Posted by bob on May 12, 2000, at 0:41:48
In reply to Re: Rage and Cutting, posted by quilter on May 12, 2000, at 0:02:38
You know, I have a number of friends who are clinicians in one role or another -- they all know I'm a research psychologist by training, so we're kind of kindred spirits. I try to be as "out" about my depression as I can, and most (not all) of the time I've been able to get away with it.
But the thing I hear from nearly all my clinically-oriented friends is just how nasty things can turn if you're a mental health professional AND a "patient". Maybe it's the same mentality that turns the attitudes of police officers (like my brother and a few of my friends back home) against the thought that "criminals" can ever be "reformed" -- instead, they're just defective people. Too much contact to see the big picture. Familiarity breeds contempt.
[well, except for the more tradional, dynamically-trained folk I know. they tend to think everyone has issues, and that those who are training them have the nuttiest sets of issues of all. maybe that's what years of engaging in psychotherapy from both sides of the couch does to the human mind eventually]
It's bad enough when you're talking about medications, because that bears with it a "faulty genetic stamp" for those working within the medical model and lacking compassion. But when you start getting into behaviors that "look weird" -- like compulsive behaviors -- the stigmas from the broader culture can start kicking in as well. When it comes to cutting and self-injury -- well, like I said a few posts back, it's such a taboo. I mean, you make make fun of the nose-scratcher or the hand-washer behind their backs, but cutting can carry such heavily-loaded connotations of something being seriously, dangerously wrong with that person. I know that we all can have a tremendous amount of empathy for one another because even though we suffer through different disorders, we all walk such similar paths. But I really have a had time imagining that anyone who is "normal" could ever grasp what self-injury is like for those who do it. Even my own therapist, for whom I have the greatest respect and who has spent a lot of time treating teens and young women who engage in self-injury, said to me that she didn't really believe that anyone could truly be a masochist.
I'm trying to, pardon the turn of phrase, disabuse her of that notion. Not that I think I'll succeed, and not because of any bias on her part -- she's just too damned optimistic about the ability of people to heal sooner or later!
Anyway, sometimes it takes a kick in the face to wake these other folk up.
Go buy yourself some good boots, Cynthia!
bob
poster:bob
thread:32887
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000508/msgs/33253.html