Essay - Feminist Therapy and Postmodern Approaches Feminist Therapy Feminists Have Purported...

Feminist Therapy and Postmodern Approaches

Feminist *****

Feminists have purported that male and female perspectives on life have been developed from early childhood in different ways. Men view the world in terms of power and competiti*****, or hierarchy. Women, view the ***** as a series of rel*****tionships and connections to others. Therefore, most psychological theories ***** the therapy techniques derived from them may not fit women very well, since studies ***** human behavior were almost always conducted by men on men. So the masculine viewpoint was used to describe and define women, as ***** as men, ***** ***** techniques that worked ***** ***** were applied ***** women without the most successful results.

Whether through biology or socialization ***** both, by the time *****s are grown up they ***** a full aw*****ness of expectations. Culture, society and families expect ***** to act like "women" or "men," with the roles ***** traditions ***** culture expect ***** these genders. Children are constantly fed gender-biased messages: boys are s*****posed to be strong, stone-faced, independent, aggressive, dominant, ambitious, and successful. Girls are subordinate, obedient, caring, passive, emotional, and, above all, beautiful. (Guindon 2)

The gender roles played and the expectations ***** has expected of us has put a roadblock in the way of addressing feminine psychology on the level ***** the *****rapist. There has been very little study done on the women's viewpoint of almost any problem and up until recently, no *****rapy addressing this viewpoint. (Dutton-Douglas 64)

Laura Brown discusses ***** in her book, Subversive Dialogues: Theory ***** feminist therapy, (1994) saying that Feminist ***** is an integrative approach that superficially resembles other psychotherapies, but the therap*****t is steeped in fem*****ist political analysis and scholarship, in the psychology of women and gender. This gives her or him a unique approach to both males and females.

Fem*****ist therapists are basically interested in the ways in which ***** has shaped ***** lives ***** experiences of the people ********** treat, and want to underst***** how the gender role has *****formed them, ***** ***** them ***** develop and deal with stress, race, class, sexual orientation, age cohorts ***** abilities. They ***** interested in the interactions of their client with others of their own and the other ***** in the theater of ***** and dominance. The theories backing up this viewpoint have a history *****, though not dist*****nt, are well-researched and based on multicultural data ***** literature. They deal with histories of women and *****s who have lost power or experienced social, cultural and ***** processes that ***** changed ***** *****. *****, therapy becomes pertinent as a political, as well ***** a social force in shaping the life of the *****. (Brown 1994 6)

The desire to treat both men and ***** as equals in the therapy relati*****ship is crucial to the success of the ***** ***** this is the benefit that this type of therapy offers. Not only is the client seen as equal ***** *****s ***** her or his milieu, but ***** to ***** t*****apist. As such,