Therapy & Capitalism [CC]

[@disabled.autistic.lesbian]

Addendum about some sources here - I’ve been seeing some conversations in the last few weeks from the High Support Needs autistic community about how some of Dr. Devon Price’s stuff, particularly his books, are not intersectional of higher support needs folks. I haven’t read his books yet, I recommended them here based on others telling me that they were great, but just wanted to acknowledge that! I think a lot of more radical mental health advocates tend to lean hard into “it’s all a social construct” which can teeter into “your experiences aren’t real, labels need to all go away, and everyone should just be integrated into society” (I say because I used to be that way and am actively working to unlearn it) As fun as all that theory is, it is sometimes utilized in deeply impractical ways that harm the most marginalized in our communities. So. Moral of the story. You can read and listen to anything you want at the end of the day, it’s just super important to think critically about it - Do you agree? Do you disagree? Why? Who is being left out of the conversation? Great resource I specifically want to highlight is @virtualcouchtherapy on Insta/@quirkyblacktherapist on TikTok

[@Kadaspala]

While I can't comment on their other work, I'm reading Unmasking Autism now and, while I suppose one could say it doesn't offer much for higher support needs...that was never its intention? Like it's literally a book about autistic people who mask extensively and fell through the cracks of getting a childhood diagnosis for that reason. Considering its very premise and subject matter (and the experiences of its author) of course it's going to be focused more on "lower support needs" types. And they are incredibly intersectional in many other senses -- ethnicity, gender identity and sexuality, other disabilities, etc. Furthermore, while they may not go in depth regarding high support needs they certainly acknowledge and encourage acceptance and support. I do understand the frustration higher support needs people may have feeling underrepresented with all the new breadth of autistic awareness and understanding trending towards more "mild" (ie: non-stereotypical, masked, etc) presentations in recent times, and that's absolutely valid in regards to a conversation about broader trends and whatnot. But I do think it's kind of missing the mark to throw targeted critique for such at an author and book that deliberately is focusing on the other side of the coin. Don't get me wrong, we should always strive to maximize intersectionality...but that's not the same as having every work about a generalized everything in equal measures.

[@aspidoscelis]

@@Kadaspala Agreed. It would be good to have more representation of / good books about all parts of the austistic community. Devon writes primarily about / for the subset of the autistic community whose experiences are relatively similar to his own-and doesn't pretend otherwise. That's not a problem, it just shouldn't be (and isn't) the entirety of our discourse.

[@merbst]

I would like to share a lovely quote that often suits the circumstances: "Just because I am paranoid does not make the people who are out to get me any less dangerous."

[@bryonyvaughn2427]

Oh, my gosh! Cinema Therapy has been so beneficial to my life. I'm an autistic person raised in an emotionally neglectful and outright abusive home. This combination has made it difficult for me to relate to and benefit from story telling healing/growth focused ways. (They were storylines to me but not resonant.) Cinema Therapy has been so helpful in getting me in those interpersonal, compassionate, connected spaces and ways. It's also given me a way to connect with my son who loves movies (while I've only enjoyed documentaries.) Cinema Therapy, not only has been a therapeutic resource for me, giving me greater understanding of people within their systems, it's a sort of Cliff Notes so that I can get the themes and relevance of narrative movies in advance and be able to relate to my son more in discussions after the movies we watch together. It gives me a shorthand for our conversations too, relating to the circumstances, inner lives, and interpersonal relationships of characters. With my profoundly positive experience with Cinema Therapy, I immediately subscribed to Mickey Atkins based on your recommendation. Thanks, Sydney!

[@erindabney2758]

Wow! You just eloquently described a lot of my experiences with therapy. Especially the whole cutting people out of one’s life instead of trying to repair small rifts. Thank you

[@daniellematthews4758]

As someone who is becoming more politically aware as of late, I’m very glad this topic was brought to my attention. It touches on many issues that affect myself and my peers, and I think it’s only going to become more relevant. Therapy has become more popular as it becomes more socially acceptable to have emotions, and work through trauma. I think most people would agree that’s a good thing to do for yourself and your relationships. And it is an undeniably good thing when someone does the emotional labour of bettering themself. Going to therapy can be a sign that someone is interested in doing that emotional work, but it’s not the only way to do that. “Go to therapy” has become shorthand for “improve as a person” as far as I can tell. From that logic, if you’re not going to therapy, you’re never trying to improve or grow as a person. Which obviously is not true. That’s a trend I’ve personally noticed anyway

[@Ziggi_onthe_RISE]

I highly agree with a lot of your insights here about how centering oneself and cutting out others is not good advice. One of my hyper focus interests lately has been reading into intersectionality, as well as accounts from diverse marginalities along racial, religious, and class divisions, as well as ableism. In fact, Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew was really good on the topic of ableism in regards to visible & invisible disabilities. Anyway, I really believe in de-centering the self and learning to reconnect our sense of self as “part” of a greater group in humanity is a much more healthy way of framing than the individualist, divisive way of a lot of toxic self-help language thy teaches to cut out anything that doesn’t immediately agree with you.

[@Ahvrym]

I think it's really important to not swing this to the extreme in the other direction either. Yes, it's terrible for us to cut people out that are mostly good for us in our lives, but also there are plenty of people that are either fair weather friends who you can handle when you're stable or are actively toxic and should absolutely be cut out from both individual and group relationships because they actively hurt people..

[@xxBreakxxAwayxx3]

I used to follow a bipoc educator on ig who said, "self healing is a misnomer because healing never happens in a vacuum. Healing happens in relationship to other people and things. we cant pull ourself up by our bootstraps in isolation through study alone. we have to learn to relate to ourselves and others in new ways in order to heal and grow." This realy changed the way i viewed "self work" and my voracious appetite for therapy/health books and branding such as mainstream instagram educators and western assumptions.

[@katieboyden9961]

and omg 1000% on therapy validating to the point of ego inflating. sometimes I have had to tell my therapists to challenge me and not affirm my issues or the ways in which I messed up or wronged myself or someone else. but then it becomes sticky because sometimes i'm unfairly judging myself and the therapist IS validly trying to reframe the negative self talk but also they don't live in my head, don't occupy my surroundings, don't participate in my relationships etc. I love this discussion.

[@xxBreakxxAwayxx3]

wow sydney another banger! you dont miss, we love you and your work! you make me laugh and also smack myself in the face because your info is so direct, supportive, and thoughtful!!! tysm!!

[@rileycollison2947]

I have had about 8 different therapists and counsellors. I am about to finish seeing one, and they have honestly helped me so much more than any other one. I think this is because they are also neurodivergent and non-binary, and have been helping me work with my autistic brain, rather than against it.

[@Ziggi_onthe_RISE]

I just finished this book last week! I bought the whole collection because I found it very well-done, and the collection leads on into race, Islamophobia, climate change, class disparity, etc. and they are quick reads. Hope you enjoyed it!

[@Ziggi_onthe_RISE]

This was about, “Mad World”

[@kazh8639]

Thank you for mentioning the COVID anxiety thing. I’m in a small “western” country (~5 million people) and the current barrier to therapy is finding someone who can understand the intersections of queerness, transness, disability, neurodivergence, and COVID cautiousness without invalidating actual struggles that come from those identities and ways of being. Considering 0 providers I’ve found online are COVID cautious, that’s already a massive obstacle. I don’t want to go to therapy and not be able to complain and express my anxieties about the state of the world, and then be invalidated because of it. So currently I don’t go ://

[@SkyfullofStardust]

Thank you so much for acknowledging these things. I have noticed the same patterns and behaviours and experienced them first hand. I've had more than one person just completely cut me off because they started therapy (again) and focused more on themselves, and yes, they were all "anticapitalist" (one of them even active in antifa). That one person was actually my closest friend for years, I did so much for her (she also did for me) and then she apparently found someone better for her mental health than me, since I was too negative or something. Well, I'm sorry I have many struggles and my life is kinda shitty with no real perspective. It really hurts. And I have made this experience so many times now, even just with people who have been to therapy being very...distant and cold? So a while ago I decided to not try to build friendships with anyone who is or has been to therapy. I don't even know what these people want out of human relationships. Someone to always cheer them up and entertain them? I don't want to be seen as an entertainer, judged by how happy I make someone, I want to be valued as a person.

[@katieboyden9961]

sorry to keep commenting here haha (i'm doing it in real time as I watch) but YES OMG blocking culture is OUT of control. I'm also in the queer / neurodivergent community and see it here running rampantly. we are lonelier than ever and making ourselves more isolated by the day with this knee jerk block response. what happened to working things out with people that matter, and the longevity of important relationships, you're absolutely right

[@merbst]

Exactly the type of thinking from young people that we need right now!

[@sophieramati]

Could you possibly make a video on how to function and emotionally regulate in an emotionally abusive home environment a part of me feels it’s not possible , but I’d love to hear any insight of yours

[@BL-sd2qw]

Therapy is a tool for capitalism and I made a compilation of reasons as to why, lol The whole pathology paradigm is just not science and therqpy is meant to *change you*; that's the point. It's mostly about being productive under neoliberal capitalism I recommend Against therapy: Emotional tyranny and the myth of psychological healing Edit: also: Psychotherapy As Religion: The Civil Divine In America The myth of psychotherapy: Mental healing as religion, rhetoric, and repression

[@merbst]

This community thing sounds interesting... I've been searching for some social support that I can trust, for at least several years, maybe a full decade, since I first noticed that I had no support at all when I needed it most, although I still had more than a few people who would give me short platitudes back then, those who remained & everyone I befriended in tge decade since have moved far away or died or got married and cut off contact.

[@jtrjtr5393]

Great video 👍🏾

[@asmrmetalman1061]

do you do debates?

[@makingnoises2327]

23:43 - 24:10 Who is saying it's good to have just one person for support? This just comes off as judgemental and dismissive to marginalized people who, for any number of reasons, have no one or just one person who serves as support. "Have a community" is a frankly cruel demand to make of people who have had community denied to them due to bigotry, disability, and any number of intersectional marginalizations, and falls exactly in the same "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" sloganeering that you were condemning just minutes prior in this video.

[@oliviatreip2613]

No offence but I feel like the audio description for vi people isn’t really necessary in this context. I get it for photos and things specifically about the visuals, but this video isn’t about what you look like and I feel like this makes audio description seem silly and cringey when it is actually needed in many cases. I asked my blind girlfriend and she said the places that audio description or alt text really count is on things like images, such as on instagram posts because this allows blind people to access instagram like other people and know what’s going on. Also, in movies or videos when someone’s appearance is particularly interesting or pertinent to what is going on, or if there are visual cues that, if missed, prevent access to the information or plot of the video or movie. She also checked your instagram and noticed that you don’t have alt text on your posts, so this feels very performative; you’re only being ‘accessible’ when sighted people can bear witness to it, and not when it really matters to blind people (on Instagram, where only they do/do not benefit from alt text being added to images). Genuine accessibility is about adding value for blind and vi people, not for making yourself look virtuous or getting praise from sighted people.

[@buffienguyen]

Hi, first I thank you for taking the time to speak up about something you care about, and I think that holding creators accountable is important :) However as I remember and also check, Sydney also adds ID in all of their non-video posts on instagram. It's not embedded alt text as in the instagram function, but it is a visual description + a copy of the texts in the photos nonetheless. Again, I think calling people out for a mismatch in accessibility practices is important. But I think in this case you might have assumed things from just one thing you think is true (as in, you assume that Sydney is only doing it for virtue signaling). It could've been a genuine oversight. And if you look at Sydney's video and instagram back log on accessibility and disability issues, I don't think it's convincing to say that they are just virtue signaling. As for the ID in their videos, I will of course respect the opinions of a blind person in this case. Tl;dr: I assume you mean well, but I checked and it doesn't seem to be true about the instagram thing :)

[@oliviatreip2613]

@@buffienguyen fair enough, I didn’t notice that about the captions. It’s true that I might have jumped to conclusions about their intentions. Even if their intentions are good, I think the unnecessary description is not a good look for accessibility. Given the recent backlash against left wingers in the media and in politics, appearing ‘woke’ is a genuine threat for the rights of people in marginalised groups so I think it’s important to avoid it when it’s not necessary. Also, though I now recognise that it’s not necessarily virtue signalling, having a description in instagram captions is not as accessible as having it in alt text. Apparently blind people will often automatically scroll past any posts with no alt text. It can be time consuming for blind people to read captions because there are often multiple emojis which are annoying for voiceover users to read which is another reason a blind person might skip captions. Also apparently voiceover doesn’t always read captions properly wheras alt text is more reliable on screenreaders (not sure why). since alt text is the designated accessibility feature, that is what most blind people are expecting so that is what they’re going to look at. It’s just better to use it than putting it in the caption. It’s forgivable to not know this, so I’m not saying that Sydney is a bad person for this.

[@disabled.autistic.lesbian]

Noted! I started doing video descriptions after my blind friend asked me to about two years ago and I try to include it when I remember. In regards to alt text versus ID, I have had serious glitches with alt text in the past so I switched to using ID in all of my captions instead, but now that I know this I will put in the effort to do both going forward :) I will also add, just as a general thing - a lot of content creation platforms are inherently inaccessible in regards to user interface on all sides. So often disabled creators will have inherently "mismatched" accessibility because some things are impossible or genuinely super difficult for them to do and they can't afford to hire other people to do that for them. And the clashing of access needs is a constant struggle. So if you see confusing mismatches from others in the content creation community that may be why!

[@madprole5361]

If you aren't already familiar, I'd recommend looking into both Deleuze and Guattari and the fields of study that has been produced from them. For example, John R. Morss's books criticizing and discussing modern educational and psychological frameworks. I'm just starting his book The Biologising of Childhood: Developmental Psychology and the Darwinian Myth. There's also several anthologies centered on Deleuzean authors and different subjects such as Deleuze and Education, Deleuze and Psychology, Deleuze and Children, which also deal with the educational problems for LGBTQ children.