Posted by caraher on September 4, 2004, at 17:27:50
In reply to Re: Unconditional Self Acceptance » Dinah, posted by Miss Honeychurch on September 4, 2004, at 9:53:49
> My T and I disagree about the evil thing and this really frustrates him I think. We had one session about this and talked about Charles Manson (yes, I can't belive I spent an hour on Charles Manson). I asked if he thought Charles Manson deserved psychiatric help, for say, depression, in jail. HE said "of course." That no one deserves to be depressed. I said I would have no problem if Charles Manson were severly depressed the rest of his life. I feel Charles Manson a. doesn't "deserve" mental health care and b. is one of those "evil ones" on whom therapy would have no effect. My T was slightly horrified by this attitude as he feels everyone should have access to mental health care and that everyone deserves it, including Charles Manson. And I have no idea where I'm going with his. Sorry...Reminds me of a session I had where we discussed whether my T would work with Hitler (answer: no!).
I understand your perspective but to understand where your T is coming from suppose Manson had some kind of medical emergency, say some other prisoner stabbed him. Your T probably just views the mental health issue as on par with any other health issue, and considers health care a basic human right in any civilized society (which I suppose puts us here the US squarely outside the pale of civilization).
That trick of thinking of yourself as a child can be effective, but I've found it a double-edged sword. For me it can trigger thoughts of all the ways I've "let down" my younger self. I still need to work more on separating "deservingness" from catalogs of successes and failures. I think the ideas about acting from "pure motives" are interesting and helpful.
poster:caraher
thread:386072
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040828/msgs/386445.html