Such a Time Has Passed

This month has seen the coming and going of so many ideas and half-written mental histories; histories that have been scratched out, rewritten, re-glossed, re-contextualized in new ways, I hardly know how to begin in cataloging this great editorial process. However, what I want to discuss is something that is currently going on, as I research the history of American psychology (in service of another project). I have discovered, I think, the major reason that all of my encounters with counseling and psychology on the West Coast have been so very very unhelpful, and why, here overseas, interacting with psychologists trained to be A) straightforward and efficient and B) versed in theories related to PTSD and C) more open-minded and universal in their methodologies, I have found some actual aid and healing.

The main reason, I am starting to realize, is that the entire American psychological tradition is based in two movements: the sanitary psychology/moral health movement, and the mesmerism/spiritualism movement. The first, wherein psychological health, physical health, and morality/moral philosophy are all parts of the same pudding, so to speak (see Amariah Brigham, George Miller Beard, Upham, et al), lays the groundwork, really, for Cognitive Behavioral therapy, which is one of the most widely practiced in the Seattle area. Cognitive Behavioral therapy is the practice of training oneself mentally and physically to get better. This technique is good when treating depression brought on by bad habits or a situation that can be affected by the client; however, it falls very short when brought into cases of heavy trauma or ongoing psychological habits with roots other than personal life-choices which have lead to a downturn into depression. The second movement, the mesmerism/spiritualism movement which spread in America during the mid-1800s,
"...became part of a much broader American cultural movement away from established religion and toward an esthetic religiosity that stressed the achievement of inner harmony through self development, exploration of the heretofore hidden powers of the human mind, and transcendental contact with higher spiritual planes and powers (God, the ether, magnetic fluid, cosmic vibrations)" (Brynmawr University, Serendip. "Psychology in America." http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/Mind/before.html)
The spiritualism also informs much of Cognitive Behavioral therapy in a very American way, influencing it to focus on the spiritual health of clients through their ability to access their own inner power through the exercise of physical habits and mental will power. For example, the Cognitive Behavioral practices of changing physical habits and mental repetition and thought-intervention (thought-stopping), seem to draw directly on these interlocking ideals of health/sanity/morality/transcendence.

Unfortunately for me, the American tradition could not address my very un-individualistic, one might even say thus "UnAMERICAN," trauma, as my trauma and history are particularly founded in inter-relational pain and the construction of a warped shared reality. However, I have found a great deal of help in the practice of psychotherapy at the US Naval Hospital, a strange reversal, but perhaps related to the fact that inter-relational pain is often the problem at issue for soldiers, sailors, and others going through traumas of separation and stress disorders. The past and people (two p's of great importance), must be highlighted in treatment of these clients.