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A Time for Reflection; Focusing On the Role of Creative Art in Promoting Growth

This is the special time of the year that I have an opportunity to reflect on my own personal goals and accomplishments, as an educator, psychoanalyst, art therapist and fine artist. Having completed the spring semester at both the College of New Rochelle and Pratt Institute, I can now review my work over these past months and feel the true gratification from knowing that I have given knowledge and inspired self awareness in many students and clients. As I have discussed in earlier posts, our society suffers from a misconception that promotes taking for oneself over giving to others. These false standards lead to the pursuit of greed and the seeking of personal power as goals that should enhance one’s sense of well being, but unfortunately, only lead to cultural decline, corruption and decadence. True meaning in life; enhancing ones sense of self; comes from one’s ability to “Love and Work”, and this requires giving back rather than simply taking for oneself.

I’d like to discuss two creative art therapeutic modalities that I specialize in teaching to graduate art therapy students. First is stone carving as a way to process unconscious material, often stirred up by their work with clients in clinical settings. This unique experience provides students with the ability to reflect on their challenges with difficult clients, as they undertake, often for the first time, the challenge of stone carving. Parallel processes quickly manifest that require exploration of defense mechanisms and resistance, as the stone often seems to be reluctant to allow the student to move from the surface to deeper material. This process becomes a foundation for students to learn the value of using their own artwork as a means of processing countertransference material. It’s wonderfully gratifying to see their finished sculpture, on display at the Graduate Art Exhibition, and hear their description of their own personal journeys during our final critique session. I also enjoy the opportunity to work along with students and create my own stone sculpture with them in the studio, as a model for them, encouraging them to pursue their own artwork as they continue to evolve as clinicians. This emphasis resounds throughout my teaching as I believe that integrating one’s own art into your life is absolutely necessary in order to maintain and promote personal growth. Art therapy has been hijacked by the medical profession into a modality that is seen mostly as a way to ‘cure illnesses’. My goal is to resurrect the earlier goals of art therapy that grew out of the Human Potential Movement of the 1960’s where it was seen as a way to revive one’s capacity for creative play that serves as a method to promote personal and emotional growth.

The other class that I would like to describe is Phototherapy, or the therapeutic use of photography. I teach this course at both the College of New Rochelle graduate art therapy program, where it is part of a sequence of three full semesters that lead to a certificate in Phototherapy, and as a Visiting Professor at Pratt Institute, where it is part of a Creative Modalities course. Students are led through a series of projects that require the exploration of personal themes through photography. I have written extensively on this subject and have always been gratified by the results of these courses. Students typically remark that they are profoundly impacted by the power of the technique and therefore, by example, become readily prepared to bring this modality to clients that they work with.

The final critiques in all of these courses become the high point of my teaching experience. This for me is a magical time and I am honored to be able to help so many young professionals feel the power of these techniques, learn about themselves through the experiences and then become well prepared to take this knowledge out into their future work with clients. This has greatly inspired me and enabled me to remain actively vital on these graduate faculties for over 32 years.

May 15, 2012 | Categories: countertransference, Education, graduate art therapy training, Media and Information, Photo Therapy, Psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Technology and Psychoanalysis, Uncategorized, using artwork to process clinical phenomena | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

The Quick Fix: Enough Already!

Once again, in the New York Times article: ”In Therapy Forever; Enough Already” the ‘quick fix’ approach to resolving complex issues is mistakenly offered as a solution by promoting only short term psychotherapy. The author seems to confuse “poor psychotherapy” with the actual length or duration of treatment. Poor therapy can be found in any treatment format, as can beneficial psychotherapy. Unfortunately, as I described in my last post, short term treatment, while it may reduce surface symptoms, may not be a useful structure to address deeper emotional issues that affect ones’ quality of life. Those of us within the psychoanalytic community, who have a broader view of mental health; one that embraces Freud’s definition of mental maturity as achieving the ability “to love and work”; see this ‘ability’ as being a more viable indication of one’s having reached a level of quality of life that goes beyond ‘fixing’ particular problems. The author’s dismissal of deeper, longer term psychoanalytic process speaks to the superficial level of much of today’s interpersonal culture, as well as much of the contemporary behaviorally focused psychotherapy community and its hidden benefactors. His approach of telling his client what to do to improve a specific situation would, in my mind, induce more dependence upon the therapist than an approach that empowered the client to find his own solution. His is, indeed, a short sited approach to human growth. ‘Structural’ change that would enhance one’s life by improving capacity for intimacy and the pursuit of meaningful, satisfying work often requires more long term treatment. Having been in private practice for over 30 years working with clients who often chose to remain in treatment long after their initial symptoms had been resolved and continue to work on more subtle conflicts that gradually improved their quality of life, I take exception to this short sited approach to human growth and potential. This author’s position, that a client should be ‘cured’ after a predetermined finite number of sessions denies the complexity of human nature and condones collusion between medical model psychiatry, pharmaceutical industries and mental health insurance companies that is not based on the reality of how we learn and grow emotionally.

April 24, 2012 | Categories: Education, long term psychotherapy, Media and Information, Politics, private practice, Psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy | Tags: , , , , , | 14 Comments »

Addiction: The Pathological Aversion to Discomfort and the Tenacious Retreat into Pleasure

While the article in the New York Times: “Tightening the Lid on Pain Prescriptions” addresses the overuse of prescription medication, the pathological avoidance of pain may also be at the core of a more widely experienced phenomenon in our culture. To further discuss this, I propose a more widely encompassing definition of ‘addiction’ as being any process that tends to seek a ‘pleasurable’ experience in order to desperately avoid either physical or emotional pain. This avoidant substitution, diversion or deflection may be rigidly defended by attacking anyone who is perceived as challenging or interfering with the gratification generated by this process.

If we conceptualize addiction more broadly as in this basic structure we can then add to the physical addiction that is  found in the use of addictive substances, such as those described in this article, the use of specific behaviors that can also be used for the gaining of temporary relief from a painful experiences. If one uses a highly addictive substance then the physiological consequences must be first considered, such as withdrawal symptoms as described in this article that may require medical intervention and/or rehabilitation/detoxification. But there are also other serious consequences for addictions that simply involve behaviors or actions as the addictive modality. Gambling, sexual addictions, eating disorders, are examples of these types of addictions and all lead to serious consequences in one’s ability to lead a healthy life with intimate, rewarding personal relationships and gratifying work experiences, ( see my post on  Freud’s: “To Love and Work”). In treating these disorders the therapist is often seen as one who is trying to take away this behavior which is experienced as pleasurable. So, most often clients suffering from serious addiction must have first ‘hit bottom’; either having precipitated an intervention that threatened them with some other serious loss if they didn’t get help or having committed a crime under the influence of their addiction, finding themselves remanded into treatment by a court.

After detoxification, a psychotherapist will have the difficult challenge of  breaking through a rigid defensive layer of denial and convince the client that it is in their long term best interest to forgo their typical retreat into the ‘immediately pleasurable’ and face deeper painful or traumatic feelings, memories or experiences that are the actual cause of the addiction. Indeed, therapists are the messengers with the bad news, and we all know what happens to messengers bearing bad news…!

There are also other more subtle forms of this ‘addictive dynamic’ that get played out in life and then need to be confronted in psychotherapy by clients who do not, on the surface, seem to have addictive problems. For example, all too often clients who come into psychotherapy treatment for depression, having been exposed to mass media campaigns promoting drugs like “Time released Prozak”, believe that there is such a thing as a ‘quick fix’ and are disappointed to find that long lasting emotional growth, as opposed to temporary symptom reduction, requires a personal commitment of time, money and energy. …!  The pharmaceutical lobby and medical profession are often seen by these people as their saviors by offering a quick fix that can encourage further (pleasurable) avoidance of what must actually  be dealt with in order to truly resolve the cause of and further eruption of addictive behaviors. The same is true for other addictions such as gambling, sexual addiction and certain form of eating disorders. (See previous post). It is also interesting to note the connection between addiction and depression, which is most often the core issue underlying an addiction and is caused by some early trauma. It is these traumatic memories and the rage associated with this experience that manifests in depression, and it is this underlying depression that the addictive behavior defends against. So it is the challenge of the therapist to first confront and bind the ‘acting out’ of the addictive behavior before the underlying depression can be effectively uncovered and dealt with.

So as psychoanalytic clinicians, we must be the ones to inform our clients that they need to invest themselves in a process that will first eliminate the temporary pleasure of retreat from depression that is offered by drugs and eventually lead to deeper, more long lasting  emotional growth. But this can only be accomplished after first delving into feelings and memories that will inevitably cause discomfort. Let me clarify that I do believe that some people who have severe chronic depression may require medication along with verbal therapy, but I also believe that medication is all too often prescribed for many who will not benefit from avoiding their depression and sacrificing a more long lasting solution that can be attained only by first facing their pain.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy, in its various forms, offers clients a way to relive and ultimately work through earlier trauma from the perspective of the adult person who they have become. These early pockets of trauma that seem at first to be frozen in time with all of the intense affect experienced at the time of the original trauma, must first be re-experienced with their full affect. Only then can they be slowly processed and digested by the more mature ego. It is this ‘mourning’ process that will ultimately relieve depression on the structural level of the ego and therefore diminish the symptoms in a more complete manner; one that leads to less future symptom formation, without medication. Both individual and group psychotherapy provide a safe framework and structure within which this process may safely unfold. For it is often found that if left alone, persons carrying early trauma will tend to unconsciously re-create situations in their current lives that re-confirms that trauma. It requires a carefully structured and monitored therapeutic environment for the client to be able to unfold their trauma and safely observe, understand and re-integrate the experience in a way that heals. For only in this safe, structured environment, can acting out be safely confronted. Group therapy also provides additional peer support for people going through this process. Psychoanalytic groups have been a powerful tool for healing and promoting this kind of growth process. It is sad indeed that group therapy is often not covered by mental health insurance. This challenging modality also requires a great deal of commitment on the part of group members. They must have a strong capacity for introspection, be open to feedback, and be honest and authentic in their expression of feelings as they interact with each other. In my experience as a psychoanalyst in private practice for over 35 years I have found that the combination of individual and group analytic psychotherapy provides the most powerful structure for treatment of addictive problems, interpersonal/relationship issues, reduction of symptoms and profound personal growth.

 

 


April 13, 2012 | Categories: Addiction, Education, Media and Information, Politics | Tags: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

The Danger of ‘Surface’ Solutions: A Psychoanalytic Perspective

I was deeply saddened by the article in today’s New York Times “Not Waiting to Say Goodbye” on the untimely death by suicide of a prominent gay social worker/psychotherapist. After reading the article and reviewing a recent video that he had posted right before his death it seemed clear to me that his death reflected a much deeper problem in our society; one that should not be seen as only affecting gay men. His thesis was that as a gay man, you reach the end of your youth at 65 and that you need to reconcile yourself with that reality, accept your decline as inevitable. It was clear to me, at that moment; he had signed his own death warrant.

As an aging gay man he had courted a culture of superficial beauty and was unable to integrate deeper aspects of himself that could transcend the external changes in physiology that occur over time. His training and style of treatment, while popular as a ‘behavioral model’, lacked the necessary depth of understanding that comes as a result of the integration and resolution of conflict that a more psychoanalytic approach would have provided. Two years of graduate training in social work hadn’t provided him with the experience and resources to face, understand and resolve his deeper issues. He was quoted as often being ‘annoyingly upbeat’ and offered his clients    only  superficial ways to ‘feel better’ rather than helping them to dig deeper into the cause of their discomfort.

If a therapist has not faced his own inner demons he will unconsciously avoid his client’s pursuit of their deeper issues and be unable to offer more than superficial support that all too often avoids any meaningful resolution. As psychoanalysts, we are trained to face our deeper issues by requiring the analyst in training to undergo a complete personal analysis. This is integrated into the fabric of the training along with traditional coursework and extensive clinical experience. It is still amazing to me that psychoanalysts are the only mental health professionals with this requirement as part of their training. As a result we learn to discover and integrate a far greater depth of understanding of ourselves, as we apply our knowledge in our clinical work. We learn the importance of helping clients go past defenses, into the more painful parts of their past, to ultimately learn who they truly are.

Unfortunately, staying on the surface and dealing only with symptom reduction seems to be the way our current health care system operates. The psychiatric lobby, pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies all support this approach simply because it is more financially advantageous to them. (see other posts) This is a dilemma of our time that affects all of us, gay or straight, by encouraging people to stay on the surface and avoid deeper levels of insight and integration. This ‘split’ can cause catastrophic consequences when the defenses that were holding down deeper conflict become overly stressed and begin to break down.

So when this man in his late forties began to approach the point in time that he had arbitrarily made into a marker of ‘old age’, the world he had built, on superficial values such as his subjective ideal of physical beauty,  began to crumble and fall apart like a house of cards. His tendency to act out with clients by blurring social and professional boundaries only added to his dilemma. Using his clients as ‘real objects’ and rationalizing this behavior only deepened his impending crisis. Writing his book most likely served as a mirror through which he had these flawed practices reflected back to him in an undeniable manner that led to a painful eruption of previously denied feelings.

For those who are well integrated, who have reconciled their deeper conflicts and resolved issues that interfere with pursuit of life more fully (see previous posting), 65 can be a new beginning and not the signal of the inevitable decline of quality of life.

 

April 1, 2012 | Categories: countertransference, Education, gay psychotherapy, Media and Information, private practice, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, psychoanalytic training | Tags: , , , , , | 10 Comments »

“To Love and Work” and “In search of the TRUTH”: Freud Revisited

The above two statements were among the ‘gems’ that Freud has left us as part of his often under appreciated legacy. Let’s look at each and it’s implications within today’s culture.

First, Freud stated that his criteria for mental health was the ability to “love and work“. This brings up several important points. First, he assessed one’s healthy mental state as beyond simply being free of symptoms, which is today’s standard based upon the medical model. It’s unfortunate that we have lost this more encompassing criteria. Today, influenced by insurance companies and the medical community, mental health has been reduced solely to deal with the reduction of symptoms, and not their cause. Psychoanalysis goes deeper and seeks a reconstruction that ultimately relieves symptoms by resolving unconscious conflict that cause the symptoms. Otherwise, the treatments favored today, like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, while effectively reducing symptoms and pleasing insurance companies that do not want to support longer types of treatment, do not deal with their underlying causes and these symptoms often simply shift over to different symptoms. Freud stated that “unconscious conflict always seeks expression”, often in the formation of symptoms. Remove only the symptom and the conflict will seek another path to expression most likely in the form of a different symptom.

So, getting back to being able to “Love and Work” goes well beyond this narrow criteria He felt that being able to “love” required the reduction of all obstacles to one’s ability to form emotionally fulfilling intimate relationships. To be able to “Work” meant that one would have reached a state whereby all obstacles to the authentic pursuit of a satisfying  ‘work experience’ would be removed and lead to a sense of emotional fulfillment and deep personal validation. Today, it seems to me that our modern culture, so highly influenced by profit motive, has turned this into a culture where the goal is to “Love and Take”. To me, the most fulfilling experiences come from giving, not taking. Unfortunately our culture of greed, (see today’s New York Times article on the culture of greed at Goldman Sachs ), defines a society that has wandered far from Freud’s  definition of health. With our goal focused on personal power and accumulation of personal wealth we have created a society where the best minds are drawn to endeavors that don’t contribute back into the world. but unfortunately take more  from and drain our society of resources that could be shared more fairly.

Which leads me into my next theme: the search for “Truth”. Freud said that underneath all defenses lies authenticity. This has been further elaborated by people like D.W. Winnicott, of the British school of Object Relations.

The pursuit of power is ‘Inauthentic” as it does not satisfy a deeper quest for affirmation and is more likely based on an addictive process that requires ever increasing pursuit of an imaginary ‘pleasurable’ goal that keep eluding the pursuer and moves further out of reach with each escalating accomplishment. How many condos do you really need to own before you are truly emotionally satisfied and feel authentically ‘secure’? Do you really need that private plane? Do you really need a $26 million bonus after you destroyed the corporation that you ran into the ground? Do you really feel satisfied with any of these accomplishments? What do you think is really driving you to these pursuits?  The ‘Truth” would require an examination of these and other similar questions. This would require going more deeply into oneself and would inevitably require the reliving of unpleasant feelings; a process that one living an addiction would not want to pursue, until their world falls apart. True satisfaction and a sense of well being is more likely going to be from giving to society, rather than taking from it. The ‘Helping Professions’ are more likely to give providers this sense of contributing to the world, but insurance companies are more interested in profit than supporting mental health within Freud’s broader definition which has the potential to bring a much deeper sense of satisfaction to clinicians. For example, when I feel that my work has helped a client live a more fulfilling life, more than simply reducing surface symptoms, I am deeply satisfied that my training and experience and desire to help make this a better world has been reaffirmed by this. Today, more and more clients are dependent on insurance reimbursements for their mental health treatment and they are subject to the decisions that are made by insurance carriers, rather than highly trained and experienced clinicians. (After 6 sessions with one of my clients I am required to get on the phone with a mental health evaluator (with questionable training) who is paid by the insurance company, who systematically questions my treatment of this client in order to ‘evaluate the treatment and authorize six more sessions!. My 35 years of experience in private practice and 8 years of post graduate training in psychoanalysis is not considered of as much value as having to fit subtle, sophisticated and often intuitive process into neat little boxes on a behavioral questionnaire).

We certainly should extend the scope of helping professions to include any ‘Educators’ along with those seeking new knowledge that can then be passed along through education. The future of our society depends on the education and skill of our children to deal with an ever changing and highly competitive world. Will our children who are taught today that there is no such thing as evolution be able to compete in a world that will be constantly integrating new technologies? Our best minds should be dedicated to helping reach these authentic goals. But, sadly, powerful political influences have led to a reduction of resources in education and science, the two areas that need most support in order to achieve these goals. Instead our current system tends to encourage the best minds to either leave the country in search of governmental funding programs that support  a strong research environment in other places around the world that are more grounded in intelligent pursuits, or we corrupt these minds with temptation, playing to primitive impulses such as greed, to pursue careers that do not give back as much as they take; like joining of Wall Street firms or aspiring to  a career in professional sports, pop culture, fashion or in a music industry that provides unhealthy role models for our youth! ( I just threw this last bit in to be provocative, see if you were still listening!  I will address it further in future postings)

The Loss of the Individual's Influence

 

 

March 15, 2012 | Categories: countertransference, Education, Politics, Psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments »

True Religious Freedom vs. The Need for Control: A Psychoanalytic Perspective

As a psychoanalyst, I’ve been trained to hear when a client makes a global, often provocative statement that is unconsciously designed to incite a strong emotional reaction that would obscure the deeper flawed logic. If the listener is emotionally triggered by the provocation they are more likely to react emotionally and overlook the content of the statement.

Santorums’ recent comment that college education tends to turn people against religion is an example of this process and, if we don’t become incensed by the overt ridiculousness of the statement, we might benefit from exploring the deeper content that actually brings up an interesting question regarding what kind of religion is he actually referring to. In order to accomplish this, we need to first differentiate between the degree of ‘fundamentalist’ influence in the application of a religious doctrine. Fundamentalists within any religion may actually have more in common (in their need to control the ideas of their followers) with their fanatical counterparts in different religions than they do with less rigid practitioners within their own religion, who are more open to freedom of interpretation of doctrine. It seems to me that the degree of rigidity that religious beliefs are applied is the most important factor to consider here. Please see my most recent, previous post for a more expanded discussion on the unconscious selection of ‘belief’ systems.

In an earlier post, (“The Fear of Social Media”) I discuss the fear that totalitarian political regimes have had of ‘knowledge’ as it often leads to less control over their subjects. Similarly, the more repressive and controlling a religious faction may be, the more frightened of education it will be as it may cause a loss of control over their followers. Perhaps this is why ‘home schooling’ is often favored by some fundamentalist groups where perpetuation of their particular doctrine and exclusion of any ideas that challenge these beliefs, is often woven into the curriculum. Independent thinkers are less controllable. It is paradoxical that these groups are often the first to protest any outside intervention by government on their lifestyle, while they are fanatically trying to control the lives of others; not only their followers, but others outside their own religion. This ‘my way or the highway‘ mentality may be seen throughout the world, and in fact throughout history, in many religions, tyrannical governing bodies and militaristic dictatorships.

March 5, 2012 | Categories: Education, Media and Information, Politics, Psychoanalysis, Religion and Psychoanalysis | Tags: , , , , , | 8 Comments »

A Psychology of Politics: The Loss of the Individuals’ Influence

Some research indicates that people often unconsciously first choose and internalize a belief system and then search for external validations of that system. While they may actually consciously believe that they are ‘open’ to new information, they may be unconsciously locked into a preconceived position. This dynamic may become a powerful obstacle to an honest, open dialogue that could promote an exchange of ideas stemming from new information having impact on important decision making processes.

It is important to differentiate between those who are unconsciously, rigidly stuck in this mindset and those who may actually be open to honest discourse; seeking new information and ideas in an attempt to reach a decision that is based on a neutral evaluation of external reality factors, rather than unconscious, preconceived ideas. It seems to be more and more difficult for our politicians to remain in this kind of open, objective evaluative mindset as they succumb to pressures that impede honest, truth seeking dialogue.

Our current model of the legislative branch of government is based upon the premise that those with different points of view may come together and share their perspectives in an open, neutral exchange of ideas that would then lead to the most productive outcome and actually become a ‘compromise’ that respected and integrated different points of view. It is unfortunate that this idealistic concept seems farther from reality than ever before in our history.

Preconceived ideas, often based upon and influenced by political forces such as religious groups or corporations that are much more powerful and influential ‘collectively’ than any ‘individuals’ could possibly be, have polarized our system to a point where voting on legislation often gets either bogged down along strict ‘party’ lines and winds up in a stalemate where nothing is able to be accomplished, or perhaps more damaging, leads to legislation that benefits these more politically influential parties to the detriment of the larger population. Politicians often seem to be feverishly searching for ‘facts’ that support their positions as external validation of their preconceived ideas and political agendas. They often resort to distorting or even fabricating these ‘facts’ to suit their rigidly dictated goals rather than being open to compromise. (the clearest example is the denial of global warming).

Another destructive influence on more honest, truth seeking dialogue has been the Supreme Court’s decision to foster the growth of ‘Super Pacs’ where wealthy interest groups can now openly provide unlimited resources for the election of politicians and passage of laws that support their specific interests. Politicians now need to align themselves with powerful special interest groups in order for them to be reelected. In fact, if they are seeking reelection, most elected officials must now spend more time campaigning and promoting the support of these potential contributors to their reelection efforts, than promoting legislation that is truly in the best interests of their actual constituents. For example, while this statistic is controversial, according to an article, 98% of Catholic women who are sexually active use some form of contraception. We can argue the specific percentage, but it certainly seems that if we include women in general, it’s fair to say that many choose to use contraception and many rely on their insurance for covering the cost. Yet some politicians, clearly influenced by religious special interest forces, are proposing that limiting contraception coverage by insurance companies would be in the best interests of their constituents.

March 3, 2012 | Categories: Education, Politics, Psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Religion and Psychoanalysis | Tags: , , , , , , , | 23 Comments »

Life is Full of Paradoxes; A Psychoanalytic Perspective

It seems to me that the ability of the ego to maintain two diametrically opposed points of view at the same time relies upon one’s ability to either dissociate or repress one of these perspectives at any one moment. Another possibility of this kind of paradox is, of course, the deliberate and conscious attempt to confuse, distort and ultimately manipulate others by knowingly moving from one position to another, depending on which one tends to serve to validate one’s political agenda.

Rick Santorum’s latest example of this dynamic was the subject of a front page article in the New York Times this morning. He is now proposing a strong case for religious influence in public life. He refers to John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech defining the separation of religion from politics as “sickening”. He didn’t, either deliberately or through ignorance, reference any earlier sources on this subject that might have further challenged his position and “sickened” him even more, including the First Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing absolute religious liberty (not the imposition of one’s one limited view on others) or Thomas Jefferson’s reference to this basic principal in a letter he wrote in 1802 regarding the need for the separation of Church and State. This rather insular perspective seems to me to be in direct opposition to his other conservative political views that often criticize any governmental involvement on the influencing of individual rights. His position seems to be that it’s alright for the Church to impose its position on our civil rights, but it’s not alright if the government attempts to do so.

If his statement stems from dissociation, then early trauma most likely caused this defensive pattern to develop. This might also speak to why he seems so disconnected from and demonstrates an aversion to his libidinal drives, i.e., his frequent references to sexual activity as being only acceptable for procreation.

If the paradox is due to repression, then we might also assume that defenses such as reaction formations would be present and add further intensity and rigidity to this part of his ego functioning.

Finally, if this paradox is a deliberate and conscious attempt to manipulate and promote his agenda, then we may be seeing the emergence of sociopathic tendencies.

My last question for the moment is: would you want someone with any of these qualities in a position to influence your life?

February 27, 2012 | Categories: Politics, Religion and Psychoanalysis | Tags: , , , , | 277 Comments »

The Fear of Social Media

On my trips to both Vietnam and Cambodia I was made aware of the intense fear that any repressive political regime has of information and knowledge. While walking thru the monuments to those killed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970′s, I was struck by how people who had in their possession any article that could be construed as representing the wish to seek knowledge; a pencil, or a book; were subject to arrest, torture and death. The cabinet with skulls drove this point home with startling clarity. From a psychoanalytic perspective we can see the polarity between what Freud saw as the ultimate goal for mental health and what suppressive dictatorships strive for. Freud stated that the goal of psychoanalysis was to seek the ‘TRUTH‘. He meant the removal of repression so that the unconscious and the conscious were integrated in a healthy way. The ‘truth’ implied authentic knowledge; which is the enemy of any suppressive political power. We see this today as social media often precipitates the demise of repressive regimes.

Those lost to Political Repression

While in Vietnam I had a strong reaction when I was suddenly made aware that all social media was being blocked by the government. Some of the younger locals were pragmatic about this and had found solutions by creatively circumventing the obstacles by using sophisticated software. But the emotional effect for me was still quite intense. When you grow up in a free society you take for granted your freedom of expression and access to information (as distorted as it may be at any time). You don’t realize this until you suddenly don’t any longer have it!

This led to an interesting exploration of the visible split within the Vietnamese society. On one hand you had the young; people born after the war and growing up in the larger more sophisticated cities, and the older generation who remained largely either on the outside in rural areas, or others who retained power in the communist party. As a portrait photographer I was struck by intensity of the faces of the elderly generation and was compelled to take many portraits.

 

 

These faces seemed to capture the essence of a struggle; and sense of acceptance while the younger generation seemed to be more pragmatic; they seemed to accept the old guard but were also hopeful that the younger generation would eventually replace the elders who currently ruled and bring the country into more alignment with the modern world.

One last Vietnam vignette: New Years Eve in Hanoi; walking along  on the streets that were crowded with motorbikes parked along the curbs, (this city of 6 million has over 2.5 million motor bikes) I was suddenly aware of the arrival, on this narrow street made now even narrower by all of the parked bikes, a brand new Maserati sports car. The driver was a plump, smiling  young man in his 20′s with a young woman passenger who he seemed to be attempting to impress. He was nonchalantly driving along paying no attention to the undeniable fact that his (or his father’s) $200,000+ car was being deeply scratched by his casual movement through  the chaos of all the parked bikes. My guide later explained that this was probably the son of a Communist Party member. He explained to me that is a well known fact that Socialism is great on paper but simply doesn’t work in reality due to human nature and that corruption was  among the most serious challenges that third world countries face. He further explained that there is no incentive to grow under the socialist system and that in spite of the rhetoric about sharing wealth more fairly, it was a system of a huge split within the social fabric; with the very rich on top,  controlling and exploiting the very poor.  I was immediately struck by the similarity between their system and our own, since the 99% “Occupy” movement was at that time highly visible in the news from back home in the states.  Human nature seems to permeate all cultures. Aspiring to power, wealth and control, with the fear of their loss seems to be universal. Perhaps with the rise of social media and improvements in communication we just see this more clearly.

More on Vietnam later…

Hoi An, Vietnam. The Full Moon Candle Market

 

"Two Women On Top of a Mountain"

February 14, 2012 | Categories: Education, Media and Information | Tags: , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Apps for Therapy: NY Times article 2/14/12

The latest article appearing today’s in the Science section of the NY Times discusses the latest research on an ‘App’ for a smartphone that will offer Behavioral Therapy for symptoms such as acute anxiety. The recent trend towards behavioral treatment has been fueled by both the pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies, both of whom do not have the patients best interest at heart. While a behavioral approach may offer a quick relief in the form of symptom reduction, and a pharmaceutical approach my simply rely on popping a pill to temporarily reduce anxiety, from a psychoanalytic perspective symptoms are the result of unconscious conflict and if the underlying conflict is not discovered and to some degree resolved, the symptom will simply reappear, often in a slightly different form. Our culture has moved more and more towards the ‘quick fix’ that relies on the outside to repair, rather than looking inside and do the necessary work to repair. We have become a culture of ‘addiction’ if you accept my definitions of addiction as being an avoidance of unpleasant feelings by seeking temporary gratification by substituting some pleasurable action or substance. This may include a substance like drugs, alcohol or food or it may simply require an action, such as gambling or sexual activity. An authentic, long lasting personal growth process should reduce symptoms while also dealing with the underlying issues. Addressing the symptoms without looking more deeply will inevitably satisfy only the outside commercial interests, and not the long term inside, personal interests of the patient.

February 14, 2012 | Categories: Media and Information, Technology and Psychoanalysis | Tags: , , | 10 Comments »

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