Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: Che Gookin on March 28, 2010, 09:34:36 PM
-
Let me elaborate on what prompted me to post this thread. Just last night I was at a dinner party with some Chinese friends. We were drinking, eating some great food at an open air sidewalk restaurant, and having a great time. A young woman, a coworker of mine, randomly started crying towards the end of the night. A nice bloke took the time to console her a bit and after about thirty minutes she stopped. She got up and went to the loo and when she returned she sat down next to me. We get on well at work so I asked her if she's feeling better, big mistake, the river of tears erupts again. This time I do my bit to listen to her.
I pull out the old active listening techniques, which fails horridly as her English isn't strong enough. Rather than playing the Shrink I just hold her hand and listen to her, which worked far better. Occam's razor I guess, the simplest solution tends to work best. With a weeping drunk Chinese woman the simplest solution is to STFU and listen. The tragic tale of her woe sort of verbally gets vomited out, not literally thank god, in painful sobs and wretches. The story behind her tears is simple, but quite astonishing from my perspective.
It seems this young girl doesn't even want to teach and is doing so because her parents demanded it of her. She doesn't want to get married but her parents are pressuring her to find some rich assclown to marry. She loves one of the foreign teachers in town, but he apparently is too oblivious to notice her raging infatuation with him (no it isn't me, she told me the FTs name). She's horridly ashamed of the fact that she drinks and smokes. Above all she feels a huge sense of failure that she's quitting her job at the end of this semester, which I don't blame her.
She gets paid a pittance, her boss (my boss as well) treats her and the rest of the Chinese Teachers horridly. They are stuck as the market for Chinese English Teachers is flooded to the point of absurd. Either they tolerate the abuse or find a new line of work. Up until last week the Chinese teachers were made to scrub the floors of the classrooms every Monday morning. A policy change, pushed by me, now has a paid janitor who does all of that. What sort of struck me the most about this was how profoundly grateful this woman was for this when she was half choking me to death, while still crying, saying thank you over and over.
What does this have to do with Programs?
Not a thing.
However, it did get me to ponder a deeper question of how this woman's culture is driving her to tears. It makes me wonder to what extent our own culture is driving people, young people specifically, into depressive states. When I was tromping through the woods a few years back I used to frequently be struck with the idea that often the kids I worked with seemed to act in certain ways because that is what seemed to be expected of them. I'm not talking about acting in a positive way either. An example of this is the case of a young fellow who was convinced that because he was feeling depressed he needed a prescription or three of anti-depression medication.
I pointed out to him, "You are in a program, you are far from home, you live in a cabin with 10 other boys, you regularly have to do consequences for other people's nutty behavior... Yeah if I was you I'd be depressed also."
He seemed to buck up a bit after that and if my memory serves me right he went onto get out of the program without the medication, thank god.
Out there somewhere I swear I can here big phrama cursing my name...
:twofinger:
Eat it big pharma, eat it.
But.. again.. is our culture driving kids into some of these alphabet soup afflictions?
-
See also this thread in the Tacitus' Realm forum:
The Americanization of Mental Illness
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=29903 (http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=29903)[/list]
-
I think that America is certainly in love with the idea of "therapy". Woody Allen often laughed at the idea that in some east coast middle class circles it is almost a status symbol to have a therapist.
I think that while this idea that you can never have too much therapy has obviously rubbed off on this industry (how else to explain the concept of high school kids taking "therapy" sessions every single day at whole special school where feelings come before the 3 rs )
one thing that plays a big part could be the legal system, particularly the rise of zero tolerance policing in the US. I dont know if this is cultural. i too would be nervous about what my kid was up to if their sex life could have them end up on an offender registry for years or if a bit of dope could land them in jail.
Personally I have never been able to embrace sitting on a couch navel gazing and paying someone to listen. Discussing your woes is far better done over a nice glass of white with the people you love, agression is more effectively expressed through some sort of team sport and sadness expressed by watching a mawkish chick flick and having a good cry. Lets face it people are social animals. We form friendships for a reason.
-
Yeah, it really does appear that therapy has become a fad and a very dangerous one at that. I guess you just aren't hip if you haven't had some couch time with the shrink or your kid doesn't have some sort of aliment,
-
Yeah, it really does appear that therapy has become a fad and a very dangerous one at that. I guess you just aren't hip if you haven't had some couch time with the shrink or your kid doesn't have some sort of aliment,
:shamrock: :shamrock:
Ya think, when you have a HBO series showing a mob boss getting therapy and their trying like hell to make it look credible, I know it's hollywood but my point still swims.
I have friends with phy degrees, friends with common sense, friends that are bat shit crazy, mentors with wisdom and a significant other that knows my dark secrets and still likes me, all second to a spiritual power. This I believe helps me to have moments of peace and helps to explain the purpose of my life. I for one need to know life matters. I do this and it all happens without spending a dollar, well maybe on Christmas.
Danny
-
Why are there two of you?
-
Why are there two of you?
Two of who? You, too? Or, You two? :on phone:
-
Why are there two of you?
Two of who? You, too? Or, You two? :on phone:
Bennison, dammit. Who is this fuck and are they a troll or not? What's the consensus?
-
Bennison, dammit. Who is this fuck and are they a troll or not? What's the consensus?
And oh yeah...most importantly... why are there TWO goddam Danny Bennisons? Isn't one enough?
-
::OMG:: ::OMG:: ::OMG::
-
It's funny, but doesn't answer the question.
Oh, and you're flooding.... Watch that.
-
Koro: A Natural History of Penis Panics
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/9/16/81843/6555 (http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/9/16/81843/6555)
-
Serves me right for posting a topic in TTI and Penis Panic? An aliment for porn stars now?
-
Serves me right for posting a topic in TTI and Penis Panic? An aliment for porn stars now?
No, it's an example of a "culture-bound syndrome."
http://rjg42.tripod.com/culturebound_syndromes.htm (http://rjg42.tripod.com/culturebound_syndromes.htm)
-
Reminds me of various cultural mental maladies I read about in a Psych 101 textbook I bought a few months back. I ought to finish reading that thing, I bought the damn thing after all.
seriously.. I need to get something better to do with my time.
-
Reminds me of various cultural mental maladies I read about in a Psych 101 textbook I bought a few months back. I ought to finish reading that thing, I bought the damn thing after all.
seriously.. I need to get something better to do with my time.
That Psych 101 book....TOSS IT!
Bunch of Bullshiiiiiit!
-
Mebbe, mebbe not.. It is something to read and when you are in the middle of China with nothing to read, you read what you can get your hands on. I think the interesting overall point though is different cultures have different ways of viewing and treating mental health conditions. One of the things I'm finding of interest is the Soviet era mental health treatment/torture methodologies.
-
i think time on the couch can have it's uses if you are having an especially tough time with some sort of grief or a bout of depression or if you are genuinely mentally ill. it can get things in perspective. One of flaws of Australian culture is i guess the "suck it up and be a man" approach. it is possibly an expalanation for the high levels of alcoholism in this country. But the idea that a therapist is a sign that you have "made it" or that a kid should have a therapist whether they want one or not seems dangerous. So many programs talk about taking kids who don't like talk therapy. I dont think I want to know a kid who would sooner sit on a therapist's couch on a sunny day than kick a ball around or even play video games with some other kids.
At the moment i am studying & one of my topics is grief counselling. I was reminded recently of another discussion I recently had with Ursus about the idea that this industry can grossly distort or bastardize sound or benign ideas. i came across a classic example of this in wilderness therapy. Many psychs dealing with kids do now argue that a standard "couch" approach is indtimidating or just boring for kids and they are unlikely to trust or open up this way. Some suggest meeting them in their home and depending on age having them show you their favourite toys, or else maybe if they are older playing basketball or tennis with them or maybe chess and talking that way. I then read the front page of SUWS youth who noted talk therapy is sometimes ineffective. But rather than encourage doing something with the kid that is likely to put them at ease, of course the approach was to take them further from their comfort zone and punish them thus entirely missing the point. It makes me wonder if some parts of middle america are now encouraging their children to embrace therapy and being able to boast you sent your kid to suws or whoever is similar to boasting that you see a therapist on a constant basis.
-
One of the things I'm finding of interest is the Soviet era mental health treatment/torture methodologies.
Then you might wanna check out this thread, or at least the first page of it (afterwards, it wanders off a bit into more current psyche meds issues):
Punitive Psychiatry
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29358 (http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29358)[/list]