Re: "In Search of Spirituality"

From: Virtualoso (virtualoso_at_dot.com)
Date: 07/20/04 

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:19:29 -0700

In article <5DvKc.122628$Oq2.53578@attbi_s52>, Robert J. Kolker
<robert_kolker@hotmail.com> wrote:

> David Polewka wrote:
>
> > From The Jewish Star, 6/11/2004
> >
> > "In Search of Spirituality"
> >
> > by Richard Altabe
> >
> > Why do our children turn to mind-altering substances
> > when we have given them beautiful communities, wonderful
> > schools and everything they need? We have worked so hard
> > to build our yeshivot and day schools, struggled to build
> > up our synagogues, how can it be that our children are so
> > empty that they need to fill their pained lives with
> > drugs and alcohol?
>
> Apparently something is missing. Apparently an overdoes of Talmud-Torah
> does not prevent self destructive behaviour. Has it occured to you that
> some people are stupid and short sighted regardless of how they are
> brought up?
>
> Then there are people deprived of schooling and "advantages" but somehow
> they make mensches out of themselves.
>
> Conclusion: the material conditions of our lives and the social
> institutions of our schooling and upbringing are not determinate.
>
> Go figure.

"It is an easy matter to believe that childhood events hold sway
over what kind of adult you become. The evidence seems to be right
in front of your eyes. The kids of smart and cultured parents turn
out to be smart and cultured. It must be all that good, enriching
influence throughout childhood. Kids from broken homes often
themselves later have problems in their own families; they must have
lacked 'good role models'. Kids who were abused often become
frightened as adults, as the world was indeed a frightening place,
or those that were subjected to violence often become violent
themselves."

"As persuasive as they seem, these observations are hopelessly
confounded. Yes, these people did grow up in world's in which they
were nurtured in their parents' image. BUT THEY ALSO HAVE THEIR
PARENTS' GENES. Each of these observations supports a genetic
interpretation as much as a childhood interpretation: smart genes,
loving genes, anxious genes, pessimistic genes, violent genes...
Why do genetic interpretations sound so farfetched to some modern
ears while the childhood interpretations sound so appealingly true?"

"The appeal of the child-rearing explanations has a theoretical
dimension and a moral dimension. Freud assumed both that childhood
events create adult personality and that their consequences can be
undone by reliving -- with great feeling -- the original 'traumas.'
Sound familiar? It should, because the premises are just the same as
those of the 'inner child' movement. Freud's premises may have
undergone a steady decline in the currency within the professions
and academia for many years, but Hollywood, the TV talk shows, many
psychotherapists, and the general public still love them."

"Childhood trauma and catharsis do make good theater. ... These
techniques go by the name of 'catharsis', that is, emotional
engagement in past trauma-laden events. Catharsis is magnificent
to experience and impressive to behold. Weeping, raging at parents
long dead, hugging the wounded little child who was once you, are
all stirring."

"Catharsis, as a therapeutic technique, has been around for more
than a hundred years. It used to be a mainstay of psychoanalytic
treatment, but no longer. It's main appeal is afterglow. Its main
drawback is that there is no evidence that it works. When you measure
how much people like doing it, you hear high praise. When you measure
whether it changes anything, catharsis fares badly. Done well, it
brings about short-term relief -- like the afterglow of vigorous
exercise. But once the glow dissipates, as it does in a few days,
the real problems are all still there."

"Flushed with enthusiasm for the belief that childhood had great
impact on adult development, many researchers eagerly sought support.
They expected to find massive evidence for the destructive effects of
bad childhood events such as parental death, divorce, physical illness,
beatings, neglect, and sexual abuse on the adulthood of victims.
Large-scale surveys of adult mental health and childhood sufferings
were conducted. Prospective studies of childhood losses on later life
were prepared and launched (these take years and cost a fortune). ...
The traumas of childhood, it was shown, may have SOME influence on
adult personality, but THE INFLUENCE IS BARELY DETECTABLE."

"These reports threatened the bulwarks of some professions. Bad
childhood experiences, contrary to credo, do NOT mandate adult troubles
-- far from it. ... The facts are the latest, if not the last, word in
renascent nature vs. nurture controversy. The come from a convergance of
large-scale studies using up-to-date measures. ... researchers HAVE NOT
FOUND ANY SPECIFIC NON-GENETIC INFLUENCES YET."

"There is NO justification, according to all these scientific and
extensive studies, for blaming your adult depressions, anxieties, poor
relationships, drug use, sexual problems, employment problems, violence,
alcoholism, or upsets on what happened to you as a child."

"There is NO evidence that catharsis techniques help in any lasting
way with chronic emotional problems. There is NO evidence that they
alter adult personality. And, strangely, catharsis about FICTITIOUS
memories does about as well as catharsis about real memories. The
inner-child advocates, having treated tens of thousands of suffering
adults for years, have not seen fit to do any follow-ups. Because
catharsis techniques are so superficially appealing, because they are
so dependent on the charisma of the therapist, and becaue they have
NO LASTING VALUE, my advice is 'Let the buyer beware'."

"If you want to blame your parents for your own adult problems, your
are entitled, scientifically, to blame the genes they gave you, but
you're not entitled -- by any objective facts known to date -- to
blame your own adult problems on the way they treated you."

- Dr. Seligman, prominent research psychologist 

----
"[Certain experiences], especially when suffered at an early age, are
thought to predispose individuals to later adult impairments, including
alcoholism, depression, and an array of psychological as well as
physical disorders. Psychotherapy, oriented toward uncovering the early
antecedent traumas of adult disorders, is predicated on the hypothesis
that early life experiences determine the development of an individual
throughout adulthood. Most often the effect is found to be negative."
"Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg, a prominent developmental psychologist,
reviewed the research on the predictability of adult adaptation and
health based on childhood experiences. He and his colleagues
concentrated on the key longitudinal studies in the three areas of
emotional development, sexual development, and social behavior. They
concluded that the pervasive belief that early life experience
determines adult behavior is ... a myth."
"My study further confirms this research, demonstrating that traumatic
events in childhood often serve as catalysts for the later development
of such positive adult characteristics as altruism, compassion,
commitment, and resistance to psychological and physical illness. In
spite of this accumulating evidence the myth of the "unhealthy child,
unhealthy adult" continues to be promulgated, and people are made to
fear that early life trauma spells the absence of health, achievement,
and happiness in adulthood."
- Dr. Kenneth Pelletier

Relevant Pages

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