Standard double blind studies I have seen, which I am sure others can fill in better than I, suggests that psychotherapy is no more effective than just talking to someone. Anecdotally, I and my family have has experience with shrinks and mental health professionals ranging from disastrous to awful, with two exceptions. I stumbled by blind chance on a first rate shrink, shabby loop office, older guy -- no computer! -- but really excellent. Also there's a first rate drug Dr on the N. Shore, he has PhD in EE, which may explain why he's so good. Regularly listed as among the 50 best drs in the Chicago area, he works at the VA Hospital, God bless 'em, so he's a good person as well as a good Dr. Other people, you don't want to think about then. That's anecdote, but I don't think it's unrepresentative.
--- Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> >
> >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. ... >
> > > 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
> >
> >... 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.
>
> I had months-long consultations with three analysts
> at different times in my
> confused 20s, and it changed the way I think only by
> expanding the number of
> helping professions I dislike to include both the
> clergy *and* shrinks. I
> found these analysts highly neurotic and, worse yet,
> boring. Note: In
> saying that I acknowledge the futility of making any
> criticism at all of
> shrinks due to the profession's miraculous defense
> mechanism of (as the
> nursery rhyme so aptly put is) "being rubber while
> you're glue -- whatever
> you say bounces off them and sticks to you."
>
> And really, the wholly mystique and dynamic of
> psychoanalysis struck me as
> exactly analogous to religion -- minus, of course,
> the great organ music.
>
> Carl
>
>
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