The New York City mayoral election, as addressed in Therapy

“Politics comes up every day in my practice,” says Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist in New York and Washington, D.C. “For some, it’s Mamdani or Cuomo. For many, it’s Trump. I’ve had people start their sessions with a kind of ritualistic rant, unpacking the latest headlines before we even start.” Every therapist I spoke with mentioned their patients’ tendency toward doom and brought up specific articles and social media posts that made them angry. (One therapist said some of her patients fixate on YouTube videos of Mamdani’s early rap career, finding them “very disturbing.” “They’ll say, ‘Have you heard about this? Have you seen this? This rap video where he says he’s allied with Hamas?'”

Naturally, these concerns peak around election time. Most of the time, her work is exciting — or, at the very least, unpredictable, said Jessica January Behr, a licensed psychologist and founder and director of the Behr Center for Psychology, a practice on the Upper West Side. “You never know what people are going to come up with and talk about,” she said. “Every hour is completely different.” But then elections take place. “It’s a tough work week for us,” she explained. “It’s like, ‘Oh my God, I’m about to sit through four eight-hour days with everyone talking about the election.’ “After the election, it is also common for patients to book additional appointments, coming in twice in one week,” Schreyer-Hoffman said.

Part of what is exhausting about these political debates is that they are often one-sided, as is the nature of therapy. “It’s not really a conversation, is it?” Bear said. “You’re in a different position as a therapist.” The result, she said, is “a set of expectations,” with patients often assuming their therapists are in complete agreement with them. Many patients even began to request therapists with a particular worldview. A recent example of a referral, from therapist Listserv: “The ideal therapist is Palestinian, but someone aligned with anti-Zionist values ​​could also be a good fit.” “They are only interested in working with someone who identifies as a Republican and is willing to come out,” wrote another person searching for a therapist on behalf of their friend. (The person added that it is acceptable for the therapist to be out of network.)

Most therapists I spoke with said they do their best to remain neutral, even when they strongly disagree with what their clients say. Albert takes a different approach: “I always say no,” he told me. “My job is not to agree with patients, but to hold up the mirror.” “Therapy, when done right, should be one of the few places left where people can safely confront conflict,” he added.

Over the summer, a patient came to Albert’s office in Manhattan after witnessing an assault outside her apartment. “This is why we need Mamdani,” she told Albert, and then he continued writing Editorial to Wall Street Journal About how bad she thinks. He said Mamdani’s public safety plan, which includes reducing the role of police and hiring more social workers, would actually contribute to the kind of urban decline his patient was concerned about. (Schrier-Hoffman said crime has become a recurring topic in her sessions as well: “A lot of our patients have experienced something on the street. A lot of them feel very unsafe — people who are active subway users, who walk around a lot, who have watched the homeless population explode.”)

In his article, Albert likened Mamdani to a bad therapist, who offers people comfort rather than actual solutions. (This is despite the fact that Mamdani’s main attraction is his solutions-oriented approach: freeze rent, make buses free, and provide universal child care.) Albert said he has seen people across the political spectrum consumed by anger in the past several years. “Some of them amount to murder,” he said. “I’ve had patients in their 20s and 70s openly wish Trump had died.” Albert, who has appeared as a commentator on Fox News, says he has lost patients because of their pushback during sessions. “Some people don’t want treatment,” he told me. “They want to confirm their policies.” Along these lines, patients sometimes seek validation for their individual choices: “They’ll ask: Should I vote for Mamdani even though his policies scare me?” Or “Will voting for Saliwa make me a bad person?” What they’re really asking is: “Can you reassure me that my concern means I’m morally right?” “