De Beauvoir,the Great Chain of Being and the Caste System: The psycho-politics of psychotherapy trainings

Abstract

The medieval Christian notion of the Great Chain of Being that arose in the ‘West’, and the Hindu caste system that arose in the ‘East’, are both rationales that legitimate specific worldly hierarchies as expressions of the Natural Divine Order. I will argue that the culture and conventions of psychotherapy training institutions embody these sorts of hierarchies and ways of thinking to a greater or lesser degree. More specifically, I will argue that the values integral to the Great Chain of Being are embodied in the relations between trainer/trainee and therapist/client; and that the conventions and structures of the psychotherapy profession as a whole echo those of the caste system. In contrast, I propose that the values found in Simone de Beauvoir’s Ethics of Ambiguity is that which we should aspire to.