The Truth: Where is it?

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Art Janov's Reflection: The Truth: Where is it?

The simple truth is progressive, and that pertains to psychotherapy. The question is whose truth? Simple. The patient’s. Always. You won’t find it in the theories of the therapist nor in her techniques. As obvious as it seems, the truth always lies in the patient; that is why he comes to us, because the painful truth is there but he usually doesn’t know it and even when he does he does not know where it is or why. But if we never get to his truth there is no progress (progressive) in therapy. We are there to treat him and not our theories. We are not after cleverly designed statistical outcomes but biologic ones. Each treated patient is a kind of test and ultimate support of what we do. We learn from patients; not them from us. We are not the fountains of wisdom but students of the human mind, and we learn at the source. We don’t delve into books to find answers to our questions; we observe our patients. All we need to know they hold within. So long as they come to us for answers they force us to look into the wrong places; and the answer remains elusive. It is a mutual delusion. They trust us to have the answer, and we take it as a sacred trust that must be pursued. We are both wrong, deluded by the history of psychotherapy and by the zeitgeist.

Deluded by the pedestal we have been put on, deluded by the desperate need and pain of the patient, deluded by socially institutionalized consensus that we professionals are the holders of secret truths about the unconscious. When I see patients each day I feel like I am going to school, getting my maturity degree in humility, eager to learn what lies in her unconscious. She is the holder of sacred truths; we have only found the way to access them. If our delusions had not fooled us into a false role we all would have found ways for access. How about talking to the patient? Not pontificating which is so seductive. How about following the trail of feeling, probing because we are interested in her, not in our theory. We can’t teach interest. Neophytes often make mistakes because they are not truly interested, nor empathic. They want to get ahead—ambition is the enemy of feeling. Remember again, the simple truth is progressive, and it is the secret for progress in psychotherapy. It is a simple thing; the minute we try to get complex and brilliant we fail. The patient is not interested in our discourse; she wants to get well and so does he. And she holds the secret of her cure; and that is what patients have to understand. When they claim, “I am not getting anywhere,” and if we answer defensively--yes you are-- all is lost because that is also a feeling……not getting anywhere at birth could have been fatal. Patients need to know that we both go at the speed she can tolerate and no faster. We cannot hurry feelings; besides she dictates the pace, not us.

What a relief not to have to have the answers; what a relief not to be brilliant all of the time. I always ask my patients (not beginners) if I made a mistake because they now know themselves better than I. They sense the mistakes and we must leave the way open to be corrected; that is how we learn. No more the professorial pose, the measured speech and the implied brilliance in our insights. No more acting out being the protective father. Patients need to learn about their needs, not have them fulfilled in the office by the shrink. It is so tiring to be the all knowing, omniscient soul. We all can relax and the therapy will go swimmingly.

Jan Johnsson's comment:

The Truth: Where is it?

I saw the mail, read the above heading, and then I went for a long walk with my dog and saved the text until I returned home.

During the walk, I went through one of my usual mind games, mental exercises and debated what TRUTH meant to me, now and before and how it (I) had progressively changed it’s many interpretations. How my subjective truth had merged with the truth of other people (family members, friends, colleagues etc.) in neurotic games, which only lasted until my or my counterparts truth did not correspond to the needs that the passage of time brings with it by obvious reasons. 

From my personal life as well as from the literature which I have read, I prepared, during my walk, a number of devastating examples that questioned how the truth can be somewhere if there is no common universal truth. Over the years, I only knew one truth, my individual. I felt relaxed and well prepared when I came home to comment on Art’s Reflection...

After having read the text of the article a couple of times I was suddenly disarmed. As if Art had prepared the article, after having listened to my private debate during my walk. I could not find a single point where Art contradicted what he has described in his books and carried out in his role as a guide / therapist. The patients truth / needs, the secret of her cure, come first (of course within the framework of a number of practical rules that are obvious to both parties in a treatment relationship) anything else ends up in delusion.

The question that towers is if there are other therapists, besides Art Janov, who can achieve the same humble, unlimited self-confidence and can act with enough intuitive skills and authority?

Jan Johnsson