Social Consciousness

It is my experience that issues related to marginalization in psychoanalysis are often an “afterthought” and that this is its own version of the larger issues of marginalization. To briefly describe what I mean by marginalization, I would say that marginalization is the process by which groups that hold more power than others, “dominant groups,” knowingly and unknowingly reproduce inequitable divisions of power that limit the power of other groups, “marginalized groups.” The power that is limited can range from more material forms of power such as access to autonomy or resources, to more symbolic forms of power such as status or social recognition.

To me, being socially conscious means acknowledging that all people live within a world where power is organized in ways that advantage some and disadvantage others. A common privilege of being the recipient of greater social power is the absence of a practical need to know about the disadvantages the powered system—from which one benefits—creates for others. As understanding the experience of others is an important feature of psychotherapeutic work, this is particularly relevant to this profession. The social context I am most familiar with is American society and culture, which includes Indigenous persons, descendants of early settlers, descendants of chattel slavery, and recent and less recent immigrants.

To my understanding, American society reproduces divisions of power along the lines of class, race, gender, sexuality, ability, age, religion, and recency of immigration, among other issues. As an important aside, belonging to an identity group can be a personal and internal process but identity can also be externally assigned to a person. As a result, people may experience marginalization for an identity group they have been externally assigned to, even if they do not identify themselves as belonging to that identity group.

Finally, to me being socially conscious requires great humility about knowing, the capacity to listen to experiences other than my own, and continual effort to expand awareness. It would be unsurprising, for example, if on this page of writing I have demonstrated my lack of knowledge about an experience that has not entered my conscious awareness.

The practice of psychotherapy, in its pursuit of meaning-making, is subject to the influence of a therapist’s awareness and perspectives. I am, just as my patients are, a being that exists in a world shaped by history, politics, and power. I value deepening my understanding, including understanding the limits of my understanding. I also welcome the opportunity to engage, with patients and consultants, around differences in opinion and perspective.