From a 2009 letter to Tim Jackins from Janet Foner,
the then International
Liberation Reference Person
for “Mental Health” Liberation
[Janet died in July 2019]
When we are young people, our discharge process gets buried by young people’s oppression. Later on, in order to take on the adult role, we have to shut down our discharge process even more. “Mental health” oppression comes in and adds an extra layer to what happened to us as young people. And certain groups, such as men, are kept from discharging even more than others.
It all comes down to [is about] it not being okay to be human, to discharge, to show ourselves very much. Everyone carries these hurts. Those of us lucky enough to find RC try to open up, discharge, and show ourselves in sessions and at workshops.
Here are some ways that “mental health” oppression can affect us as Co-Counselors:
TALKING ABOUT RC
How do we talk to people outside of RC about how we have early hurts, how we cry and shake and rage about them, and how we do so in public at workshops? We may feel uncomfortable talking about these things unless we have discharged about it quite a bit. What we do in RC is perfectly natural to human beings, but it’s the opposite of what “we are supposed to do” in society. According to society, early hurts are something that “mental patients” and therapy clients, not “normal” people, have. Occasionally spending a few minutes describing one’s childhood might be acceptable, but spending hours crying about a particular incident can seem “crazy” to most people. Yet this is what we RCers do. It can be embarrassing for us to talk about RC partly because we are talking about something that is “strange” to most people and we don’t want them to think of us as “not normal.”
Also, when we talk about “Re-evaluation Counseling” and “clients, counselors, and counseling,” we are using words that to most people indicate therapy, even though what we do is not therapy. Few people who haven’t experienced an RC session would understand what we mean by “counselor” and “client.” They wouldn’t understand that the counselor and client work together using both minds and that the client is in charge of the session. (Some RCers do get confused and give advice—partly because of what comes into RC from “mental health” oppression—but the ideal Co-Counselor behaves very differently from a therapist.)
BEING CLIENT AND COUNSELOR
Fundamentals students often believe that they are doing RC to “fix” themselves, that RC is therapy that will help them become “normal.” This can affect their willingness to show their struggles in RC classes and sessions and make them reluctant to discharge. Later, as their chronic distresses surface in intense sessions or they regain their ability to discharge, they may fear “losing it” [losing control] and be timid about discharging as much as they need to, or they might stop bringing up certain material.
When babies cry, they often cry for a long time—long past when most adults can listen to them well. An adult crying that long is vulnerable to being labelled “mentally ill” or at least having the people around them get very restimulated. As RCers, we tend to shorten or lengthen the amount of time we cry depending on how safe we feel with a particular counselor. It can depend on how long we’ve known the counselor; how much we trust them; how much we’ve been affected by various oppressions, especially “mental health” oppression, that hold back discharge; and how much we’ve discharged on how these oppressions have affected us. Even Co-Counselors who have been clienting for many years can find it hard to show certain distresses and feelings.
If a person can’t get their attention out after a session, they and their Co-Counselors and the RC Community around them may fear that they have “lost it.” People’s undischarged fear can exacerbate the situation, making it difficult for them to be relaxed and think well about the person. Unfamiliarity with “mental health” liberation or the work on getting and staying present may make it hard for the person to make the best use of sessions and Co-Counselors. The rest of the Community may not know what to do, and the person may end up on the fringes of the Community or leaving RC.
Some RCers have difficulty not being client outside of sessions. Others, fearing they will be client outside of sessions, tend to be very careful and keep a close watch on what they are saying. This can keep them from going “all out” [proceeding without restraint] and discharging what they need to in their sessions.
Being a client is sometimes seen as being a victim. Being a counselor is often valued more. This reflects how clients and counselors are looked upon in the wide world.
It may also be annoying if someone with a “helping pattern” is continually trying to be counselor. When we’re recruiting people into RC, it is always good not to counsel them without their agreement.
If we want to reclaim our ability to discharge fully, we may find it useful to have sessions on how we feel about being client and counselor. This will also help us recruit people and have more tolerance for people who attempt to be client or counselor outside of sessions.
RECRUITING WORKING-CLASS PEOPLE AND PEOPLE OF COLOR
Some of the patterns discussed above can get in the way when we try to recruit working-class people and people of color into RC. Middle-class “normal” patterns often keep middle-class people—a majority of RCers—quiet, scared, and shy around working-class people and people of color. Also, working-class people and people of color tend to be more forthcoming about what they think and feel, which can make them seem “unacceptable” or “not normal” to white middle-class people. Discharging on “normality” will help white middle-class people move out of this difficulty.
THE NEED TO BE COVERT
When we as RCers get together to Co-Counsel, we make sure we are in a secluded place, and we use pillows to muffle the sound because discharging as loudly as we need to can restimulate other people into assuming that something is “wrong” with us (or we assume that they will assume that). It is true that RCers have on occasion discharged hard in public places and that others have not been upset. But what I’ve heard about that, they have had to do it confidently and relaxedly for others to find it acceptable.
The fact that we have to think about covertness at all is an indication of the depths of “mental health” oppression in society. Something is askew when the natural healing process has to be covert.
Since discharging is part of human nature, we should be able to discharge anywhere, as loudly as we want to, and have no one think it odd. In fact, instead of looking at us strangely, ignoring us, or worse, people ought to come pay attention to us and give us a session.
"MENTAL HEALTH" OPPRESSION AND RC LEADERSHIP
“Mental health” oppression can combine with classism to make it hard for RC leaders to get good sessions. Leaders may be perceived as being “perfect” and thus have less space to show themselves and discharge. The “bigger” their title is, the less they may feel they can show themselves to their constituencies and the more “normal” they may feel they should be.
“Mental health” liberation leaders are an exception to this. They usually get good sessions from the people they lead, as there is less pressure on them to appear “normal.” In taking on the role of “mental health” liberation leader, they are usually admitting that they are a “mental health” system survivor and have had a hard time.
RC WORKSHOPS
Many people feel terrified coming to their first “mental health” liberation workshop, partly because the oppression feels heavy and partly because they are afraid of the feelings that could surface. (Once they are at the workshop, they often feel much safer there than anywhere else to have those feelings and to talk to others about their “mental health” histories and other things that they ordinarily don’t talk about.) People attending their first RC workshop of any kind, or a workshop that challenges their patterns a lot, can feel similarly terrified. This is another indication of how “mental health” oppression can hold back RCers from fully using RC.
At “mental health” liberation workshops, it feels safer to work on things, because “mental health” oppression is being directly contradicted the entire weekend. Also, publicly identifying as members of various “mental health” oppression constituencies helps people to realize (1) that they are not the only one with a particular kind of “mental health” history and (2) that virtually everyone has some “mental health” connection that they ordinarily don’t reveal. For example, they might be a relative of a “mental health” system survivor or have tried, or wanted, to commit suicide. Those who don’t have any “mental health” identities can see that they have still been hurt by “mental health” oppression—for example, by being made afraid of “going crazy” or made to feel like they have to “look normal.”
WORKING ON "MENTAL HEALTH" LIBERATION
Working on “mental health” liberation together in a group seems to open the way for people to show themselves more, discharge more, and also be less scared around ex-psychiatric inmates. It is similar to working on early sexual memories. With both, it is often best to work in a three-way session, or with even more people than that.
By continuing to work on “mental health” liberation, we will make it easier for both RCers and non-RCers to open up more, show who they are more, and discharge more.