'Who's Steering Spaceship Earth?': Clinging to the Wreckage of Psychotherapy
| Published date | 01 September 1988 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455058803500311 |
| Author | Phil McLoone |
| Date | 01 September 1988 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
103
’Who’s
Steering
Spaceship
Earth?’:
Clinging
to
the
Wreckage
of
Psychotherapy
Phil
McLoone
Probation
Officer,
Stoke
on
Trent
Back
from
a
recent
study
trip
to
California,
the
author
reflects
on
the
enduring
appeal
of
pseudo-scientific
therapies,
from
their wilder
West
Coast
manifestations
to
those
which
find
a
home
in
probation
practice.
Meltzoff
and
Kornreich’s
definition
of
psychotherapy
runs:
’Psychotherapy
is
taken
to
mean
the
mformed
and
planful
application
of
techmques
denved
from
established
principles,
by
persons
qualified
through
trainmg
and
experience
to
understand
these
principles
and
apply
these
techmques
with
the
intention
of
assisting
individuals
to
modify
such
personal
characteristics
as
feehngs,
values
attitudes
and
behaviours
which
are
judged
by
the
therapist
to
be
maladaptive
or
maladjustive ’
Psychotherapy
then,
is
essentially
a
discipline
concerned
with
interpretation
and
meaning,
the
exact
opposite
of
the
natural
science
approach
which
stresses
the
study
of
behaviour.
It
is
claimed
that
it
provides
us
with
numerous
’in-
sights’
which
behaviourism
and
other
natural
sciences
are
incapable
of
doing.
This
is
perhaps
the
attraction
of
the
approach
because
it
sup-
plies
a
kind of
explanation
(however
mistaken)
about
important
matters
like,
motivation,
love,
hate,
successes,
failures,
triumphs
and
disasters.
Experimental
psychology
on
the
other
hand,
ap-
pears
to
deal
with
esoteric,
unimportant
pro-
blems,
of
interest
only
to
experimental
psychologists
themselves.
The
choice
then,
would
appear
to
lie
between
a
humanly
impor-
tant
discipline,
however
unscientific
its
ap-
proach,
and
a
behaviourist
approach
which
has
a
proven
track
record.
No
Lack
of
Faith
Despite
the
lack
of
convincing
evidence,
there
is
no
lack
of
faith
in
the
efficacy
of
psychotherapy.
Given
a
training
length
only
surpassed
by
a
Jesuit
novitiate,
it
is
surprising
that
’professionals’
in
this
field
are
so
reluctant
to
embark
on
exercises
which
attempt
to
measure
whether
it
actually
works.
And
yet
remedies
a
plenty
are
on
offer.
They
include
such
types
as
Rogerian
psychotherapy,
bioenergetics,
encounter
groups,
mystical
therapy,
Est,
Synanon,
rolfing,
primal
therapy,
Reichian
massage,
marathon
nude
groups
and
what
Clare
refers
to
as
the
’no
Piss
therapy’,
because
you
can’t
unless
the
trainer
gives
you
permission
to
do
so.
These
therapies
have
their
roots
everywhere
in
neo-Freudian
and
Jungian
analysis,
existentialism
etc,
so
that
it
is
not
a
system,
as
such,
but
an
overarching
mood
that
tends
to
affect
all
of
these
variegated
therapies.
This
lack
of
system
is
intentional,
since
the
human
potential
movements
attempt
to
break
down
boundaries
using
direct
experiences
as
a
touchstone.
For
example,
Fromm’,
the
best
known
exponent
of
the
’Holistic
Cult’,
suggests
that
people’s
weaknesses
are
to
be
sought
through
direct
experience.
’People
are
flawed,
imperfect,
incomplete
and
are
thus
engaged
in
a
constant
struggle
for
completeness.’
In
Fromm’s
words
’the
most
normal
are
the
sickest,
and
the
sick
are
healthy’.
This
is
closer
to
religion
than
some
would
believe,
in
that
psychotherapy
now
explains
the
unknown,
the
reason
for
irrationality
-
the
results
of
original
sin?
It
has
also
taken
over
the
social
function
of
religion
where
to
some
extent
the
lonely
could
find
comfort
in
meeting
with
other
peo-
ple,
as
well
as
defining
values,
supplying
moral
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