The Concept of Race and Psychotherapy
Is our society color-blind? Trans-racial? Post-racial? And what—if anything—should this mean to professionals in clinical practice with diverse clients? The ambitious volume The Concept of Race and Psychotherapy probes these questions, compelling readers
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Jefferson M. Fish
The Concept of Race and Psychotherapy
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Jefferson M. Fish Department of Psychology St. John’s University New York City, NY
ISBN 978-1-4419-7575-1 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-7576-8 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-7576-8 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2010937621 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
To Dolores, Krekamey, Chris, Jordan, and Jaden
Preface
Much has been written over the last several decades dealing with race and psychotherapy, but the literature is built on a foundation of implicit and unchallenged assumptions. These assumptions—that race, culture, society, personality, and therapy denote actual entities in the real world—often lead us astray. I would argue that they are more usefully regarded as concepts with varying utilities and liabilities and varying degrees of contact with empirical reality, and that they deserve to be examined and reevaluated. Rethinking assumptions in light of new knowledge can lead therapists both to understand their clients and themselves in new ways and to become more effective in their clinical practice. Roughly, the first half of this book provides relevant theoretical and empirical background dealing with the concept of race, and with culture and the social sciences in general, although it also contains some implications for therapy. One specific hope I have for these chapters is that they will help to clarify people’s thinking about race and thereby reduce the intellectual confusion surrounding this fraught topic. In addition, I hope that they will help to clarify the “What am I?” question for the many individuals who do not fit neatly into one of America’s racial categories. (This includes therapists asking about their own identities and/or asking themselves “What are you?” about some of their clients.) The second half of the book deals more specifically with applications to problem behavior and therapy. These chapters contain theoretical observations, therapeutic applications, and clinical examples, while maintaining the cross-cultural perspective that pervades the entire work. The ideas presented here are particularly relevant to cognitive, behavioral, strategic, systemic, and solution-foc
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