When I ask him why all this is necessary, why I can't let it lie, he says this: When you suppress one emotion, you suppress them all. So suppressing rage suppresses joy, happiness and insight. And that energy, that emotion has to go somewhere. Compulsive behavior, self loathing, inexplicable outbursts. It doesn't just go away. It waits for opportunity. He also says that emotional therapy is a bit like physical therapy. You have to exercise those wounds. Pull at them, stretch them and it hurts. But eventually they become stronger and hurt less.
That?s a very old therapeutic philosophy, that dates back to Freudian and behaviorism concepts, and has since been proven ineffective by medical science. To be honest with you, it sounds a little like the stuff I heard in straight. Actually,
?Compulsive behavior, self loathing, and inexplicable outbursts? -- Usually stem from some type of chemical imbalance, or other form of neurological disorder, not random "suppressed" emotion. That type of therapy is commonly known by my psychiatrist as ?dwelling therapy,? ? His words -- because it supports regression techniques, and suggests analyzing past emotions. Where do you go with all the stuff you dig up? Why keep going back there? Isn?t there enough to be angry or sorrowful about in the world without holding on to the old stuff too? I?ve felt just about all the sorrow and anger I can take for one lifetime. I?ve been back there plenty of times without help, and have not been known to suppress much of anything. I just don't need to be angry anymore. It's harmful to my wellspring of life.
I apologize if I sound cheesy, but again, the concept of feeding into hatred, and rage, or frequently revisiting a painful past experience, in the name of healing or therapy, is an ancient concept, that science has since proven otherwise. I?m not saying that you don?t have every right in the world to be angry. Especially if you just realized you were a victim of that horrible place. You may go through many stages of self realization during this time, certainly including anger, rage and sadness. When I found all this information last year, I was floored! I immediately started trying to educate others on not only my experience, but the experience of others, past and present. I needed this validation! I paid for a booth on Earth day, and passed out copies of documentation. I spent eight hours that day, talking to people who were drawn in for one reason, or another. My booth had a sign that said, ?Help Stop the Abuse.? I went to Kinko?s twice that day.
I was angry and sad. Torn apart actually. I finally had confirmation that I really had been gypped. I was devastated. All this not long after we had also lost my daughter?s father, my best friend. It?s inevitable you will go through painful emotions, just don?t get stuck there. It?s always your choice, I?m not trying to tell you what to do. This is all just from my own experience. I believe that rational thought, and healthy choices should guide my life, not impulses and emotion. Therapy is about healing to me. Healing isn?t about focusing on pain. It?s about letting go of pain and fear, and growing. My doc also said that if he were in it for the money, he might go at it from that approach, since that type of therapy takes years and years. I?ve been seeing him for going on five years. I know that I took myself back to my past and ?dwelled? plenty without any encouragement from him. I wrote about it in the first of this thread. Through his guidance I have acquired tools for my life that I am profusely grateful for.
We all have individual experiences, and are on different levels of the healing process. I understand and respect that. It?s good that you are in therapy, and that you have a healthy support, you can trust. If revisiting the past helps you right now, more power to you. Just know when enough is enough.
Don?t bury yourself in skeletons.
There is much to be said about behaviorism. There are some real good books about it (e.g. J.A.Mills: Control: A history of Behavioral psychology). In general, however, most books and writings are very unclear, and behaviorists and psychologists are mostly lacking a deeper understanding of their own discipline. This may be due to the lack of scholarly studies because it is regarded a natural science, and thus consider experiments, not reading a prestigous activity. It may also be due to ideological forces that the employees of psychologists want a science that controls behavior, not conscious people in control of their own behavior. In my opinion 20th century psychology has not been Darvinist. It has not considered behavior an adaptation to the environment (but believed itself to be so). I consider psychology a historical science, the human psyche is something that developed in cultures. Anthropologists like Goody have demonstrated how writing has changed human psychology. I recommend very much the works of Kurt Danziger, a leading historian of psychology
--History & Theory of Psychology greenspun.com : LUSENET
