psychIATRY, psychOANALYSIS, psychOTHERAPY, and me?
What do they have in common, and why does it matter so much?
I recently posted this on the Critical Psychiatry Network – there has been some disagreement on how much of the Gaza/Israeli crisis should be discussed there, with some leaving in disgust. This was part of my attempt to press things forwards.
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Hi All,
Re psychIATRY, psychOANALYSIS, psychOTHERAPY, and me?
In this post I want to uncover something we can all agree on. One of the side-effects of being awarded ‘Visiting Professor’ at the University of Bolton is that I get invited to give the odd lecture there – so last week I held forth on –
The Three Keys You Need To Unlock Trauma
It was part of the Professor of Positive Psychology’s conference on the Psychology of Mental Health, a topic close to my heart. And compressing what you want to say into 15 minutes, concentrates one’s thoughts splendidly.
So the first thing we need to do, when searching for unanimity, is to translate from the Greek – hence from the above strap line, we get – mind-doctoring, mind-sorting, and mind-treating.
And the one thing that features in all three, is ‘mind’. Now that’s a contentious issue in itself. Since, as you may have noticed, we do harbour a lot of different interpretations as to what the ‘mind’ is –,but putting all those to one side for a moment, let’s all agree we’ve got one. All, that is, except DSM-IV (on page xxi), who go out of their way to pretend we haven’t.
How you can have a ‘psychiatrist’s bible’ that pretends the mind doesn’t exist, takes some explanation – but it could account for a lot of our current muddle (and also for why DSM-III was such an unexpected best-seller – oversimplification sells).
Next up is the contentious issue of child abuse. Does it occur? Does it matter? Should it be put centre stage or not? Not forgetting ‘False Memory Syndrome’ and all that.
Well, again, looking for something – anything – we can all agree on – let’s just say that childhoods are over.
This will NECESSARILY apply to the majority of our patients – it doesn’t cover paediatrics, though even there, part of the problem is moving from 100% quadriplegia on arrival, to standing on your own feet, especially emotionally.
So let’s all agree on those two points — (1) The mind exists, and (2) childhoods are over.
And that’s probably as far as we can get. But if we can all agree on those two, then we should celebrate that. AND if we ever come across a sufferer who has a mind, like we all do, but whose childhood ISN’T OVER, then that’s something we should all be able to agree on, too.
If those two points are accepted, then, in simple logic, things that happened long ago shouldn’t cripple the mind today. But, in my experience, they do. Which again will probably breach our unanimity – but at least it does make sense. And of course, if I found that even Freud didn’t agree that childhood events were long ago, then that busts unanimity right off. Yet, there, in Moses and Monotheism (1937, page 174) we read (if we want to) that the great man was still afraid of his father – no change there from aged ‘7 or 8’ (as in ‘Interpretation of Dreams’, 1900, page 309) to aged 41 and then to 81 years old.
Well, in this post, I’ve tried. I’ve given it a go. Unanimity is a worthy goal. And it comforts me to have a simple logic behind my keys to unlocking trauma – something I wish I could communicate more successfully – but unanimity is easier to achieve with a bunch of psychology students that with a bevy of ‘experienced’ psychiatrists. Still, it was fun while it lasted.
Rock on
Bob.