Awareness and Identity英文资料.pdfVIP

ch03.fm Page 33 Thursday, March 13, 2003 10:56 AM Part II Multicultural Skill Development 33 ch03.fm Page 34 Thursday, March 13, 2003 10:56 AM ch03.fm Page 35 Thursday, March 13, 2003 10:56 AM 3 Awareness and Identity Foundational Principles of Multicultural Practice Chalmer E. Thompson Indiana University, Bloomington Excising the political from the life of the mind is a sacrifice that has proven costly. I think of this erasure as a kind of trembling hypochondria always curing itself with unnecessary surgery. A [literary] criticism that needs to insist that literature is not only “universal” but also “race-free” risks lobotomizing that literature, and diminishes both the art and the artist. —Toni Morrison (1992, p. 23) Nobel Prize Laureate Toni Morrison makes a sage observation about the practice of many literary critics who dismiss sociopolitical issues from their interpretations of literature. This same observation can be made about the work of mental health professionals. Span- ning beyond race and to all issues concerning social stratification (like sexism and socio- economic status), one can argue that the extraction of “the political” is even costlier to the practice of counseling and psychotherapy. With professional credentialing, practitio- ners are sanctioned to deliver compete