at Long Island University in Brooklyn and a psychologist in private practice in New York City.

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