What really happens in psychotherapy? Better yet, what are
therapists really thinking? Best yet, what are they really feeling?
Elizabeth Bernstein addresses these questions in an
interview with a therapist named Paul Hokemeyer. I had never heard of him
before so I assume that he does not write very much or do very much theorizing.
As we shall see, it’s a good thing that
he doesn’t.
Hokemeyer seems to believe that he has an eclectic approach
to therapy. He takes a little of this, adds a little of that, spices it up,
feels deep feelings and thinks that he is helping people.
Without going into too much detail, his treatment amounts to
psychoanalysis lite, a watered down version of psychoanalysis mixed with more some
lip service to cognitive therapy.
In truth, you
cannot mix the two forms of treatment. Psychoanalysis is based on the idea that
symptoms have a meaning and that they are expressing an unresolved mental conflict.
It assumes that once you have gotten to your deeper feelings and learned a new
mode of relating, the symptom or the issue will resolve itself. In truth, this
never happens, which is why no one does psychoanalysis any more. One suspects
that the form of therapy Hokemeyer practices is not very long for this world, either.
The more cognitive approach sees symptoms as bad habits. It wants
to replace the bad habits with good habits and sees no real advantage to trying
to find a hidden or unconscious meaning. In general, this form of therapy is as
effective as medication in treating depression.
Bernstein gives the game away when she says that she wants
to know what is going through the therapist’s mind when he is listening to his
patients. Thus, she is asking the question that therapists ask themselves. She cannot really ask about what is happening in these
patients’ lives while they are undergoing treatment because that is not what the treatment is about. Therapists seem to be more interested in feelings than in the
concrete details of anyone’s life.
She does not use this example, but when therapists ask the
standard, idiot question-- How did that make you feel?-- they are directing
their patients into their minds and away from their real world problems. They want
the patient to discover what he really feels. Apparently, this insight will
lead him to form a more healthy relationship with his therapist.
Surely, Freud did emphasize the importance of the
relationship between patient and therapist. But, since the relationship is
completely one-sided, it cannot possibly become a role model for future
relationships. So, Freud believed that it was a way for patients to enact their
mental conflicts, thus, to take their analysts for someone they are not. If
therapists were actually engaging in mutually respectful relationships
with their patients there would be no need to write columns about what they
really feel.
In Hokemeyer’s words:
My
brand of psychotherapy operates on a number of levels. The first requires me to
be hyper-aware of the physical and emotional feelings the patient brings up in
me. How do I feel in their presence? Am I anxious, bored, entertained,
manipulated?
Then I
focus on what they are saying, verbally and non-verbally. Do I feel the
heaviness that comes from depression, yet the patient is saying everything is
fine or trying to distract me with superficial details?
Hokemeyer says that he is listening for feelings, for
emotional feelings and for physical feelings. Like I said, the man is not a theoretical
wiz.
Note well that he does not at first want to hear what the
patient has to say. He does not want to know the details of the patient’s
problems. He withdraws into himself to explore his feelings. In the world of
advanced psychoanalysis this is called countertransference analysis. I will not
bore you with the details.
He would have done well to understand, as Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe said, that God is in the details. No one is saying that a therapist
should not examine emotion, but if you do not know the details, if you dismiss
the details as superficial, you will never know whether an emotion is
appropriate or inappropriate to a situation. And if you do not know the situation that the
patient is trying to manage, you will never be able to help him to manage it.
You might imagine that the patient is simply enacting his unresolved neurosis
in all of his dealings with real people in the real world. But, even if this
oversimplification has a kernel of truth, the world does contain many other
people and many different types of relationships. Reducing them all to one
giant neurotic mental conflict is simpleminded and useless.
According to Hokemeyer, patients get better by having a
reparative relationship with their therapists. This is a variation on the
theory of transference. It was invented by an analyst named Franz Alexander
decades ago.
First, examine Alexander’s definition of what he dubbed the corrective emotional experience:
The
patient, in order to be helped, must undergo a corrective emotional experience
suitable to repair the traumatic influence of previous experiences. It is of
secondary importance whether this corrective experience takes place during
treatment in the transference relationship, or parallel with the treatment in
the daily life of the patient.
Now, Hokemeyer:
The
goal is for the patient to internalize the reparative relationship with their
clinician. This means that they hear their therapist’s voice and anticipate
what their therapist would say when they are confronted with a real-life
situation.
I love
when patients make a confession about falling down on a commitment and tell me:
“I know exactly what you’re going to say…” That means they are internalizing a
nurturing, affirming voice.
In the old days Freud called the internal punishing voice
the superego. Replacing the superego with a more nurturing, affirming voice has
long since been a goal of therapy. In so doing therapists have shifted focus from the harsh paternal superego to a more nurturing and motherly
figure. Apparently, this markets the treatment more effectively to women, but
as women become more involved in all aspects of life outside of the home, why
do they need to be drawn away from real situations in order to get into their
minds and to get in touch with their feelings.
Hokemeyer sounds like he mothers his patients. One
understands why the profession is attracting more women than men and also why
fewer and fewer people of either sex are engaging in it.
Hokemeyer explains:
I focus
on the immediate, my feelings, thoughts, what the patient is saying, then step
back and put it in a global context. Is what they are saying congruent with
what I’m feeling? What patterns are emerging?
Given his emphasis on “emotional feelings” Hokemeyer is
unanchored. He is prone to get bored. His mind tends to wander:
Most of
the time it wanders back to the session I had with the last patient and what I
should have done differently.
It can
also wander if the patient is avoiding connecting and filling the time with
superfluous details. I’ll start to think about the dry cleaning or what I can
have for dinner. This is important clinical data as it lets me know that just
as I’m not feeling connected to the patient, the patient isn't connected to me
because they don’t feel safe enough to share the intimate details of their
life.
Hokemeyer believes that his treatment offers patients a new
way to relate. Perhaps he does not know it, but you cannot help a person manage
relationships if you do not recognize that different relationships call for
different ways of relating. You cannot help a person get control of his or her
life if you are dismissing the details, wallowing in compassion and focusing on vulnerabilities.
In Hokemeyer’s words:
I
dislike traits my patients display, but my job isn't to like or dislike my
patients. It is to give them a new way of relating.
My
awareness of myself and my own issues enables me to relate to and feel
compassion toward the vulnerability of being human. It is the thing we share
and it gives us a strong foundation to build upon.
It’s not a strong foundation. It’s quicksand.
I'm glad I'm a humble computer programmer, never need to worry about the feelings of my programs or how to nurturer or repremand their inner child. Seriously, being a therapist seems like high responsibility and low reward occupation.
ReplyDeleteWhatever else therapy is good for, I'm on the view that it needs to teach skills, like slowing down reactive behavior, separating facts from opinions from feelings, so you don't need a therapist.
One therapist I've heard online is John Lee, who talked at a Minnesota Men's conference about regression, and it makes sense to me. Like this one maybe?
http://www.minnesotamensconference.com/2014/05/14/john-lee-the-grace-in-regression-1-of-2/
Basically there are experiences that trigger older experiences, especially ones where we were weak or powerless, where we developed ways to protect ourselves, and these defensive systems are no longer necessary but we don't know it when they "take over" and we react unconsciously. So it makes sense if we can identify when we are triggered into such a regressed state, and identity what our "instincts" are telling us, the default narrative, and then under a safe place, you can resist that narrative, and hold a tension and see what else is there for us to work with. So a therapist might help, but ideally it would be a skill you learn, to experience your emotions as they were, without needing to act on them as you've done in the past.
So the purpose of identifying feelings is not to "know your authentic self", but to "know what sort of regression" you've entered, and not simply let it play out unconsciously.
I wrote down a list of self-questions he offered, and it seems to be there both to help yourself, and to have better clarity how to help someone else. Ah, its this one:
http://www.minnesotamensconference.com/2014/05/21/john-lee-five-ways-to-grow-back-up/
"Detour method" questions (takes 15 minutes) to get out of regression: (@16:20)
1. What are you feeling right now?
2. What does this remind you of? Another place or time or person?
3. What did you want to say to them?
4. What do you need to say now?
5. How are you feeling now? (Is there a change?)
My own experience of regression I'd describe it as "taking things personally". I see when I don't take things personally, there's really no criticism or insults that hurt me, but when I do take things personally, and I don't realize this inner state change, then I'm "hearing" things that really are not there, interpreting judgments without verifying, and I'm at risk of blaming and saying things I shouldn't, things that don't clarify the miscommunication, and do create defensiveness in the other person. And the "intention" of this behavior seems to be to force someone else into regression also.
And that's also why judging others is a poor way to get what you want, even if sometimes it works. If you want to make someone regress, find out what they're ashamed of, what negative thoughts they have about themselves, and then remind them of that, push their buttons. And if you can get them to feel shame and apologize, you win, and you don't have to admit your own regression that you don't want to look at.
If you learn this skill, and perhaps all successful people learn it, you can be a bully and not even know it. You can even tell people they're undesireable and then 5 minutes later tell them they really love you and everything is okay, and they'll be grateful for your kindness in keeping them around. Rationality can't explain skills like this, but regression can.
Sounds like a fraud.
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