Quote:
Originally Posted by BudFox
Their training is useless by default. The whole idea that a therapist can be trained to untangle the neurosis of another person they barely know, better than that person can, doesn't hold up to critical thinking. Awareness and insight can be discovered on one's own, through living life, mindfulness practice, general cultivation of self-awareness, and so on. Paying someone to furnish this like a vending machine is, in my view, a terrible proposition, since it comes with so much wretched baggage, and lacks logical basis. A trusted friend is much more likely to "get" you than some babbling therapist loaded down with dubious theories and convoluted thinking, and whose identity is wrapped up in demonstrating their exquisite insight and guru status.
Also I get that people go to therapy to get help with difficulties rather than to purchase caring, but in my observation the relationship drama and the longing for attunement and acceptance is what ends up driving many people, and once they get into that mode, they are forever chasing those needs. And it's the residue of having been dragged through this degrading pursuit that sticks around in their psyche.
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I mean I think the fundamental idea is, someone who has become specialized in understanding these things would ideally have a better shot at understanding people than someone who has not become specialized in that.
If you believe that the workings of the psyche are completely intangible, then I would see why you would not believe there could be any benefit to psychology/therapy/etc as a vocation. However if you do believe that the mind, and feelings, and sensations and beliefs all work in a somewhat knowable way with some kind of knowable underlying structure that is not entirely random, then I think a natural conclusion of that is that there is theoretically some benefit to having people around who specialize in understanding those workings and bringing about some kind of change/solution in them.
I mean, are we actually in disagreement on that? This feels extreme.
Personally, I don't see this as being a question of categorically whether or not therapy could theoretically be effective, just a problem of it currently not being as effective as it should be.