Dear Amanda,
I think that sometimes the apparent insightfulness of a therapist's
interpretation of someone's motives or inner drives is based more on what
the therapist wants to find rather than what is actually there. Of course I
have never said anywhere in any of my mails that I no longer want to be a
therapist. Obviously, if that were the case I would simply leave this
profession and that would be that. In fact I am actively engaged both
academically and scientifically in trying to add my own contribution to how
I see therapy developing in the 21st Century. Part of that includes a
radical rethink of what therapy should and could be doing and in trying to
expand it's use in non-traditional settings. This will include my attempting
to break down a lot of hitherto dearly held beliefs about therapy and
therapists.
Part of what I have been attempting to do in my postings on this and other
list servers, is to ask people to think about some non-standard
"therapeuticness" as a necessary response to a radically new geo-political
situation. Some might see that as destroying therapy and others might see it
as keeping it alive in a dramatically changing world. We'll see!
If you get a chance to log on to the Guardian website and look at Ros
Coward's article in yesterday's edition then you will see a much better
description of the basic premise underlying my viewpoint. Basically I am
saying that unconditional positive regard is no longer everybody's right and
if this statement shocks any body then I don't mind, as long as they also
start thinking and not slip into knee-jerk reactions.
So, still here and still a therapist
Kind regards, (in a non-humanist sense of course!)
NORMAN
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