The Psychotherapy Myth
22nd June 2024
The chief content of this myth is that people often cannot process or work through adverse events and traumas—abuses, breakups, firings, humiliations—and sometimes even repress the memories because they are too painful for the psyche to assimilate. But repressed or poorly processed traumas do not simply subside; they fester, and they spread, causing further psychological pain and maladaptive behaviors. Time alone, it seems, does not heal psychic wounds. But if the sufferer works through the trauma, potentially recovering repressed or degraded memories, she can understand and perhaps even eradicate the sources of her misery. Thus, the talking cure is indispensable, and a stoic embrace of silent suffering, once lauded, is not only a species of misguided masculinism, but is inimical to mental health.
The psychotherapy myth is often coupled with, though sometimes contradicted by, another pervasive myth, the brain-chemical imbalance myth. According to this myth, depression is not caused by repressed trauma, at least that is not the essence of depression, but rather by a chemical imbalance (perhaps especially by an imbalance of serotonin). The talking cure might work, but only if it restores chemical equilibrium; and often therapy is not enough. Antidepressants are needed. These alleviate despair, lethargy, and the other myriad symptoms of depression by increasing available serotonin and other relevant neurotransmitters (depicted memorably in a Zoloft commercial).