Love - rights - solidarity

Psychotherapy and the struggle for recognition

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore overarching principles that need to be present in each therapeutic encounter, no matter what orientation the therapist has and independent of the status of the client's mental health. Such over-arching principles can be drawn from 'Recognition Theory', a philosophical concept developed by critical social theorists that offers a language that moves away from pathologising and labeling clients as ill or deficient and towards identifying those experiences that are understood as necessary for identity formation and self realization.