psychoanalysis

The other day I had a mail from a friend, Alan, who has an interest in psychoanalysis. While I am not an expert in this subject, I can think of another friend who uses psychobabble to talk about herself most of the time.

It seemed incredulous at the time when she told me about how she often had migraine attacks if she sat on the floor or how a diet without carbohydates but butter eaten at various times of the day would help her lose weight. And she wasn't even fat to start with.

Could it be people like her somehow concocted these stories to draw attention to their own problems because there is nothing else they like to talk about? Sounds twisted but I suspect that's it because friends have often asked her to eat more, relax, be less paranoid and her usual retort would be that no one understood her condition. Perhaps she would be a good subject for a psychoanalyst, a psychologist or maybe both.

I wonder, after listening to all the problems and giving advice to the patients, how would the 'psycho-doctors' clear their own minds of all the negative emotions that piled up day after day?

I liked the way Alan so eloquently put it - 'so much discussion about behavioral patterns takes place as if the psyche didn't exist, like there are just social forces acting on a blank slate, and not only does the activity of consciousness have little effect but the unconscious and the entire world of desire and fantasy are simply ignored.'
By this I am working on the assumption that most people think that the behavior of a person is formed by the movement of society without taking into account the inherent psychological factors that are present in the individual or could be they are just relegated to the deep abyss of the mind.

If that blank slate is so often bombarded with all those emotions, would the positive cancel out the negative? Or would the slates be erased before each session can continue for the doctors? Even if they were, surely 'imprint stains' would be left behind?

What happened to the individual personality? Would it still be lurking under the slate?
Where do all these mind doctors go to take a break? I heard that psychologists often have their own doctors.

I don't know any psychoanalysts but I did know 2 psychologists who committed suicide and one other tried that in vain and currently pursuing a degree in psychology.

Well, I suppose every profession has its advantages and drawbacks. One thing is for sure ; discussions and discourse would certainly be an ongoing process because we have been trying to understand ourselves and our actions for the longest time. In fact I think sometimes people tried too hard to understand others when they should be spending time trying to comprehend themselves.

Studies have begun on the behavioral patterns of unborn children to those a few years old to see how they are being affected by exposure to different stimuli. Mayhaps we can help ourselves by making sure that the synapses in our brains are firing correctly which I believe, could ultimately create synergy among us.

This subject has such a broad range of starting points that... caramba, I think I am having a headache... think it's best left to the experts.


20th May 2006