Gazelam wrote:Hey, if you want to use the scriptures to encourage appropriate attitude and viewpoints, good for you.
But in your opinion, outside of the psych wards where guys are smearing their feces on the wall, how much of this psyco crap is for real?
How many of these soccer moms who go on tuesdays really need it?
I get where you are coming from. I used to think in similar terms. I once figured that life was considerably more harsh for the early settlers of this great nation as well as for the early saints, and they didn't need to fill their kids with Ritlin and their wives with Prozac. They didn't require weekly visits to the therapist in order to make it through life. And, the Church during that time was about a century away from having a Social Services or Family Service department. With but the help of their faith, they just handled, to the best of their abilities, whatever life challenges were tossed their way (not that they really had any choice).
I felt that way until I had an aunt, who was not a member of the Church, commit suicide. This caused me to question, a bit, my perceptions, though I passed it of at the time to her lack of faith.
But then, I had a close relation suffer a nervous breakdown, and several other close relations fall prey to substance abuse. And, finally I, myself, after a life of relative tranquility and peace and inner strength, was put into a tailspin by a personal event in my life, and for the next decade or so, was racked with bouts of deep depression.
Back in the 70's and early 80's, I was quite soured against the psychology profession when I saw what nonsense was being peddled to the close relation who suffered from a nervous breakdown, and how the therapy she/he was subjected to, made matters far worse and merely invoked a prolonged dependancy between the psychiatrist and the patient. I also saw how many of the therapist were terribly screwed up themselves, and were seeking treatment as well (the sick attempting to heal the sick). In short, I was left with the impression that psychology and sociology was a system where unscrupulous nuts were ripping off other nuts, so to speak.
However, I figured that there was a much better way to intervene on behalf of those who were suffering from depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and so forth. And, I began attempting to come up with ways myself to effectively treat my own affliction and those in others. I was somewhat successful in finally devising a workable intervention for myself, and when applied to issues suffered by certain family members and and friends, I saw some success there as well.
Then, about a year or so ago I learned about Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Reality Therapy, and Choice Theory, all of which, coincedentally, began to be developed close to the time of my dissolutionment with Psychiatry, and they were spurred on by the same disechantment with the profession, and the Dr.s who came up these treatments, proffered some of the same fundamental philosophy, ideas, and interventions as me, but they had the advantage of solid educational and experiential background in their profession, such that they were able to make further in-road and scientifically validate their respective treatments.
This is the long way of saying that given the ongoing shift in the psychiatric community from the failed Fraudian approach of the past to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (it is now widely accepted and is fast becoming the preferred approach), I would say that there is alot of the "psycho crap" that is real.
And, with the growing trend in viewing socio-emotional challenges as cognitive distortions, dysfunction, developmental delays, poor choice-making, etc., rather than "mental illness", I would say that the soccer moms, the kids with ADD and ADHD, the dads who are unfaithful and having a hard time dealing with stress, and a host of other people facing more modern, and perhaps even more incideous psychological challange than our forefathers, could greatly benefit from the new form of psycho-therapy.
Thanks, -Wade Englund-
