Posted by Wittgenstein on June 28, 2007, at 17:43:03
In reply to Sometimes I feel so guilty..., posted by muffled on June 28, 2007, at 16:10:05
It upset me to see those posts in Camp Comfort. I can understand where Squiggles was coming from but in my opinion it was an ill-chosen place to try and make such a point.
There is the 'grass is always greener' argument - think of the poor people without shelter, security, nourishment, education etc. Why should we be upset that our T's go away when we are lucky to have them - and lucky to have all the other many things in life that we take for granted. But frankly I don't think this argument follows through at all.
Yes, we all have primary needs - and compared to food, water, shelter etc. therapy would not seem too 'essential'. A human can survive without therapy but not food. But once these basic needs are fulfilled - and of course it should be that all humans have equal access to these basic things - we can start considering quality of life - with food, shelter etc. we have an 'existence' but most of us (fortunately) can look beyond basic existence to the quality of their lives - happiness and fulfillment.
If I had been born in a certain part of the world, I would be blind - completely blind. I probably wouldn't be dead but that doesn't mean that the health care I have been lucky enough to receive is unnecessary or that for example I don't have the right to have expectations regarding my eye care - maybe it's taken for granted - maybe in my case it's not a basic need for my survival but without it my quality of life would be considerably worse - and if your quality of life is too poor that can also jeopardise survival per se. I see therapy in the same light - I'm grateful I have the chance of therapy. There will be many people in less prosperous parts of the world who could benefit greatly from therapy but who, through their situations, go without, along with many other things. And that's perhaps to take it too lightly - for many, T is their life-line - it not only stands between stagnation and change but life and death.
In an ideal world the optimum health care would be open to all - not just the lucky few. But the fact that it isn't, doesn't mean that those who are in therapy are wrong in experiencing the strong feelings they do when their therapists have to go away.
The person in the very worst situation in this world does not set the standards for what we should expect. We are all in this world together - but we are also all in our own societies/communities each with their own respective set of rules, standards and expectations. Maybe it makes you sick that some have so much yet still expect more. I personally am more upset by a common society with huge gaps in wealth and standards of living - compared to those societies where all people have a certain standard of living - where the rich-poor divide is narrow.
A world with no therapy at all would be a worse world - Squiggle, your argument just gives us all the more reason to be grateful that we have T's - to value our T's and in turn this will have the effect of causing a sense of loss, separation and possibly abandonment when our t's leave us on vacation.
The need is very real - people go into T for a reason - they have real wounds to heal. They shouldn't feel selfish/guilty - they should be proud that they are investing in their lives rather than taking their lives for granted.
And a repeated criticism of the book recommended in the Camp Comfort thread was that the author provided no adequate alternative to T.
Witti
poster:Wittgenstein
thread:766482
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20070628/msgs/766504.html