By Rich Simon As therapists, many of us practice in two different worlds. In the first, we see polite, well-behaved, articulate clients with solid values. They engage fully in therapy, talk cogently about their problems, listen attentively to our responses, make reasonably good-faith efforts to follow our suggestions, and sooner or later get better. No wonder we genuinely like these people! 
Dr. Sroufe alluded to a belief that we, in some part, play a role in determining our environment. Since this argument is often used in less-than-humanistic ways, I would like to hear how he explains this in the cautious and nuanced way in which he laid out the rest of his presentation. Too often this idea is used to simplify a complex analysis of social problems such as gender inequality, the abuse of power, class privilege (and its relationship to poverty) and institutionalized racism. How does he differentiate his more subtle point from these harmful ideas which are used to undermine humane social policy and empathy for people on the margins? Thank you for replying. I enjoyed your presentation very much and want to be able to speak about it with some clarity.
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