“If you don’t understand half of your population, then you can’t serve them well.”
A conservative therapist is hard to find, and Dr. Roger Hall says that is not an accident. What happens when a psychologist does not share your presuppositions? In a word, yes, you are at risk. Not from an evil cabal. From good people in an echo chamber who do not know it.
Roger cites the journalist John Tierney, writing in The New York Times: in academic psychology departments about one in eight faculty would call themselves conservative, in social psychology it is closer to one in twenty, and some departments have none. The people training the next generation of therapists are ideologically uniform. The country votes close to 50-50.
Therapy’s central rule is that you don’t impose your values. Roger’s answer: that’s a value, and it is a falsehood. In any conversation the listener rewards some topics and not others, wittingly or unwittingly, and the client follows. A couple comes in and says we want to stay married. The therapist says I want to do what’s best for each of you as individuals. That’s a red flag.
Presuppositions are the heaviest lift in Roger’s own coaching: the beliefs you carry without knowing you carry them. Start with the aphorisms your family says. He had to learn the Mennonite and Amish world in the Midwest and LDS theology in Salt Lake City, and a therapist in an echo chamber never goes looking.
His recommendation for the reader is Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Two messages to close: therapists, recognize that you are biased. And if you are looking for help, ask about worldview before you make the appointment. Politics is a marker. Religion is a marker.
What we cover:
- When your therapist does not share your presuppositions
- The therapy echo chamber
- Politics are downstream from culture
- One in eight academic psychologists is conservative, and one in twenty in social psychology
- We don’t impose our values: why that is a value
- Marital therapy and the red flag
- Presuppositions and the aphorisms your family says
- The Mennonite, Amish and LDS examples
- The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt
- How to ask a therapist about worldview
Chapters
0:00 One in eight is conservative
0:54 When your therapist does not share your presuppositions
2:15 The therapy echo chamber
3:16 Politics are downstream from culture
3:58 One in eight academic psychologists is conservative
4:54 Social psychology: one in twenty, and some departments zero
5:16 The people training tomorrow’s therapists
5:28 The country is pretty close to 50-50
6:40 We don’t impose our values. That’s a value
7:29 How a therapist rewards a story without knowing it
8:30 Marital therapy: pro-divorce, neutral or anti-divorce?
9:39 We want to stay married: the red flag
10:33 Culturally competent
11:30 The Southern Baptist client
12:44 Presuppositions are the heaviest lift
13:28 Start with the aphorisms your family says
14:31 Learning the Mennonite and Amish world
15:44 How damaging can it be?
16:43 Salt Lake City and LDS theology
17:42 Harder to find a therapist who understands you
19:33 The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt
20:44 Two messages: therapists, recognize your bias
21:34 Ask your therapist about their worldview
22:24 Next time: the eight most important questions
Second Thoughts, Episode 79.
Dr. Roger Hall is a Peak Performance Psychologist who helps leaders master their thinking and achieve greater power, freedom, clarity, and calm.
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