Group-Analytic Contexts, Issue 76, June 2017

Newsletter – Summer 2017 49
Or more specifically: Suppose a group of white and otherwise
privileged therapists would turn to you, what would we do together?
ManuEla: What would I do if a group of white and otherwise
privileged therapists turned to me to reflect on their social positions
and privileges? Well, first of all, I would be delighted because I know
that many people who are discriminated against start therapy and
terminate it sooner or later for quite similar reasons as described at the
beginning. This shows that there seems to be a lack of therapists who
(a) acknowledge social power relations as a problem in which all
human beings (including themselves) are involved, (b) who (begin) to
understand the impact of discrimination on individual, interpersonal,
institutional and ideological levels, and (c) who don’t seek to ban the
impact of ongoing collective traumatizations, such as racism, from the
therapeutic process, but explicitly involve and give room to these lifeimpeding
experiences. (see Fernandes, 2015)
After my joy, I would like to explore what the participants of
such a group are looking for and need for themselves and their work.
Perhaps the answers to this question would be similarly searching and
vague as in your e-mail above, but surely they would become more
specific over the course of the workshop.
Presumably, I would begin by analysing the structure and
workings of discrimination by using adultism as an example, because
the discrimination of young people (to not be respected, not taken
seriously, being smiled at and shamed, not being questioned and being
ignored, evaluated and challenged, controlled and regulated) is the
only social power system that all people have experienced more or
less strongly. The biographical work with adultism also provides a
good basis for understanding racism, hetero-/cis-/trans-sexism,
ableism and so on.
Well, and then, after looking at all the different forms of
discrimination that exist in our society, we would focus on the social
positions of the individual people and what we have learned and been
taught in our respective positions along various power lines. What we
do know because of our experience as a privileged or de-privileged
person and do not know. What we can see and what remains hidden
from us due to our perspective. What makes us act in what way or not.
Finally, we would deal with the recognition of one's own
privileges. This is a step where people often feel ashamed, because
privileges are usually nothing, people earned themselves, are rather
something which fell into their lap. Something that nevertheless, or
exactly because of that, allows for a more comfortable life compared