Posted by IntendedMispelling on November 18, 2009, at 5:45:10
In reply to Fromm, the Schizoid, and the New World Order., posted by IntendedMispelling on November 18, 2009, at 0:24:47
"we are all so much more human than otherwise" - Harry Stack Sullivan.
It seems that some people who've responded to me don't understand what i'm trying to say and what I need. So at the risk of being further misunderstood i'll put it in different words.
It's not that obscure really. Its just that these days were prejudiced to the idea that anything alienating and unsentimental and complicated is scientific.
Our resistance to the human aspect of things has helped us overcome the superstitions of past ages. (who supposedly knew nothing about anything) However that way of seeing things really gets in the way of looking at human beings as human beings. As a result we tend to ignore the actual human processes at work in a person in favor of looking at Drives and Genetic tendencies. So an entire dimension of what is actually going on in a person's life is denied. It may be in front of the therapists or psychiatrists face but if they can't codify those experiences into a scientific model it is simply dispelled as "anecdote" or coincidental.
The stress-diathesis hypothesis of mental illness is an example of this phenomenon of disregarding the actual nature of mental illness. This theory says that early childhood abuse does cause mental illness. But according to the theory childhood abuse doesn't cause mental illness in the way we would instinctively assume. They say its not due to the abuse per se at all. Rather they say it is because abuse causes a dysfunction in the hypothalamus which leads to "vulnerability" to stress. But this theory has never really been proven and in the absence of proof it amounts to a continual betrayal of the psychically ill by the mental health establishment.
Basically most therapists today are trained in a world view that keeps them from being objective and scientific about the human phenomenon.
With the help of the mass media many people are being conditioned to see the world in the same way. Who hasn't heard of the erroneous theory of chemical imbalance?
And yet what is so interesting about that theory is how it appeals to and simultaneously distorts human sentiment. A person who has an imbalance can be understand quite well. They are just like us, all they need is a little tweak. Its so simple and within proportions of human understanding and control. And yet that theory like every other theory of biochemical etiology of mental illness is completely unproven. And while it is appealing it is ultimately doing great harm to humanities concept of self.
So in this day and age to get decent treatment you need a radical.
poster:IntendedMispelling
thread:925781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20091022/msgs/926110.html