I highly recommend Philip Reif's "Triumph of the Therapeutic"
[www.amazon.com]
as a means of understanding the origins of a post-morality 'cult'ure of therapeutic sensibility (the need to give, the need to receive) and endless forms of 'intervention'.
I was a somewhat prolific consumer of therapy as a troubled teen and young adult. While I think there were a few well-intentioned practitioners, I also experienced, in slightly altered form, many of the technologies we are discussing in this forum.
I am struggling to remember if discussing highly personal matters in the context of a group of strangers truly provided relief, or healing. I have to say, "no" it did not. What I think this activity fostered was dependency on a 'therapist' and a group for 'identity'.
I think Reif's research lays bare the roadmap for this slide down the slipperiest of slopes.
[www.amazon.com]
as a means of understanding the origins of a post-morality 'cult'ure of therapeutic sensibility (the need to give, the need to receive) and endless forms of 'intervention'.
I was a somewhat prolific consumer of therapy as a troubled teen and young adult. While I think there were a few well-intentioned practitioners, I also experienced, in slightly altered form, many of the technologies we are discussing in this forum.
I am struggling to remember if discussing highly personal matters in the context of a group of strangers truly provided relief, or healing. I have to say, "no" it did not. What I think this activity fostered was dependency on a 'therapist' and a group for 'identity'.
I think Reif's research lays bare the roadmap for this slide down the slipperiest of slopes.