Politics Makes for Bad Therapy

Politics has invaded therapy. What should be a refuge from judgment has turned into an incubator of division. Instead of acting as neutral guides, too many therapists now act as transmitters of political polarization—diagnosing it, promoting it, spreading it.

Therapists often pathologize politics, treating patients with particular viewpoints as abnormal or unhealthy. I’ve seen this firsthand in my Manhattan practice. In the weeks following

Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, a patient came to me after his couples counselor demanded that he renounce his politics before she would discuss his marriage. Earlier this year, an Asian-American woman told me that her prior therapist steered every session back to race and politics, even when she wanted to talk about work-related stress. In both cases, politics wasn’t the patient’s problem. It was the therapist’s solution. That isn’t therapy. It’s activism posing as treatment.