[Exhibit No. 14(c)]
Significant Therapeutic Benefits Based on Peer Treatment in the Casriel Institute and AREBA -Daniel Casriel, M.D., New York, N.Y.
EXCERPTS:“Currently, an ever-growing list of self-help groups are being established.
Self-help therapeutic communities such as Daytop and Synanon, and more recently, scores of lesser known smaller self-help communities and storefront operations such as Encounter and SPAN are sprouting and growing".
"Why is this happening? What need are these organizations fulfilling that traditional therapies (medical, paramedical, or religious) failed to fulfill? Who are the people helping and being helped that found no help by professional workers?
How are the incurable and un-helpable being helped by each other? Who are they able to help, and why are they able to help each other? What is the new "magic" ingredient? What can trained professionals learn from all this?
Simply stated, we must examine the process involved with words such as peer relationship, responsibility, concern, involvement, absence of magic and confrontation.”
He then goes on into a really pompous drone about how there is no magic. He really gets repetitive with the "there is no magic" bit. The basis of this section is an assumption that the person on the receiving end of treatment has such expectations or beliefs. In my opinion,this assumption speaks volumes of the reductive perceptions that lead to the concept.- AREBA : A private therapeutic community for the rehabilitation of middle and upper class drug addicts and other behavioral bankrupts. AREBA (accelerated reeducation of emotions, behavior and attitudes).
“In AREBA, it is assumed that the new entering member knows nothing, has learned nothing but self-destructive, maladaptive behavior, thinking, and feeling. The members and staff of AREBA have in their own growth learned to be truly concerned for the entering member. They enjoy the challenge and will involve themselves with the new member. They know that the more they teach, the more they learn.
There is also the assumption that the emotionally and socially bankrupt member has learned nothing constructive for himself. The staff and senior residents.”
“The humanistic-peer attitude on the part of the therapeutic teacher-leader is essential. Peer relationship on the part of the therapist demands a more personal kind of involvement. It leads to a quicker, more resonant, and fuller human growth for the patient. It is diametrically opposite to the formal, detached, impersonal, nonfeeling therapeutic relationship demanded in our training and experience in psychoanalysis.
The effectiveness of humanistic-peer involvement as a therapeutic treatment
process has several significant implications.”
Hmmm, that kinda reminds me of something.Harry G. Levine wrote:
Dr. Deitch claims to have played an important role in calling the lock-em up and bust-em down approach to curing drug addiction a "therapeutic community." But in his interview Deitch reveals that he is unhappy with the name therapeutic community. He regrets not using the term "humanizing community" to characterize these punitive, moralistic, authoritarian, infantilizing institutions. I believe that earnestly using the opposite term to name something is properly called "Orwellian." Since the fifteenth century, "humanism" has been about respect for human freedom, creativity and autonomy. Most American TCs push pretty much in the opposite direction. And Deitch hasn't a clue to the ironies and contradictions in his ideology.”
Now we return to this "humanist" expounding on what is required of treating the “untreatables”. For Casriel this catch all classification subsumes addicts, hysterics and homosexuals."The effectiveness of humanistic-peer involvement as a therapeutic treatment
process has several significant implications.
First and foremost is a total change of attitude that professionals have to
develop in order to effectively engage in this type of process.
Second, the obvious empirical observation that a feeling human being, who
has learned for himself as a patient-student the process, and has the capacity, ability, and desire to engage others, can be an extremely effective therapeutic change agent. Previous academic training is of relatively little use, though previous life experiences are of great value as are one's own former neuroses or character-logical problems which have been resolved. In line with this, cured hysterics are most effective with uncured hysterics; cured alcoholics are most effective with uncured alcoholics; cured drug addicts are most effective with uncured drug addicts; and cured homosexuals are most effective with uncured homosexuals.
However, this does not mean to say or imply that one has to be an ex-hysteric, alcoholic, drug addict, homosexual, to do effective intervention. The peer symptoms identification early in treatment is extremely helpful and in some cases necessary, but within a few weeks all patients, no matter what the variation of symptoms, realize they have the same problems,* that below the symptoms, they are all human beings with the same basic needs and desires and the same basic fears.
Third, psychoanalysis must be returned to the areas where it belongs : as a
highly specialized, very limited fine tool, in the tool chest of psychotherapy.
Fourth, because of the relative ease of treating and training, large numbers
of individuals can be treated and trained at little cost and relatively little time.
This means that large numbers of skilled group leaders can become available to meet a tidal wave of need. Costs are within realistic ranges."
Fifth, it is logical to see the role of the professionally experientially trained psychiatrist, psychologist and S.W. as consultant and trainer of the trainers, as well as being used as the agent of initial interviews, medication, testing or using traditional ancillary roles.
The significance for society is that the large number of untreatables could
now be treated ; the large numbers who could not afford treatment could now
afford it ; the large numbers who wanted treatment but had no available therapist in the area could now find therapists ; a large number who were unwilling or unable to commit themselves to many years of therapy could now look forward to major reparative psychotherapy and reconstructive (major personality change) therapy being done in a matter of months for most, or 1 to 2 years for some. Indeed, this process, if fully applied, could make a significant impact relatively quickly on major portions of our sick society."