Posted by sigismund on March 31, 2012, at 20:24:36
In reply to @sigismund, posted by JohnLA on March 31, 2012, at 17:41:59
Well sure, John.
When I was 20 I very much wanted there to be some kind of hope given by this secular priesthood. I moved from psychiatry where it was a bit thin on the ground (this is 40 years ago before people became excited over pharmacology) to psychoanalysis which still had a bit of oomph left in it back then. I needed there to be hope. But what I needed was, I can see now and I intuited then, was something like a new upbringing. Getting someone like me hooked on benzos was not much of an advance. There are better things which older societies would have taken for granted, activities and kinds of carefully managed friendships.
Now I am 60. When I see my psych neither of us is talking about hope. If there are any useful interventions we will make them if we can figure them out. Prazosin and trimipramine at the moment. Mainly we share a sense of despair, about the world today. That is precious to me and makes me think I was being too flip when I talked about just passing the time. Right now I am reading Joe Bageant "Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball". It is so funny. It shouldn't be, but he makes it so.
poster:sigismund
thread:1013788
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120328/msgs/1014686.html