Usefulness or useless psychotherapy
I feel that my whole drive to study [clinical] psychology, to treat and counsel individuals through therapy is not valid anymore.
2 of my courses here has demonstrated that therapy is not as effective.
I mean, I do agree with Alicia and Kay Jamison (haha) that therapy and medication has to go hand in hand in order to gain the best results. However, how does all the talking and listening really do the person any justice? Does it really ensure them a faster recovery process?
Neuroscience on the other hand, is different. You look for the source of the problem; The connections and circuits in the brain that has gone wrong. The neurotransmitters responsible for this reaction and the part of the brain that controls the response. You go into the brain, you find out what went wrong, you administer drugs to repair its activity and circuits. You find out the cause for the problem. You CURE people.You find out how these disorders arise. You help to prevent more people from being victims from it. You do SOMETHING worthwhile.
Considering the amount of psychiatric cases that are increasing (the next DSM-V that comes out in 2011 will probably have 700 types of disorders), that isn't such a bad thing to do right? I mean, if the increased disorders in the DSM-V represents more people suffering from mental disorders, shouldn't more people be motivated to find out the cause of this increase and stop it before it gets any worse?
Well either that, or they are seriously over-reacting and over-classifying random things into disorders. Which probably means that 1/3 of us are technically 'mental'.
Hmm.
Suddenly all the "So tell me how do you feel today?" kind of talking therapy doesn't seem to hold any water at all. You can ask that every single day of your life, repeating yourself to assure the patient and their condition WON'T IMPROVE.
So tell me again, why am I studying to be a psychologist ?
I would switch to neuroscience provided my grades match up to my interest.
Saying that, I don't exactly wanna spend my life peering at brains and cells and running experiments with lab rats and monkeys.
YOU TELL ME HOW NOW?