Paradigm Shifts in the Theory and Praxis of Mental Health Counseling

Abstract

Clinical psychology used to view women's distress as biological and men's distress as externally induced. The psychology of gender relations has progressed to view gender as a principle of the social structure, but counselling practices continue to have an uncritical focus on the unequal gender relations existing in the society. Feminist psychology recognizes that the pattern of women's mental disorders is role related rather than organic/biological and that many gender differences are shaped by differing socialization of males and females. While addressing the mental health needs of the women population, the “subjective distress” in the context of their “subjective realities” is to be explored. Silencing the oppressed is the feudalistic way of resolving issues, but it fails to recognise the storm inside the oppressed minds. From outside, the family may seem to be calm and cool, but the turbulence inside the feminine minds may break out any time either in the form of a suicide attempt or in the form of a complaint to the police or the women's commission.