Therapy in the Age of Trump

We have it, on somewhat respectable authority, that very few people are transgendered. The condition, which used to be considered a delusional belief, has now been mainstreamed, to the point where the Guardian opens an article about therapy in the age of Trump by presenting a trans therapist dealing with trans clients.

Apparently, the new Trump administration, for rejecting transmania, is causing significant psychological distress among certain people. One feels obliged to notice that taking cross-sex hormones and having gender-reassignment surgery will, in and of themselves, cause significant psychological distress. Blaming it on Trump is basically a cop-out. As is blaming it on someone using the wrong pronouns.

Perhaps more important, especially for those who suffer from Trump derangement syndrome, is the belief that the meaning of life lies in politics. To be more precise, politics is their religion. Like ministers, therapists are hard at work comforting the faithful and converting the unfaithful. 

The Guardian explains:

Liberal therapists say they sometimes incorporate their political views into the healing process to provide support for clients distressed by Trump’s actions. “You’re taught in school that therapists aren’t supposed to be political, but it’s very political,” one liberal practitioner said. “Now, at least in my therapist friend group, we’re like, ‘Screw that, no, this is very political.’”

Trump’s policies, such as deporting immigrants, go against therapists’ code of ethics that requires them to uphold client’s dignity and worth, she said. That hasn’t precluded her from working with Trump-supporting clients. Some don’t return “and that’s OK”, but she successfully works with a range of conservative patients.

Can it get any dumber? Some therapists believe that deporting illegal migrants, even criminals, contradicts their code of ethics, because said code recognizes the dignity and worth of each individual. Apparently, the code says nothing about citizenship and about following the law.

Therapists insist that they are not in the business of changing anyone’s political views, but surely they are. Most especially, they work to persuade their clients to embrace the truth of certain ideological positions-- like transgenderism-- on faith.

None of the therapists I interviewed said they try to change clients’ political views, but therapy is often about getting people to think about problems in their lives differently – and sometimes there’s overlap.

One therapist I spoke with used the example of some of her clients’ fear and hatred of transgender people. She asks them where those fears stem from, because they are often passed on generationally.

The truth is, most families do not teach their children much of anything about transgenderism. Or, at least, they have not done so until recently when the topic infiltrated classrooms and reading material and the media.

“What kind of things were you taught as a child? If you heard your parents talking about this – do all of your values align with your parents’ values? Have you ever broken from them? Will you feel rejected by your family or community if you think differently?” she asks.

Of course, this is not the first time that these young ideologues have had to deal with a Trump presidency. If they suffered through the first one, they ought to be able to suffer through the new one.

Broadly speaking, therapists say the profound shock and sharp sense of fear that was almost universal among liberal clients after Trump’s first win has been replaced with variations of numbness, hopelessness and resignation.

These people doth protest too much, as the famous Danish prince once put it. They have turned themselves into drama queens and cannot but express their horror at the simple fact that differences of opinion exist. They find it unacceptable that everyone does not hold to the same ideology and does not embrace the same dogmatic truths.

Another therapist has clients accept this new reality. “Normalize that there is this threatening energy that is closing down certain civil liberties and trying to change social norms,” he said, adding that he also urges people to be curious about their numbness.

This doesn’t mean embracing being inactive, however. “Find ways to start honoring the numbness, while starting to move energy, whether that’s physical movement, or getting out, seeing people and finding light in what feels like a dark time for some folks, whether that’s through art, music or nature,” he added.

Honoring the numbness, or, should we say, honoring the numbskulls who are leading this movement.

Most therapists tell their clients to focus on what they can control. Some suggest putting energy into mutual aid projects or partaking in local political action. One therapist is seeing her siblings more, making herself an ally to trans folks. She also likes to listen to the Moth story hour as a healthy escape from reality.

However, another therapist pointed to a meme in which a person is lying in the road, about to get hit by a large truck. In the meme, a nearby therapist waves, shouting: “Just focus on the things you can control!” She finds the advice to be ludicrous. “I feel like an asshole as a therapist sometimes, so I try to not say shit like that.”

Now you see it. Therapists who embrace woke ideology end up feeling like assholes. I wonder what Freud would have said about that.