Summary Of Letters To A Young Therapist By Mary Pipher
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Abstract This paper is a critique of Letters to a Young Therapist , by Mary Pipher. This book was published in 2003. This book consists of a series of letters meant to guide young therapists in the craft of clinical psychology. Pipher shares what she has learned in her years as a clinician in the hopes that it will assist the recipient of the letters, a young graduate student named Laura.
A Critique of Letters to a Young Therapist Mary Pipher’s book, Letters to a Young Therapist, is a yearlong collection of letters directed to a graduate student named Laura, which contain stories and advice that Pipher had learned from her time spent as a practicing clinician. Two points mentioned in these letters were the idea that different cultures do not operate under the same ways of treatment as the United States, and also that a diagnosis is not always helpful and necessary. These concepts are important for psychologists working in this time period because of the rising rates of multiculturalism, and the continued…show more content… The first point states, “Labeling a person as having a mental disorder can result in overgeneralization, stigmas, and stereotypes” (Sue et al., 2013, p. 93), which is very similar to the second problem in the list, “A label may lead others to treat a person differently” (Sue et al., 2013, p. 93). These are some of the problems that Pipher brought attention to in her story about Oliver. If she has diagnosed him and brought it to the attention of his parents and teachers, he may have been treated differently because of the labeling. His parents may have seen the diagnosis as the end of the road, and possibly have not continued to bring Oliver to therapy. Both of these objections note the problem of social stigmas that might arise from a