Are Psychologists Over Educated Bartenders?

A rather provocative title but that is the gist of a new book called Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Side of Science and Therapy. The book is written by Tomasz Witkowski and Maciej Zatonski, two Polish scientists who argue that psychotherapy is a business and a kind of prostitution rather than an effective evidence-based medical treatment.

I’ve been underwhelmed by more than one psychiatrist. Most therapists operate as passive recipients that a person is supposed to project his inner conflicts onto. That didn’t help me in psychotherapy. I don’t need to pay $150.00 an hour to talk to a fence post. From what I understand, though, psychotherapy is very punishing for psychiatrists and psychologists. I had a college professor tell me that once you’ve been a psychotherapist for six months the whole world starts to look like a cess pool.

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Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.

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Maybe… I have been seeing Licensed Social Workers as therapists for over twenty years. Mostly, they have been very good. The only psychologists I have seen were for testing and evaluation purposes and they seemed to have a “holier than thou” complex and made mistakes in their testing and evaluation of me. I have a BA in psychology, though, but, if I wanted to be a therapist; I would become a LCSW.

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I do think that there is corruption in every profession- however, my shrink I have been going to for almost two years has actually produced a product that really can’t get all that much better. I mean I could get a graduate degree and that’s pretty much hitting the ceiling. I haven’t made a B on my transcript since I began therapy with him and I have matured beyond the natural maturation effect and instead been cultivated into someone I never thought possible.

I saw two shrinks regularly before him, one just rejected me and told me he was retiring (I don’t blame him, I know medical ethics) and the next just listened and didn’t say much- not his fault, he probably wasn’t used to such ■■■■■■ up clients such as I was.

The guy who evaluated me was excellent but he only did evaluations. What he told me is what I live by.

My current shrink, as I said, actually helps.

None of them were corrupt, I was just too â– â– â– â– â– â–  up and was referred to an elite shrink.

Now professors are a different story.

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Psychotherapy IS a business but prostitution seems a bit much.

but that depends on the meaning of the statement.

when i was a bartender in summer/fall 2013, I just cracked jokes with people and remembered the peoples names, made them feel cool and accepted. it was a fairly fast paced environment. It was just a job i really wanted to try. it lost its buzz after a few months lol. but i have a pretty epic story involving a server/s girl when we went on a yacht trip for the staff :smile:

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That’s a story I wouldn’t mind hearing. I’ll trade you for my story about the thirty five year old blonde named Candy. That was 25 years ago though.

ill pm the story lol, its pretty funny

OK, I was kind of kidding but now I want to hear it.

haha ah ya tricked me!

I’m curious now. PM me.

I don’t want to know either story! :wink:

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