ABSTRACT
The mindset and techniques of a psychoanalytic psychotherapist are very different from the methodology of the social sciences. Contemporary psychotherapy, especially attachment-based and relational strands, has moved to a more egalitarian approach where the therapist is no longer seen as 'the healthy expert' administering the 'cure' to a sick patient. Instead, therapy is seen as a co-created relationship and journey of joint discovery with the focus on the client. Attachment-based psychotherapy training points out that people all have prejudices and that for being a good and responsible psychotherapist the importance lies in knowing and acknowledging them. The chapter explores where the psychological work lies – in trying to find more secure ways of relating, to others and to one. This also leaves space to blame, criticise and prosecute a group for its actual wrongdoings, while it works towards self-empowerment and self-agency.
