One of the most interesting things (for me anyway) about new developments that arise in the helping profession (take, for example, Person Centred Therapy that we covered in the Chapter on Modalities – a development that happened in the 1940’s and 50’s) is that the new developments often use knowledge that has come from ancient wisdom, known since the dawn of history.
Take unconditional positive regard, for example, one of the cornerstones of Person Centred Therapy.
There are numerous examples (in respect of the benefits to humanity) of treating people in a non-judgmental way, or giving kindness and expecting nothing in return, in ancient texts that people the world over, for thousands of years, have considered to be worth following as a blueprint for living.
The only ancient text that I am familiar with is the Christian New Testament (and I’m not even too familiar with that) which is the basis for Christianity, a religion followed by billions of people worldwide. In the New Testament unconditional positive regard – i.e. giving and not expecting anything in return – is referenced a number of times. The one that jumps out at me is the story of Mary and Martha, where Jesus esteemed someone who did nothing as much as the person who worked hard. I know a lot less about other major world religions but I’d say that there are similar messages about loving one’s fellow man, tolerance and forgiveness.
Another element of Person Centred Therapy, congruence (being genuine, true to myself, my beliefs, what one sees is what one gets etc.) is also promoted as being of importance for good living in ancient stories, legends, fables, etc. and it runs like a thread through the entire New Testament.
And the third core condition, empathy (being able to imagine what it is like to walk in another’s shoes) is evident in the well-known instruction to love my neighbour as myself to mention but one.
And that is only person centred therapy!
If we picked any of the humanistic modalities (of which person centred therapy is one, along with gestalt, existential, reality therapy, trans-personal or even modern solution focused brief therapy – I’m not going to describe all these – you can look them up if you like) it would be the same.
If we fast forward from the 1940’s to the early 2000’s, studies on the brain have shown that unconditional love, creativity, trust and warmth, and techniques like meditation and mindfulness produce chemical activity which has positive effects on the brain which in turn has a healing effect on the psyche – without application of any external chemicals or medication.
The point that I am making here is that the therapists of the 1940’s and 1950’s who discovered new ways of supporting people in distress and then laid down the foundations for humanistic modalities, and the neuroscientists who from the early 2000’s to date have been making discoveries in the neural activity of the brain that are rigorously, scientifically proving the theories of the mid-20th century humanistic psychotherapies, are telling us very little that is really new.
They are rediscovering old wisdoms, proving them using logic and science, and then repackaging them for a modern audience so that we (the modern audience) will be swung over to their way of thinking and choose such methods when we are forward-planning in respect of helping people in distress.
And we, being immersed in technology for a few centuries now, are more receptive to such arguments than we would be if they were from an ancient text.
For example, recently I read a fascinating article about new studies on how the adolescent brain develops, and how discoveries made about the limbic system and prefrontal cortex explain why adolescents take a lot of risks.
As I said, I am fascinated by this research and love reading about it – but no one can deny that it has been known for millennia that adolescents take more risks than mature adults – and adolescent risk-taking and immaturity is referenced in literature and stories since ancient times. (As the old saying goes, adolescents are old enough to know it’s dangerous but young enough to do it anyway).
The essential message of the Johari Window, (i.e. that the unconscious mind influences our behaviour and we are not aware of it) has also been known to humanity for a long time.
An example might be Napoleon, when asked who his best General was, replied, General Luck. This was not a play on words, he was acknowledging (perhaps unconsciously – but I didn’t know Napoleon that well so I can’t be sure) that luck is not a totally random phenomenon, rather it is somehow or another caused by something that is within us that we might not be aware of, and Napoleon twigged this!
And talking about ancient, linked to the above are the endless studies done, and our fascination with how other mammals behave, in particular our close cousins chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and similar species.
The studies into their behaviour are done because we feel that we can learn something from them about relationships, identity, conflict resolution, and even childhood growth and development.
Now the fact that the content is not new doesn’t mean that they are worthless, or that I (as a fan of person centred therapy and the discoveries of neuroscience) want them to stop.
Far from it – in fact the more that the ancient texts (and the words and exhortations of poems, songs, plays, films and art of all descriptions in every culture all over the world) are proven to contain the more enlightened ideas in respect of helping very distressed people the sooner compassion, love, creativity, warmth, trust, relationship, understanding, empathy and genuineness will – in our choices of methods of healing very emotionally distressed people – not only complement the world of pharmacology and psychiatric drugs, but, over time, become the dominant modality.
Neuroscience [1] is bringing, and will bring about in the future, great changes in the way we help people and educate and support children – a lot of the time proving to the sceptical that which has always been known to the wise. Much of the reason for this is that, as I said above, the sceptical are very impressed by technological and scientific knowledge.
And, to finish this post, I am sure that prophets like Jesus, Muhammed and many others did the same thing – i.e. drew on ancient wisdom for the people of their times.
Summary: I will call this type of development circular development, where developments do contain new and innovative elements and knowledge, (such as the role of the limbic system/prefrontal cortex in risk-taking by adolescents) but also contain knowledge almost always known to us in some form. The existing knowledge is repackaged (and sometimes reinterpreted) to adapt to existing cultural and social conditions – as I explained in a previous post – to make it attractive to the general public.
In the next post I will look at what I will call stepped development.
[1]. It is probably a bit over the top to say that neuroscience is to our education, well-being etc. what the silicon chip is to electronics – but it is certainly bringing fresh impetus to the assertions of person centred psychotherapy that the problems, as described above, that have always beset society are rooted in our emotional selves.