Page 4-Wednesday, June 18, 1980-The Michigan Daily EEC move will not hurt Mideast T 'HE EUROPEAN Common Market declaration that the Palestine Liberation Organization should be included in peace talks may not contribute to calm in the Middle East, but neither will it hamper the Camp David accords. The United States still holds its long-standing policy that the PLO should not be allowed to par- ticipate in peace negotiations until the organization renounces its commitment to destroy Israel. Worthwhile progress cannot be made until the PLO backs off from its position on Israel's right to exist and is ready to compromise. This condition is necessary, and one that the Common Market should not have ignored in its declaration. Nevertheless, the goals of the European statement are quite compatible with the goals of the U.S. negotiations. Both recognize that peace can only be attained if both the Israelis and the Palestinians recognize each other as separate political entities with legitimate needs and in- terests. The Europeans have an important need to air their concerns. They want to be free to decide their own opinions on policy which aren't necessarily the same as those of their U.S. allies. It is unfortunate that the Europeans did not come up with a more substantive contribution to solving the problems in the Middle East. The U.S. has been well-entrusted with the role of chief negotiator in the Arab-Israeli conflict and could have used wor- thwhile contributions toward resolving the ten- sions.' The European statement does not undercut Car- ter's efforts to secure peace in the Middle East. It is simply a rather weak statement that will neither help nor hinder Arab-Israeli negotiations. o Feiffer ON l tt 1.1 DIMR ,oti) t I rf' ,'2 pu r -r o c JV~ o ~ ~ Ais woma's ecrtet eem It suddenly seems serious enough to seek professional help: The depression doesn't go away, the anxiety interferes with or- dinary life, the conflicts are destructive, life itself is grim and joyless. If you're a man, chances are that a qualified and experien- ced psychiatrist or psychotherapist can help. nut if you're a woman-and two-thirds of all people seeking psychiatric help or counseling are women-it may be a good idea to find out what a therapist's views on the Equal Rights Amen- dment are first. THE 24,000-MEMBER American -Psychiatric Association recently withdrew of- ficial support from the national ERA strategy which calls for a boycott of nonratifying ststes. It- thereby became the only major mental health association refusing to support the ERA boycott. In a referendum initiated by the membership-which is 89 per cent male-54 per cent of the psychiatrists voted to abandon the pro-ERA policy endorsed by the American Psychological Associaiton, the National Association of Social Workers, the Mental Health Association, and the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. The APA, though deeply split over the issue of the ERA, had adopted an official policy sup- porting the boycott in 1977. But then its membership twice voted by referendum against the sup- port strategy. It refused to shift the 1979 annual meeting from. Chicago or its 1981 meeting from New Orleans. Both cities are in states that have not yet ratified the Amendment. IN THE THIRD and latest anti- ERA vote, most psychiatrists in- dicated that they were opposing the boycott, not necessarily the Amendment. However, only 43 per cent actually favored the ERA. Though this is a political issue, it is clinically important. A -psychiatrist with doubts about an amendment that simple states: By Jean Bolen "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex," may well lack the sensitivity to help women caught in conflicts by their effor- ts to breaks out of sex role stereotypes. stIn the last decade, psychiatrists and psychiatry were influenced by feminism, but not very much. Freudeian theoretical formulations which emphasize the masochistic nature of women, and the univer- sality of penis envy, came under attsck and revision in some quar- ters. Yet by and large these theories are still dominant. While women psychiatrists and women'a issues became more visible on the scientific programs of annual meetings, efforts to change the prevailing ideas about women held by many psychiatrists ran into resistance and sometimes hostility. - THE APA'S POSITION on the ERA suggests that there is less than a 50-50 likelihood a psychiatrist can offer genuine support and understanding when sex discrimination and role stereotyping are real problems. Women often turn to therapy with exactly the kind of problems that the ERA is designed to ease. Many are struggling to acquire an education or begin a new career without encouragement from parents who expected them to marry, have kids and stay home like proper wives. Many have husbands who resent changes in the household. On the job, women find they must cope with unequal treat- ment, uninvited and unwelcome sexual overtures or even harassment. They are treated more like children than as equals by some men in authority. THE RESULT CAN be depression, impotent rage or lowered self-esteem. It is crucial that the psychiatrist a woman chooses to help her respect what she is trying to do and understand - why she may experience conflict. The therapy relation- ship-much like teaching, paren- ting or a romantic love relation- ship-involves what has been called the Pygmalion effect. It has to do with the power one im- portant human being has over another in molding behaviour and self-esteem. Assumptions about the other person are critical, whether they are based on reality, misinfor- mation or projections, in which one sees" what one assumes is there. If the psychiatrist is a biased observer, a woman's ef- forts to gain a sense of competen- ce might be seen in a negative light-as aggressive, phallic,or castrating. This will increase the guilt and depression. she may already feel about the conflicts in herself or in her relationships, which her personal aspirations have caused. Much less destruc- tive, yet still limiting, is a psychiatrist who has positive feelings for women, yet assumes that they are weak. and emotional. Refusal to support the ERA may confirm the existence of a double standard in therapy im- plied by a controversial 1970 study of the attitudes of clinicians. It found that healthy, mature womerrwere expected by therapists to be more submissive, less independent, more suggestible, more conceited and less objective than healthy, mature men. The APA's vote against support for the ERA boycott suggests that perhaps the doors of half this country's psychiatrists should have a sign stating: "Warning, This psychiatrist's views on the ERA may be dangerous to your mental health." Dr. Jean Bolen is an associate professor of Psychiatry at the University of California. She - wrote this article for Pacific News Service.