tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post6397810335325656420..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: The Gang That Couldn't Think StraightStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-57889436127337986502016-01-24T19:12:11.784-08:002016-01-24T19:12:11.784-08:00Ares, if you want anyone to read your comments, yo...Ares, if you want anyone to read your comments, you are going to have to shorten them considerably. Most people don't have the time or patience to wade through them. I quit bothering reading them months ago.Rambillicusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-44608388703736005992016-01-23T07:47:08.827-08:002016-01-23T07:47:08.827-08:00Stuart: He does not seem to know that Freud himsel...Stuart: He does not seem to know that Freud himself declared that the goal of psychoanalysis is to transform misery into unhappiness. If life is a Greek tragedy, then there are no happy endings.<br /><br />I was curious and I found the quote for that assertion from Freud. It doesn't look like a "goal", but simple humility to show progress can be made despite a lack of complete control. A doctor can't promise your external enemies will roll over and die just because you face them more honestly.<br /><br />https://www.coursehero.com/tutors-problems/Philosophy/8649888-URGENT-BY-TOMM/<br />“When I have promised my patients help or improvement by means of the cathartic treatment I have often been faced by this objection: ‘Why, you tell me yourself that my illness is probably connected with my circumstances and the events of my life. You cannot alter these in any way. How do you propose to help me then?’ And I have been able to make this reply: ‘No doubt fate would find it easier than I do to relieve you of your illness. But you will be able to convince yourself that much will be gained if we succeed in transforming your hysterical misery into common unhappiness.” –Sigmund Freud, Studies on Hysteria (1895)<br /><br />So the context is the predicament of inner versus outer, there are facts and circumstances we can't change, but some can be made easier to bear, if we understand our own participation in our enslavement or our compulsions.<br /><br />Much like the serenity prayer from AA around 1930's, a bit after Freud's attempts.<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer<br />-------<br />O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed,<br />The courage to change what can be changed,<br />and the wisdom to know the one from the other<br />------<br /><br />If misery in part come from our escapism to avoid what we can deal with, out of despair in our powerlessness of what we can't change, then Freud's claim (or AA's version) seems a sensible middle ground. <br /><br />NOT DRINKING will not promise end unhappiness, but it will reduce self-inflicted misery that follows by this escapism.<br /><br />Or like Scott Peck and Jung talked about "neurotic suffering" versus "legitimate suffering".<br />http://jungiancenter.org/the-gift-of-suffering/<br />-------<br />Carl Jung identified two forms of suffering: meaningless and meaningful. Meaningless suffering is everywhere, being part of the human condition, as the Buddha recognized. <br /><br />This existential suffering is the result of our trying to avoid pain, by denial and repression. None of us wants pain. We naturally shun it. But doing so is like the spleen refusing to do its job. It leads to big trouble, dis-ease, and real problems. In the realm of the psyche, these are called “neuroses.” Jung identified the long-term habit of repression (our “stuffing” unpleasant feelings, facts, etc. within) as the cause of neuroses.<br /><br />Because we all do this, we are all “neurotic” to one degree or another. This is “meaningless” suffering because it makes no sense, has no significance, and gives us no benefit. This form of suffering, in other words, is not a gift.<br /><br />The form of suffering that is meaningful comes when we stop repressing and take up our moral task as humans to deal consciously with our pain. In this process, we take up the pain that is endemic to living and work with it, in the knowledge that pain has a purpose. It is a warning, with an intrinsic message. We need to listen to our inner voices to learn this message.<br />------------<br /><br />Well, a very tricky distinction, but it beats new age positivism.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.com