Monday 13 October 2014

1. The Profession of Change - Introduction

[This one of five blogs on the subject of change. The blogs take different themes and perspectives (one is actually in the form of an online, apocalyptic novel), but are intended to complement one another.]


The 'talking cures' is a term intimately associated with the invention of psychoanalysis. It has become a cliché, embracing the range of therapies and counselling techniques, from psychiatry, social work, elements of nursing and personal care, to life coaching.

One theme is shared by all forms of 'talking cure'. Change. They all aim to change the lives of the people with whom they engage. However, while there's a lot of 'talking' (and, arguably, listening), there are no 'cures' - the focus is change, not the treatment of illness.

Change is a universal human theme, the essence of life itself. As we grow, we change. We make conscious changes, we make changes without noticing them. Sometimes we make decisions which bring about change - moving home, moving job, moving into and out of relationships. Some changes we anticipate, some come out of the blue - accident, illness, loss, natural disasters, decisions (or indecision) by governments and corporations over which we have no control.

Some change we take in our stride. Some we enjoy. Much of the time we cope, we muddle through, we adapt - we make no active effort to manage the changes, we just fall into a new set of habits and routines and go with the flow. We get by, like a bouncing pinball.

But change can be traumatising, agonising, can drive us to breakdown and suicide. Not changing can be equally deadly. We get into the habit of over-eating, smoking, drinking, using drugs, we can spin ourselves into a downward spiral of depression and dependence.

In this section I'll take a critical look at the talking cures. We need to escape the idea of 'cure', we need to refute the notion they deal with 'illness'. It's time to insist they focus on the management of change - become the Profession of Change. We need to insist they collaborate in a rational exploration of human consciousness and the experience of life, not force it (and us) to comply with their ideologies, political agendas, and cult-like assumptions.

The talking cures are a major industry. State managed, state-funded counselling and social work are subject to political demands to cut costs and prove 'effectiveness' ('effectiveness' can be shorthand for narrow political agendas). They've largely become desk-bound bureaucracies, reducing life to a routine of casework rather than the dynamic and humane management of change.

Meanwhile, the private sector is thriving. Psychotherapy is a lucrative trade. 'Addiction' treatment has become so profitable it has ranged beyond alcohol and drug abuse to include gambling, shopping, sex ... even addiction to people!

New, enterprising businesses expand the market still further. People offer you past life regression, aura cleansing, and a whole portfolio of looney tunes therapies. Life coaching is more life style accessory than challenge to the traditional talking cures.

Psychiatry, meanwhile, has become the familiar of multinational drug companies, a tool for marketing antidepressants and a whole pharmacy of drugs, making millions for the corporations which manufacture them but doing little to resolve the problems of those who become dependent on them ... other than sedating their symptoms.

The message of the talking cures has even corrupted our understanding of life: novelists and screenwriters lift characters straight from the analyst's couch. We get a regular message from US TV and cinema - undergoing analysis is a wholly rational experience, it works, it marks you out as sensitive and upwardly mobile. Similarly, Alcoholics Anonymous is allowed to pose as the only 'cure' for alcohol problems - though you suspect the bums don't go to the same meetings as the celebrities and politicians.

And yet, after a century of talking cures we'd have to conclude that, delivered to the poor in the form of social work, they've failed to save us from homelessness, crime, drunkeness, child abuse, poverty or ignorance. Delivered to the affluent, they've neither increased happiness nor reduced pain, they've only made dependence on therapy socially acceptable ... while generating healthy profits for therapists and self-proclaimed gurus.

Want to discover what techniques the talking cures use? Want to know if you can learn anything from them to help you make changes in your own life? A web search will expose you to the marketing efforts of a million therapists, addiction counsellors, independent social workers, life coaches, and whatever, trying to sell you services ... often with superficial, cosmetic, or simply manipulative claims to competence, skills, training, qualifications, or rational understanding of life.

Hence, my Profession of Change. I aim to steer you towards the skills and techniques which have proven effective, to steer you away from the bullshit. And I'll argue for a major revision of what needs to be done to warrant the description 'professional'.

My first step in this process? Let's take a look at Sigmund Freud - the father of psychoanalysis, the man who perverted a century of understanding of the human condition and human consciousness, the man who first popularised the term 'talking cures' in the 1890's by lying, cheating, and pursuing his own need for fame and adulation. And, if you suspect I have little respect for the man and his creed, consider yourself on the right track.


My Five Blogs exploring the nature of change from different perspectives:
The Stories You Don't Write
The Stories You Can't Write
Positive Lies
Profession of Change
Like Fleas on a Dog's Back