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The Value of Psychotherapy
I’ve noticed that some people on Ricochet harbor a suspicion of psychotherapy (which I will call therapy hereafter). The issues seem to fall into three categories:
- Therapy is bunk;
- Therapy is part of the leftist movement;
- Therapy is only for people who are “sick.”
1. I cannot really address item 1, and it seems to be rarely expressed anyway. If someone thinks therapy is all bunk, no study I link too, nor argument I make, is going to change his or her mind. Still, this has come up recently with therapists called charlatans who prey on the sick and confused. Also, I have seen more than once the implication that we keep people ill so they will keep coming to see us and pay us money. I will say this: Every therapist I know would love to live in a world that did not need therapist.
2. Many therapists are democrats. It stands to reason, as more therapists are women than men, and women are more likely to be democrats. Further, the whole “I care for people” message tends to attract touchy-feel types, who, let’s face it, like the liberal-lefty language of caring and feelings.
And therapists, as a whole, are a whole lot more accepting of peoples “alternative” lifestyles. We make a point of meeting people where they are to help them without judging them, whether that be because they sleep with the same sex or they killed 16 people. (There are therapist who work in prisons).
Of course, what therapists are doing is looking at human beings as unique individuals, each with their own rights and responsibilities. And despite what you think, most therapists are not trying to get criminals off with excuses, get people out of jail on technicalities, or blessing “bad” behavior. As therapists, our goals are to help people live the fullest, most productive, satisfying lives they can lead. What that is varies from person to person.
Now, if you want to say that is a leftist message, you can. But that is like saying all expressions of patriotism come from the right. While the left seems to have made flag-waving a GOP province, I don’t think we should just concede therapy to the left.
Besides, there are lots of conservative therapists. Like me. Y’all know me. I am to the right of Attila the Hun on foreign policy. There are more like me.
3. The idea that therapy is only for the sick is the most important criticism. But therapy is not just for people who are “crazy” or “insane.” Anyone can benefit from talking to a counselor or therapist. All of us have our “pockets of crazy,” as a colleague of mine says. None of us are as rational as we would like to think. There is always something we could work on to live more actualized lives. Now, most people do okay without it, but we all could do better with it. It is like a massage: Most of us don’t need them, but man, do they help.
Mental illness in general gets a bad rap. It has a high stigma. People look at someone who’s depressed and say, “Just snap out of it.” As it were easy. There are arguments over the use of medications. Certainly, Hollywood doesn’t help, either with its portrayal of illness or therapists.
Still, anyone can benefit from a therapist. In fact, higher-functioning people get more out of it. There are more skills they can learn and more techniques they can work with. You have to have the right fit, of course. Not every therapist is for everyone. If you try one and he or she doesn’t fit, seek out another. That not all therapists are created equal is no different from any other profession.
I’d be happy to answer any specific questions people have.
Published in General
You refer clients that are not a good match. Everyone is not right for everyone. The theraputic relationship is vital.
Medications, which come from psychiatry may or may not work. Often finding the right medications is tricky. We are getting closer with DNA tests to find the right ones faster, but not there yet. They can help in the right cases.
Ultimately, the therapist cannot “fix” the client. The client learns to work on themselves. I have not heard the bit you mentioned, but I don’t disagree with it.
It is not.
And therapy is not about telling someone “Your husband is the problem”. No therapist I work with does that.
What I am seeing is a lot of generalizations about therapy and psychiatry (the med people) in general.
It looks like as many as 1 in 5 adults suffer from some significant episode of mental illness in their lives, mostly depression. Depression is very treatable with a combination of medication and therapy. Yet, thanks to stigma, it goes untreated.
Thanks. I was rather hoping you would show up. :)
Americans *want* pills over the work of therapy. Or weight loss but eating less and exercise.
Bryan: all my evidence is anecdotal. But let me just say I could bore you stupid with stories that are in direct contradiction to everything you’ve said.
And while not denying a “stigma” about depression in some circles, let me just say I have seen no evidence of it in my life.
And Americans may, in fact “want” pills over doing the hard work, but for every patient like that there’s a doc or therapist with a prescription pad. Or a teacher or administrator encouraging parents to get their kid to an “expert”.
You have no idea how many people, including docs and therapists who were convinced my sister was suffering from depression. She wasn’t. Her life just sucked and no amount of drugs was going to change that.
Although I guess if she were under the influence of something she would care less that her life sucked.
Having not seen your sister, I have no idea about her depression. However, often while life “sucks” people get depressed. Sometimes medication can help. Therapy can help people manged the fact their lives suck. If my wife died tomorrow, I’d want to talk to someone about that to get through my grief. I might even be down long enough to be considered “depressed”.
Your term for “depressed”, seems to be being down for no good reason. Depression can happen for very good reasons. It does not have to be only when things are going right.
Now for a little levity. This discussion brought to my mind two things:
And
While funny, both of those are examples where Hollywood does not really help.
In my Abnormal Psych class in college (a class which at least some people take to study themselves), we of course covered depression at some point. I mentioned my guess that most people experience suicidal thoughts sometime in their lives. My classmates looked at me like I was crazy. My teacher, a practicing psychologist, also disagreed.
Of course, you said “1 in 5”, not “4 in 5”. But there’s a world of difference between being sullen or irritable for a few months and being totally incapable of smiling for the same period or imaging yourself running a knife across your own neck.
Perhaps my perception is wrong now as it was then. And depression, like most disorders, is a difference of degree (though the effects can be a difference of kind). But the dangers of adjusting brain chemistry are such that only severe cases merit medication.
I have no objection to voluntary counseling for even the most mild personal or social problems, though.
Yeah, but I couldn’t help thinking about them, especially the Newhart one.
Newhart was not so bad as a therapist. They just were kind of hard on their portrayal of the clients. Newhart, if anything, was pretty stable for a therapist. ;)
Here’s something for number 3 on your list:
A lot of the problem people could go to a therapist to solve are intensely shameful. The idea of going to a stranger and talking about intensely personal and embarrassing elements of your life – ones that you would like to change – is not easy for most people.
By implication, it would seem that people would only see a therapist if they were a wreck and desperately needed help. A bit like going in for surgery.
Also, Bryan, I have a personal aversion to therapy dating from my teenage years after a therapist proceeded to tell my parents all of the extremely personal things I had discussed with him. I know that is legal, but it utterly ruined the session and ended up with me lying my way through the rest of the session just to get out of there ASAP.
Seems like an ethical breach to me. No reason to tell parents what they don’t need to know.
Very interesting from Michael Bailey, professor of psychology at Northwestern University and one of the more prolific sex researchers in the world:
“I believe it is very likely that Caitlyn Jenner’s transition was motivated by intense autogynephilia.
….
“This inaccurate denial of autogynephilia is not for the good, because being honest could help lots of males struggling with their autogynephilia….Falsely misrepresenting one’s gender issues is also bad for science. It’s not good for people to believe false things merely because journalists don’t want to go certain places. Even among scientists, too many don’t bother to learn about the relevant literature and just listen to transgender people’s explanations (“I have the brain of a woman.”). This leads to bad scientific studies and ideas.”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2015/06/11/what-kind-of-woman-is-caitlyn-jenner-part-one-of-a-qa-on-autogynephilia-with-michael-bailey/
Annefy, I wasn’t particularly clear…I actually had the person you are talking about in mind. 3 weeks after my sister died, my mom’s PCP gave her an anti-depressant even though my mom refused it. She got to the pharmacy and there it was with “for grief” written on the bottle.
I called and chewed out the doc. Sadly, this isn’t the only time I’ve heard of this, like you’ve seen, it seems pretty common to me.
When my sister was going through her problems she wisely sought therapy. All of her friends and loved ones were too close to the situation.
She went through 4 or 5 before she was able to find one that just didn’t want to write a prescription. Had she not been so determined I’m pretty sure 2 years later she’d still be on something and just muddling through life, as opposed to thriving like she is now.
And the therapy did her a lot of good in identifying what role she had played in the disaster that befell her. And also assuring her that she hadn’t failed her children.
But you know what helped even more? Gam-anon. I went to a few meetings with her. What a wonderful resource.
And that actually sums it up.
I also think the stigma piece is significant. In my experience, especially in conservative and evangelical circles, and a certain type of self-sufficient personality, therapy can be seen as weak, needy and a little whiny.
Bryan, your post is wrong-headed, even offensive, in so many ways, containing so many straw men, that I don’t know where to begin. To allow myself time to sleep to night I will just give one example. “I am to the right of Attila the Hun”. I really am tired of this phrase, which I only hear from my leftist buddies. This implies that Attila the Hun was a conservative, when in fact he was a totalitarian. I care about leaving people alone to lead their own lives (contra Attila) and I’m a conservative. Would you gladly accept the phrase, “to the right of Adolph Hitler” or “to the right of Tamerlane”? Sheesh.
You have a point. It was not meant to be taken seriously. It was a throw away line just to tell people that he was very Conservative.
Thanks, this is close to how I feel.
Of course in the same circles they would not look down on pastoral counseling even if they used similar techniques, right?
Lynne, I agree with you. It is sad that people shoot the wounded and the stretcher carriers at times.
Doc Robert- I think you need to learn to recognize the difference between a straw man and a figure of speech.
[redacted]
Bryan: “Now that is saying I am acting in bad faith. I thought you said in the other thread you liked me.
Clearly, you fall into the people in group 1: Therapy is Bunk.
I cannot change your mind, because it is made up.”
—
You assess and treat people with this logic?
People who think Therapy is bunk don’t generally come to therapy…or not more than once.
Also, a therapeutic relationship isn’t social or friendship conversation you pay for, so I’m going to guess that we can’t quite generalize from a post to how Bryan works.
I agree. And therapists appear to be more than willing to declare the impossibility of resolving some sexual disorders through therapy and to cede the field to the surgeons.
Therapists are too willing to have their patients look at a few cards and then diagnose them as being obsessed with sex when it’s the therapists who have all the filthy pictures in the first place.
I think there is a pretty high level of charlatanism in any occupation that you might want to name. Even occupations that are generally held in esteem, like teacher. The sad fact is that there are more incompetent people in the world than competent people.
What makes lawyers unique is that most of our interactions with other lawyers are in an adversarial setting. The other guy is trying like hell to hurt your client. Add to that the fact that lawyers are combative by nature. So it’s not surprising that lawyers are a bit less “Kumbaya” about each other than other occupations.
You might want to consider some sources of information about the field of psychology other than old Woody Allen movies.
What better source could there be?
I think that there is tremendous value in therapy. However, I think that the same flabby thinking which lands the patients in their own ruffled state is present to no less a degree in the minds of those who would help.
I am not averse to the field as such, and I see value in pharmacotherapy as well as “the talking cure”. I view much of the mental health profession in the same light as Sociology; a fascinating field with a lot of potential, populated with a stunningly high percentage of dolts. Well, this is true of anything I suppose. However, the “people” sciences have an especially pernicious failure mode — their failures become your failures.