Dr. Richard Friedman on Monday offers more commentary in The New York Times–this time his point is that therapy (particularly therapy focused on self-awareness and insight) does not bring happiness.
His article bothered for me for two reasons. The first 2/3 of the article reads anti-therapy. I don’t like articles that reinforce all the reasons the general public would resist giving it a try. Some quotes:
- “recent experience [with patients] makes me wonder whether insight is all it’s cracked up to be”
- “demystified his feelings, but had done little to change them”
- “psychoanalysts and other therapists have argued for years”
- “how therapy works (when it does)“
- “the Dodo effect”
The second reason I’m bothered is that he in fact doesn’t believe what he is writing. He wraps up his article by saying: “I realized then that I am pretty good at treating clinical misery with drugs and therapy …, ” but that isn’t the same as creating happiness.
Despite the negativism in the first 2/3 of his article he does endorse therapy, qualifying its relevance using the word clinical: “clinical misery” or “clinically depressed.” If you are a member of the general public, when do you know if your feelings of sadness, misery, or when you berate yourself or lack focus or energy, whether your symptoms approach the clinical threshold?
See a doctor.
He or she will diagnose. You don’t know enough to diagnose yourself, and unfortunately articles like this, lessen the chance you’ll pick up the phone and make an appointment.
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