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In Dreams Begin Responsibilities Psychology, Agency,

and Activism
a b
Judith M. Glassgold PsyD
a
Highland Park, NJ
b
Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology of Rutgers University

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 PSYCHOTHERAPY
AND CLINICAL PRACTICE
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In Dreams Begin Responsibilities

Psychology, Agency, and Activism
Judith M. Glassgold, PsyD

SUMMARY. This article proposes that psychotherapists must abandon

the practice of seeing mental health issues as individual problems and
more willing to see these issues as the consequences of social injustice.
This leads to an imperative to develop models of insight that focus on
a clients awareness and understanding of social and political forces,

Judith M. Glassgold is a psychologist in private practice in Highland Park, NJ and a

Contributing Faculty member at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional
Psychology of Rutgers University.
Address correspondence to: Judith M. Glassgold, PsyD, 324 Raritan Avenue, High-
land Park, NJ 08904 (E-mail: drglassgold@yahoo.com).
A previous version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the American Psy-
chological Association, 2003, as the Presidential Address of Division 44, the Society
for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues.
[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: In Dreams Begin Responsibilities Psychology, Agency, and Activ-
ism. Glassgold, Judith M. Co-published simultaneously in Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy
(The Haworth Medical Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 11, No. 3/4, 2007, pp. 37-57; and:
Activism and LGBT Psychology (ed: Judith M. Glassgold, and Jack Drescher) The Haworth Medical Press, an
imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc., 2007, pp. 37-57. Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a
fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail
address: docdelivery@haworthpress.com].

Available online at http://jglp.haworthpress.com

2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1300/J236v11n03_03 37
 38 ACTIVISM AND LGBT PSYCHOLOGY

through integrating concepts from liberation psychology. Therapeutic

models should be revised to avoid deterministic explanations of social is-
sues and rather incorporate contextualist models that better explain con-
cepts such as social power, freedom, agency, and resistance, which are
more compatible with psychotherapy. Finally, socially-aware psychother-
apy must focus on re-envisioning the therapeutic relationship, specifically
on factors in that relationship that allow individuals to reclaim personal
and social agency. doi:10.1300/J236v11n03_03 [Article copies available for
a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH.
E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <http://www.
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KEYWORDS. Activism, agency, bisexual, gay, lesbian, liberation

psychology, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, therapeutic relationship,
transgender

INTRODUCTION

I went into psychology, like many mental health professionals, be-

cause I wanted to make a difference in the world. In wanting to make a
difference, I imagine a more just and equitable society. Once any of us
have those dreams, we have a responsibility to make those dreams a
reality. We must do this not only out of a duty to ourselves and to others,
but because Our lives begin to end the day we are silent about things
that matter (King, 1963). Thus my title, In Dreams Begin Responsibili-
ties (Yeats, 1956), has ethical, psychological, and even spiritual meaning:
Activism and engagement in the world are necessary for both personal
and professional integrity and are an antidote against despair and hope-
lessness.
I believe it is essential, as mental health professionals, to make our
work a liberatory experience, to be among those who offer solutions to
problems of social justice. LGBT mental health professionals have been
able to help end ideological oppression that masqueraded as medical
treatment, first by contributing to the process of removing homosexual-
ity from the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statis-
tical Manual and later by asserting the health and positive contributions
of the LGBT individuals. As professionals, we have resisted other
aspects of oppression: studying hate crimes, prejudice, and inequality,
and their relationship to mental health. Over the past two years, major
 Psychotherapy and Clinical Practice 39

mental health associations have created policy statements in support of

same-sex marriage and rights for families (American Psychiatric Asso-
ciation, 2005; American Psychological Association, 2003).
The urgency we felt years ago cannot be lost, even now that we have
come of age (see Silverstein, this issue). Although we have made many
advances, there are still threats that constantly emerge. As members of
the LGBTQ communities, we remain outside the heterosexist norm. As
a result of our outsider status, we have been able to point out many of the
contradictions in conventional society and have been able to embrace
alternate views of progress. However, our national culture in the United
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States resists change and distrusts disequilibrium, so we must continue

to embrace change, while realizing how threatening it is to some. Further,
mainstream psychology has not always progressive, and as we become
more accepted within this organization, there will be pressures to ac-
commodate others and change could become more difficult (see Russell
and Bohan, this issue). We must remain vigilant against being integrated
into the existing order and then being co-opted.
As a psychotherapist, I am aware of how easily psychotherapy can
become part of the problem. Outside forces, insurance companies, med-
ical diagnostic systems, and other institutions, constantly pressure psy-
chotherapists to focus on the narrowest interpretation of situations, see
the problem as that of an individual, and to isolate the solution away
from social context and injustice. We cannot fall into the trap of locating
the problem solely in the individual while ignoring the social matrix in
which the problem arises.
I think of how psychotherapy can be a liberatory practice, much as
Bell Hooks (1994), a feminist, progressive, African-American educator
and writer, has called for education to be a liberatory practice. I want to
know how we can create therapeutic tools that can help individuals, sin-
gly and in communities, increase personal and social agency, with the
goal being for these individuals to become activists in their own lives
and perhaps in the lives of others.
Other world-views can help psychotherapy go beyond its focus on the
individual to focus on the problems of society. Community psychology,
anthropology, postmodern and constructivist philosophy, and politi-
cal science are helpful. However, in particular, Liberation Psychol-
ogy (Martin-Baro, 1994), conceived of mostly by those from Latin and
South America and adopted by many community and multicultural psy-
chologists (Varas-Diaz and Serrano-Garcia, 2003; Comas-Diaz, Lykes,
and Alacrn, 1998; Watts, Grifith and Abdul-Adil 1999; Watts, Williams
and Jagers, 2003) is a particularly useful antidote to individualistic and
 40 ACTIVISM AND LGBT PSYCHOLOGY

apolitical frameworks. In this paper, I will describe briefly, why Libera-

tion Psychology is important for the LGBTQ communities and how
new ideas in political science and psychoanalysis aide in integrating
social context into psychotherapy.

WHAT IS OPPRESSION AND ITS RELEVANCE TO THE

LGBTQ COMMUNITY

LGBT individuals and communities are oppressed. What is oppres-

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sion? Watts, Griffith, and Abdul-Adil (1999), three community psycho-

logists define it . . . as the unjust use of power by one socially salient
group over another in a way that creates and sustains inequity in the dis-
tribution of resources (p. 42). This is an extension of the definition of
power by Irma Serrano-Garcia who defined oppression as an asymmet-
rical state of resources (1994, p. 9).
Moane (2003), Varas-Diaz and Serrano-Garcia (2003) Watts and
Serrano-Garcia (2003) and Watts et al. (2003) describe in their work
as community psychologists characteristics of oppressive societies that
transcend social groups and nationalities; these characteristics are rele-
vant to the LGBTQ populations. First, oppressive societies are polit-
ically exclusive: oppressed groups lack representation in governance
and mainstream political agendas do not attend to oppressed groups
concerns (Moane, 2003, pp. 93-94). This is clearly applicable to LGBT
communities as in the lack of national and local hate crimes statutes, the
presence of employment discrimination, and the lack of marriage equal-
ity. In fact, for LGBT communities the legal and political system may of-
ten serve as a source of oppression.
Second, oppressive societies are marked by violence against the
oppressed, whether state sanctioned or not (Moane, 2003, pp. 93-94).
LGBTQ individuals are often the target of violence and hate crimes.
The continuing failure of national leaders to pass hate crimes legislation
that includes sexual orientation and gender identity represents more
than indifference; it reflects deliberate oppression. The direct experience
of violence has many psychological consequences (Herek and Berrill,
1993), but the threat of violence leads many members of our community
to restrict their behavior. For example, many fear violence if they are
public with their affection for each other. LGBTQ individuals have
internalized those fears and are controlled by the threat of violence and
the knowledge that society will not keep them safe. Because of govern-
ment inaction and political rhetoric that scapegoats our community, we
 Psychotherapy and Clinical Practice 41

experience a form of state-sanctioned intimidation intended to marginalize

us and control our behavior. We cannot be made to disappear completely,
but we can be made to feel insecure and invisible.
Third, oppressive societies are characterized by economic injustice
and inequality (Moane, 2003, pp. 93-94), which may be manifest in
limits to institutionalized benefits (such as lack of protection for LGB
relationships and families), sanctioned discrimination, and a wide range
of legal inequities.
Fourth, oppressive societies attempt to control the personhood, bod-
ies, and sexuality of its members through legal means as well as attitudes
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and discourse (Moane, 2003, pp. 93-94). The ideology surrounding sex
and gender controls cultural images, excludes authentic diverse views,
contains extreme stereotypes, and portrays subordination. Sexual vio-
lence receives few sanctions, and popular images of sexual behavior
reflect oppressive social roles and social control.
Fifth, oppression is maintained through ideological violence (Watts
et al., 2003, p. 186); these are ideologies that mask and justify inequality
by normalizing and justifying oppressive social relationships (Watts
et al., 2003, p. 186). These beliefs devalue and stigmatize the oppressed
through labels such as deviant, ill, criminal, and idealize the traits of
those in power by defining normalcy, health, or success in their terms.
Qualities that result from oppression are labeled as intrinsic to the fun-
damental nature of the oppressed, and thus are an excuse to continue to
deny full legal rights. In the past, diagnostic categories and psychologi-
cal theories were a routine part of this system of ideological violence in
their pathologizing same-sex desire and behavior.
Finally, oppression is sustained by the psychological consequences
of oppression and ideological violence. Individuals suppress emotions
and behaviors; they control themselves, reducing the need for actual force
or punishment; the focus of punishment is not the body, but the mind
(Foucault, 1977; Watts et al., 1999, 2003). As Woodson wrote in 1933
in reference to the African-American struggle for dignity and freedom
(quoted by Watts et al., 1999, p. 257):

If you control a mans thinking you do not have to worry about his
action[s]. When you determine what a man shall think you do not
have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man
feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an
inferior status, for he will seek it himself. (Woodson, 1933)
 42 ACTIVISM AND LGBT PSYCHOLOGY

Woodson states the problem quite clearly, decades before Foucaults

insights: individuals who have internalized the negative messages about
themselves perpetrated by ideological violence, will control and oppress
themselves and no longer require explicit social control.
Through processes of political power and ideology, oppression has
profound psychological effects, particularly on the identity and emotional
life of those who are oppressed. Patterns of inferiority, helplessness,
and self-destructive behaviors have their roots in powerlessness; then
become barriers to both individual and collective action. Social and
political rejection not only has emotional consequences for individuals,
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but also threatens the integrity of communities by reducing cohesion

and altruistic behaviors (Watts et al., 2002) and by increasing individu-
alsself-destructive behaviors (Twenge, Catanese and Baumeister, 2002).
Thus, understanding oppression is essential for understanding the psy-
chological difficulties our community faces, for much of the behavior
that ends up being termed psychopathology is not simply an individual
trait, but the result of social forces (Watts et al., 2002, p. 43).

PSYCHOTHERAPY AS A LIBERATORY PROCESS

Can psychotherapy, usually an individual experience, speak to liber-

ation at all? George Albee (2000), Celia Kitzinger and Rachel Perkins
(1993) assert that individual therapy is the wrong approach, a waste of
resources, and may be a type of false consciousness by encouraging
individuals to focus on their problems in isolation from others. These
authors may have a point, and perhaps moving away from individual
interventions is the ultimate solution. Yet, psychotherapy, as it has
evolved in the United States, is embedded in our history and culture. It
reflects our focus on individualism and our ambivalence about commu-
nity support, as well as the need for new supports as urbanization has
brought rapid changes in community coherence. Psychology is ever pres-
ent on TV and is even part of our pop culture. Psychotherapy reflects our
yearning for and a cultural fear of dependency. I believe transforming
psychotherapy is a better solution than rejecting it.
In order to make psychotherapy part of social progress, we have to
understand its place in the social and historical order. Once we under-
stand our own historical and ideological context, perhaps therapy can be
a social change agent. At a minimum, psychotherapy provides a place for
individuals to speak. If those voices cannot be silenced, then oppression
 Psychotherapy and Clinical Practice 43

and its consequences cannot remain hidden. If therapy helps to end those
many silences, then it contributes to social change (Herman, 1997).
Another rationale for a role for individual therapy, is that political and
social activism is foremost a decision, an act, and a commitment of an
individual, which then hopefully becomes a collaboration of like-minded
individuals. Thus, if therapy can act as a means of counteracting the harm
of oppression and supporting changes necessary for personal and col-
lective activism, perhaps it has some greater purpose.
In order to make psychotherapy a liberatory endeavor, however, there
are changes that must be made in its theory and practice. How can ther-
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apy undo the effects of oppression, create the capacity to hope and to
commit, so as to overcome powerlessness, anger, and despair? How can
therapy focus on helping our clients develop empathy for others and be-
come aware of social issues? Finally, how can therapy encourage resis-
tance and the ability to act with compassionate purpose? I am not sure I
have all those answers, but I believe firmly it is in those directions we
must move and those goals constitute our own positive psychology.
I believe psychotherapy must make the following changes:

First, psychology must abandon the practice of seeing mental

health issues as individual problems and more willing to see these
issues as the consequences of social injustice.
Second, psychology must develop models that focus on an individ-
uals awareness and understanding of social and political forces,
similar to the concept of model of critical consciousness of libera-
tion psychology (Freire, 1970).
Third, psychology must revise deterministic explanations of social
issues and incorporate contextualist models that better explain
concepts such as social power, freedom, agency, and resistance,
which are more compatible with psychotherapy.
Finally, psychology must focus on the interpersonal relation-
ship in therapy, specifically on factors in that relationship that allow
individuals to reclaim agency.

PROBLEMS OF TRADITIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Traditional psychotherapy focuses on individual deficits or pathol-

ogy, which are often seen apart from context, history and culture. The
concept of the individual in most psychological theories (as well as the
concept of science and evidence) is derived from a Cartesian belief in
 44 ACTIVISM AND LGBT PSYCHOLOGY

the separateness of individual consciousness from emotions, physicality,

and the larger historical world. This philosophical approach asserts that
these influences can be controlled by rational human thought. The im-
pact of these ideas on psychology has been to create a field that privi-
leges rational control of emotions, individuals inner worlds and deficits,
and a discipline that searches for universal generalities rather than
unique particulars. The goals of traditional therapies have been a focus
on love and work, irrational beliefs, or perhaps symptom-relief, none
of which does necessarily include personal or social freedom.
As there are limitations with our traditional models of therapy, there
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are also limitations with models that point us in the direction of social
forces. Most models of oppression conceptualize social systems in
overly deterministic ways and even anthropomorphize social forces.
They offer explanatory systems with a sense of deliberateness or even
an attribution of consciousness to the behavior of social systems
(Chodorow, 1978; Dinnerstein, 1977). In overly deterministic theories,
the individual or community is under-emphasizedthe reverse of prob-
lems of traditional psychological theories. Further, models of social ex-
planation often lose sight of the fact that even the privileged are socially
constrained and in need of liberation and that their subjectivities are
created through violence as well.1
The tensions between psychology theories that view the individual as
separate from social reality, and linear and mechanistic social theories
where everything has a cause and there is no possibility for resistance,
make it difficult to integrate ideas about social oppression and liberation
into psychology.

LIBERATION PSYCHOLOGY: THEORY

What does psychotherapy as a liberatory practice look like? I believe

that combining liberation psychology with contextualist models of social
issues and psychotherapy practice will help us redirect psychotherapy
toward liberation.
But, first, the only appropriate response to oppression is liberation.
Paolo Freire in his seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970)
laid the groundwork for many ideas in education and psychology with
his concept of critical consciousness: learning to perceive social, polit-
ical, and economic contradictions and to take action against oppressive
elements of reality (Freire, 1970, p. 3). Watts and his colleagues (2003)
refine this concept in psychology as [a] process by which individuals
 Psychotherapy and Clinical Practice 45

acquire the knowledge, analytical skills, emotional faculties, and the

capacity for action in political and social systems necessary to interpret
and resist oppression (p. 185).
The term Liberation Psychology originated with Ignacio Martin-Baro
(1994), who was influenced by Freire. Other psychologists, Lillian
Comas-Diaz, Rod Watts, Irma Serrano Garcia, and many others, adopt
this framework. Comas Diaz (1998) writes:

Psychology of liberation attempts to work with people in context

through strategies that enhance awareness of oppression and of the
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ideologies and structural inequality that has kept them subjugated

and oppressed, thereby collaborating with them in developing crit-
ical analyses and engaging in a transforming praxis. (p. 778)

Thus, liberation is not only an individuals achievement of undoing

internalized oppression, but also the individuals capacity to engage in
collective action to change society.
This type of approach focuses on how human beings are changed by
an active process of engagement with others that alters their conception
of reality and views of themselves. It is a process of action-reflection.
The action-reflection process is a means for interrupting the cycle of op-
pression and submission through undoing the internalized oppressive
ideology (Martin-Baro, 1994, p. 42). Being able to name the world as
oppressive immediately changes the world (Freire, 1970), as an individ-
ual perceives her place in the world differently, and conceives of her
social identity differently (Martin-Baro, p. 40). Instead of seeing ones
issues as individual failings or deficits, which can be disempowering,
new solutions are possible when problems are labeled as social issues.
Although societies are oppressive, it is not a particular social order that
is in itself disempowering in the individual sense, it is how that social
order is perceived and how the individual perceives their place in it
(Freire, 1970, p. 89). This concept has important implications for psy-
chology.
In order to change and to resist any cycle of oppression, individuals
must come to an understanding of the oppression that exists, and the
complex way it has been incorporated into their being, through thoughts,
meanings, perceptions, unconscious processes, and relations to others
(Watts et al., 1999, 2002, 2003).
Liberation psychology sets the stage and defines the goal for a
liberatory psychotherapy. However, given its roots in Marxist theory,
liberation psychology does rely on more deterministic views of social
 46 ACTIVISM AND LGBT PSYCHOLOGY

forces (Freire, 1970). Thus, to address the limitations in our understand-

ing of social forces, an additional support comes from incorporating
modern constructivist and postmodern views of social issues and their
relation to the individual into our conceptualization. In this way we can
reconceptualize social context as well as individual agency. In the social
constructionist framework, the separation of human beings from their
social worlds is eliminated (Gergen, 1985). Human beings always exist
within culture: it is as elemental to human life as air. Yet, like air, cul-
ture is so basic it becomes invisible. Human sexuality, personal identity,
and psychotherapy are not independent from society and are neither
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universal nor politically neutral (Glassgold, 1995). All theories are

socially constructed and developed within a network of linguistic, cul-
tural, historical, and ethnic patterns.
If we give up the illusion that individuals are separate and embrace
our connectedness to all things, then we can come to terms with our lives.
Because culture and history are so basic to human nature, social forces
are not simply restricting, but are the substance of meaning and possi-
bility that comes when experience and meaning intersect (de Lauretis,
1986). Consciousness comes through a struggle against a limit and cre-
ates valuable qualities that come from the experience of rebellionthe
sense of personal responsibility and ultimately possibility (May, 1975,
pp. 136-137).
This complex interaction of meaning, limits and possibility is obvi-
ous in our own community. LGBTQ histories illustrates that although
people are born in a social context with oppressive social messages and
political structures, human consciousness is aware and able to analyze
and resist these elements. If resistance did not exist, we, as LGBTQ in-
dividuals would not exist. This is an ontological statement of LGBTQ
liberation psychology: I resist, therefore I am. On a community level:
we resist, therefore we exist. This resistance manifests itself in the polit-
ical activities of our community as well as in the details of our lives. Our
culture of play and camp, dress and culture are all forms of resistance.
Our ability to resist social messages and labels is courageous. Hope-
fully, each of us can recognize this in our own life and draw courage
from these bits of resistance. This ability to resist represents fundamen-
tal aspects of human natureresilience and agencyand becomes the
foundation of liberatory psychology.
Simultaneously, our ability to create new meanings and then act on
the possibilities created by those meaning unleashes new potentials.
Our categories and identities evolve with both the recognition of differ-
ence, new frames of meaning, and community identities. With each
 Psychotherapy and Clinical Practice 47

name, new possibilities are created. From homosexual to gay, to gay

and lesbian, to gay, lesbian, bisexual, to queer, transgender and on-
ward. A complex feedback loop comes from engaging in the world,
where new meanings create new possibilities, which in turn brings
new meanings and so on. Harnessing our natural ability to create
meaning within groups, to observe ourselves, to re-name ourselves,
and to keep on discovering ourselves anew, represents something fun-
damental about humanity. Too bad our strengths cannot be recognized
by society. Too bad our communitys ability to survive and thrive can-
not be seen as a model for others, an example of the resilience and
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strength of human beings.

Understanding the world, creating new social meanings and social
definitions are forms of agency: they free up new ways to act with
awareness and purpose in the world. Individual agency in a politically
constrained and socially constructed world does not disappear, but is a
resistance and a creative endeavor to build new meanings and then take
action. In this model, agency and freedom, are not individual endeavors
separate from the world at large. Rather agency and the experience of
freedom are endeavors created through interactions with each other in
the world: . . . freedom does not come through autonomy and individu-
alism nor by any individual qualities or characteristics, but by the nature
of our involvement in the social and historic world (Williams, 1992).
Agency is an attempt to live as authentically in the world as we can,
given its restraints and limits; and it occurs when we commit to meeting
each limit with resistance, then finding a creative solution to transcend
that limit.
This process is one of constant change as our perceptions of and feel-
ings about of the world are in constant motion and each new meaning
creates new possibilities and new actions. This embracing of change is
common in non-Western philosophies, for instance, in the Buddhist
concept of impermanence, defined by Thich Nhat Hahn 2 (2004) in the
following way:

Nothing remains the same for two consecutive moments [we must]
not just . . . talk about impermanence, but also to use it as an instru-
ment to help us penetrate deeply into reality and obtain liberating
insight. Without impermanence, life is not possible. How can we
transform our suffering if things are not impermanent? How can
the situation in the world improve? We need impermanence for so-
cial justice and for hope . . .Without impermanence, nothing would
 48 ACTIVISM AND LGBT PSYCHOLOGY

be possible. With impermanence, every door is open for change.

Impermanence is an instrument for our liberation. [http://www.
serve.com/cmtan/buddhism/Treasure/impermanence.html]

What we learn from Thich Nhat Hahn is that there are opportunities for
change, even social change, in every moment. We just have to train our-
selves to see them.
Realizing that the world is impermanent can give us hope in the pres-
ent and optimism for the future. The LGBTQ communities strengths
are in our ability to create new meanings. I firmly believe we will keep
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on changing, discovering, and expressing new aspects of identity. We

cannot fall into the trap of seeing the world or ourselves as static. The
self is a site of many potential identities (Gergen, 1985; Lyddon and
Weill, 1997).

LIBERATORY PSYCHOTHERAPY: PRACTICE

How does all this apply to psychotherapy? Certainly, psychotherapy

can become a place to discover and engage in critical consciousness.
Psychotherapy can be a place to create new meanings and to resist the
devaluing meanings. However, we must add to that, as critical conscious-
ness as a concept is overly cognitive and intellectual, and thus leaves out
important parts of human existenceemotions especially suffering
issues with which we as therapists struggle.
Emotions are essential to understanding oppression and liberation.
Fanon (1965) was the first to study the mental health consequences of
oppression and its manifestation as mental illness. Researchers studying
the legacy of colonialism and the psychology of ethnic minority popula-
tions describe how powerlessness and oppression have profound emo-
tional consequences that are usually manifested in shame about ones
individual self and the stigmatized group identity (Diaz, Benin, and
Ayala, 2006; Varas-Diaz and Serrano-Garcia, 2003). The cultural de-
valuation of the self and the humiliation of powerlessness become emo-
tions that are avoided through individual maladaptive strategies (substance
abuse, compulsive behaviors, and depressive symptoms) and on the
social level intragroup aggression and intergroup passivity. Thus, any
remedy for the suffering of oppression must address the emotional life
of individuals and the way that oppression affects emotions.
Here is a role for therapeutic action. Psychologists are well suited to
the role of addressing emotions. When feelings that are the result of
 Psychotherapy and Clinical Practice 49

oppression remain unresolved, mental health and behavioral problems

emerge that impair the ability of individuals and groups to develop
agentic solutions to their lives. One can reframe these feelings as not
part of the natural order or stemming from personal defects. Showing
how these feelings come from living in a society which uses ideological
violence and force to harm and control is therapeutic. For instance, I
have had success reframing the impulsive and compulsive behaviors
that can result from these feelings as a struggle to find purposive action
and overcome powerless anger. This reframes the problem from an in-
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dividual disease with immense self-blame to a broader dilemma of find-

ing agency in an oppressive world.
Emotions contribute to liberation. Emotions are important ways we
perceive the world, process information, and identify injustice. If we
dampen our ability to feel in order to avoid feelings of shame or humili-
ation, we limit our ability to perceive injustice. Injustice should make us
angry and when we get angry, we need to envision goal-directed actions
through our knowledge of the world. Emotions are also ways of creating
ties to others, influencing others, and a way of linking meaning to events
(Varas-Diaz & Serrano-Garcia, 2003). Further, liberating ones emo-
tional life is essential if one is to be able to act beyond ones own self-
interest and be able to create ties with others. The emotions linked to hope
and faith become the basis of the energy to persist and commit to activ-
ism. Emotions become a positive tool for collective action; love, fidel-
ity, loyalty are all-necessary for engaged commitment.
However, resolving feelings of shame and humiliation are essential
for social movements. Although anger and hurt caused by injustice can
provide the energy for political engagement, angers influence on the
means and the ends of our goals must be tempered. As long as unre-
solved feelings of shame and humiliation exist, there is the danger that
those emotions will either be acted out within the oppressed group,
causing divisiveness or self-destructiveness, or directed at others in
hurtful or oppressive ways. Unfortunately, we do not have to look far
to see those who claim oppressed status oppressing others. Many of us
know activists who are motivated not only by a sense of justice and
compassion, but are trying to heal feelings of deprivation, shame, anger,
and humiliation with power. The avoidance of pain, the displacement of
these feelings and issues onto social causes can derail social movements
due to competition, corruption, in fighting, and betrayal.
 50 ACTIVISM AND LGBT PSYCHOLOGY

LIBERATORY PSYCHOTHERAPY:
PROCESS

Fundamentally, if psychotherapy is to change, therapists must take

on that responsibility. Therapists must rethink their roles and behavior
with others. At the heart of liberatory psychology is that human and
social relationships are essential to change (Freire, 1970; Hooks, 1994,
Comas-Diaz, 1998). Change occurs in dialogue and interaction with
others. Freire (1970), Martin-Baro (1994), and Hooks (1994), describe
the process as engaged, a process where the focus is the entire person,
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where educators or psychologists are active, caring participants, but the

needs of the students or clients are foremost. The psychotherapy rela-
tionship can enhance agency if the relationship incorporates emotional,
moral, and intellectual engagement.
Liberation psychology reminds us that therapy, as well as education,
is not a banking system, where knowledge is deposited by an expert into
the client. Instead, it is a mutual process of understanding and liberation,
where two people enter a situation and change. Lillian Comas-Diaz
(1998) and anthropologist Nancy Schepper-Hughes (1995) see their
roles as companeras, accompanying another on a journey. According to
Comas-Diaz (1998), within the framework of liberation, accompany
means standing alongside people, working with them, seeking to develop
collaborative relations (Comas-Diaz, 1998, p. 779). This certainly is
consistent with feminist therapy and other more egalitarian models,
where the image of a detached, separate expert is discarded. We must
adopt that stance, as well, if our practice is to be liberatory.
How does one create a therapeutic process that is consistent with
critical consciousness and is a psychotherapeutic version of the term
engagement and accompanying? There are certain concepts within
modern psychoanalysis that lend themselves to such a transformation.
Most importantly the new intersubjective and relational models posit
new models of self and relations with others that are compatible with
postmodern and contextualist philosophies.
For instance, relational psychoanalysis describes recognition, a de-
sire to be known and self-assertion a desire to act (Benjamin, 1988).
However, in liberation psychology recognition must go beyond mirror-
ing of the emotions of the client in the sense of Winnicott (1971) or Kohut
(1977), and involve the therapists ability to distinguish and separate out
the consequences of oppression that suppress potential selves with fear,
shame, self-blame, and doubt. The therapist must recognize and acknow-
ledge the struggle to realize oneself in this complicated world. Being
 Psychotherapy and Clinical Practice 51

known by another is important, but being known in an environment

where there is an awareness of the impact of oppression is crucial. If this
type of recognition is absent, there will be no validation the social reali-
ties in which individuals live. Therapy in that sense would not represent
protection from messages of ideological violence, and would instead
collude through silence with oppression. This viewpoint is consistent
with feminist, LGBT and multicultural models that understand the reali-
ties that Meyers (2003) research describes where mental health prob-
lems are created through oppressive environments.
Further, the therapeutic relationship must become more of an opportu-
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nity for the development of agency, an arena for action and mutual im-
pact: the self requires the opportunity to act and have an effect on the
other to affirm his [her] existence (Benjamin, 1988, p. 53). The sense of
powerlessness that haunts those who are oppressed is a result of not
having an impact and is a consequence of their invisibility as well as so-
cial indifference to their concerns. This can result in a lack of faith in
ever being able to change themselves or the world around them. Ther-
apy becomes an arena for healing oppression if the goal includes the
recognition and assertion of the self in the mutuality of the therapeutic
relationship. This enables the development of a sense of efficacy that
moves the client closer to the next step of self-assertion: insisting on
recognition from the outside world. Self-assertion and recognition go
hand-in-hand and are a therapeutic translation of critical consciousness
(Freire, 1970; Martin-Baro, 1994). Thus, the engaged therapist must be
emotionally open to the impact of the other and be able to reflect that
back. By permitting the client to affect the therapist while the therapist re-
mains truly humanwithout the shield of the invulnerability of power
the therapist increases the sense of agency for the client is essential for
growth of her subjectivity.
Accompanying others is crucial to transforming suffering into com-
passion for oneself and others. Being with another, listening, and shar-
ing the emotional burden helps address the overwhelming despair and
hopelessness that springs from suffering. Similarly, when we help hold
anothers anger so that it can be borne, then that anger can be used as en-
ergy to commit to a cause, without consuming the bearer (Hahn, 2001).
Finally, self-forgiveness brings with it emotional freedom (Cavell,
2003). By understanding the reasons for past actions, letting go of indi-
vidual frameworks of self-blame that are isolating, and then moving to
qualified notions of what is truly possible in a world marked by social
injustice brings with it new options for action. There is a different sense
of possibility when one is freed from emotional memories of shame and
 52 ACTIVISM AND LGBT PSYCHOLOGY

humiliation (Margalit, 2002); this permits both a new relationship with

oneself and new connections to others.

RECONNECTING SOCIAL AND INDIVIDUAL THEORIES

These psychological concepts complement modern theories of politi-

cal thought, reconnecting the individual with a community. Modern
political scientists are revisiting political theory to include issues of gender,
postcolonial identities (Benhabib, 1992), and the concept of social con-
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tract to include psychological issues and themes of individual and

community recognition. Axel Honneth, a German political scientist,
incorporates Hegel and developmental psychology into a model where
recognition and mutuality are essential parts of the relationship of the
individual to society (1995). Here the social contract does not protect us
from chaos, as in the traditional Anglo-American model derived from
Hobbes and Locke, but permits the individual to gain recognition, vali-
dation, legitimacy, and respect.3 Rights or protections, as goals of the
individual in the political arena, are not necessarily an end in them-
selves, but rather a way of institutionalizing recognition, validation, and
belonging. The ideal social and political community permits the indi-
vidual to gain psychological and political self-confidence, self-respect,
and self-esteem (Honneth, 1995). These relationships are not necessarily
a given, but are created through a struggle for recognition. Political con-
flicts are seen as motivated by feelings of outrage, driven by rejection of
claims for recognition, and are criticism of the status quo. This clearly re-
flects many of the impulses behind the LGBTQ rights movement.
However, Honneth recognizes a psychological foundation that must
be in place, a type of self-confidence developed in the experience of
loving ties with early caretakers. These are later further developed in the
social institutions for children and adolescents, allowing self-respect
and self-esteem. For those who are stigmatized minorities, these cul-
tural sources and social institutions do not promote such qualities. Psy-
chological theories of minority mental health all stress very similar
ideas, for many stigmatized individuals recognition (acknowledgment),
validation (sharing views & values), legitimacy (feeling you belong),
satisfaction (rewarded for what you do), respect (treated by others as
someone of value and worth) dignity (self-perception as having value
and worth), identity (sense of self, pride, self-satisfaction) are not pro-
vided through cultural and social inclusion throughout childhood
into adulthood (Franklin, 2004). The literature on minority mental
 Psychotherapy and Clinical Practice 53

health names the constant and pervasive insults and non-recognition as

micro aggressionsdiscriminatory eventswhich assault or injure both
the psychological and political self. Honneths focus on early self-confi-
dence as well as self-respect provides a way to integrate these psycho-
logical concepts into social theory. Political agency then becomes a
developmental process based on the formation of the self-in-rela-
tion-to-a-mutually-recognized-other. Fundamental self-cohesion and
integration must occur before an individual can act in the world.
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CONCLUSION

In order to incorporate liberation psychology into our own work, we

need to start with self-analysis. Without applying critical consciousness
to our profession, our organizations, and our own lives, any attempt to
transform others will fail. Theories of mental health and psychotherapy
practice reflect social values, education systems, and scientific methods
(Gergen, 1985). The existing political and economic system shapes it
efforts. That is not a criticism but a fact. Understanding those forces is
essential if we are to act with integrity and maintain our core values.
For many years, psychiatry and psychology were part of the problem,
first by labeling LGBTQ individuals as mentally ill and then colluding
with oppression by seeing problems as only in individuals and not in so-
cial systems. This mirrors ideological beliefs of our own society, which
focused not on political injustice, but on individual deficits. We must
re-focus on oppression; call it by its true name, identifying the problem
as the entire social structure that oppresses many.
LGBTQ individuals cannot see their own oppression as separate or
unique from that of others. The ideological beliefs and oppressive pro-
cesses affect everyone and as mental health practitioners we cannot
truly offer safety and opportunity to all of us unless we address all
oppressions and deal with the profound structural inequalities that face
our world. This is an oppressive social structure that embraces stasis
that refuses to incorporate changing identities and forms of life into the
mainstream. This system posits a normal and tries to make all comply.
This normal tries to fix identities and definitions of core concepts such
as male, female, sex, gender, natural, normal, healthy, love and mar-
riage . . . the list goes on and on. Due to emotions such as anger, fear of
change, and shame, many individuals, when confronted by our courage
to be different, are terrified. They cling to safety, often in the form of
conformity, and then try to force others to conform as well.4
 54 ACTIVISM AND LGBT PSYCHOLOGY

We must find ways to create flexibility in our social and political sys-
tems to allow for constant change. As psychologists, we must focus on
understanding and embodying the strengths of our communities: the re-
silience, the resistance, those elements that illustrate how people can
overcome adversity and social injustice. For, if we are to encourage
agency, activism, courage, and resistance, we have to understand them
as well as embrace them ourselves. Activism comes from the intersec-
tion of individuals and communities with opportunities to act. We must
embrace new models of leadership that are not about individual hubris,
but aim to engage others in critical consciousness and that create oppor-
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tunities for others to act.

We must reclaim the original meaning of deviance, its Latin root,
deviate, meaning off the road. We should be path breakers, not those
who seek the safety or the certainty of the straight and narrow path. We
must look to expand meanings, not to limit them. We must seek to em-
brace the diverse possibilities for human identity, creativity, energy,
and love.
As an ethical imperative, we must remember that human beings al-
ways exist in relationship to others (Schepper-Hughes, 1995). We can-
not ignore our impact on another; our connectedness is a universal
aspect of human existence and thus is an implicit moral situation. Our
obligations to others and their welfare necessitates that we speak out
about injustice and act with compassion. We must avoid assumptions in
our theories that reify the existing order as natural, rather than a tempo-
ral construction. We must become involved in human events and not be
afraid to speak and act when it comes to the oppression of others. Com-
bating oppression with liberation is an ethical and moral imperative.
Liberation psychology draws on some of the philosophical tradition
of existentialism, whose core ethical and ontological principle is action,
as it is through action that human essence is defined (Sartre, 1946). Per-
sonal, active, commitment to a cause is central to the formation of that
essence. Much of liberation psychology has roots in situations where
the choices are stark and not to act is bad faith. Those of us, who by
skin color, social class, and education, are privileged and protected
from some of the injustices of these social forces, have a particular re-
sponsibility to those who do not. Our own privilege often prevents us
from feeling urgency or can even make change seem a threat. When we
become mental health professionals, we become part of a system of
privilege, and as such, must avoid colluding with this system. We must
focus on making psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy more than
 Psychotherapy and Clinical Practice 55

just a band-aid for broader social problems, but as an intrinsic part of so-
cial and personal liberation.
This accountability to others and the responsibility to act on our
dreams means that non-involvement and passive decisions are unac-
ceptable. Those passive decisions that are made without conscious
thought or purpose, so as not to be involved and not to be committed, ac-
tually collude with injustice. So, harkening back to a saying of an earlier
era of activism that influenced activists from the 1960s: If you are not
part of the solution, you are part of the problem. I urge you who are
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mental health professionals to act.

NOTES
1. For instance, recent research on the psychology of men and masculinity illus-
trates the negative psychological consequences of the growing up maleeven while
privilegedin our society (Pollack and Levant, 1998).
2. Hahn is a teacher of engaged Buddhism, a practice developed through a life of
opposing colonialism and political oppression in Vietnam.
3. The foundations of Axel Honneths work, Hegels philosophy, are similar to
those used by psychoanalyst Jessica Benjamin (1988) in The Bonds of Love. The estab-
lishment of relations of mutual recognition at the level of social and political levels are
viewed as . . . intersubjective experiences, through being granted recognition by
others whom one also recognizes (Honneth, 1995, p. xi).
4. When psychology or any system becomes tied to this stasis, it becomes oppres-
sive. Systems that attempt to define what is normal are systems of stasis that attempt to
limit human potential. Gonalves, a Portuguese postmodern cognitive therapist writes,
Psychopathology becomes synonymous with rigidity in ones knowing system (1997,
p. 106). Thus, our theories must be embraced tentatively, as metaphors, not reified as
truth or normalcy.

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doi:10.1300/J236v11n03_03