The Good Place and a Rationale for Attending Therapy

The Good Place and a Rationale for Attending Therapy

I’ve been rewatching one of my favourite shows, The Good Place. For those of you who haven’t seen it, the show follows Eleanor, a self-proclaimed Arizona trash bag, who finds herself in the afterlife and tries to become a better person. A lot of this show deals with the big issues that I like to explore in therapy; death, meaning, connection with others. However, another big theme is morality. T. M. Scanlon’s book, What We Owe to Each Other, is consistently referenced by another main character, Chidi, a moral philosophy professor trying to help Eleanor. The question posed by Scanlon’s title haunts me as I explore the nature of therapy and I think it’s worth considering for anyone in the field, whether you be a client or a practitioner.

I believe therapy has been conceptualized in the mainstream as an individual, self-improvement action. Even when it’s done in a couple’s format or in a group setting, therapy is still seen as only impacting the small community attending sessions. However, therapy can be so much more than that. It can be a communal action if we allow it to be.

A therapist that I admire and follow, Alfred Adler, describes the goal of therapy as fostering social interest. Therapy, Adler believed, was a process of adjusting our goals so that we are striving for a form of community. This conceptualization of therapy may not be the same as yours. For many people, therapy does boil down to solving a specific challenge or alleviating a personal stressor. These goals feel intensely personal and exploring these goals seems to contradict Adler’s formulation of therapy. However, I compare this dilemma back to Eleanor. She tries to be a less selfish person, for the sake of staying in the afterlife. It’s an individual goal that only serves to benefit her. However, in becoming less selfish, she becomes a better person and benefits her community. I think therapy can have the same characteristics. Even if your goals feel like they only apply to you, the consequences often end up such that you can benefit other people.

One major barrier people can face when entering therapy is this worry of selfishness. People may feel like they should apologize for taking up so much space in session or that they are not hurt enough to justify therapy. However, therapy and by extension, self-improvement, does not just affect you. Sessions certainly rely on the client – there’s very little work that can be done if someone sits in silence for an hour – but what you do with the progress outside of session can and will impact others. For example, working through stress can free up resources and time for you, which translates to more time for others. Even more directly, the ideas you gather and change in therapy can be taught to others. Furthermore, the relativity of pain does not impact the effectiveness of this progress. Even if another person has more pain than you, the improvement you can make through therapy does not change. Self-improvement is still worth it, no matter where in life you are.

These ideas may be unconvincing. Arguing therapy as a moral action can be difficult at best and impossible at worst. You may not see a direct connection between resolving your concerns and the idea of goodness. Perhaps your idea of good and moral action does not necessarily involve helping others. I don’t want to encourage any specific actions and generally, therapy isn’t really geared towards that purpose either. Even Adler’s push for social interest relates to a broader awareness of others, rather than a rigid dogma to follow. At the end of the day, you will attend therapy for whatever reason you think is important. Your motivations are your own. However, for those hesitant to enter therapy, I think it’s worth considering how our own improvement can aid others. It is worth considering what we owe to each other.