Relational-cultural theory (RCT) offers that those activities essential to the survival of the human species—namely, fostering the growth and development of others in a relational context—are misunderstood, devalued, and pathologized within traditional models of development and mental health. As a result, individuals yearning to establish and to participate in growth-fostering relationships over the life span are seen as “defective” or “dependent” in that they are not following the approved path of separation and individuation indicative of emotional maturity in Western psychology. In reframing relationships as the context in which we experience optimal psychological development and emotional well-being throughout our lives, RCT articulates a means by which we can create and nourish mutually empathic growth-fostering relationships in therapy and in life. Creating the kinds of relationships in which we can experience psychological growth, healing, and mutual empathy involves naming and deconstructing interpersonal and sociopolitical obstacles that serve to keep us disconnected from each other, such as ableism, ageism, classism, heterosexism, racism, and sexism. Relational obstacles include all the sources of stratification in our culture whereby individuals feel more or less important, visible, heard, and able to promote and seek justice for their individual and collective interests.
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