Friday, March 19, 2010

Right and Wrong is Not About Conformity vs. Non-Conformity....





If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity..
  - Bill Vaughan


For those who believe that The Jeffrey Masson Interview is about 'conformity' vs. 'non-conformity'...


Please, think again...


There is a lot of context and history behind this controversy...and it really is not about conformity vs. non-conformity...

It is about real or imagined childhood sexual abuse in the memories of female psychoanalytic patients...

And that is not about conformity vs. nonconformity...

It is about who is right and who is wrong...

Regardless of who the 'conformist' is and who the 'nonconformist' is...

And that should be based on a case by case analysis...

Not by any 'predetermined generalizations'...

What is true in a court of law...

Should also be true in a therapist's office...

Although, to be sure, a judge and a therapist have different jobs and different goals...

To carry out in society...

A judge to administer 'fair justice'...

A therapist to help his or her client 'get better'...

Still, in both cases, 

No predetermined decisions should ever be made...

Context and individual circumstances are of the utmost importance...

When a judge walks into a court of law...

For a particular case, 

He never steps into the same river twice...

And the same is true for a therapist...

A therapist when he enters his therapeutic office...

Never steps into the same river twice...

'Prefabrication' may work for houses....

But it doesn't work for either judges or therapists....or clients....

It doesn't matter whether the judge or the jury or the lawyer or the therapist or the theorist...

Is conformist or non-conformist...

It is all about a therapist doing his or her job according to what is 'epistemologically right'....

To the best of his or her ability...

Just like a judge in a court of law...

Pre-determined generalizations and pre-decisions...

Handed out carelessly and with no flexibility...

Just don't work....


-- dgb, January 19th, 2010.

-- David Gordon Bain

-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...

-- Are Still in Process...