There's an interesting statistic I came
across once, regarding the effectiveness of psychotherapy techniques.
The study compared the success rates of three different schools of
therapeutic technique to see which one was most effective. Success
was defined, if I recall, by the patient declaring that it had
significantly improved their lives.
The schools in question were Freudian,
Jungian and Adlerian psychology. Three very different views of the
human mind, and three very different approaches to resolving issues.
What the study found was that the most successful form of therapy
was... any of them.
In fact, the school of psychology
doesn't really seem to matter at all, in and of itself. All three
schools (indeed most forms of therapy), are focused on getting the
patient to talk about their issues. The manner in which the
therapist helps the patient interpret their own statements and seek
resolution or improvement appears to be something where Freud works
for Alice, Jung works for Pat, and Chris finds that Adler suits best.
For me, it's cognitive behavioral
therapy, which is focused on listening to oneself and changing
thought patterns which are leading to negative emotional states and
behaviors. Other people find other interpretations useful.
But they all focus on getting people to
talk about their issues. This, I think, is one of the original
functions of the shaman. One could come talk to the holy person and
discuss issues because the shaman isn't, in that moment, a member of
the tribe, but someone speaking for the gods. And while the gods may
judge, they already know everything you've ever done or thought, so
there can be no new judgment in speaking to them.
Some people have called psychologists
the techno-priests of the twentieth century, giving them a derogatory
air of people quoting random words of magic without any real concern
for the health of their patients. And certainly some have been like
that, taking advantage of wounded people who sought only healing and
recovery.
But most therapists, no matter what
school or style they teach, are focused on getting their patients or
students or supplicants to understand themselves better. To open up
inwardly, if not outwardly. To examine their own lives, their own
minds and hearts, to see themselves and the world more clearly.
They don't take pain away, they don't
medicate it away (the good ones don't, at least), and they don't do
anything that people haven't done in one form or another since time
immemorial. But now they do it better, with a clearer idea of where
the mind stops and the brain begins, and what the true patterns of
perception and healing are.
It is that which separates a therapist
who does good for their patients, and one who sells snake-oil.
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