Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxd.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!dual!qantel!ihnp4!mhuxn!mhuxr!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxd!rlr 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