Therapists

[710]

Most people who have interests in psychology, from a hobby to a career, usually are interested for the purpose of being able to figure out my own problems.  Er, I mean to figure out their own problems.  A Freudian slip is kind of like an undergarment for your brain.  But this is not about me.

It's just been my experience with most psychotherapists, personal, professional, and hearsay, that they have more problems than the average patient and certainly the average person, but they know how to hide it better.  Plus, they have the added benefit of being perceived as an authority.  Diplomas, degrees, and psycho books are hard to miss in a therapist's office, which also lend to the idea that they know what they're doing, the authority.  And a person's behavior is heavily influenced by authority.  Can you picture South Park's Eric Cartman as a therapist?  "Respect mah diplomaaaaahs!"

(People's behaviors are also heavily influenced by reciprocation, similarity/consensus, consistency, scarcity, and liking.)

So if someone who isn't me has a level of screwed-upedness of 4, he might go to see a therapist who has a level of 7, but because of years of practice the therapist can appear for the duration of a therapy session like a 2 or 1.  0 is Matt Savinar sane, 10 is Tom Cruise batshit.  It's a sliding scale, and only for entertainment purposes.

What do you all hear as the word on the street about the dope on shrinks?  Do they need more shrinking than patients?

[john galt]

I was six credits shy of a bachelors in Psych when I quit so hubby and I could start a business. I had done 3 semesters of supervised research in the neuropsychology lab and one semester in the neuroscience lab (part of the chem department.) Totally different experiences. Our psychology department boasted a statistics professor that got canned my junior year for having kiddie porn on his computer (found by the neighborhood children he let play in home on a regular basis), the research participant director, also a professor of child development, left the department over a criminal investigation over whether or not she and her lesbian partner had indeed started the fire in their home they said was a hate crime because they had just adopted a baby together. The police found traces of flammables inside the house and the prof ended up leaving the U and moving but she was never charged.) The PHD student I worked under in the neuropsych lab, whose thesis was on malingering and brain damage, had been in soooo many car accidents I can't even remember them all. She would joke about how weird it was that she was going to be a neuropshychologist and she was probably brain damaged herself.

I really could go on and on. The chemistry people were tame and normal in comparison.

[thethirstmutilator]

two good therapists saved my life.
rule of thumb: your therapists must be just as smart as you are, or smarter.

[710]

If you have an IQ in the top 0.01%, finding a therapist as smart or smarter would be like chancing on a solution to Newton's three-body problem while doodling on a cocktail napkin.  Or so I've been told.

[john galt]

Smart and crazy aren't mutually exclusive.
Lot's of the people in my psych department were plenty smart. And certifiable.

[Chesyre]

to truly understand  fucked up people   you have to be fucked up yourself in similar manner to and similiar degree.  functional fucked up people are not an anomaly most of you are exactly that  and you don't need a therapist to tell you so 

[thethirstmutilator]

to truly understand  fucked up people   you have to be fucked up yourself in similar manner to and similiar degree.  functional fucked up people are not an anomaly most of you are exactly that  and you don't need a therapist to tell you so 

but many of us could use a functionally fucked-up person as smart or smarter than us to unburden to, right?

[Chesyre]

to truly understand  fucked up people   you have to be fucked up yourself in similar manner to and similiar degree.  functional fucked up people are not an anomaly most of you are exactly that  and you don't need a therapist to tell you so 

but many of us could use a functionally fucked-up person as smart or smarter than us to unburden to, right?

or you could just go shout at the wind and it probably gives more of a fuck about you then your therapist and its free .  if you need to goto confession  you are still playing the same game in a secular manner , good luck with that . 

[thethirstmutilator]

okay 

 

[710]

or you could just go shout at the wind and it probably gives more of a fuck about you then your therapist and its free .  if you need to goto confession  you are still playing the same game in a secular manner , good luck with that . 

On several occasions, someone who isn't me has found it more therapeutic to scream at an empty room than talk to a therapist.

Smart and crazy aren't mutually exclusive.
Lot's of the people in my psych department were plenty smart. And certifiable.

Suppose that "smart" means you can create more connections in your brain.  More connections means more chances for errors, poor judgment, and just plain old human mistakes.  More mistakes in the connections means more chances for neuroses.  I think that really smart people may have a higher probability for mental disorders.

[wordnerd]

I wrote a long response to this and it didn't post!!!!
I have a Masters of Education in Counseling - Family Counseling
I discovered that counseling was not for me and so did not go through the certification process.
My interest started with watching the movie The Bad Seed, as a child (I think The Good Son was loosley based on the Bad Seed). I wanted to understand. Understand what made people this way.
Then when Charles Manson and Helter Skelter occurred, I went on a reading saga of serial murders. I read Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper, The Hillside Strangler, The Green River Murders, "I" creation of a Serial Murderer, Jeffrey Dahlmer, etc.... I wanted to understand.
I don't think I have any of those "urges"    I just wanted to understand. The book The Soiciopath Next Door by Martha Stout, helped me put everything I had read together - at least a little bit.

IQ; Well mine used to be in the top 1% to 5% range - but as I have gotten older it has dropped considerably. I never have been able to remember details - names, dates, who wrote what theory , etc. I  tend to listen and then put evrything together into a "how can I use this information" process - and then look at its possiblities. But I have no idea of the details.
Like I said, I realised, counseling was not for me.

There are good counselors and bad counselors.
I have seen some who are judgmental and seem to make things worse. I have seen some who become enmeshed in their clients and become part of the problem. I have seen others who truly make a difference.
I don't know how to tell what to look for.
I know in chemical dependency some of the best counselors have had a chemical dependency problem themselves - I think they understand chemical dependency issues better. Of course that is not 100% accurate  -- as with anything else.

[BenjaminTheDonkey]

I know in chemical dependency some of the best counselors have had a chemical dependency problem themselves - I think they understand chemical dependency issues better. Of course that is not 100% accurate  -- as with anything else.

If it’s not 100% accurate, it’s pretty close, IMHO. Meanwhile, along the same lines, maybe some of us have a future as LATOC counselors. Of course, we’ll need a certification process, special tax status, provision for administrative overhead charges, etc.   

[Chesyre]

I know in chemical dependency some of the best counselors have had a chemical dependency problem themselves - I think they understand chemical dependency issues better. Of course that is not 100% accurate  -- as with anything else.

If it’s not 100% accurate, it’s pretty close, IMHO. Meanwhile, along the same lines, maybe some of us have a future as LATOC counselors. Of course, we’ll need a certification process, special tax status, provision for administrative overhead charges, etc.   

I'll tell people you're fucked  and why for a reasonable price.   

[BenjaminTheDonkey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYLMTvxOaeE (External Embedding Disabled)

[mobil1]

Most people who have interests in psychology, from a hobby to a career, usually are interested for the purpose of being able to figure out my own problems.  Er, I mean to figure out their own problems.


Absolutely !

I've seen two major trends in career choices. Not ALWAYS true, but...

(1) People often enter fields their parents (or other relatives) are or were in.
(2) People often enter fields that seem to help people like their parents (or themselves or both).
(2a) Sometimes both 1 and 2.

So you often see people in medical fields whose parents had great medical issues; and mental issues ARE medical issues too.

Whether genetic, environmental or both, (I believe both) mental dysfunctions run through families. I've done some extensive genealogical research of my own background and MAN, there are broken families (and other signs of mental issues) EVERYWHERE in my tree.

I started seeing a very good therapist (NOT a shrink) 12 years ago. He opened my eyes a LOT, and lent me books and gave me direction that opened my eyes even more. However, after 1-2 years I found that I still had issues, and wasn't really getting much farther ahead in my development.

I have read and now VERY MUCH believe that a therapist can only help you get as far along in your healing, as they've gotten in their own healing. IE, they (the good ones) are guides, who have been down those paths themselves already. If and when your guide gets into territory unfamilar to them, they can become almost as lost as you.


The main issue that pulled me back away from continued therapy was that I was continuing to spend time and money on it, but not seeming to advance any further in my healing.

I saw a shrink the other week who seemed to echo this when he said that (I guess Jungian ?) therapy would probably not be my best bang for the buck (or time) at this point. He said I should try CBT = Cognitive Behaviourial Therapy. I guess this concentrates on the future; breaking old habits and replacing with new. Whereas conventional therapy concentrates on the past.

I'm currently trying to get into such CBT therapy, via an institution that will hopefully pay the bills (instead of the $130 per hour I was quoted from a University run program !). I will see....