Psychotherapy and Unstable Notions of Masculinity

Book excerpt: What are our values as psychotherapists and clients regarding differing notions of masculinity? Furthermore, what stops us thinking about them? This book explores our thoughts and expressions about masculinity and determines whether they are inhibited and indeed prevented by cultural, social and intellectual forces. Leading exponents in this book explore psychotherapists and their clients’ issues of masculinity including - How tied up is masculine authority with suspect patriarchy? What might it mean to be strong enough to put a client, whether man or woman, first? To what extent can a psychotherapist’s resistance to changing notions of masculinity create a stumbling block for the clients? What is the relation of masculinity to changing notions of femininity and gender identities? What’s castration got to do with it? Can one be critical without being reactionary? What are the masculinities that psychotherapists encounter and what direction, if any, should psychotherapists encourage men and women towards? Through these questions and many others, this book contributes to the debates and therapeutic practices around masculinity and explores the biases and assumptions around gender and its social construct. This volume will be beneficial to professionals, academics, researchers, and students of Psychology, Psychotherapy, Counselling, Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling.