Category: Writing

WILL YOU STILL GO TO HEAVEN IF YOU DON’T DRINK THE KOOL AID? by Art Smukler, author and psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Psychiatry, Raising Children, Self Examination, World events, a psychological view, Writing

A patient reminded me about the November 1978 Jonestown massacre. 913 members of The People’s Temple cult committed suicide by drinking grape-flavored Kool Aid laced with potassium cyanide. Their leader, Jim Jones, after a number of practice sessions, ordered the entire cult to drink the deadly mixture. They did exactly what he said!

Psychotic, crazy, mass hypnosis, gullibility? Probably all.

Is it that much different now, 34 years later?

Charismatic preachers, acting like messengers from some crazy god, continue to have enormous religious and political power. In their eyes, birth control and homosexuality are clearly a sin. Now the preaching has taken on an even crazier tempo. Republicans are battling each other to prove who is the “true” conservative.

As a psychiatrist, I often wonder what is really going on. Am I the crazy one? If I don’t believe, will I not get into “The Kingdom”, or wherever religious fanatics go who are true believers? Whatever their fantasy might be, I’m not interested in joining them.

When a patient is overtly psychotic, logic doesn’t help. Talking to rigid evangelicals also won’t help. So what will?

Join groups like Planned Parenthood, work to have all 50 states pass equality laws supporting gay rights, speak out against any school that won’t teach evolution, speak out against any use of violence to advocate a religious belief, and do whatever you can to expose any hint of terrorism that will limit our right to have the freedom to come to our own conclusions about the world.

Because so many people need to drink Kool Aid, doesn’t mean that we have to respect or ignore the dangers that it breeds.

Any thoughts?

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IS THE PSYCHOANALYTIC COUCH THE FASTEST WAY TO REACH YOUR UNCONSCIOUS? by Art Smukler, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Psychiatry, Self Examination, Writing

You know the one — black leather, you’re lying face-up, with your psychiatrist sitting behind you. You’re silent. No thoughts are coming to mind.

“So what are your thoughts?” the doctor asks.

“Nothing. My mind’s a blank… I didn’t feel like coming in today and knew it would be a waste. I’m all blocked off. You know numb. The way I was when I first visited you two months ago.”

Silence

“I feel like you’re sitting back there criticizing me. You probably think I’m a real loser.”

“Why do you think that?”

“I don’t know why.”

Silence

“I know you like me. You smile when I come in. You’re always kind and try to accommodate my schedule. Christ, am I back to blocking off my feelings? Didn’t I do that when I got into a fight with my wife?”

“Are you fighting with her again?”

“No, we’re really doing much better, but I’m in such a crappy mood!”

“Any other ideas why?”

“It’s not home. It’s not work…or maybe it is. Damn, I got into it at work again with my boss. She’s such a bitch!”

“What did she do?”

“Just the way she looks at me. Her criticism is intolerable.”

“What kind of look?”

“It’s hard to describe… Just something about her that pushes my buttons.”

“Are your feelings similar to the way you felt when our session started? The way you thought I was criticizing you?”

“Maybe? You know what’s so interesting. Just as you were talking, I pictured my boss. There’s something about her that’s familiar. Not good familiar, but uncomfortable familiar.”

Silence.

“You’re going to laugh. My boss reminds me of my mother. That’s it! That’s the trigger. That’s why I felt she was criticizing me. Maybe she wasn’t. Maybe that mother-thing we’ve been working on is still plaguing me?”

The unconscious part of our mind is like the hidden part of an iceberg. Compared to the conscious part, it’s huge and drives so much of what we say and do. Most times we’re not even aware of its existence.

One reason why the couch works so well, is that the patient isn’t getting direct feedback from the doctor. He can’t see facial expressions and is forced to let his own fantasies of what’s going on in the mind of the psychiatrist run wild. It’s the opportunity to freely associate that’s so helpful. In this case, the patient is very psychologically minded and is able to experience the connection between his thinking that his doctor is criticizing him and then connecting it to what happened with his boss.

As expected, most people can’t afford 4 or 5 times a week on the couch (which is what a psychoanalysis entails). In the real world, the principles of psychoanalysis are applied in once-a-week psychotherapy. A patient can still learn from all we know about the science of the mind and benefit greatly.

Interested in more? See you next week.

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