Therapy in the Age of Abandonment: A Conversation with Psychological Anthropologist Talia Weiner

Talia Weiner is a psychological anthropologist, licensed professional counselor, and assistant professor of psychology at the University of West Georgia.

As a medical and psychological anthropologist, her work focuses on the intersection of social-structural forces and how those forces show up in lived experience, particularly in relation to mental health care. Weiner studies these and other topics with students in the Clinical Ethnography Lab within the University of West Georgia’s psychology program.

Weiner has an upcoming book titled Therapeutic Inequalities: Mood Disorder Self-Management in Chicago, scheduled for release Jan. 6, 2026, through NYU Press’s Anthropologies of American Medicine: Culture, Power, and Practice series.

In this interview, Weiner discusses how conservative sociopolitical trends influence psychology and mental health care—how, for example, people with bipolar disorder are expected to monitor and manage themselves in ways that are not only unrealistic but also blur the lines between self and disease.

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