Of course not everyone needs to go to general talk or cognitive behavioral therapy. One person benefitting from this does not mean another person automatically would or that they even have any current trial that calls for it. Also, not all problems even can be treated by such therapy, as some need direct medication or alternate treatments more intensive than anything focused on conversation that prompts introspection. There is not necessarily anything irrational or wasteful about someone attending talk therapy sessions without being in true need of them, as long as one recognizes that this is only a preference that brings subjective comfort rather than a logical, moral, or personal necessity. For people with penetrating or ongoing emotional or broader psychological struggles, this therapy can still be a very liberating, stabilizing thing.
Now, I know my own mind with absolute certainty, as any conscious being can if they look to reason and introspection without making any assumptions, since they are directly experiencing their own thoughts. Anything that one is thinking or feeling does not need social prompting to be identified and understood precisely as it is. As for other people, I cannot know if there are any other minds at all, and no one else that is human like I am would be free of this limitation. This would be an assumption and an error that both therapists and their patients would need to avoid to be rational and to bring about genuine growth or change. There is no such thing as a non-telepathic being knowing what someone else is thinking or feeling or even knowing if they exist as an independent consciousness.
Therapy nevertheless provides an opportunity for someone to focus on aspects of themselves that, by necessity, they either already knew or could have known from reason and introspection beforehand (and hearing something from a therapist does not make it true or prove it is true, since only reason and introspection can do this); for some people, being mildly "confronted" or simply having the chance to talk about past or present emotions is all they need to start taking their mental health, as well as its impact on the rest of their lives or others, far more seriously. This is for the same reason why talking with friends can be so cathartic and helpful. Verbalizing even struggles or burdens one knows can bring psychological release.
Therapy cannot resolve certain causes of stress or depression or anxiety, to list just some mental problems. It absolutely does not change societal issues like poor job opportunities or another person's unwillingness to be rational, communicative, or righteous. A therapist who is irrationalistic will also be destructive to their patient(s), and yes, it will always be more likely than not that they are irrational because most people are irrationalistic. It is easier to be irrational than rationalistic, as the latter takes actual initial effort, and potentially mighty effort at that, that is unrelentingly pursued, and then the logical truths are never to be abandoned--besides, being rational is not about believing medical hearsay, celebrating empathy or conscience, or pretending to know the existence or contents of other minds, even if they are your patients.
Rationality is being in intentional, knowing, accepting alignment with the necessary truths of reason (starting with logical axioms) that dictate all other things, inherently true in themselves, and it entails making no assumptions as one discovers them and actually lives in light of them. This is rationality, not believing in whatever stereotypes, emotionalism, hearsay, contradictory worldviews, or any other assumed or impossible things that might be very popular in some therapist circles. A therapist could be helpful by accident without being rational, yes. However, they would still not be a good therapist. They would be a fool who happened to be useful without even philosophically knowing their left hand from their right hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment