Forcing a Girl into Therapy
May. 21st, 2020 02:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenJamilah Lemieux’s advice column in Slate addressed, among other matters, a letter from a mother whose fourteen year old daughter insists that she does not want therapy. A year ago, when she was thirteen, her father suddenly died in her presence, and she has other sources of distress in her life, so it was certainly understandable that Ms. Lemieux favored requiring her to see a therapist, but the situation is not so clear to me.
The columnist seemed to take for granted that therapy would help rather than harm the girl, but some people have received bad advice from so-called therapists, or otherwise been left very much unsatisfied. For example, the form of therapy that requires people to talk about traumatic experiences has been criticized as re-traumatizing them, and causing them additional distress. I do not claim to have all the answers, but I point out that there are disputed questions. Even if a teenage girl should not be permitted to decide for herself whether or not to take antibiotics for her bronchitis or insulin for her diabetes, psychological “therapy” is a rather different kettle of fish.
I recall an article somewhere (it may have been by Cathy Young) reporting that people who kept quiet and didn’t talk about their personal problems did better than those who did. The author observed that this did not prove that stoicism worked better than letting it all hang out; it might only mean that stoicism worked better for those inclined to practice stoicism. Nonetheless, when there is less than compelling reason to believe in the benefits of a form of treatment or a way of dealing with the pangs and sorrows of the human condition, it seems to me that people, even people not old enough to vote, should be at liberty to make their own choices.
The columnist seemed to take for granted that therapy would help rather than harm the girl, but some people have received bad advice from so-called therapists, or otherwise been left very much unsatisfied. For example, the form of therapy that requires people to talk about traumatic experiences has been criticized as re-traumatizing them, and causing them additional distress. I do not claim to have all the answers, but I point out that there are disputed questions. Even if a teenage girl should not be permitted to decide for herself whether or not to take antibiotics for her bronchitis or insulin for her diabetes, psychological “therapy” is a rather different kettle of fish.
I recall an article somewhere (it may have been by Cathy Young) reporting that people who kept quiet and didn’t talk about their personal problems did better than those who did. The author observed that this did not prove that stoicism worked better than letting it all hang out; it might only mean that stoicism worked better for those inclined to practice stoicism. Nonetheless, when there is less than compelling reason to believe in the benefits of a form of treatment or a way of dealing with the pangs and sorrows of the human condition, it seems to me that people, even people not old enough to vote, should be at liberty to make their own choices.
