International Gay & Lesbian Review

Empowering the Tribe: A Positive Guide to Gay and Lesbian Self-Esteem

• Nonfiction
• Publisher: Kensington Pub Corporation
• Publication Date: 1999

“Empowering the Tribe” is a marvelous presentation of basic wisdom of gay-oriented psychotherapy merged with a regimen of practical spiritual meditation practices. Richard Pimental-Habib is a therapist in private practice in Los Angeles. He writes with obvious experience in dealing with gay community issues. The central idea of the book (one of the long held tenets of the gay rights movement) is that most, if not all, of the problems gay men and lesbians suffer arise out of low self-esteem imposed on them by mainstream, straight culture. Pimental-Habib nicely recounts case histories and personal experiences to demonstrate and humanize this politico/psycho dynamic. Following each chapter is a suggested meditation focused on the lesson in the chapter. The meditations are a blend of guided fantasies and affirmations that direct the reader/meditator in examining and then changing self-defeating and negative patterns of thought. This is an eminently practical book. The messages are uniformly positive. This reviewer, having spent years in gay private practice and gay community entrepreneurship, found the discussion of building and supporting gay community enterprises and businesses compelling. If there's a flaw in this book, it's the pervasive use of modern day catch phrases and cliches from the universe of discourse frequently derided and dismissed as ‘psycho-babble.' The book reads a lot like transcriptions of lectures or pop-seminars. But this is a minor objection at best, a problem only because it is likely to date the book. Ten years from now some of the cutesy sayings are going to sound old-hat. Self-esteem and self-image remain issues throughout the lives of gay men and lesbians. There is deep psychological damage done to us growing up in a culture that doesn't understand sexual variation. These are problems that all minorities face. Gay people have particular patterns with particular solutions. (Archetypally, we are unlike most other minorities because our difference separates from our families of origin.) Pimental-Habib offers meditation practices to bring the sources of suffering and confusion into consciousness so they can be released and let go of. This book offers suggestions, inspirations, and interpretations useful for gay men and lesbians at all stages of our lives. And its most obvious audience is young people just beginning to confront the problems of living gay. It would certainly make a wonderful gift to gay youth from their lesbian aunts or gay uncles.

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