What Makes Psychotherapy Creative?

WHAT MAKES PSYCHOTHERAPY CREATIVE?

 

 

    What is psychoanalytic psychotherapy; or insight-oriented psychotherapy?  Some people can make this process of therapy seem far too complicated. 

    This process seeks to free people from repeating the same mistakes over and over again...so that they can stop wasting the precious time of their lives...and finally learn how to re-direct their energies to be in ways that allow them to be more peaceful, imaginative, playful and understanding...and to achieve more of the sorts of things that they can be proud of.  As we approach the ends of our lives, all of us should feel as fulfilled as possible...and that we have used the time and opportunities of our lives well.

    Mostly, it is therapists who make this process seem too complicated; probably partly because they don't really understand it more fully; and partly because they want to exaggerate how great they are to have mastered "such an incredibly complex thing."

    On the other hand, people can make this process of therapy seem far too simple.  They may say...or think, "You just need to learn that you have been held back in life and that it is your parents fault...because they raised you poorly...and if you simply get angry at or reject them...that then you'll be free to posper."  Well, anger alone solves little.......and rejection of others denies how much we share in common with them.  So, realizing the shortcomings of our childhood development is simply the beginning of learning what we still need to learn....the same lessons usually that our parents also needed to learn...it is a shared tragedy of sorts....that ought to...usually and eventually...evoke more sympathy than hatred.  Most of us across the generations...are stuck in the same quicksand.  For the most part, those who oversimplify this process; seek to blame others rather than truly transform themselves.

    Freud fathered the science of psychoanalysis by using the medical model to define the various problems of mental health and to set forth their treatment and hopefully their cure.  Jung was mentored by Freud and then went far to add a rich exploration of where the creative human soul can soar when it it not stuck in the varous types of pathologies of which Freud spoke.  Both the study of pathology and its treatment and an appreciation of what creative, inspired living can entail are both critical.  Either without the other provides a type of psychotherapy that is lacking something important.  

    Many others have extended these theories, and I will only mention a few here.  Melanie Klein examined early primitive and symbolic experience from a psychic time and depth that begins before the focus of Freud's basic work. Clients often need to express and explore things that come from a part of them that does not yet have words...that does not  yet have a voice...at least partly because these things come from the preverbal part of their lives. Perhaps our only beginning clues are moods or the emotional tone of recurring fantasies or dreams.  Winnicott and the British School of Object Relations extended Freud's work in elaborating the crucial role of relationships in human development and in creative psychoanalytic psychotherapy.  He found that being playful was at the core of all creative processes.  Ernst Kris was among the first psychoanalytic thinkers to assert that our "regressing" to earlier more primitive modes of experience and behavior is not always destructive, but can be helpful or even necessary for our fuller creativity, development and balance.

    It was the humanistic psychology movement in the 1960's, with Abraham Maslow leading the way, that took the psychoanalytic movement with its emphasis on unconscious processes and resources....and wedded it to more Eastern beliefs of being and balance, including the teachings of Buddhism... and ultimately gave birth to a more widely and popularly understood sense of dynamic human empowerment; which they called:  self-actualization.

    But even Freud's pioneering work towards the end of the nineteenth century was far from the first sophisticated look into how the human soul can will itself to overcome unconsciousness, emotional traumas and developmental limitations so as to become even more fully empowered.  It seems likely that Freud's and Jung's work was derived from or emerged from their cultural heritage which was based upon the wise teachings of the Bible...the oldest Bible...of the Jewish people...which overlaps and intertwines with the later New Testament...of the Christian people...and the Koran...of the Muslim people.

    People often come to therapy out of fear and pain.  They may be frightened because of the diagnosis of some serious illness or the passing of someone close to them.  Or they may be frightened about the loss of a job, a financial crises or indications that a partner wants to leave them.  In contrast, other therapeutic candidates may have more generalized anxieties and depressed moods that reveal less of an immediate injury...but rather more of a lost soul that is wandering through life without clearer goals...beyond pleasing others.  Such an individual may be more than able to survive, but they can never really be happy or fulfilled because they don't "know who they are"... they don't know what they need to do in their lives to feel happy and fulfilled.... they may have lived for decades and never really felt fulfilled.  Winnicott would say that they have never come to know and be their "true self".

    It seems as if every great hero of the Bible(s) finds a way to overcome early traumas or developmental obstacles to find their inner true self and... over time and with hard work...to empower their true self in unique ways to prosper in life...and where this occurs, the prosperity of the hero nearly always also benefits his or her family, friends or community...eventually.

    A client may say, "I thought you were the therapist who was going to fix me.  You mean there are things I need to do so I can get better?"   Absolutely.  That is the difference between empowering the human soul and fixing a car.  When the car breaks down, you bring it to a mechanic who works on and fixes it and then returns to you a well-functioning car.  In insight oriented therapy, the client needs to learn more empowering behaviors and attitudes and then to use them and live by them.  In contrast to the car, the client must come to live differently or nothing any therapist has done with them will make any difference.

    Regarding learning from the world's religions, some may say, "But I don't want to have the Bible or some religion tell me what to do or how I should live."  I understand that sentiment.  While all religions suggest we observe certain rituals as they can remind, educate and enlighten us in certain ways; one can derive the core principles and values of the Bible(s) and separate them from the suggested rituals.  When we do this, we see that each heroic figure in our Biblical stories struggles uniquely to learn from life...and from their errors...what they need to learn.  And while certain priests or rabbis may indeed direct others as to what they should do, these are not the truly creative, inspiring religious leaders who, in contrast, appeal to the deepest parts of other's souls and challenge them to choose by their own will, goodness and conscience.  In this sense, there is little difference between the most creative psychoanalytic psychotherapists and the most creative rabbis and priests.

    I believe we are better equipped to make wise choices in our own lives when we learn from the creative and heroic solutions found by our ancestors...and we are truly fools to ignore and fail to learn from all that came before us.  But, even if we study and learn from them, we still have unique problems and obstacles each of us must face and master...if we are to help our soul to become more fully empowered....in its unique journey and destiny...

    Finally, some will say; but what can be done for specific disease entities...like phobias, generalized anxieties, shyness, difficulties with either engaging or sustaining relationships, anger management, dysthymia, depression, paranoia, problems focusing or sustaining attention, obsessions, compulsions, addictions, problems of empathy...and so on.  Well, let me tell you why I don't like diagnoses.   Diagnoses only say what is wrong with somebody; they never say what is right about them.

    Diagnoses serve an important purpose is marking off some area of behavior or mental functioning that "has problems".  But diagnoses alone will not tell you why if you have two people with identical diagnoses...why one can resolve the problem so that the diagnoses no longer applies, while the other one stays stuck that way for the rest of their lives.  In any event, any diagnosis needs to be understood in human terms...as a tragic, hopefully reversible halting of further development in the soul's journey through its earliest years of development...where it became stuck and could then not move on.  Based on some ongoing emotional injury or environmental deficit, part of the true self becomes fragmented off or buried...leaving the individual less able to experience, express and live life more fully.  If we don't humanize our understanding the "story behind symptom", then we further damage the client by objectifying and dehumanizing their pain and their struggle.

    Only a rich human relationship between therapist and client can sensitively and insightfully create a blueprint for this journey of the human soul, along with roadways and bridges that must be repaired...or built for the first time...so that the soul's journey can continue and can succeed.  Humor and playfulness are important attitudes that nurture trust and exploration.  Chemistry is important; and finding a good therapist for you can be almost as complex as finding a life's partner.?