Psychoanalytic theory, concepts, and terms have become so tightly integrated into our conceptual framework that we rarely spend the time to consider how their misuse contributes to our present difficulties. Sadly, so much of what passes for psychological insight in our pop culture is a perverse application of concepts which takes us further from the psychoanalytic ideal of personal responsibility.
Our concepts are so often misunderstood and misapplied by lay people and therapists because they seem to believe that the goal of therapy is to find someone to ascribe responsibility to for the plight of the patient. Blaming one's mother or father for one's unhappiness may make someone feel some momentary relief but it cannot lead to real change. When people look to blame an external "other" whether it is their parent, or an abuser (real and imagined), or the social structure around them, it harms them in profound and often unrecognized ways.
We see this kind of thinking throughout our pseudo-psychological culture. Recently, a man who had a record of DWI arrests, got into his car with a blood alcohol level 3 times the legal limit, sped through a red light and murdered a woman. At his trial, he plead innocent because he is an alcoholic and therefore incapable of controlling his drinking.
We do not expect children and adolescents to be fully responsible for their behavior (though, at times, when the behavior is heinous enough, we do legally regard adolescents as adults; that is another discussion, though). We recognize that their immature level of psychological development leaves them with a limited capacity to understand the effects of their behavior. Adolescents, in particular, can perform adult actions without a mature understanding of the consequences of their actions.
The typical rebellious adolescent demands perfection, and reacts with fury to the inevitable failings of the authority figures who just a few short years ago were idealized by him. By the end of adolescence, the child has begun to see people with a clearer eye, no longer needing to idealize or devalue the authorities, but beginning to appreciate the complexities of reality as opposed to the simplicity of their prior "black and white" mind set.
Mark Twain once commented, "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned."
These days it often takes a much longer time to leave adolescence, but eventually most do. However, in some significant ways, our culture seems particularly adolescent.
Adolescents act like adults without the sense of responsibility for their actions that we hope adults have. They still need to believe that someone powerful and external to them is in control. They believe in exaggerated images of the all powerful authority figures. They tend to idealize others, and then when disappointed, devalue them. This devaluation is passionately, and almost lovingly, nurtured; the betrayal by a once imagined protector is inexcusable.
When an adolescent makes the difficult transition into adulthood, he must give up many things. He must recognize that the world is extraordinarily complex and that no one is truly in control of its workings. If he cannot give up this idea (because, after all, a chaotic world is a very frightening world) he is left with either an ongoing need to find new objects of idealization (which will inevitably disappoint him and be devalued in a never ending cycle) or descends into psychosis, with paranoid beliefs, for example, that the FBI or the CIA are after him and trying to control him. While these are frightening thoughts, they are actually less frightening than the reality of an out of control world and the person is somewhat comforted by their delusions.
When the person is not psychotic, yet needs to maintain his adolescent position of helplessness (which includes a disavowal of responsibility for his own plight and actions), he may find others who agree with him. Then, the delusional system is shared with others. The Americans or the Jews are controlling the world and bringing harm upon me and my people. The paranoid theories advanced in much of the Arab world's press has this quality.
This brings me to the Main Stream Media, and its most recent melt down. Newsweek reported a rumor as a story in a way which mirrors adolescent behavior. The consequences of their action were not just misjudged, but were not even considered. They demand perfection from the American Military and the Republican leadership of the country, while at the same time ignoring the myriad ways in which the opposition to Bush have failed time and again to behave responsibly or take responsibility for their actions.
Consider the particular story. If it were true that an American interrogator, in an attempt to obtain information from a detainee , had managed to circumscribe the laws of physics and flushed a Koran down the toilet, what would have been the significance of the story? Would the story have said anything important about the war on Islamic fascism? Would the story have illuminated anything significant about the conduct of the American military? About Bush? About Rumsfeld? All we would have learned is that some interrogator was insensitive and perhaps overly zealous in Guantanamo. We would also have learned that Newsweek was able to get a juicy anti-military scoop, but is there any way that could have helped us to wage the war more effectively? The answers are fairly obvious; if the story had any resonance, it could only have harmed our war efforts. In the hypothetical instance that a reporter found out about serious abuses, and feared that it would harm our war efforts, or harm the American image in the Muslim world, or dehumanize the American people; if the reporter knew how dangerous this action was to our democracy or civilization, such that it had to be stopped, wouldn't the effort to quietly challenge the military leadership, with the threat of publication if necessary, have been more effective in bringing about the outcome they would claim to desire?
The absence of proportionality, the ignorance of collateral damage, and the minimization of responsibility (according to many, including the New York Times, it was our behavior at abu Graib that sensitized the Islamic world to believe the Newsweek story, which is arrant nonsense to anyone who can read); these are all hall marks of an adolescent approach to the world.
If our MSM does not use these experiences of failure as "growth experiences" we are all in trouble. Democracy needs a free press and free inquiry in order to protect our freedoms. Perhaps the Blogosphere will one day provide an alternative source for news-gathering (when everyone is a reporter) but we are still a long way from that.
MSM, Heal Thyself.
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