Label: psychotherapy

“Oh my god… Humanity, please come in!”

“Oh my god… Humanity, please come in!”

Interesting documentary about the actor Cary Grant. "Becoming Cary Grant" from 2017. (In Swedish: "Cary Grant - A world star is born". I thought they had stopped inventing Swedish titles in the 90s?).

I saw it a couple of years ago and there was one passage in particular that made an impression. When he goes to psychotherapy with an element of drugs. However, it is difficult to see the film in its entirety again. Therefore, I was happy and surprised to discover exactly what I remembered was in the trailer.

Drugs vs therapy

Drugs vs therapy

Ketamine clinics are booming across the US. According to psychedelic fund PsyMed, there were around 20 ketamine clinics in 2019. By the end of last year, there were reportedly over 600 independent ketamine clinics, as well as chains like Mindbloom, Field Trip and Delic with multiple clinics and home delivery services. Since the pandemic began, ketamine start-ups have reported rapid growth: in 2022, Field Trip reported 200% annual growth, Mindbloom reported 420% employee growth, and Delic says its net assets grew 500% in a year. Profits from ketamine grew from $8.3 million in 2017 to $185 million in 2022… […]

Ketamine companies are riding the wave of psychedelic hype. There's so much excitement about psilocybin therapy, but it's been slow to get FDA approval. Meanwhile, people are desperate for relief from mental and physical health problems, and investors are impatient for returns. Ketamine already has FDA approval as an anaesthetic. Any US medical provider can apparently offer it off-label for whatever condition they want, from depression and anxiety to OCD and eating disorders, to alcoholism, drug addiction, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, self-esteem issues, self-actualization...you name it !

https://ecstaticintegration.substack.com/p/ketamine-the-psychedelic-renaissance

“Wild Psychotherapy”

“Wild Psychotherapy”

Irvin Yalom is one of the greats. Psychotherapist within the existential-humanist school. And completely wild it may seem.

That's an interesting thing... You can be attracted to the idea of ​​a therapist who is prepared to make such big departures from "protocol", standard practice, to be so personal, human, "himself". And I have no doubt that Yalom did this with good judgment, after all, that on the whole it turned out well. As an artistry.

Yalom interviewed by Ann Lagerström in the latest issue of Modern Psykologi:

https://modernpsykologi.se/2021/08/31/livet-och-doden-med-irvin-yalom/

Still, it's not something that can be taught, I think. It cannot form a school... Mostly, forty-nine times out of fifty? (“ninety-nine out of a hundred” sounds too much), in the hands of most who feel called, it just becomes crazy, counterproductive… if not worse.

Choose a therapist

Choose a therapist

What a “landscape” this is! I myself am pretty much on my guard here.

I understand that someone who is struggling with alcohol addiction, or wants to be free, feels that he or she can get the best help from someone who has been through something like that themselves. Or someone who dropped out of Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, wants to meet someone who has real understanding and insight into what it's like to grow up that way, it feels wise (and brave)... But that someone who has a Christian faith wants to meet a Christian interlocutor, the Muslim a Muslim, a neo-spiritual a neo-spiritual, etc...

To take the last category, the neo-spiritual, which is the "pasture" in that landscape that I myself know best... I have heard this many, many times over the years... That you feel you need to talk to someone about difficulties in life, even "go to therapy", but then it must absolutely be a person who you know shares your world view, (ie reincarnation, karma, that we are on the way to developing towards becoming perfect Christ figures, that many problems have their roots in past lives, etc)… And I always thought it sounded a bit shady, conditional… “guarded”, like? As if you want a guarantee that certain questions will never risk coming up on the table. And if they do that, you still have to have a tacit understanding about how everything is connected, how life works.

At the same time, of course, it can also be a healthy self-preservation drive, that you don't want to risk being beaten in the shoes by someone who hates everything called spirituality, and unreflectively will see this as the root of all your problems.

And the whole range in between.

The threshold

The threshold

I would like to address a thought, a belief, I have. A little inspired by a Jung quote about psychology/therapy and "the numinous" that I saw the other day and that I don't know if I understood or am ready to buy without reservations:

"The main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neuroses but rather with the approach to the numinous. But the fact that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy, and as much as you attain to the numinous experience you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes on a numinous character.” — CG YOUNG

But this is my reservation then. And speaking of the post I wrote the other day, about society taking responsibility for everything spiritual, which provoked strong reactions: What I'm writing now is on a similar theme, but meant completely seriously. It's a mind game, this too, but a serious one.

If we assume that the neo-spiritual worldview is true. This means that we live more than one life, are reborn, accumulate experiences via the effects of our actions, develop towards some kind of emotional or cognitive perfection, etc. Then I imagine there is a threshold there along the way. What is this threshold about? A certain measure of genuine self-experience, an own anchoring in the spiritual. Not just 2-hand information.

It becomes a kind of tipping point. (And I also imagine that in that case this point comes later than one often imagines, or hopes for.) Once one has crossed the threshold, one can possibly use psychology/therapy that includes a detailed spiritual (like the above) perspective . Or at least it will be harmless. But up to this threshold usually not.

Until then, it is above all the usual old psychology/therapy that you may need. Which is based on an understanding of the old common man. Why? Because until one has crossed the threshold, this nature in us is such a dominant part that the spiritual ideas (however true these may be) are only too easily incorporated into the old common defense system & it does not turn out well.

The crazy psychiatry (Stiernstedt, 2020)

The crazy psychiatry (Stiernstedt, 2020)

Started reading this book this morning. An author who knows what he is writing about and seems to have his heart in the right place, as they say.

So dense that the opening chapters on the state of psychiatry, and society, feel like a descent into a very dark place. It's not all that bad in my reality, although nothing is untrue.

Johan Stiernstedt is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, with extensive experience in both roles. The book came out in 2020, can be bought for example at alibris

Should society take over responsibility for all things spiritual?

Should society take over responsibility for all things spiritual?

Spiritual and personal development. How to protect searching people from harm? Falling into the clutches of predatory, manipulative types in the alternative industry? What can society do to regulate and comply? Some think that a little more control or a "harder grip" on the off-roads would help. But it is not easy to see how something like that would be possible to fix. Couldn't you instead legislate that only people who have ID from the National Board of Health and Welfare were allowed to deal with such things? That is, doctors, psychologists, nurses, etc. Only these were allowed to provide tools & guidance for people's spiritual upbringing and well-being. (Much like alcohol today can only be sold on the System.)

The CBTs have long been involved in Buddhist mindfulness, etc. Those who work in Freud & Co's succession could offer a solid schooling path towards spiritual integration and satisfaction. You would of course lose some of the skills that today exist in the alternative world, but in return could the area be reserved for people who, in the face of the threat of a suspended license and professional ban, at least kept to their skins?

(Not going to pretend I've read the book above, because I haven't, but it sounds interesting : ) )