Recently, I’ve begun to notice that several of my friends and acquanitances are secretly adherents to some form of self-actualization philosophy/practice or another. Since most of my friends are over-educated, they tend to be more discreet about these allegiences than your average everyday schmo, but once the topic is breeched, I find that they can proselytize about their mutli-step program, therapist, metaphysical insight, or other psychological fix-it with the best of them. Now, I’ve always been very skeptical of anything that smacks of the “new-age”–I think that skepticism is a result of a combination of factors: my Protestant upbringing, my education, my tendency toward private struggle, my pride. But for some of these folks, I can tell that whatever Kool-Aid they’re drinking seems to be working for them, and it has made me stop and re-think my skepticism on several occastions recently.
Now, I’ve had a host of major upheavals in my life recently, so I know that people may be more inclined than normal to proffer their therapeutic wares to me. For the most part, I’ve taken the “buffet” approach–surveying all the choices, passing over most of them, taking a sample here and there if it looks good. Yoga? Okay. Therapy? Too expensive. Keeping a creativity journal? Yuck. Investigating the details of my past lives? Ummm, thanks but no thanks. Something you saw on Oprah yesterday? Watch me while I run far, far away. In general, I shy away from anything that invoves multiple-steps– although I think that system has been very effective for AA, in other contexts it smacks too much of a pyramid scheme. Then, of course, there are also the true believers, who invite me to church and who swear, really swear, that their church is different than any one I’ve ever been to in my life. I have to remind those people that I’ve been to a lot of churches.
I’m genuinely fascinated by the fact that self-help has become its own muti-kabillion dollar industry. Especially in light of the recent claim that people–well, “girls” in particular–who share their problems are at a greater risk for anxiety and depression. And, I’m very, very fascinated by the fact that many of these systems, which on the surface are so obviously provisional and makeshift salves for temporary emotional and psychological wounds, present themselves as the “deeper Truths” of human being. My instinct is to say that when someone is in pain, almost any promise of relief will be seriously entertained, and most will be semi-effective (as we know from placebo experiments). But the truth is that I have a lot of smart friends who are finding relief there as well.
I don’t have any meta-claim to make here. I’m just interested.
