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!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxd!rlr
From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: self-actualization
Message-ID: <1545@pyuxd.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 18-Aug-85 18:50:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxd.1545
Posted: Sun Aug 18 18:50:40 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Aug-85 07:18:32 EDT
References: <1744@reed.UUCP> <621@ttidcc.UUCP> <1680@hao.UUCP> <313@tove.UUCP> <1690@hao.UUCP> <671@ttidcc.UUCP>
Organization: Whatever we're calling ourselves this week
Lines: 43

>>>>... The Lifespring course, and other awareness training courses, are
>>>>designed for people whose lives basically work, but somehow know they
>>>>could have it better than they do ...

>>>So is therapy.

>>  That's not what I learned when I was a Psych major in college. Therapy is
>>for treating things defined as "disorders" or, in extreme cases, "diseases".

> I don't know when or where you were a Psych major, but, as of 5  years  ago
> at  least,  this  idea  was  considered  old fashioned at best and outright
> counter-productive at worst. (5 years ago is when I completed  my  Master's
> in Community/Clinical Psychology at CSU, Northridge).
> 
> "Personal growth" is a very common reason for seeing a therapist.  One need
> not be suicidally depressed or murderously paranoid to want to explore past
> the boundaries of one's everyday thought patterns.  Such exploration  can't
> be  done  in  a room with several hundred other people, though small groups
> can be useful.


I agree with this, in that many people who see therapists are not suffering
from "disorders" or "diseases", but simply "problems".  Perhaps this is
why Greg chose something like Lifespring to work through whatever problems
he had, because he had learned the negative connotation of what therapy meant.
(Just a speculation, and not really relevant.)

But I wonder if the motivation for the change in focus has anything to do
with marketing?  I mean, there aren't THAT many true sickos in this world,
and most of them (us) are on the net [:-)].  So maybe it was part of a
commercial ploy by psych majors and psychology professionals to ensure a
market.  "Come to therapy, it's OK, normal people do it every day."  (There,
I've written a jingle!  To be followd by an announcer saying "Therapy.  It
can work for you.  This message paid for by the American Psychological
Therapists Association (APTA)."  :-)  Sure, this has made a big difference
in people's perceptions of psychology, but still...

[Oh, by the way:  END SATIRE MODE   :-) * .5  ... ]

Boy, am I gonna get slaughtered by the psych majors for this one.
-- 
Anything's possible, but only a few things actually happen.
					Rich Rosen    pyuxd!rlr