The Problem with the Phrase “Intersecting Identities”: LGBT Affirmative Therapy, Intersectionality, and Neoliberalism

Abstract

Since the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973, psychology has transformed the way it approaches sexual orientation and gender identity issues in scientific research and clinical practice. The paradigmatic shift from psychopathology to identity has corresponded with the introduction of BLGBT affirmative therapy,^which suggests that therapists should affirm clients' sexual orientations rather than reinforce sexual minorities' experiences of stigma and marginalization. This qualitative study used a subset of psychotherapy training videos about LGBT issues to explore the form of content of LGBT affirmative therapy in the context of increased attention to identity and multiculturalism in applied psychology. The videos suggest that multiculturally competent therapists should understand sexuality and gender issues in terms of what psychologists call Bmultiple^or Bintersecting^identities, namely race and ethnicity. While the multicultural turn in psychotherapy may signal a transformation in mental health service provision, our analysis questions whether these videos may unintentionally reflect a neoliberal logic of inclusion that obscures the structural dimensions of social inequality. We suggest that the uptake of intersectionality-like identitarian discourse in psychotherapy in particular offers opportunities for challenging and reinforcing neoliberalism.

What Does “Couple” Mean in Couple Therapy Outcome Research? A Systematic Review of the Implicit and Explicit, Inclusion and Exclusion of Gender and Sexual Minority Individuals and Identities

“…Our review goes beyond inclusion and exclusion criteria and recruitment numbers into deeper structural considerations of SGM couples and the sexual and gender identities of all individuals in couple therapy outcome research. As Grzanka and Miles () note, “…we express concern that if multiculturalism in applied psychology is organized foremost around a politics of visibility and inclusion, this may likewise engender new forms of subjection and marginalization even as such discourse is motivated explicitly by a ‘social justice’ imperative” (p. 385). While recruitment and inclusion of SGM in couple therapy outcome research is much needed, a structural issue that concerns us is the use of language in the majority of this research that presumes when we speak of couples the reference is to heterosexual and cisgender male and female couples.…”

Decriminalizing LGBTQ+: Reproducing and resisting mental health inequities

“…There are well known archives interrogating these experiences and histories. [98][99][100][101][102][103] The intention here is not to replicate those works, rather to diagram how these processes that promote criminalization continue to occur by structures and societal systems and in the everyday lives of LGBTQ+ people across the United States. Below, this criminalization is diagrammed from predetainment experiences, through detainment and experiences being in the system, and then through re-entry into the community.…”

Ofertas Terapéuticas, Estilos de Vida y "Cura Gay" en Chile: Aprendiendo a Ser Heterosexuales

“…Aproximarse al fenómeno de la patologización desde esta perspectiva expone el marco de inteligibilidad cultural que hace de fondo al debate actual sobre la patologización de las identidades trans y las posibilidades de cura de la homosexualidad. Y lo hace interrogando críticamente la supuesta objetividad con la que operan la psiquiatría y la psicología toda vez que asumen que sus posiciones respecto de la sexualidad y el género son neutras y no ideológicas, esto es, como si el sujeto normativo al que refieren se encontrara afuera de la historia y exento de los efectos de poder de otros marcadores de diferencia, como la clase, la raza, el género y la etnia, entre otros (Grzanka & Miles, 2016).…”

“…La transición desde un modelo patologizante a otro de tipo inclusivo de las sexualidades no normativas coincidió con la despatologización de la homosexualidad en 1973 y el desarrollo de discursos psicoterapéuticos afirmativos que lucharon por llevar a la homosexualidad de vuelta a la normalidad (Waidzunas, 2015). Una de las consecuencias de los procesos de lucha y politización del debate en torno a la patologización de la sexualidad lésbica, bisexual y gay al interior de la APA, fue la emergencia de una nueva ontología de la sexualidad que reforzó el carácter universal e inmutable de la homosexualidad en tanto variable natural de la sexualidad humana (Grzanka & Miles, 2016). Esto último habría contribuido a que progresivamente las sociedades occidentales fueran modificando sus actitudes hacia la homosexualidad, incidiendo, de paso, en la despenalización socio-legal de la sodomía en varios países latinoamericanos durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX.…”