Page 65 - The Irony Board
P. 65
Into the World
Those most in need
Of rewiring
Study to be
Electricians
By candlelight.
It has been noted often that many of the people attracted to
psychotherapeutic professions have a deep desire to diagnose and
heal themselves. This phenomenon may relate to the low rate of
success of those practitioners. But even with the problems such
persons bring to their work, they might do better if their theory and
methodology were sounder. Gluckman clearly believed the etiology
and treatment of emotional disorders taught in medical schools was
of dubious value, and that many folk remedies and popular
movements provided superior cures. Thus the irony of this epigram
is double: the contrast of electricity (modern knowledge of the
brain) with candles (archaic psychological ideas) joins with the
absurdity of damaged circuitry (mentally-ill physicians) presuming to
rewire other malfunctioning components (mentally-ill patients).
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