The psychologist isn’t making the patient the problem, simply, changing the material conditions is beyond the scope. If the patient is suicidal because they’re broke, you, as a doctor, can’t prescribe them more money. The best you can do is get them to cope with being broke, and try and put them into a mindset that will enable them to try and stop being broke. The alternative is to tell the patient “well, you’re fucked” and leave.
Likewise, if a patient has a weight problem because they live in a food desert, you, can’t follow them around and control what they eat. All you can do is give them meds for the immediate symptoms, and try and get them to make an effort to lose weight.
By making the problem the patient and not their life, the psychologist is actively doing harm.
But the result is that the psychologists has clients, so the psychologist gets paid, and from that comes a whole host of emotional justifications.
The psychologist isn’t making the patient the problem, simply, changing the material conditions is beyond the scope. If the patient is suicidal because they’re broke, you, as a doctor, can’t prescribe them more money. The best you can do is get them to cope with being broke, and try and put them into a mindset that will enable them to try and stop being broke. The alternative is to tell the patient “well, you’re fucked” and leave.
Likewise, if a patient has a weight problem because they live in a food desert, you, can’t follow them around and control what they eat. All you can do is give them meds for the immediate symptoms, and try and get them to make an effort to lose weight.