Patching People Up to Go Back to War: Julie Tilsen on Neoliberalism and Co-Responsibility
Therapist ConfidentialShow Notes
What if therapy’s job isn’t to patch you up and send you back into the machine? Julie Tilsen — a longtime narrative therapist with a PhD in social construction and an emphasis in queer and cultural studies — joins Travis Heath to talk about her new book, Personal Responsibility, Inc: How Psychotherapy Turns Society’s Problems Into Yours. They trace Julie’s two decades of work in trans-affirmative therapy (and why “affirmative care” is a lower bar than it sounds), the neoliberal language reshaping how clients describe their own suffering, and what it might mean to be responsible to each other rather than just to ourselves. Along the way: George Floyd Square, Rebecca Solnit on hope, and why Julie gives her book royalties away. A conversation about what we owe each other, and what therapy too often lets us forget.
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