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From: dsn@tove.UUCP (Dana S. Nau)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: self-actualization
Message-ID: <306@tove.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Aug-85 12:41:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: tove.306
Posted: Mon Aug  5 12:41:31 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Aug-85 00:56:40 EDT
References: <1744@reed.UUCP> <621@ttidcc.UUCP>
Reply-To: dsn@tove.UUCP (Dana S. Nau)
Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD
Lines: 47

>From: thoma@reed.UUCP (Ann Muir Thomas)
>
>	I am looking at this discussion from the viewpoint of one
>who has gone through years and years of therapy, medication for
>depression, and yes, a self-actualization seminar...The last of these
>was very, very difficult; I was too immature at the time to understand
>the difference between taking responsibility for one's emotions and
>feelings (etc...) and blaming oneself for everything that happens. I
>spent several years recovering from that one weekend in a hotel in
>Hollywood with every variety of person imaginable, from secretary to
>porn star to grandfather...all of us looking for the same thing,
>happiness. The man running the seminar didn't give it to us, although
>his stories were interesting enough; only one woman, who had literally
>spent her life savings to be there, saw through his show at the time.
>Annd she was pissed!

>From: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath)
>
>Those who know me will tell you  that  I'm  apt  to  go  into  a  half-hour
>diatribe/lecture  on  the  evils  of  amateur  psychology  at the drop of a
>cliche'.  The above is a good example of why.  There are a huge  number  of
>fools  out there who think that because they've read a few popular books or
>been through therapy themselves they are ipso facto  qualified  to  perform
>therapy  on  others.  Ann's  story is only too typical of the wreckage they
>leave behind.

I took a "personal growth training" a few years ago, and have mixed
feelings about it.  For me, some of it was worthwhile--and some of it was
harmful.  What bothers me the most about such groups is the kind of
"evangelical fervor" they deliberately imbue into their graduates.  (In
fact, some of the net.singles discussion on this subject reminds me of a
religious dispute!)

I think several of the companies that do "personal growth trainings" train
their group leaders pretty intensively--but in a very different way from how
a clinical psychologist is trained!  The advertising material I've seen for
these events usually includes statements saying that they are "educational"
rather than therapeutic in nature--but there are certainly lots of
psychotherapeutic overtones.  Judging from my personal experience, I believe
that someone who's interested in personal growth can get more from one of
these trainings than from a bad psychotherapist, but that it makes more
sense to look for a good psychotherapist.
-- 

Dana S. Nau,  Computer Science Dept.,  U. of Maryland,  College Park, MD 20742
ARPA:  dsn@maryland				CSNet:  dsn@umcp-cs
UUCP:  {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!dsn	Phone:  (301) 454-7932