Posted by Tabitha on September 8, 2002, at 5:16:11
Hi all,
I picked this off the Med board, out of a long anti-psychiatry sort of post (that prompted a block). Dinah, I hope you don't mind me excerpting a bit of it for discussion."Psychology by and large is the invention of man to cover the shame of his own sinful behavior. If a disorderly child can be said to be "ill" with ADHD, then he cannot be held responsible for his actions. After all, can a person with Alzheimer´s be blamed for contracting his disease?"
This struck be as a good expression of the attitude of people I grew up with in the conservative midwest. I've since moved to California and had lots and lots of therapy. I try to explain this type of attitude to my therapist, and she doesn't seem to get it. She must be native Californian :)
It's so hard to un-learn that conditioning.
It just often strikes me everything I've tried to learn in therapy is so totally at odds with the mindset I was raised in. I suppose that's true for all kinds of dysfunctional childhoods, but it still makes me sad. There's such a gulf in attitudes. I've tried so hard to learn a more humanistic and compassionate attitude, but some of the old duty-driven guilt-trip is still there.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
poster:Tabitha
thread:1039
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20020829/msgs/1039.html