Comments on: My way or the highway http://willspirit.com/2009/08/19/my-way-or-the-highway/ Where Will meets Spirit Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:05:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Will http://willspirit.com/2009/08/19/my-way-or-the-highway/comment-page-1/#comment-638 Will Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:10:16 +0000 http://willspirit.com/?p=975#comment-638 Lili-- It's been a long time since I looked at this essay. It strikes me as wordy and too long, like much of my work. I appreciate that you slogged your way through it. Dogmatism does, as you suggest, pervade most areas of modern life. People feel more comfortable with fixed views, and find it easier to dismiss others than to risk conceding any ground. Another factor is the tendency to look at things in absolute terms, which I touched on in the more recent post <a>'Shades of Gray'</a>. You are right that the solution is to go forward without letting the opinions of others block progress. Also, to sit with the discomfort. Thanks for reminding me of this post. It is relevant to several things going on in my current life. --Will Lili–

It’s been a long time since I looked at this essay. It strikes me as wordy and too long, like much of my work. I appreciate that you slogged your way through it. Dogmatism does, as you suggest, pervade most areas of modern life. People feel more comfortable with fixed views, and find it easier to dismiss others than to risk conceding any ground. Another factor is the tendency to look at things in absolute terms, which I touched on in the more recent post ‘Shades of Gray’. You are right that the solution is to go forward without letting the opinions of others block progress. Also, to sit with the discomfort. Thanks for reminding me of this post. It is relevant to several things going on in my current life.

–Will

]]> By: Lili http://willspirit.com/2009/08/19/my-way-or-the-highway/comment-page-1/#comment-637 Lili Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:30:45 +0000 http://willspirit.com/?p=975#comment-637 This is actually true in many,many aspects of life. In political or social activism it is an incredible hot button issue. My thought about service is that any little thing can help. I constantly run into those that for whatever reason start in with the "My thought, act, whatever- is better, more important,more significant, or right(with others being wrong of course)" series of vocalizations. If I disagree then I am a (fill in the blanks). It is tiresome and can suck ones energy mind. body,and spirit but as long as I do what is important to me I have to accept the differences in humans and keep on movin' Some will like it and some won't. That's just life. I really think that conquering fear of change is a HUGE part of development. I remember reading a book years ago called "Feel the fear and do it anyway." I try to do that at all times because if people could they'd stop YOU in your tracks to keep THEIR fears from consuming them. So to you...keep on truckin' however you feel is best. Hugs~ This is actually true in many,many aspects of life. In political or social activism it is an incredible hot button issue.

My thought about service is that any little thing can help. I constantly run into those that for whatever reason start in with the “My thought, act, whatever- is better, more important,more significant, or right(with others being wrong of course)” series of vocalizations. If I disagree then I am a (fill in the blanks).

It is tiresome and can suck ones energy mind. body,and spirit but as long as I do what is important to me I have to accept the differences in humans and keep on movin’ Some will like it and some won’t. That’s just life. I really think that conquering fear of change is a HUGE part of development. I remember reading a book years ago called “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” I try to do that at all times because if people could they’d stop YOU in your tracks to keep THEIR fears from consuming them.

So to you…keep on truckin’ however you feel is best.

Hugs~

]]> By: Will http://willspirit.com/2009/08/19/my-way-or-the-highway/comment-page-1/#comment-262 Will Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:30:25 +0000 http://willspirit.com/?p=975#comment-262 I left out a number of reasons why people get so bonded to one way of doing things. I wanted to concentrate mainly on clients, and our discussion amongst ourselves. Psychiatrists probably don't have the sense of being 'saved' that some clients have. But they do have missionary zeal. Unfortunately, they also have arrogance and egotism. Their (false) belief that clinical psychiatry is firmly based on 'science', and that the medical model and the use of medications have been proven, gives them a sense of superiority to the point where they don't just think their way is best, they think the other ways are 'witch doctoring'. Recent years have forced them to accept models that did not come out of psychiatry, like CBT, which actually does have a little supportive data. And I think some younger psychiatrists, and the more open-minded ones, are beginning to catch on to the need for a multi-pronged approach. My newest doctor, who I've been with for only a few years, told me she thought my problem was to a large extent spiritual, and that medications were not the best answer for me. Would that I had met her ten years earlier! Maybe it is knowing her that has given me a pretty forgiving attitude toward the field of psychiatry, and some hope that it can be reformed. I left out a number of reasons why people get so bonded to one way of doing things. I wanted to concentrate mainly on clients, and our discussion amongst ourselves. Psychiatrists probably don’t have the sense of being ‘saved’ that some clients have. But they do have missionary zeal. Unfortunately, they also have arrogance and egotism. Their (false) belief that clinical psychiatry is firmly based on ‘science’, and that the medical model and the use of medications have been proven, gives them a sense of superiority to the point where they don’t just think their way is best, they think the other ways are ‘witch doctoring’. Recent years have forced them to accept models that did not come out of psychiatry, like CBT, which actually does have a little supportive data. And I think some younger psychiatrists, and the more open-minded ones, are beginning to catch on to the need for a multi-pronged approach. My newest doctor, who I’ve been with for only a few years, told me she thought my problem was to a large extent spiritual, and that medications were not the best answer for me. Would that I had met her ten years earlier! Maybe it is knowing her that has given me a pretty forgiving attitude toward the field of psychiatry, and some hope that it can be reformed.

]]> By: Milo http://willspirit.com/2009/08/19/my-way-or-the-highway/comment-page-1/#comment-261 Milo Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:01:48 +0000 http://willspirit.com/?p=975#comment-261 Will, this is such an interesting argument. I have been in the hands of psychiatrists who believed in drug therapy only. It really didn't work for me. It took the sense of hope away from me. He did not want to have anything to do with my belief system. When I told him about Christianity and all the rest, his response was that he did not believe in witch doctoring... I think what hurt me the most, was his one sided way of thinking and extreme prejudice towards other treatment methods. That is why i left him... coz pretty much it was "His way or the highway"! thanks for the post and really hope you are having a good day. Milo Will, this is such an interesting argument. I have been in the hands of psychiatrists who believed in drug therapy only. It really didn’t work for me. It took the sense of hope away from me. He did not want to have anything to do with my belief system. When I told him about Christianity and all the rest, his response was that he did not believe in witch doctoring… I think what hurt me the most, was his one sided way of thinking and extreme prejudice towards other treatment methods. That is why i left him… coz pretty much it was “His way or the highway”!
thanks for the post and really hope you are having a good day.
Milo

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