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If someone is having problems why are they sent to a Psychologist and not a Philosopher?
On one side there are answers with evidence?? on the other there are answers we are made to believe?
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follow the money. money talks!
When people go to school for psychology they learn about the brain, about human relationships, about psychological disorders that are real, what causes all that, and how to fix all that. Philosophers don't learn about this. Probably even a good philosopher will just give you a few good lines and try to apply philosophy to your problems, but everyone is different. It's important to be able to listen to someones unique situation if you really want to help. Everyone has different problems. This is where a psychologist comes in handy.
In my opinion psychologists are much more useful than psychiatrists. Because know the difference that a psychiatrist is the one who is more likely to just prescribe you drugs rather than try to work out the problem with you. They really just tend to want the drug to fix the problem for you. They tend to believe that you need the drug more than you need the actual therapy.
And I feel relying on brain altering meds for psychological disorders is basically like putting a blanket and a bunch of perfume on a pile of shit. The shit is still there, just covered with the meds. What happens when the meds are gone. Now some psychological disorders actually can be helped with the meds, but obviously they're over prescribed and really not always needed.
Good psychologists will often even study Buddhism to help their work. I see them all the time whenever I visit a sangha here in L.A.. I love psychology, it's what I'd be doing if I could handle so many years of school. But most have to go to school for at least 6 years. I don't think I have it in
me.
This friend was also the one who gave me my first book on Buddhism. I thought I was really smart and invented a new philosophy about how the world worked, and what truth was. (I wanted to be a psychologist at the time, and was heavily influenced by cognitive therapy). I blathered on to her, talking away and feeling pretty unique and proud, when she suddenly said "I think you're talking about Zen..." I was like "pssshhhh", no I'm not saying anything about Zen. So she lent me a book and I didn't even read it for 6 months. When I did... what a let-down.
It's pretty cool that a therapist introduced me to Zen, and I suddenly realized why she was always a cool cucumber who went with the flow.
Google cognitive therapy, it's actually really interesting.
A person with agoraphobia thinks that if they go outside alone they will faint or have a heart attack or something else and won't have a way to get back to their safe space so they'll just be out in public completely crazy and awful things will happen. Cognitive therapy challenges examining these so-called "truths", which are not really truths at all as you assert, and replaces them with more acceptable alternatives that show distortions in thinking regarding that specific situation.
Philosophy is about "eternal truths" such as Being and Non-Being and so forth. Cognitive therapy examines faulty belief systems and shows their flaws.
Psychology is a science, it's just that many scientists are angry that many of the answers in psychology cannot always be proven with hard objective evidence. My psych teacher said the hardest part of psychology is to provide inarguable evidence, since much of the evidence in psych can be argued. I also find that philosophy is argued by many, take an ethics class and you're like "jeez these guys really liked to fight with each other". There are many many similarities between Psych and Philosophy, (maybe not as much with Psychiatry).
Buddhism also places an emphasis on compassion. That is a concept a pure cognitive therapist would not consider.
A Buddhist therapist has at their fingertips, everything a cognitive therapist has plus the ability to foster emotional growth through the implementation of metta meditation. It can take literally years for a therapist to help a person work their way through resentment they have for a person who has victimized them. Buddhism goes the direct route and teaches a person how to let go of resentment immediately. Much faster to get to the place both approaches want to end up at.
Often times, in therapy, things do not get better for a person until they are able to let go of their resentment. Buddhists teach it immediately. Buddhism is a real boon for therapy.
It's interesting you say that. I had PTSD as a kid and teen, (no didn't need a vietnam war, just a lovely childhood). I had some cognitive therapy when I was young but I only progressed so far. My dad wanted to pull me out of it because he thought it was a waste of money, but I was seeing results... I just couldn't cross that last hurdle. I got better when I moved away from the source of the trauma, then got into Buddhism. Buddhism was the clincher. It was the cherry on top that finally finished off a childhood of trying to break the cycle and not wind up diving off some cliff- course there are no cliffs where I live. My dad would blow it off and say, the day you stop shaking is the day you're over it. He's John Wayne... that's how he gives advice. Well he was right. After 2 years of delving into Buddhism, I did stop with the tremors, flashbacks and teeth chattering. I hate when he's right. But even today when a trigger occurs that used to send me into a hyperventilating panic, I mentally picture a Buddha guy (he looks like that pink Buddha bank that's giving the piece sign) and he usually gives me some humorous advice that pulls me back away from the mental ledge I was about to fall into. He doesn't let me focus on the intense memories and I get to step back to see them objectively. Maybe examine them for any possible benefits I can draw from the experiences. Or I am forced to just accept the sad ones and realize that I'm currently free of them. (Best of all... Pink Peace Bank Buddha has a Yoda voice).
I read somewhere later... that many victims of traumatic experiences find a connection with Buddhism. It really seems to top-off cognitive therapy.
Aside from those, there's grief therapy that's good for working out long-held resentment and anger (pounding on pillows, and other exercises; some Buddhist teachers frown on that, but I've seen it work wonders on people), and something called Corrective Parenting, where the family of origin is re-created in a group setting, and someone plays the role of a "healthy dad", a "healthy mom", and siblings. The patient regresses to various ages and re-enacts painful scenes, but experiences them with parents and siblings behaving in a loving, supportive way, rather than a neglectful or abusive way. This can be profoundly healing.
As a consequence, in areas where the resources are not available, the alternative is yo-yoing in and out of therapy and no actual therapeutic alliance is really made.
Buddhism used in therapy involves the cognitive approach, with mindfulness, acceptance and it has a compassionate element (no pun intended). To my knowledge, there has never been a study that considered Buddhist treatment so clearly demonstrating Buddhism's efficacy compared to CBT, DBT or Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) isn't possible in purely scientific terms, but when the alternative is no treatment at all, you do what you can. I have used a Buddhist approach with some success. Those are the perils when you practice in a tiny town in Northern Canada.
Apart from the fact that Buddhism has a CBT approach plus the mindfulness of DBT and the acceptance of ACT, Buddhism involves compassion and there are some very promising results which are currently bein demonstrated. Christopher Germer is a clinical instructor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School and his book, The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion is an interesting read. There are others such as Kristin Neff (who has a new book coming out next month) and Tara Brach who utilize these approaches.
It's interesting that you mention Borderline. My mother is Bordeline. I've learned a lot about the human mind by just reflecting on how she came to be, and why she did what she did. Unfortunately many Borderlines turn their children into Bordelines, or the kids get PTSD. So from a young age I thought "No.. must fight the sadness Artex!" I managed to avoid becoming her by leaving at 15 (that and having a therapist while going through it), however I always wondered if she could ever overcome her own traumas.
What saddest about Borderlines is their all or nothing thinking. Either it's all your fault and you must now die, or it's all their fault and they want to die. She attempted suicide when I left, and I know it was an attempt to bring me back, but also real feelings of complete shame. The hardest part of any therapy is taking responsibility for one's emotions and perspective. Borderlines are highly critical of oneself and others. I don't think someone with Bordeline could handle the perspective in Buddhism that everything is a creation of the mind. My mother would see that as a type of blame.
I don't think Buddhism would ever help her. It's too much, too quick. I also don't think Buddhism would work in cases of Narcissistic PD, or Sociopathic disorder. (These are highly related and difficult to treat).
I have observed a trend with Buddhism and psychology. Buddhism seems to really help depression, trauma, and anxiety. It also works well on people with anger problems. It would be great if there was a slow way to introduce Buddhism to people I think would really benefit from it's ability to heal the mind.
I am glad you have found your way out of your problems.
would not make any sense to you.
So, to answer the question we need to look at treatment. Treatment in this case i'm assuming to mean therapy, and really, all a therapist is is the same thing as your friend who is a "good listener" but with a PH. D. in what they're listening to you talk about.
However, more and more these days a behaviorist or biological approach is being taken towards an increasing number of cases because the results are quantifiable, and insurance companies love that. It might take a year to actually solve the problem in philosophy based humanism, but biology based behaviorism will correct the bad behavior and have you out of there in six sessions. You can see why the insurance companies love this i'm sure.
So, in summation, a psychologist, depending on that psychologist's basis of thought for themselves; and depending on the problem itself, is really nothing more than a philosopher in some cases. A kind of, guide on this journey inward to resolve whatever "problem" you're coming with. A guide with a PH. D. in what they're doing is a pretty good one, and usually psychologists can help, even if it is just having someone that isn't judgmental to listen to what the client is saying.
Philosophy deals with general, universal, objective questions, and psychology is about personal, subjective issues.
They are both based on logic and therefore use rational investigation of reality, but they deal with different levels of reality. Beleive me, if you were looking for meaning you would not get it from philosophy which raises more questions than it answers.
Incidently, I studied Buddhist philosophy as part of my degree and really enjoyed it, but it was my psychologist who got me into practicing it as he uses mindfulness as part of his therapy.
I have been getting Reflexology and Reiki done. But if you tell a medical doctor you have had them done they just roll their eyes!
It's sad because if they were used together they would really complement each other.
Jason
Now, it is true that i just made that statement up, but until someone proves me wrong on that i'll stand by it. And not proven under conditions that are strict like for accepted treatments = not effective (in medicine). They may work, but until they are proven under the relevant standards they do not work.
Kinda like someone was accused of killing someone, he is innocent until proven otherwise, even if he was actually guilty all the while. If you were telling a judge he was guilty before he got the sentence the judge would be rolling his eyes as well i imagine.
So i guess this is the way those doctors were thinking in.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it works every time but, in my case it did work.
I went to a person who does all of these treatments and had been sick for months with no doctor being able to tell me what was wrong with me.
So, on the second day I went to her she did Reflexology on me and told me there was something hormonal wrong with me!
So, I told my doctor and he organized for me to go to the hospital and in there I was diagnosed with Addison's disease which is a hormonal problem.
Just my experience with it.
Jason