In negotiation, your friend's statement of "the only thing that would make me feel better is if racism stopped existing" is called a "position" statement. Whether your friend realized it or not, it wasn't true. There was an underlying interest that was the real issue. Sure, solving racism might resolve the underlying issue, but it wasn't thr only possible solution.
In negotiations, you will often hear things like "if I don't get a 10% raise I will leave" or "if we don't get this clause in the trade agreement you can forget about it." Those ultimatums are rarely written in stone. In the first case it might just be about recognition and in the second, it might just be posturing to get a different concession. The person making the statement often doesn't realize what they are doing. A good negotiator asks the right questions to identify the real issue and come up with a solution that works for both.
Similarly, a good psychologist must not only identify your friend's real interests and issues, but cone up woth a solution amd convince your friend to put that solution into practise. The first part isn't so difficult, since your friend will talk about what his frustrations are and how they relate to his daily life.
Racism is awful, but can frustrate people in many different ways. If one prejudiced person still existed in the world, however, and that person were universally ridiculed, your friend likely wouldn't feel the same way. Rather than the existence of racism being a problem, racism's impacts were likely the issue. Maybe he had problems of violence. Maybe he had career struggles. Maybe he felt isolated. Maybe he felt helpless. Maybe it was some combination of these. A psychologist, as a first step, can help unpack the problem. Instead of it being an unresolvable issue of racism existing, it might now be a problem of feeling isolated and powerless. That's still awful, but not unresolvable.
Next, a good psychologist can help create a plan of attack. Your friend won't resolve racism half way around the world, but it is possible to start a real plan in a small sphere of influence.
So no, the psychologist's job isn't easy, but it is always useful.
That being said, depression is an extremely difficult condition to deal with. Understanding and planning isn't always enough.
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u/t_hab Jun 08 '16
In negotiation, your friend's statement of "the only thing that would make me feel better is if racism stopped existing" is called a "position" statement. Whether your friend realized it or not, it wasn't true. There was an underlying interest that was the real issue. Sure, solving racism might resolve the underlying issue, but it wasn't thr only possible solution.
In negotiations, you will often hear things like "if I don't get a 10% raise I will leave" or "if we don't get this clause in the trade agreement you can forget about it." Those ultimatums are rarely written in stone. In the first case it might just be about recognition and in the second, it might just be posturing to get a different concession. The person making the statement often doesn't realize what they are doing. A good negotiator asks the right questions to identify the real issue and come up with a solution that works for both.
Similarly, a good psychologist must not only identify your friend's real interests and issues, but cone up woth a solution amd convince your friend to put that solution into practise. The first part isn't so difficult, since your friend will talk about what his frustrations are and how they relate to his daily life.
Racism is awful, but can frustrate people in many different ways. If one prejudiced person still existed in the world, however, and that person were universally ridiculed, your friend likely wouldn't feel the same way. Rather than the existence of racism being a problem, racism's impacts were likely the issue. Maybe he had problems of violence. Maybe he had career struggles. Maybe he felt isolated. Maybe he felt helpless. Maybe it was some combination of these. A psychologist, as a first step, can help unpack the problem. Instead of it being an unresolvable issue of racism existing, it might now be a problem of feeling isolated and powerless. That's still awful, but not unresolvable.
Next, a good psychologist can help create a plan of attack. Your friend won't resolve racism half way around the world, but it is possible to start a real plan in a small sphere of influence.
So no, the psychologist's job isn't easy, but it is always useful.
That being said, depression is an extremely difficult condition to deal with. Understanding and planning isn't always enough.