Therapy in Authoritarian Contexts: Notes from Turkey

• In Event: Sociology of Mental Healthcare

Abstract

Since early 2010s, the AKP regime in Turkey accelerated its turn to authoritarianism with a polarizing populist narrative that relies on strict binaries between Islam and Christianity, outsiders and insiders, and friends and enemies. To understand how people deal with a wide array of feelings in this authoritarian populist context, including political emotions, I study therapy in Turkey as a mediating institution. This field, which is finding itself under state intervention, is increasingly tasked with helping people make meaning in a world perceived as volatile. Relying on an interview study with therapists who conduct therapy in Turkish, I interrogate how therapists navigate catering to a clientele who find themselves in politically polarized, authoritarian contexts. While positioning the therapist as a mediator between the “social world,” and the individual, I ask the following questions: How do social structure, and political polarization present themselves in the room? How do then therapists navigate their own role and positionality in the face of social problems that clients bring? I consider if therapy can be a potential tool for liberation under an authoritarian regime. That is, while investigating how meso-level agents mediate emotional meaning-making, I ponder the possibility of therapy session as a space of mutual emancipation. I identify four ways in which therapists conceptualize their role in potential social change: including relational impact, incremental transformation, containment, and ambivalent soothing. While some therapists see their work as contributing to meaningful change, others express concerns about the limitations of therapy in addressing structural issues and the increasing burden placed on therapists to provide collective consolation. The study also highlights fears about potential state intervention in the field.

Author

• Yagmur Karakaya, Yale University