I wonder, all of the time, how do men and women and people in general make it through life without psychotherapy. I don't want to sound conceited or overly focused, or any of those other non fun things... but really. There are so many difficulties one experiences in life, that even if you had a good time in therapy and are pretty healthy, life if hard.
Does that mean some of us are more vulnerable to mental health problems/challenges/difficulties/conundrums. Or that some of us (like me?) just want some perfect reality. Just kidding.
Seriously though - people have been living for a long long, long time and yet there has only been therapy for the last 100 years or so. There must be other ways to get by, and maybe this is just one of the newer tools to make our lives better.
tired yet?
=)
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
The wild river of psychoanalysis
Dear blogger -
There is an interesting idea I've been contemplating for a while and I think I have enough relevant insight into to discuss it in this forum.
The idea is the multiple perspectives of psychotherapy. Since the age of Freud psychotherapy has been organized by concepts that hailed from various groups of people, or schools. In each group or category certain members agreed (or disagreed) about the types of concepts they were looking for in the human personality, and with these concepts in mind they pursued psychotherapeutic treatment of a person. In other words, when you know what you are looking for you can find it. This, in fact, is a major criticism of all the analytic/psychodynamic therapies. That the influence of the therapist's training is too strong on the outcome of the therapy. And probably one of the major motivations towards a "non-clinical" or at least "non-clinician" oriented manual based therapy of the modern age.
The new world idea is to take everything we have learned from the therapists systemize it and create one uniform system that works unanimously. How beautiful! The tough part it - you only have to visit one local chain store or restaurant to know that the fanciful messages, displays, and other hoopla don't really mean that much when the employees are rushing around carelessly and delivering perfectly planned but often poorly executed service. In other words although our nation seems determined to systematize and regulate every little thing, there are many wonderful elements of human life that cannot be contained in this way.
The other alternative is to continuously educate oneself, to know one's background and biases, and to always seek to improve one's education and point of view. Perhaps because that is such a tasking process that many of us would rather rely on these "okay-enough" national chains to do our bidding. I would like to say that there is nothing inherently wrong with chain businesses - many great things come from well organized systems (google is one example). However, the everpresent challenge is the molding and flexibility of these systems with the surrounding environment. You can see this in nature in ubiquity. Every species has a determined (genetically) life pattern that is then adapted to the circumstances. Over time the system itself changes (if you believe in evolution).
Same in psychotherapy, all the points of view that we now know are biased, are actually useful, as long as we are willing to apply them conscientiously and with care. Trusting that we are doing our best to be flexible, understanding, and self-aware!
wow, that was a lot of writing =)
There is an interesting idea I've been contemplating for a while and I think I have enough relevant insight into to discuss it in this forum.
The idea is the multiple perspectives of psychotherapy. Since the age of Freud psychotherapy has been organized by concepts that hailed from various groups of people, or schools. In each group or category certain members agreed (or disagreed) about the types of concepts they were looking for in the human personality, and with these concepts in mind they pursued psychotherapeutic treatment of a person. In other words, when you know what you are looking for you can find it. This, in fact, is a major criticism of all the analytic/psychodynamic therapies. That the influence of the therapist's training is too strong on the outcome of the therapy. And probably one of the major motivations towards a "non-clinical" or at least "non-clinician" oriented manual based therapy of the modern age.
The new world idea is to take everything we have learned from the therapists systemize it and create one uniform system that works unanimously. How beautiful! The tough part it - you only have to visit one local chain store or restaurant to know that the fanciful messages, displays, and other hoopla don't really mean that much when the employees are rushing around carelessly and delivering perfectly planned but often poorly executed service. In other words although our nation seems determined to systematize and regulate every little thing, there are many wonderful elements of human life that cannot be contained in this way.
The other alternative is to continuously educate oneself, to know one's background and biases, and to always seek to improve one's education and point of view. Perhaps because that is such a tasking process that many of us would rather rely on these "okay-enough" national chains to do our bidding. I would like to say that there is nothing inherently wrong with chain businesses - many great things come from well organized systems (google is one example). However, the everpresent challenge is the molding and flexibility of these systems with the surrounding environment. You can see this in nature in ubiquity. Every species has a determined (genetically) life pattern that is then adapted to the circumstances. Over time the system itself changes (if you believe in evolution).
Same in psychotherapy, all the points of view that we now know are biased, are actually useful, as long as we are willing to apply them conscientiously and with care. Trusting that we are doing our best to be flexible, understanding, and self-aware!
wow, that was a lot of writing =)
Friday, November 2, 2007
Built on words
Dear blog reader:
in this entry I would like to oultine, what I think, is a new revolutionary synthesization of ideas, actions, and all such business activity!!
In essence I have been asking myself recently - what is it that people have been trying to achieve through revolutions, destructions, creations of new things, and overall renaissance periods? Of course these ideas are complicated, forgive me for selecting one meaning and going with it >
I think the american population of today is often looking for self empowerment, self directed change, along with stability and comfort. In other words there are many people out there who are not satisfied with the social systems we live in. The world bank, the american economy, political regimes, these are all regulating systems that surround us. Not to say that they aren't helpful, of course. The point that I think many people consider is the rather strong resistance to change that all of these "conglomerates of actions and ideas" entail.
Since this is a blog about psychotherapy and related processess, I think it is relevant to consider how or why this change happens or doesn't happen. Aks yourself this question - if you have been doing something for a long time and it doesn't always work for you (in fact creates conflict with other groups and people) do you want to change the way you do it? The thing is, in an ideal world we all would -- everyone, I think, somewhere inside desires to have tranquility comradery etc. The tougher question is - if you have never seen it or experienced it how do you get there?
That my friends is the question/demand/and destiny of the superdynamic way of thinking!
(thats just a rough big grandiose way of saying this blog focuses on answering that question =)
later 0:)
in this entry I would like to oultine, what I think, is a new revolutionary synthesization of ideas, actions, and all such business activity!!
In essence I have been asking myself recently - what is it that people have been trying to achieve through revolutions, destructions, creations of new things, and overall renaissance periods? Of course these ideas are complicated, forgive me for selecting one meaning and going with it >
I think the american population of today is often looking for self empowerment, self directed change, along with stability and comfort. In other words there are many people out there who are not satisfied with the social systems we live in. The world bank, the american economy, political regimes, these are all regulating systems that surround us. Not to say that they aren't helpful, of course. The point that I think many people consider is the rather strong resistance to change that all of these "conglomerates of actions and ideas" entail.
Since this is a blog about psychotherapy and related processess, I think it is relevant to consider how or why this change happens or doesn't happen. Aks yourself this question - if you have been doing something for a long time and it doesn't always work for you (in fact creates conflict with other groups and people) do you want to change the way you do it? The thing is, in an ideal world we all would -- everyone, I think, somewhere inside desires to have tranquility comradery etc. The tougher question is - if you have never seen it or experienced it how do you get there?
That my friends is the question/demand/and destiny of the superdynamic way of thinking!
(thats just a rough big grandiose way of saying this blog focuses on answering that question =)
later 0:)
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