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From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: self-actualization
Message-ID: <1442@pyuxd.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Aug-85 20:14:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxd.1442
Posted: Wed Aug  7 20:14:32 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 20:24:35 EDT
References: <1744@reed.UUCP> <621@ttidcc.UUCP> <306@tove.UUCP>
Organization: Whatever we're calling ourselves this week
Lines: 41

> I took a "personal growth training" a few years ago, and have mixed
> feelings about it.  What bothers me the most about such groups is the kind
> of "evangelical fervor" they deliberately imbue into their graduates.  (In
> fact, some of the net.singles discussion on this subject reminds me of a
> religious dispute!)
> 
> I think several of the companies that do "personal growth trainings" train
> their group leaders pretty intensively--but in a very different way from how
> a clinical psychologist is trained!  The advertising material I've seen for
> these events usually includes statements saying that they are "educational"
> rather than therapeutic in nature--but there are certainly lots of
> psychotherapeutic overtones.  [DANA NAU]

And indoctrinational ones as well.  You're right, it seems that such
"training" does deliberately imbue a bit of the evangelist into the
trainees (as though someone took Dawkins' "selfish meme" idea very
seriously before he even wrote it down!).  What irks me is the way
some people who come out of these trainings claim that they're no longer
"coming from beliefs", but seeing true reality, when in real true reality
they are just coming from a new set of beliefs.

> Judging from my personal experience, I believe
> that someone who's interested in personal growth can get more from one of
> these trainings than from a bad psychotherapist, but that it makes more
> sense to look for a good psychotherapist.

Whoa!  Not in today's modern world of the microwave oven and permanent
press clothes.  Why, we just don't have TIME to spend years in intensive
psychotherapy, we can barely get a weekend into our busy schedules.  If
it takes any longer, I'm afraid I just won't find the time to get my
head together and get clear on my beliefs.  Thus, the boon in what I
call grand weekend therapies:  pack a billion people (or less) into a
room (volume is everything), put them in a confrontational sort of
situation (even the rumor of not being allowed to go to the bathroom for
six days will work) that make this experience a memorable etched into
instinct and not just scratched lightly onto short term memory, make
sure they "get" it before time is up, and don't forget that indoctrination
to get them to spread the word (hey, it worked for Christianity...)
-- 
Anything's possible, but only a few things actually happen.
					Rich Rosen    pyuxd!rlr