WP 100

Telling the Truth about Power

Jean Baker Miller, M.D.

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This paper suggests methods that may help therapists to acknowledge their power and also to change from power-over actions to mutually empowering relationships. From this line of thinking, there follows an exploration of altering the concept of boundaries in therapy into mutually constructed agreements between patient and therapist. The paper was first presented at the Summer Training Institute of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, June 2003.

WP 94

Power and Effectiveness: Envisioning an Alternate Paradigm

Maureen Walker, Ph.D.

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Relational-Cultural Theory provides a straightforward and elegant definition of power; it is the capacity to produce change. The implication of this framework is that power is the energy of competence in everyday living. However, in a culture stratified along multiple dimensions--race, class, and sexual orientation to name a few--power is associated with hyper-competitiveness and deterministic control. The paper begins by examining the "protective illusions" of the power-over paradigm, where humanity is rank ordered according to perceived cultural value and is stratified into groups of greater than and less than. In addition to exposing the false dichotomies of power-over arrangements, the paper examines the destructive consequences of cultural disconnection, on both the putative winners and the losers. Examples from organizational practice, clinical relationships, and sociopolitical contexts are used to illustrate the Relational-Cultural Model in action. Specifically, scenarios are presented from the standpoint of the politically disempowered to demonstrate the relational competencies of empathic attunement, authenticity, and accountability that foster healing, resilience, and natural empowerment.

WP 95

How Therapy Helps When the Culture Hurts

Maureen Walker, Ph.D.

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The purpose of psychotherapy is movement toward relational healing. However, the practice itself is embedded in a culture where relational disconnection and power-over arrangements are normative. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of cultural disconnections on the therapy relationship. Because they embody multiple social identities within a power-over paradigm, both client and therapist are "carriers" of cultural disconnections. The paper examines the shifting vulnerabilities associated with those identities that may lead to impasse and violation or contribute to possibilities for growth. Scenarios from clinical practice illustrate how conflict becomes a pathway to deeper connection when embraced with such processes as empathic attunement, authentic responsiveness, and mutuality.

WP 96

How Change Happens: Controlling Images, Mutuality and Power

Jean Baker Miller, M.D.

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Change is inevitable but it can go in a positive direction toward growth or in a negative direction. Extending Patricia Hill Collins' concept of controlling images (2000), we can see how these images interact with relational images and strategies of disconnection to obstruct growth on both the societal and the personal level. In therapy, change is defined as movement-in-relationship toward better connection; and increased connection leads to growth. Several aspects of therapy that lead to deeper and wider connection are explored, especially increasing the patient's power. Prior versions of parts of this paper were presented at the Jean Baker Miller Summer Training Institutes in 2001 and 2002 and at the Jean Baker Miller Training Center-Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Hospital Learning from Women conference, 2002.

WP 97

Relational-Cultural Practice:
Working in a Nonrelational World

Linda M. Hartling, Ph.D.
Elizabeth Sparks, Ph.D.

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While more and more clinicians are practicing a relational-cultural approach to therapy, many work in settings that continue to reinforce the normative values of separation and disconnection. Consequently, practitioners face the challenges of helping clients heal and grow-through-connection while navigating work settings that are all too often professionally disempowering, disconnecting, and isolating, i.e., "cultures of disconnection." This paper begins a conversation about the complexities of practicing Relational-Cultural Theory in nonrelational work situations and explores new possibilities for creating movement and change in these settings. This paper is based on a presentation that was a part of the 2001 Summer Advanced Training Institute sponsored by the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at Wellesley College.

WP 98

Learning at the Margin: New Models of Strength

Judith Jordan, Ph.D.

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This paper was originally presented at the April, 2000 Learning from Women Conference sponsored by the Harvard Medical School and the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute. It explores the ways in which marginalization and the use of power-over maneuvers and privilege contribute to disconnection at a personal and societal level. Strength in vulnerability is proposed as an alternative to strength in isolation. The author suggests that courage is created in connection and the distorting effects of the myth of the separate-self must be challenged in order to appreciate the power of connection. This paper examines specific ways to resist the disconnecting and disempowering effects of hyper-individualistic values both in and out of therapy.