Mind-Mending and Theory Building: Lesbian Feminism and the Psychology Question

The debate over psychology is one that divides the lesbian feminist community. In spite-or perhaps because-of widespread lesbian participation in therapies and recovery programs of all varieties, many prominent lesbian feminists reject the practice of psychotherapy for lesbians and criticize potential uses of psychological and psychoanalytic theory by lesbians. But the lesbian feminist critique of psychology is theoretically questionable because it does not differentiate between therapeutic practice and theoretical production. This article addresses the need to disentangle critiques of therapy from critiques of psychoanalytic theory. It is argued that psychoanalytic theory can be useful to lesbian feminist ethical and political theory.