Continuing the previous Post, what seems to be consensual in the dispute over the nature of gender (whether genetic or social construction) is that roles and rights are socially acquired. Gender as an existential condition, however, implies ambiguity and fluidity. This is a crucial “detail” for mental health professionals. Psychotherapists should be cautious not the rush into fitting patients in any category[1]. Despite the desire to help them with circumstantial anguishes – coming from not being socially adjusted, wounded by hostility and violence- what is crucial, in as far as psychotherapy I concerned, is that they are able to find where they fit existentially as unique people in the world. More importantly, if psychotherapists judge patients they may help to strengthen their oppressive side. If, instead, they “make an alliance” with patients’ neurotic side they may unintentionally strengthen patients moral rigidity (which they night not even be are aware of). If psychotherapists give the patients their direction in life, they (psychotherapists) might end up putting their moral values as guidance to patients’ lives. Therefore, it is crucial that setting offers a facilitating environment, one that enables contradictions to arise. Hence, being aware of their true values and priorities, patients can find a satisfactory direction to their lives. This is the path for an lasting strengthen identity. Having said that, what should be put in “species’ account”? Firstly, we are creatures born total dependence on the other to survive. Secondly, we are born equipped with desire and creativity and, thirdly, equipped with an “agent” sexuality expected to emerge at puberty. From that time on, sexual desire comes up in eroticized bodies, which will be directed to other bodies through fantasies, which drives eroticism. If diagnoses are based on the understanding of anguishes, we find the right track to desire and, hence, to fantasies. This will lead us to repressions, oppressions, rejections and other hidden conflicts, blocked by consciousness. The role of psychotherapists as “emotional carers” is to help people confront their hidden conflicts, integrate contents excluded from their self- perception and broaden their Ego/sense of Self. This way, they should be able to enjoy sexual pleasure, admit their conditions, stand for their choices and, in cases of gender non-conforming, discover where they feel they are alongside the existential line that defines Gender. Because, to be honest, what is natural in human beings is to love and desire in the most diverse ways.
To continued in the next Post [1] These reflections attest my clinical perception of the phenomenon, supported by Psychodramatic Analysis as main methodological reference.
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