Posted by Dave: We are in an era of fake news, of fake communication. Is fake news a problem? Of course it is. One of our themes in this blog is the de-medicalization of human experience. Part of what we are up to is paying attention to what is human and creative in human experience.
In recent decades in the world of psychiatry the idea has been promoted that mental and emotional problems occur in synapses in the central nervous system and chemicals were available to correct ‘chemical imbalances’ that occurred in synapses. Psychiatry in league with pharmaceutical and insurance companies promoted language which advanced the idea that emotional “problems” were neurophysiological ‘disorders’.
If your kid upsets you, he’s probably bipolar, get him on Risperdol.
If your wife has moods you don’t like, she’s probably bipolar. Yeah that explains everything. Tell her to ask her doctor for Abilify.
There is evidence to support the fact drug company’s invest more money in marketing than what was invested in research and development of pharmaceutical agents.
The extensive use of psychotropic medication in our culture altered the language for talking about human experience and emotional pain in the clinical disciplines that attend to mental health. By altering language, the medication illusion altered the consciousness of our culture, and inadvertently limited alternatives for problem solving. Fake news was instrumental in the evolution of these practices.
We can say that politics is a theater of deception in which distortion of facts work in combination with efforts to improve our society. In a healthy government there is a balance of powers. Conversation between opposing parties is a symptom of health. “Conversation” comes from Latin, “to turn with”. When conversation is disrupted, the power balance is disrupted, and destructive divisive elements gain power. The function of government is to regulate greed. Something is off the tracks when government is used to protect greed.
More drug company money went into marketing than what was invested in research and development of pharmaceutical agents. The extensive use of psychotropic medication in our culture altered the language for talking about human experience and emotional pain in the clinical disciplines that attend to mental health. By altering language, the medication illusion altered the consciousness of our culture, and inadvertently limited alternatives for problem solving. Fake news was instrumental in the evolution of these practices.
We can say that politics is a theater of deception in which distortion of facts work in combination with efforts to improve our society. There is a balance of powers that works which is crucial to maintaining healthy human interaction. But when the balance is disrupted destructive elements gain power. The function of government is to regulate greed. Something is off the tracks when government is used to protect greed.
So duplicity has become somewhat normalized, what effect will it have on authentic communication? What in fact is authentic communication? For many years my colleagues and I have worked on the idea that parallel play is a paradigm for therapeutic interaction and communication. This is another one of my abstract ideas, but much of what is important in our living is in the abstract and requires thoughtful consideration. Demanding concreteness is a demand for duplicity. “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler,” said Professor Einstein. So my writing is not concrete
Therapy is about working on our feelings. But what are these feelings? Feelings are psychosomatic experiences not clearly signified with words. We get at feelings by playing with words, in the way that poets play with words. Amy’s clinical examples are superb examples of playing with language to connect the inner and outer worlds, to bring some understanding of how relationships work. They provide examples of how subjective views get into a conversation by playing with language. In her illustrations she expresses a point of view using metaphorical words and a slightly playful style. She is not insisting on a point of view.
So are you ready to step into another abstract playground? Right this way. I am attempting to seed the garden of your imagination. It is okay if you don’t understand. But I hope this little post stimulates your imagination and you come up with some new ideas of your own from it. Next up….Parallel Play
…and my clients are so brainwashed that they are telling me that they have a chemical imbalance in their brain…
What am I to say. I am just a therapist with a PhD in psychology, who has never seen one valid journal article demonstrating the presence of this imbalance….but who am I…up against the psychiatrists in their ivory tower and the money making pharmaceutical industry….