Psychiatrist Sally Satel has just written an important piece for The Free Press where she examines one particular way in which the Israel/Gaza conflict is negatively affecting therapeutic practice. At CTA we have been following the disastrous impact particularly on American psychoanalysis of activist clinicians and clinical leaders with an aggressively pro-Palestinian agenda (see here and here).
In her piece, Satel opens with an account of how when a professional listserv in Chicago sent out a client request for a Zionist therapist, this triggered an attempt by a therapist to create a list of all the Jewish clinicians who responded. This list was then widely circulated with a warning to avoid referring any clients to the listed therapists on the grounds that they support racism and genocide. As Satel notes, this blacklist has “… riven the therapeutic community and also exposed a dangerous new trend that threatens to undermine the very principles that should govern psychological treatment. ”
She observes that it is not only the Jewish therapists who are being affected, “Currently, Jewish patients (deemed to be members of a privileged group) are finding themselves subject to attempts by activist-therapists to morally reeducate them; no support of Israel can be condoned as it is declared a “settler-colonial” state.”
To read her further reflections on the wider implications of foregrounding politics at the expense of healing in the therapeutic professions, view the complete essay here.
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