Radical Feminist Therapy: Working in the Context of Violence

by Bonnie Burstow

With an emphasis on violence against women and on women's responses to it - such as depression, splitting and eating disturbances - this volume furthers the radicalization of feminist therapy. It serves as a comprehensive introduction for trainees and as an ongoing resource for social service workers and therapists.

Providing detailed and grounded guidance, the author examines feminist approaches to working with women and discusses issues often omitted or pathologized in general feminist counselling texts, including prostitutes battered by pimps and self-mutilation. She explores such central questions as how women can empower themselves in a sexist society; what forms internalized oppression takes and how clients can be hel

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Psychology, Mental Health, Theory, Self Help, Feminist Theory

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 1992

About the author

Bonnie Burstow was a Canadian psychotherapist, author, and anti-psychiatry scholar. She was a professor in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto.

Reviews

[Aya · Rating 5 out of 5]

“often father and daughter look down on mother (woman)” SHUT UPPPPP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UPPPP

[C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had some pretty major disagreements with some parts of this book, but I still feel it deserves five stars. I'm not sure that's ever happened to me before.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think this was a brilliant book in a lot of ways - from what i remember, it is, in keeping with the tradition of radical feminism, somewhat essentialist and i find that problematic, but i think (and Burstow might well disagree) that most of this book can be carried across. Essentialism notwithstanding, her feminist analysis was in many cases spot on, i thought (though i haven't read it for years) as was her critiques of the psych system, violence etc. and her absolute dedication to autonomy and anti-coercive practices

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly a product of its time, and there are parts of this book that I deeply disagree with. Nonetheless, I really appreciate that this book exists. The psy professions could certainly do with more feminism.

[Lucy Faria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a woman isn’t a hat you can take on and off, and there is no switch button to temporarily pause expectations, objectification, or inequality. Therapy is fucking good. In situations of micro-agressions, it’s helpful to “think like a psychologist”. The book is not entirely as radical as it seems, but it was written in the 90s so I assume at that time it may have been a larger novelty. Good read, but some bits are either not too relevant, or generalize way too much.

[Niamh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuuuuuuucccckk

[Alyssa Uithoven · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were many things I disagreed with in this book; however, there were several passages that were eye-opening. A very fascinating read.

[Wenjing Fan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me a bit of confidence in psychological counseling.

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这本书主要介绍了如何以女权主义的视角，与不同身份、遇到不同问题的女性来访者工作。作者认为咨询师应该反思自己内在的偏见（对有色人种、女同性恋、土著女性），并站在女权主义的立场上给予来访者支持，即使这些是与“传统”心理咨询伦理不同的。比较意外的是最后两章，作者反对“精神病”的存在，作者认为应该尊重来访者结束自己生命的权利。有挺多收获的，读完对心理咨询有了一些信心，见长评。

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在这本Radical feminist therapy中，Bonnie介绍了如何以女权主义的观念，与不同身份、遇到不同问题的女性来访者工作。她提示咨询师应该反思自己内在的偏见（对有色人种、女同性恋、土著女性），并站在女权主义的立场上给予来访者支持。

往往这种时候咨询师的表现并不符合“传统”对咨询师“中立”的要求，例如提出某个问题并不是来访者的错而是来自于父权制，或鼓励女性这样归因，或者和来访者一起寻找应对某个问题的办法（即使这种办法是一种欺骗或逃避）。

在这里，来访者和咨询师似乎成为了一个小群体。



在心理咨询中，女性遇到的问题总是女性独有的，例如饮食问题，这些问题总能归因于父权社会对女性的打压。还有一些问题看似是不分性别的，例如酗酒问题，但在女性身上完全呈现出别样的状态。让女性处在全女性、理解女性的环境中接受帮助是非常重要的，因为通常情况下这些帮助（如戒酒协会）都是旨在帮助男性的。

特别喜欢倒数第二章的内容。作者反对“精神病”的存在，认为精神病院只会让女性变得更差。她认为那些觉得自己得了精神病的女性只是内化了这种观念，而应该告诉“自愿”去精神病院的女性住进去之后就不再会有自由。

作为一个社科而非医学生，我无比认同且希望更多人能了解一下这个观点。精神病学多大程度地考虑了女性的真实处境和感受？多大程度是以“男性”为标准来定义精神疾病的呢？



说到最后一章“那些想要结束自己生命的来访者”。早在我高中时期第一次接受心理咨询科普的时候，我就如果是来访者想要自杀，咨询师是可以违反“尊重来访者的选择”的约定，联系来访者的家属以“拯救”来访者的。那时候我就一直想问，在咨询师眼里，来访者没有结束自己生命的自由，是吗？

在这本书里，Bonnie反驳了这个“规则”。她认为伤害自己的权利是人与生俱来的，需要被尊重。而咨询师想要“越界”阻止来访者自杀，更多是因为想要获得某种（对咨询的）控制感。如果来访者去世，她可能会面对自己的愧疚、外界的谴责等问题。她觉得咨询师面对不同的情况可以表达出挽留、表达出自己的焦虑、悲伤，但不可以替对方做决定。

更进一步Bonnie指出，所谓的“自杀干预”往往并没有办法减少自杀数量（这里或许需要数据？），只会让她们“推迟”自杀，而这带来的结果就是让她们在这个阶段里更加痛苦、没有依靠（因为她们无法再相信你）。

我想，这种被“越界”的感觉一定会让来访者恐惧，或许这种“世界上都不能理解我想要自杀”的状态会让人更想自杀，让咨询师失去了让来访者感受到被理解的最后的机会。但我想，如果当事人最后听到的咨询师的话是“我不希望你这么做，但你永远有这么做的权利”“你有权利这么做，我会尽量去理解你”，她走向死亡的时候会否因为有人理解自己支持自己而没有那么痛苦呢？

或许也有人通过表达自杀的意愿以希望获得爱、希望有人能“越界”地爱自己、为自己做决定，那这些更应该是在咨询过程中（而非通过这样的事件）来讨论的了——我们需要的不应该是越界的爱，而是安全的、拥有自我的爱。



以上也是很久以来我一直认同的观点，人应该有选择结束自己生命的权利。

但是最近我也在想，如果一位女性是因为社会环境对女性太过糟糕而想要自杀，我真的可以做到祝福她吗？我想不会吧。我希望她不要死，要活下来，一定一定要先活下来。活下来，把悲伤痛苦变成愤怒。

于是行动主义、尝试改变世界（包括咨询师和来访者）也被包含在了Bonnie的理论中。真是非常非常有道理的。



最后对于书的一些细节提出一点点小疑问，不能算是质疑，但也期待读到更多其它（由这本书发展开的）作品。

比如如果这样的理论还处于开始阶段、国内还只有很少部分的女性主义的咨询师在使用这样的理论，而她们的督导们并不了解、理解，这样的实践确实是可以成为实践的吗？或者说，咨询师的督导们开始学习这样的理论了吗？

虽然我非常非常认同这本书，但我认为咨询本身是一种“相处的实践”，它的形式很大程度上取决于咨询师（和来访者）认为什么样的相处方式是最好的。那么在其中的伦理问题（也就是这本书中讨论的那些）如何证明它是普世的呢？

本质上目前来说依旧是女性面对着更多的痛苦、更多尝试心理咨询，而咨询的费用也不便宜。虽说女性咨询师帮助女性也是一种女性互助，但如何理解这种“谁痛苦谁付费”的行业现状呢？



好了，总之推荐给大家，这本书至少让我对心理咨询有了一点点信心。

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hasta yo tengo mis límites.
-Solo le puse tres porque esta bien estructurado y es llevadero.
-Tiene muchas ideas dañinas y otras que me llenaron de bronca

[Paola · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 2'5⭐

Is It a bad book? Absolutely not. Would I recommend It? Yes and no, let me explain:

Bonnie Burstow has a nuance take on therapy that shares light on how we have to take into account womanhood to try to give a better help in combination with the knowledge a psychologist like herlsef has therefore they need to also put in the work to learn how to cope with the old lense of sexism and racism that blurs the good work that they want to do.

Furthermore the writting is concise and divided very good, then why I might not reccomend It?

It's flaw It's the thing that also makes the book special, It's written from and for( at least in my opinion) psychologists. You do learn and understand the topic given but It basically explains how to deal with that person as a client.

In conclusion; good book, interesting point of view, well written and organized but I wouldn't put a "regular person" through the experience of sitting down to read It.

[yara ❦ · Rating 1 out of 5]

was a brilliant read until finding some problematic parts. there is a chapter about coping mechanisms for child SA, one being hypersexuality through promiscuity or sex work. this section is titled “slutted/prostitution”, again this is in reference to survivors of child SA. to then saying some adult survivors follow scripts wherein “They routinely walk into dangerous situations in which they are beaten or gang-raped. They submit to sexual practices that they find repulsive”, these are issues related to class mobility, not post trauma validation. language is very important in therapy, there is a lot of grace given to some marginalised groups over others. wouldn’t really be classed radfem by todays standards.

[Elena Maurer · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not bright as they are, cannot reason as they do. This collusion does not save the daughter from the mother’s fate.”
Highlights a lot of issues with modern feminism.

[Izabella Foreman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't entirely agree with everything the author wrote; she's definitely on the extreme of certain ideals. However, I appreciate how much she advocates for bodily autonomy and her in-depth looks at the daily situations and interactions women face.

[Anna Whitescarver · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars I think. It was really interesting and had some good parts but also some parts I skipped bc they were too long or I didn’t agree or I didn’t feel like it was relevant.

[Crystal Morningstar Kinistino · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gets to the heart of female issues in a male-centric world.