While reading some old-school psychotherapy text from C.G. Jung - a particular message leapt out at me. In essence, the author mentioned the *very real* (to him and to me, at least) possibility of a psychotherapist becoming drawn to the mental instabilities and damaged(?) logics of a patient. Jung mentioned specifically that a psychotherapist, if already inclined towards a way of thinking, can get "caught up"<--(my words, not his) in the dilemmas of the patient.
I think maybe being on the side of the line in the sand that I am, i neglect to consider what people on the other side of the line have to deal with. It seems to me that those in the mental health field might adopt the "cold logic,""devoid of compassion" out of neccessity. The concept of not being like others is pretty scary, and this fear is reinforced all over the social & cultural landscape. Either shove it away or embrace it? No matter the personal stance a person has, active psychosis is unnerving to those in its vicinity; to me there is no doubt of this. It makes sense that psychiatrists (being the most visible apparatus of the mental "health"* dichotomy-dilemma in my life present) or whatever position the "others" populate in this industry, choose to "dam the possibilities" rather than risk getting swept away by it.
A platform of non-involvement (emotional and socially, you get the picture) is valued in the profession of DOCTORING, and the practitioners risk being rejected by their peer group if they dont stay with the program.
Although my previous blog entry made some pretty damning statements (and with which I mostly agree) I did not want to dismiss the idea that doctors adopt their rigid, non-compassionate attitude likely to PROTECT themselves. ((Social workers, I hear, often get swept up in emotional melodrama from the people they "serve."))
to the doctors that only understands individual struggle from a diagnostic, label-based orientation, you will never see the picture like that; I hope you acheive a more realistic outlook on life.
*health is well and dandy to describe a balanced, responsive, "all systems go" mindstate, but i do not think the word sickness is a proper phrase for non-balanced *psychotic/depressed/etc.* mindstates. That reminds me, social psychiatry seems like a definite possibility for those of you fed-up with the biological "disease"model.
Social psychiatry defines problem areas in terms of a "narrative" sort of a biography of what molded a person into what they are, instead of the wishy-washy "you have a chemical imbalance that in all likelihood, will never be right and can only be "arrested" in it's development. ^DISEMPOWERING, MUCH?^
