More Stories From and About Psycho"therapy"

"Therapy" when done properly helps free people from life stories that utilize moral judgments as if they were observations and descriptions. To judge an individual (self or other) rather than understand the motives and life circumstances of that individual is to stifle any attempt at a real understanding of that individual. I am not suggesting that we should not judge the actions others or ourselves but do so after, or along side of understanding the behaviors that worry or offend us. "Therapy" creates a non-judgmental atmosphere in which two or more people, as equal human beings, try and understand why they think, feel and act as they do. The means of change involve permitting people to reflect on their life history and how they came to see themselves and others with fear and hatred rather than the type of clarity that might permit different choices in how to live and treat one's self and others. The goals of "therapy" are clearly moral in nature and express the the kind of life considered good and worthy of being lived. As such, a thoughtful psycho"therapy" makes explicit just what a good or better life the "patient" wishes to live and the therapist is willing to help him/her achieve as well as the means by which these goals are to be reached. In my value system the best life reflects democratic rather than authoritarian hierarchies based on judgments as to who is worthy and who is not. The means of therapy are drawn from science and the goals from a humanistic morality.