corboy,
Thank you so much for providing these resources. Of the Janov quotes you provided, these stood out for me, and vis a vis our discussion about respectful communication, and with regard to the positioning and agenda of the 'therapist'.
"I took a seminar with Perls (and with Rogers, as well), and I was struck by the theories that psychologists construct that seem to evolve straight out of their personalities. As students, we mimicked Perls running the group, chain smoking, and saying, "Be an ashtray." "Be a couch." It was all whim and caprice. But it had to do with liberating feelings to some extent, which was something new in his epoch. Of course, after a group session where a woman was in the hot-seat, as I mentioned, there was the obligatory kiss on Perls' forehead or cheek. The master received his homage. It was more a show than therapy; an interesting show, because he was a showman, but serious scientific therapy was out of the question."
In Gestalt Therapy, the patient is kept unconscious by being made aware; a disconnection that is sustained by his being given the illusion that he has become more conscious; that he is "in touch with thoughts, feelings, and sensations as they occur from moment to moment"; that he has lost his mind and come to his senses; that his "present, here-and-now experience constitutes the only reality." Just as in hypnosis, consciousness is restricted to provide a distraction against Pain and a barrier against the presence of the past. Consciousness is narrowed down to the present offshoots of repressed Pain in the form of projections in the here-and-now. The chief difference between hypnosis and Gestalt therapy is that hypnosis excludes awareness to avoid the unification of consciousness, whereas Gestalt excludes the unconscious to achieve the same end. [bold text, italics, mine]
With regard to psychological theories being an extension of the therapist's personality, I watched several interviews of Carl Rogers, who I think is best known for evolving a patient-centric model, and the therapeutic imperative of holding "positive regard" for the client.
Based on these viewings, it is hard to imagine a 'colder' personality. One might suspect that Rogers is counseling others to regard patients in a manner that he, personally, finds very challenging.
With regard to Gestalt Therapy, and the patient being provided with the illusion that he has become more conscious of his thoughts, and being in the moment, well, this sounds just like what many describe as happening in EST/Landmark training.
Frankly, I see a lot of the same thing in the coaching field, i.e. an emphasis on the coachee achieving the big, aha, wake-up moments; that I know, rarely lead to meaningful changes.
I don't know quite how to describe it, but my experience of people who have gone down this rabbit hole is that they are strangely disconnected from themselves and others, almost pathologically so, and they become VERY irritable when one points this out.
Really sad when a pathology IS the treatment, or coaching modality.
bakkagirl
Thank you so much for providing these resources. Of the Janov quotes you provided, these stood out for me, and vis a vis our discussion about respectful communication, and with regard to the positioning and agenda of the 'therapist'.
"I took a seminar with Perls (and with Rogers, as well), and I was struck by the theories that psychologists construct that seem to evolve straight out of their personalities. As students, we mimicked Perls running the group, chain smoking, and saying, "Be an ashtray." "Be a couch." It was all whim and caprice. But it had to do with liberating feelings to some extent, which was something new in his epoch. Of course, after a group session where a woman was in the hot-seat, as I mentioned, there was the obligatory kiss on Perls' forehead or cheek. The master received his homage. It was more a show than therapy; an interesting show, because he was a showman, but serious scientific therapy was out of the question."
In Gestalt Therapy, the patient is kept unconscious by being made aware; a disconnection that is sustained by his being given the illusion that he has become more conscious; that he is "in touch with thoughts, feelings, and sensations as they occur from moment to moment"; that he has lost his mind and come to his senses; that his "present, here-and-now experience constitutes the only reality." Just as in hypnosis, consciousness is restricted to provide a distraction against Pain and a barrier against the presence of the past. Consciousness is narrowed down to the present offshoots of repressed Pain in the form of projections in the here-and-now. The chief difference between hypnosis and Gestalt therapy is that hypnosis excludes awareness to avoid the unification of consciousness, whereas Gestalt excludes the unconscious to achieve the same end. [bold text, italics, mine]
With regard to psychological theories being an extension of the therapist's personality, I watched several interviews of Carl Rogers, who I think is best known for evolving a patient-centric model, and the therapeutic imperative of holding "positive regard" for the client.
Based on these viewings, it is hard to imagine a 'colder' personality. One might suspect that Rogers is counseling others to regard patients in a manner that he, personally, finds very challenging.
With regard to Gestalt Therapy, and the patient being provided with the illusion that he has become more conscious of his thoughts, and being in the moment, well, this sounds just like what many describe as happening in EST/Landmark training.
Frankly, I see a lot of the same thing in the coaching field, i.e. an emphasis on the coachee achieving the big, aha, wake-up moments; that I know, rarely lead to meaningful changes.
I don't know quite how to describe it, but my experience of people who have gone down this rabbit hole is that they are strangely disconnected from themselves and others, almost pathologically so, and they become VERY irritable when one points this out.
Really sad when a pathology IS the treatment, or coaching modality.
bakkagirl