On feminism and Mental Health. Discussion organized by the Feminist Club Amsterdam.
In the present, traditional psychology is embedded in a positivist, medical model. Every new version of DSM generates new disorders and renders more a more behaviors pathological. Therapy, in its turn, in an effort to satisfy the threshold of scientific legitimacy that is expected becomes standardized, distant, sterile, and can create hostile environments that serve just to a few. In that climate, a feminist psychologist either has to be integrated in a system that defies their core values, or create spaces that subvert traditional conceptualizations of psychology. In our discussion, we will attempt to understand how traditional psychology obstructs a feminist vision and contemplate the ways that an anti-hegemonic therapy can exist.
The organizers of this discussion night are two psychologists that are immersed in the process of departing from the traditional practices of mental health care. In that procedure, we are trying to create safe spaces where we can expose our vulnerabilities unapologetically and embrace the diversity of identities.

Time and location

Doors open: 18.30
Start: 19.00 untill 21.00
Atria, library (Vijzelstraat 20, Amsterdam).

The Feminist Club Amsterdam

In 2015, two young feminists participated in a tour through Atria’s library and archive that was organised around the publication of ‘Het F-boek’, a book on feminism in The Netherlands published by Atria. Inspired, they decided to set up a Facebook group that resulted in ‘The Feminist Club Amsterdam’. Since then, Atria and Mama Cash alternately host the offline Feminist Club Discussion Nights, taking place every three weeks.