Thursday, September 16, 2010

A New Look At The Role Of Psychotherapy In Society

OK. I'll go out on a limb. I'll say that "mental health", in its deepest sense, cannot exist without an active psycho-spiritual orientation toward the welfare of others.

This would then logically extend to an active political and social orientation in this direction; and to an active "environmental" orientation of this kind as well.

Mental health in this deep and broad sense cannot exist in a psycho-spiritual, socio-political, environmental vacuum. Is it mental health for a species - in this case humans - to actively and knowingly destroy its own habitat, its own means of pro-generation, and the possibility of its own continuation? I'd say it is not, and in fact that it is a form of insanity.

Now, in light of the way I am defining mental (psycho-spiritual/emotional) health, what then is the role of psychotherapy? What is its legitimate scope? What are its legitimate questions and concerns as regarding the individual, the couple, the family, the species?

If you suffer from anxiety, for example, and you do not see yourself as a small manifest extension of a much larger and much greater system of existence, a system which has direct and inevitable effects on you, the small individual, it will be more difficult, I suggest, to 1) understand your anxiety, and to 2) do anything genuinely healing/remedial about it. If you suffer from depression, and have not been able to achieve relief through bio-chemical treatments alone, and also do not understand your depression in a cultural/experiential context, it will be more difficult (impossible?), I suggest, to 1) understand your depression, and to 2) do anything genuinely healing/remedial about it.

If your marriage is strained and struggling because you and your spouse don't seem to be able to talk to each other without slipping into another self defeating argument, and you lead your lives dedicated to a system of values and beliefs that by its nature opposes collaborative relationship, how will you be able to remedy this dysfunction?

The idea of systems in psychotherapy is nothing new. I think we have not taken this idea far enough, nor understood its implications thoroughly enough.

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Who Are Your Heroes?

Of course we are motivated and inspired by those we admire most. Who are the inspirations in your life? And what is it about them that inspires you? Who are your real heroes? Who do you aspire to emulate?

The prospect of mental health, happiness, or wisdom is more or less likely depending upon the kinds of people we truly look to as models for our own lives. Some models will serve us well in this quest, and some will not. It may be obvious that having, say, the Son Of Sam, or Hitler, or Lindsay Lohan as a role model will not lead to mental health. It may be less obvious that having, say, some of our parents, our civic/political leaders, our religious leaders, or our business leaders will also not lead to mental health. Indeed, it may be shocking to consider that having some of the most respected and revered members of society as our models might contribute to mental illness, foolishness or even insanity, rather than to health.

Without looking for perfection, we might still be on solid ground in looking for some sustainable commitment to integrity, to compassion, to tolerance and to genuine caring about others and about the world at large, in our healthier heroes.
We might do well to look for heroes who have the capacity to make sacrifices in the service of humanity. We might look for heroes who even make service to humanity a real priority in their lives. When I say service to humanity, I don't mean service to a privileged few - that ever touted but highly suspect value of "enlightened self interest". I mean something more along the lines of a real consideration of what some Native American peoples are said to call the well being of the next seven generations. All of humanity, not merely me and mine.

It is my opinion, professionally and personally, that the latter possibility is much more likely to lead in the direction of health, happiness, wisdom and well being than is the former.

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Psychotherapy And Values, Part Two

1) Mental health, in the way I wish to explore it, is not something that is defined by a majority vote; that is, consensus does not define health, it only defines agreement (and the emperor may still, indeed, have no clothes on, regardless of his kowtowing subjects agreement to the contrary).

2) Mental health may not be a given in any set of cultural or social circumstances.

3) Mental health may exist only relative to what is True, regardless of opinion.

4) If this is so, then it becomes necessary to search for and to discover what is True, and then to align oneself with this Truth in order to become mentally healthy.

5) Since what is True is not variable from culture to culture, mental health takes on a larger meaning than previously thought.

6) It is therefore possible to be situated well within cultural norms and expectations, and at the same time to not meet criteria for mental health. Hence the state of the world.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind", said Mahatma Gandhi. This is a succinct expression of the difference between consensus and health; and of the foolishness - we might even say of the insanity - of merely following the crowd, or the cultural norm, or the prevailing value, when these are contrary to Truth.

The thing about the Truth is that, while it is the same everywhere, it becomes confused with relative, local, specific cultural forms of expression, and then these forms of expression are mistaken for the Truth, defended to the death, and imposed upon others. Confusion, rather than Truth, prevails.

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