Guest guest Posted March 27, 2001 Report Share Posted March 27, 2001 watts_pete@... wrote: > > > > On _this_ side of the pond, > >although it > > may vary somewhat by state law, it was psychiatrists who practiced > > psychoanalysis. Only after psychoanalytic theory was totally > >discredited in > > the public eye, did they > > begin the widespread use of drugs. > > This is a travesty Ken. While psychonanalysis might have been > principally *taken up* by psychiatrists, medical training has never > been required to practice it, which, as I said before, is one reason > why it is (rightly) criticised so heavily. Pete, According to my best recollection you are dead wrong on this, at least as far as the U.S. goes. Psychiatrists (at least used to) practice the psychoanalysis. Psychologists used different methods. I know of _nobody_ who made the argument that Freudian-type analysis was wrong because the practicioner didn't have a medical license. The arguments were always along the line that the therapy was long, drawn out and useless and the psychiatrists themselves were the craziest of the crazies. If you have any reference to American psychologists practicing what was commonly defined as psychoanalysis prior to the last couple of decades, I'd like to see it. > Psychoanalysis and > analtyical therapy is still very popular, especially in the US. Not Freudian analysis, for which one needed a medical degree. Only the more different, complex cases needed an actual psychiatrist. The medical degree was important because a non-medical person couldn't tell whether the symptoms were purely physical or the result of a little girl's penis envy or a little boy's frustrated desire for sexual intercourse with his mother, like someone with medical training could. > > Psychiatrsits have always udes drugs, the expansion of drug treatment > in modernt times is only because for the first time very effective > drug treatments have become available for serious disorders, in > particular, lithium, antipsychotics, and antidepressants. > You aren't that much younger than me. Psychiatrists _haven't_ always used drugs. Up until at least the end of the 1900s they used torture devices. A friend of mine who used to work in an old mental hospital told me of the old part of the hospital, now sealed off, of pre-drug days, where the patients would be chained to the wall. Then first used drugs so they wouldn't have to chain them, so rather than screaming and being a real nuisance, they would just sit and slobber, staring off into space. That is why drugs were brought in -- patient control. Of course, there was also benevolence on the part of the therapeutic authorities. It was much kinder to medicate these people, many of these people were really sick and dangerous and included masturbators, nymphomaniacs and homosexuals that to chain them up. Psychiatric history is _not_ a pretty sight, unless the psychiatrists write it themselves. But then, whose history is unless self-written? Ken > > P. > > > > > Does it make sense that medical training would make one qualified to > > convince someone having problems in life that they originate with > their > > desire to have intercourse with their mother and jealousy toward > their > > father? Any quack can do that. > > > > Of course, now having a franchise that the street-corner drug dealer > can > > only envy, it is a different ball game. (Not to suggest that some > people > > don't > > benefit greatly from taking various drugs.) > > > > Ken Ragge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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