In his essay titled “Why I Fired My Therapists,” Foster Kramer examines the modern understanding of therapy and how its true meaning has been perverted. His main idea is that therapy will not automatically make a person better. He mentions that in recent years, therapy has become a form of advocacy and a way to excuse one’s actions and wrongdoings (Kramer).
Its original and most important value, which is to help one to understand and navigate themselves better, has been forgotten (Kramer). He talks about so-called “weaponized therapy-speak,” that is, the use of therapy vocabulary, mainly related to trauma triggers, to describe events that are far from actually being able to cause a trauma response (Kramer, para. 6).
Kramer provides an example of a celebrity couple who used this kind of vocabulary when talking about their relationship, such as accusing each other of gaslighting or traumatizing one another by screenshotting a sensitive conversation (Kramer). He says: “Too many therapists assume the role of advocate — possibly rendering them worse than no therapist at all.” (Kramer para. 8). This creates a generation of people who do not see a fault in them but rather blame everyone else and believe they are in the right.
As for me, I agree with Kramer completely: I believe that therapy, on the one hand, has become a positive trend but has also become misused by many people. In my view, the article articulates what many people have suspected but did not know how to express or were too afraid to indicate. Currently, it has become easy to excuse one’s wrong behavior or mistreatment of others by blaming it on their trauma.
The author is straightforward about addressing these people’s conduct and the conduct of their therapists. Kramer’s arguments regarding the fault of the individuals and incompetent therapists are compelling and can open some readers’ eyes to how their therapy sessions are conducted. Overall, I agree with the essay’s main idea that therapy does not guarantee becoming a better version of oneself.
Work Cited
Kamer, Foster. “Why I Fired My Therapists.” The Washington Post, 2023. Web.