Dear Everyone,
This is a belated reply to Stevan, for his reply to my comments on
Psychotherapy.
1. You suggested that philosophy should be left to the philosophy
deparment and that we should learn more from the medical faculty on the
subject of mental disorders. If this were the case then I think it
would be a sad blow for psychology. One of the delights of
psychology(especially studying it a university) is the connection it
has with other subjects (anthropology, sociology and biology to name
but a few). To consider a subject such as mental illness only through
certain channels such as medicine would leave us, "open-minded"
psychologists closed to theories and information, a danderous situation
no matter how valid or invalid the information may be.
2. If we did leave such problems solely within the channels of medicine
perhaps we would enter a hermeneutic circle ourselves with the ideas of
'wonder drugs' (I'm with Nick on this one). Yes, I can't deny that
there are many drugs that help mental disorders, but a chemical
imbalance is not always the sole cause. Drugs help the symptoms not the
causes. This even occurs in our own lives; if we suffer from a bad
headache we do not ask why we have the headache?, but 'Where are the
aspirins?'. With many mental disorders, individuals need to restructure
there whole lives and self-concepts. Perhaps it is similar to
addiction, when an individual must break a circle of behaviour (eg.
depression viewing the world from a pessimistic point of view). Drugs
cannot help this in the long term and often lead to addiction. I do not
deny that that psychotherapy also leads to an addiction (ie. to
therapy) but it does provide a support system to overcome this.
4. Psychotherapist are most definately rich, but so, I am sure are the
drug companies who encourage doctors to prescribe drugs for mental
disorders (How benefical are these drugs really- See point 2)
5. Does someone who pays for psychotherapy or goes through the ordeal,
do this if they do not believe it is helping them? If they see
psychotherapy as beneficial then surely it is! It provides them with
some hope.
6. Finally, a point that Stevan may agree with. Freud's psychodynamic
theory has much to say about parapsychology. Freud believed it is all
the unconscious' doing. Coincidences are the joining up of material
which is unconsciously salient to us, this I pressume occurs through
selective attention. We are our own ghosts and ghauls!
thanks for reading, Emma (emfly92)
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