Sandpiper Crossing

Welcome ifyouknowmenoyoudont! Glad to have you here!

Perhaps she just wanted to scare me into staying in therapy.

2 hours ago, Mary S said:

I'd alter this a bit to say, "Therapists aren't creative enough to make a living as novelists, screenwriters, or artists, so instead they try to satisfy their yen to be creative by treating clients as object to "mold". (Quote from my worst therapist: : "What you need is something like a mold that a brick is made in, and when the mold is removed, the brick retains the shape of the mold". (I've probably said this before, but that sounds really pathological to me.)

I used to read books written by therapists about their case studies. I remember examples where the author sounded so certain about patient A making a huge mistake by not going back to her ex husband, like an all -knowing narrator. Psychologists only know the other people in their patient's life from what they've been told but some of them act like they know much more and know what everyone should do. They also like to predict other people's future and call it prognosis. When I quit my therapist, she gave me this bleak prognosis. I don't know if she really believed she had this all-knowing insight.

Therapists are people who weren't creative enough to be novelists or screenwriters and chose to meddle in their clients' lives instead. 

Welcome moonfrog! I'm new here myself. 

Which brings me to this- why doesn't the Catholic church condemn the mental health industrial complex? Clearly psychology is threat because they're encroaching on their turf and influencing vulnerable people that used to flock to the teachings of Christianity. 

Also, Christianity wouldn't have been as powerful as it once was without the contributions of the very people that are nowadays locked into asylums and labeled with 'schizophrenia' and 'religious delusion'. 

16 hours ago, Mary S said:

So much in therapy seemed disconnected from the reality I lived in. It often seemed as if therapists were using me as a point of departure (or an object?) to make up fairy tales about.

Yeah I think that is especially true for case studies. The person and their struggles seem very real but where it enters fairy tale territory is when the 'case study' gets to the part where the psychologist cured the lepers, made the blind see and the lame walk.

The case studies I read follow the story arc of problem, treatment and happy ever after. 

Delusional, the whole profession!! At least with missionaries or other religious fanatics you know what beast you're dealing with. 

On 5/24/2021 at 6:12 AM, disequilibrium1 said:

Sandpiper Crossing, welcome. I agree with you completely; I find scant literature about therapy's harm, and almost none of it parallels my experience. Their so-called "ethics" discussions seem most concerned with avoiding improper appearances and defenses against being sued. The consumer is left on his/her own to figure it out. This is so hypocritical for the profession advertising honesty, self-examination and deep meaning. We have been pooling our own observations and thoughts here;look forward to yours.

Thank you! I felt like I had to dig into medical journals to find anything. It is bizarre. When I first started looking into negative side-effects, all I found were newspaper articles that quoted therapists on the issue. Negative side- effects were described as the patient becoming too self-confident and leaving their abusive partner which is obviously nothing but advertisement for therapy concealed as 'self -criticism'. 

Thank you for the welcome, Hurt By Therapy! I found two interesting articles in a medical journal on the subject, might post them later! 

The research on harmful side-effects is 20 years old and very sparse from what I've seen. The problem with therapists it  seems is that they have an ideological calling to their profession. They want to see themselves as good people who know 'what's good for others'. This belief that seems to be ingrained in the helping professions suppresses any threatening scientific evaluation of how effective their helping is. There are many non-evidence based modalities that are built around the needs of the helper. 

I had cbt therapy but became aware of the issue with bogus modalities once I started looking up other models. 

 Hi, I'm a new member. I've had bad experiences with therapy as well. As a result I guess I have thought more about authoritarian systems and issues in the helping industry than I might have otherwise. 

It's odd that going to therapy is so common but there's so little literature or investigation of harm in therapy. It's treated like an ideology.