sociatry822

[georgia rigg]

Wow, Rebecca!  So very well said!  Georgia Rigg
--- HV Psychodrama <hvpi at hvc.rr.com> wrote:

> Dear Adam and Anath,
> When I was in graduate school in the mid-late 70's,
> the books "The Politics 
> of Therapy" and "Radical Therapy" were required
> reading. I remember a 
> discussion of what would have happened to the civil
> rights movement if Dr. 
> King has been 'treated' for  adjustment disorder. Or
> if the campus leaders 
> of the 60's had been treated for  explosive anger
> disorders. I remember 
> someone wearing a pin that stated "Revolution not
> Adjustment."
> 
> 30 years later we are still labeling and treating
> people for disorders that 
> arise from asking them to adapt and adjust to unfair
> situations that need to 
> be changed. It is still much easier to give a person
> a pill then to help 
> them look at how to make social changes. It is much
> easier to look at an 
> individual's emotional/psychiatric problem as being
> rooted in biology or 
> poor upbringing then it is to look at it being
> rooted in societal ills. It 
> asks less of us middle class practitioners, makes us
> less uncomfortable...it 
> demands nothing other than we give some one an hour
> of paid time and/or a 
> prescription.
> 
> It is also much easier to think of a person's
> problems as theirs, rather 
> than the communities...that is one of the wonderful
> things about psychodrama 
> in that it looks outside the individual. But
> interest in group therapy and 
> family therapy is on the wane and individual therapy
> is now mostly solution 
> focused short term work geared to helping the
> individual solve the personal 
> problem du jour.
> 
>    Although I do think the discovery of the SRI
> medications has been a real 
> and true godsend for many, many people, I can attest
> (through my work in the 
> hospital) how they are being used/misused to treat
> depressions caused by 
> situations that you or I or most adults would not
> put up with, in fact we 
> would run from as fast as we could . So we use meds
> to help young people 
> tolerate living in such situations.
>     Why are not we, as therapists, educators,
> community people agitating for 
> the political and social change that would improve
> our 
> clients/students/friends lives WITHOUT medicine.
> 
>    I get tired of going into work and being asked to
> use psychodrama to help 
> children with their anger...which means teaching
> them not to explode but to 
> ask/talk nicely....when talking nicely has not
> worked for them; when they 
> are asking "nicely" of addicted parents or parents
> who have to work two jobs 
> to pay the rent or parents who are keeping them
> inside the apartment all the 
> time because there is too much danger on the
> streets...etc, etc... And we 
> give the children medicine to 'calm them down."
> Isn't this what the Russians 
> were accused of doing to dissenters?
> 
>   I am ranting. Obviously I do know that for some of
> the kids with whom I 
> work medicine is making the difference between
> allowing them normal lives 
> and living in  a residence among other disturbed
> kids. But you get the 
> point...I think Anath is correct about helping
> people learn to tolerate some 
> level of despair/depression/anger as long as it
> doesn't cause the level of 
> inaction that won't lead to change.
> 
> Rebecca
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Adam Blatner" <adam at blatner.com>
> To: <list at grouptalkweb.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 9:47 AM
> Subject: sociatry822
> 
> 
> > this also got blocked, so sending again:
> >  Hi Anath Garber in New York,    I half agree with
> you, and half disagree:
> >  You say,  "I think despair is "good"! If more
> people will  take less 
> > prozac and  accept
> > that their despair, depression  may have something
> to do with reality: 
> > working hard to
> > consume ever more, being defined by  "net worth", 
> disregarding how their 
> > behaviour
> > affects others,the enviornment, etc , perhaps
> there would be a chance for 
> > each of us to
> > become a therapeutic agent to another, consume
> more love and compassion, 
> > less fuel
> > (especially if the former will come with no fees
> attached...)"
> >    Adam:
> >   1. I don't think SRI's like Prozac are being
> used to cope with 
> > environmental stresses,
> > but more, a biological depression coming from
> demoralization at many 
> > personal as well as
> > cultural levels. Stopping their use will most
> certainly NOT help things. 
> > See Peter
> > Kramer's book, "Against Depression."
> >    2. You are again repeating what I consider to
> be magical thinking: The 
> > old saw (which
> > is just a tiny bit true) that pain makes man
> think. That's as foolish as 
> > "no pain no
> > gain." The grain of truth is that there is a
> measure of discomfort in 
> > thinking, and a
> > measure of discomfort in motivating thinking, but
> it cannot be too 
> > general, too vague.
> >        My approach is not to use the negative
> reinforcement of fear and 
> > guilt, but rather
> > the positive reinforcement that comes when people
> are empowered, helped 
> > not only to think,
> > but to be rewarded for thinking. This involves
> among other things getting 
> > improvisation,
> > spontaneity, some of the arts (done the right
> way---they can be done 
> > badly, too!)-- into
> > education, sociodrama, critical thinking...
> instead of just giving back 
> > "right" answers on
> > tests.  Plus many other approaches.
> >        Certainly I agree that consumerism and
> other factors are in the 
> > long run
> > self-defeating. Confrontation without knowing what
> to do differently, or 
> > knowing how to do
> > it or think about it more creatively, only
> increases the desire to 
> > retreat.
> >     I keep this discussion up in hope that others
> will also join in. It's 
> > a good
> > question---what tactics should we use. Warmly,
> Adam
> >
> >
> > Grouptalk mailing list
> > List at grouptalkweb.org
> >
>
http://grouptalkweb.org/mailman/listinfo/list_grouptalkweb.org
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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> 



       
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