When Ther­a­py Turns Polit­i­cal Dis­agree­ment Into Psy­cho­log­i­cal Harm

Polit­i­cal dis­agree­ment has always strained fam­i­lies. Thanks­giv­ing din­ners have end­ed in argu­ments. Sib­lings have gone weeks with­out speak­ing after a heat­ed elec­tion. None of that is new.
What has changed is the ease with which cut­ting off par­ents, sib­lings, and life­long friends can be described as an act of psy­cho­log­i­cal self-care. The lan­guage of trau­ma, bound­aries, and emo­tion­al safe­ty, once used to help peo­ple under­stand seri­ous psy­cho­log­i­cal harm, is now some­times applied to ordi­nary polit­i­cal con­flict.
One of the cleare …