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Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Melanie Klein, D. W.
Winnicott, Henry Stack Sullivan and Calvin McCraw.
Most of the names are familiar. They refer to the great
minds of psychoanalysis. All but one, of course. Who is Calvin McCraw and why
does he merit such renown?
Calvin McCraw is an unlikely psych-hero. He does not have an
office. He is not credentialed. No insurance company will reimburse his
services. He plies his trade in the open air… drop by when you like, first
come, first served.
McCraw is a homeless man, living in Oklahoma. He makes his
living panhandling. But McCraw is not just any panhandler. He does not go out
and beg; he does not tug at your heartstrings with the sad story of his life.
Not at all. McCraw is in business. He will offer you his own
brand of venting therapy in exchange for a contribution.
McCraw’s marketing is limited to a single home-made sign. It
reads:
ANGRY?!
FRUSTRATED? SCREAM-AT-A-BUM 50 cents/MIN.
It’s therapy for the disgruntled. In return for allowing you
to vent at him, McCraw will remain perfectly silent… as in mute. A stroke of
genius, don’t you think?
After all, it beats begging. The Huffington Post comments:
His
offer may be unusual, but it’s heartening to see a panhandler offer do-gooders
something positive in return for their goodwill.
McCraw has not yet written his theoretical manifesto, but
still, he has offered an important insight into how his venting cure works:
I get a
lot of people that laugh….I worry about the ones that don't laugh.
You heard it: McCraw has found a way to harness the
therapeutic power of laughter.
More than that, he feels empathy for those who do not get
the joke.
What more can you ask?
2 comments:
I can ask for nothing more. That's priceless, Stuart.
Do you suppose that they end up laughing because they realize in all their venting that their problems are silly and trivial, yet occupy so much of their attention? And do you suppose that the ones who can't get to the laughter part are so immersed in their victimhood that they cannot get beyond it and be responsible for their own choices?
That's what I'm reading in this. And it's quite telling, isn't it? Amazing the people who show up in your life and reflect "what is."
Tip
Story from Utah Phillips I heard on the radio. He passed a panhandler holding a sign: What is the greatest nation?
So Utah asked him what it was, and was answered "DO-nation". Gave the guy money.
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