tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post920679573179134087..comments2024-03-29T04:06:37.402-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Will Freud Return from the Dead?Stuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-42267579092610477452016-01-09T13:24:34.840-08:002016-01-09T13:24:34.840-08:00Oliver Burkeman: Before laying the groundwork for ...Oliver Burkeman: Before laying the groundwork for CBT, Albert Ellis had in fact originally trained as a psychoanalyst. But after practising for some years in New York in the 1940s, he found his patients weren’t getting better – and so, with a self-confidence that would come to define his career, he concluded that analysis, rather than his own abilities, must be to blame.<br /><br />That's a good slam. You either have to blame yourself, your patients, or the methods.<br /><br />Perhaps simpler methods like CBT are better on the egos of therapists since it requires the patient to be responsible for his own reforms.<br /><br />OTOH, for more conscientious therapists, ones who are not just interested in blame, this predicament is why many modern therapists might lean towards generalists now - having low level understanding of many methods, including CBT, on the assumption that some methods will work better for some patients than others.<br /><br />It does make sense to try the simpler solutions first, so treatment should first (1) Look at acute issues with low grade talk therapy, maybe more like life coaching (2) Look for with systemic issues like "emotional reasoning" and self-regulation skills, maybe like behaviorism or CBT, and (3) Look at less conscious behavior like denial and help break down defense mechanisms that are impeding self-correction, which may require therapists whose skills are not entirely teachable.<br /><br />And there's also some wider question of general human development versus pathology that needs correction. Like Scott Peck talks about "legitimate suffering" which we experience when we're in a place of learning and "neurotic suffering" where you're resisting experience with preconceived explanations and judgments that prevent learning. <br /><br />For the first case, I like Jung's quote, of course "soul" is not a scientific word, but it does suggest there's a choice and an intuitive destination to move towards.<br />“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” <br /><br />A therapist might have to see what a patient needs in a moment. Some want a bandaid and empathy, and they want to go back to sleep. And others are interested in a harder path, to go beyond error-correction and suppressing bad moods. <br /><br />I imagine depression contains this predicament. If you're a divided person with 6 different drives in conflict, you need those different selves to be aware of each other. But if some conflicts take a lifetime to integrate, then maybe a good therapist (or life coach) can help identify the key conflicts that can make progress in this moment. While if CBT just tells people they're thinking wrong, it might be disrespectful to the unconscious trying to get your attention.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.com