Microaggression and Its Impact on Lower Caste Women with Psychiatric Disorders in India

This article presents a collection of personal stories of Dalit women highlighting their daily experiences of microaggressions, which they did not even realize or endured in silence, but how it left deep psychological, emotional, and relational scars. These experiences are examined from a postmodern theory perspective. In addition, the article will describe Anderson Franklin and Nancy Boyd-Franklin’s theoretical concepts of invisibility and Kenneth Hardy’s concepts of voicelessness and psychological homelessness. These stories indicated that having mental illness defined these women, leading to a lack of opportunities and resources and further chipping away at their sense of self, capabilities, and value. As a therapist, the primary author felt drawn to connect with these women’s humanity, suffering, and pain, but also felt vulnerable to seeing them as different and ignoring the fact that she exercised power by categorizing them as low-income, Dalit, and traumatized. By seeing these women differently, the primary author felt less vulnerable and safer in a therapeutic relationship but also realized how language in therapy reinforces the internal psychological and emotional experience of being invisible and thus unimportant. Mental health professionals should use caste-sensitive language and adopt caste-affirmative therapy to prevent the drop-out of these women from therapy.