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In this book about power, editors Max Belkin and Cleonie White use the lenses of intersectional theory and relational analytic thought to explore the role of privilege and marginalization in the structure of relationships in the consulting room. Featuring a series of nine essays, the book is divided into four parts titled: “Queer identities,” “Sexual exploitation of women,” “Immigrant experiences,” and “Clinical Theory.” Against the backdrop of capitalist society, each author looks at how similarities and differences between patient and analyst can be acknowledged and negotiated, and how this negotiation ultimately creates a more honest relationship.
Here, the acknowledgment of the impact of the sociopolitical on the individual is a given as is the virtual dismissal of analytic neutrality implicit in intersectionality. The relational orientation fosters a degree of self-disclosure and mutability of frame that may not sit well with some clinicians, but the book presents important material for any mental health practitioner.
Each essay easily stands on its own, but together the nine make up a compelling whole. Structurally, material that at first seems somewhat randomly organized, with initially scant explanation of exactly what is meant by “intersectionality” and “relational thought,” ultimately and in an appropriate-to-the-subject, non-linear fashion, circles back on itself. Each successive piece expands and explains more through the particular vignettes, ultimately culminating in three principally theoretical pieces.