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0 pointsgernb3y ago0 comments

I recently looked into seeing a therapist for reasons similar to the OP's.

I tried lyra. All the wording and questions ask screamed to me "these are not my type of people". I'm not going to go into specifics but imagine you walked into a help conference and every table had energy stones, power of pyramids, astrology books, etc... If you're anything like me you'd walk out.

Once I made it past all that it recommended some therapists all of whom were white. The metro area I live in, 8 million people, is only 60% white in total and many areas are majority not white. I tried changing my location to an area known for being majority not white but it just gave me the same people.

It just got me wondering how much of therapy is a white culture thing because it seems statistically unlikely that of the 11 therapists it recommended, all 11 would be white if the demographics of the area say that only 60% of the population is white.

It was no different on BetterHelp.

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mancerayder3y ago

Some possibilities: maybe the European cultures (the white of which you say) have had a break-up of large family structures over the course of the last century, leading to therapy in the first place. That would fit in with some of my other comments in this thread around loneliness and a sick society. And following this it might be that some other cultures with large nuclear families have a sanity check within them where there are people to confide in and give guidance. That's what a therapist does in the end: empathize and give guidance.

Another possibility is there are cultural norms: psychotherapy originates in Europe / Central Europe where it had a blossoming in the late 19th century and spread, and became quite fashionable in among the educated classes (up to and especially in the 1960's, for example).

oblio3y ago

> It just got me wondering how much of therapy is a white culture thing

I assume non-white majority countries also have psychologists/therapists, though.

o_nate3y ago

The WHO has data on mental health workers relative to population in various countries around the world. The median number of mental health workers per 100,000 population across 156 countries, is 8. In the US its about 100. China is at the median. India is one of the lowest, at around 1 mental health worker per 100,000 population.

oblio3y ago

We need to revisit this discussion when Chinese and Indian revenues are at Western levels.

If you take this:

https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-detai...

and plot it against a GDP per capita data source, they're basically aligned.

gernbOP3y ago

It sounds like therapy is not common in many cultures

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-therapy-is-like-around-t...

oblio3y ago

It's not common anywhere. If anything, it's quite new and generally a rich man's thing.

Poor people generally avoid discussing issues in public and then discuss them with family.

But far more frequently violence and alcohol are the default "therapy".

gorffit3y ago

That 90% sounds like what I witnessed after getting lost and accidentally wandering into my first and only (and last) 14 minutes worth of an AA meeting. The wrong therapy can easily leave you worse off than no therapy whatsoever.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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mancerayder3y ago

oblio3y ago

> It just got me wondering how much of therapy is a white culture thing

I assume non-white majority countries also have psychologists/therapists, though.

o_nate3y ago

oblio3y ago

We need to revisit this discussion when Chinese and Indian revenues are at Western levels.

If you take this:

https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-detai...

and plot it against a GDP per capita data source, they're basically aligned.

gernbOP3y ago

It sounds like therapy is not common in many cultures

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-therapy-is-like-around-t...

oblio3y ago

It's not common anywhere. If anything, it's quite new and generally a rich man's thing.

Poor people generally avoid discussing issues in public and then discuss them with family.

But far more frequently violence and alcohol are the default "therapy".

gorffit3y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse