"The Marine Corps as Psychotherapy"

Now that I've linked the Bob Newhart sketch on therapy and the new GEICO ad about the Sarge doing therapy, it is only fair that I include this great post by one Fred Reed, on how the Marine Corps does psychotherapy for new recruits. Link here.

My thanks again to Ari Mendelson for sending it to me.

Ari tells me that Fred Reed is an anti-war ex-Marine, so his post should be read in terms of character building as well as in terms of what it takes to make someone into a Marine.

It does make you wonder how much better therapy would be if therapists took as their first assumption that their patients were actually capable of changing the way they conduct themselves.

Wouldn't this be better than assuming that patients cannot change anything until they have undergone several years worth of the therapeutic ordeal?