In his op-ed “‘Splitting’ and the Celebration of Violence” (Sept. 15), Jonathan Alpert makes a valiant attempt to address the splitting of our country into two opposing sides who see each other in black and white terms. But as a psychotherapist, I disagree with his instructions to therapists to challenge expressions of hatred and fantasies of violence. I believe the task of a psychotherapist is to help people see and express and understand what is in their minds—even and especially the “dark” side. When a therapist “corrects” a client’s feelings by challenging them, the client may learn to censor expression of those feelings, a practice that exacerbates distress rather than alleviates it.

Joyce Schmid