[lbo-talk] High Hat (Was other things)

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Jun 19 09:52:11 PDT 2007


On Jun 19, 2007, at 12:13 PM, Carl Remick wrote:


> I think that middle ground, like much in psychotherapy, is imaginary.
>
> In any event, to the extent talking-therapy works at all I think
> it's because psychoanalysis secularizes the highly effective psycho-
> purgative practices that were pioneered and refined by the Catholic
> Church as confession and absolution. People can get a great sense
> of relief simply from voicing their greatest fears, frustrations
> and regrets to another human being. Moreover, I suspect the
> Catholic Church in its heyday provided more effective psychic-pain
> relief than psychoanalysis ever has, since the former, it is said,
> can deliver *divine* forgiveness while the latter can only offer
> clinical certification that you're not insane.
>
> The trouble is, you have to *believe* in the authority of the
> priest/analyst for this practice to have any anodyne qualities at
> all. If you entertain any suspicions the RC church or
> psychoanalysis is hooey, the magic will not work. Tinker Bell,
> alas, dies.
>
> The alternative to seeking help from hierarchic relationships with
> priests and shrinks is to rely on the humble time-honored practice
> of confiding in friends or partners

No, it's completely different from that. You can tell a shrink things you can't tell a friend or partner - esp if your problem is with your friend or partner. And the emotional dynamics are completely different. The distance allows you to project all kinds of things onto the therapist, and analyzing the kinds of things you project can be very revealing.

Have you ever seen a shrink for any length of time? The experience, even when it's as infrequent as once a week, is incredibly powerful. It changes the way you think and feel and live your daily life. Spilled religion has nothing to do with it.

Doug



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