Toward integrating feminist psychotherapy and feminist philosophy.

Abstract

This article describes liberal, cultural, radical, and socialist feminist philosophies and proposes that psychologists' orientations toward feminist political and philosophical theory will have an impact on their practice of feminist psychotherapy with regard to their preferences for group or individual modalities, therapeutic interventions, diagnostic practices, and organizational affiliations. Psychologists' philosophical positions may also influence their attitudes about research, epistemology, and the role of men and women as clients and therapists. Specific connections between feminist philosophy and psychological theories and other aspects of practice are discussed. This article proposes that all psychologists who work with gender-related issues can benefit from contemplating how their therapeutic practices intersect with feminist philosophy.Feminist therapy is complex, diverse, and multifaceted, and feminist therapists are influenced, either implicitly or explicitly, by a wide range of feminist philosophies and political theories. A variety of combinations of feminism and psychotherapeutic systems have been proposed in recent years (e.g., Dutton-Douglas & Walker, 1988), and descriptions of feminist therapy note that one's orientation to feminist philosophy will be reflected in one's specific knowledge, experiences, attitudes, and activities in therapy (Cammaert & Larsen, 1988;Sturdivant, 1980). However, virtually no sustained discussion has focused on how different feminist philosophical positions are likely to influence or modify the various integrations of feminism and psychotherapy. Feminist therapy evolved primarily out of political, sociological, and philosophical perspectives on feminism rather than from specific psychological theories of therapy (Brown, 1990a). As a result, it is important to elaborate further on the connections between these feminist theories and feminist psychotherapy.On first glance, it may seem that an article dealing with feminist therapy and philosophy should appear in an explicitly feminist journal. However, feminist therapy has been in existence for over two decades and is increasingly integrated with mainstream psychotherapy systems and recommended as a preferred treatment modality for psychologists. For example, the American Psychological Association's (APA) National Task Force on Women and Depression conducted a feminist analysis of depression and recommended feminist therapy as an intervention method (McGrath, Keita, Strickland, & Russo, 1990), and continuing education workshops at APA conventions have assisted psychologists with integrating feminist therapy princi-CAROLYN ZERBE ENNS received her PhD from the University of California-Santa Barbara in 1987. She is currently assistant professor of psychology at Cornell College and a part-time senior staff psychologist at

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