My journey and influence on medical science and psychology has always been subtle as well as up close and personal. Many are very aware of my promotion of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and I have a love/question more relationship with psychiatry and therapy and truly I believe in their benefits but what I’ve witnessed over time has saddened me immensely.

I one understands their ailment is in truth an irregularity in their way of thinking and a path is given to them in order to behave in their desired manner then if one follows that path do they become that new manifested behaviour? What happened to the identified corrupted area of thought that caused the issue. Is it cured, repaired or filed away under the new programming?

Honesty is needed in a subject in order to repair. Not many people are honest because they’re not quite sure how to express the problem. The one assigned to assist in repairing their issue has a manual but that manual does not contain their true issue merely symptoms and how you should react and deploy assistance to that identified symptom. It may patch things up but it didn’t fix the real issue.

Ah, abandonment issue. Ah here we go substance abuse. Ah this is the one clear mental disorder.
If A Deploy A1 If B Prescribe B3.
Embarrassment can hinder truth. If an individual feels they can’t truly express the raw truth they do themselves a disservice and if the individual there to assist is judgmental we never solve the real issue.

I had a friend once who had a habit of stealing, after school we would go to the local stores and buy snacks and he would find a way to take an item here or there yet still pay for items too. This friend would travel back home on a public bus back to the residential area far from the school with 3 other peers and on the bus would show and tell us about the items he’d taken often offering them to us if it was food. We’d often in disbelief decline and make dissuading arguments of the act but leave it at that. This friend would shrug and seem proud of their grift.
One day one on one I spoke to this friend while over their home. They came from a 2 parent household, clean home and seemingly everything seemed fine on the surface. I asked plainly, why do you steal from the store every time after school. What is the real reason. I often had a way of speaking to others. There would be no punishment I was merely interested in the truth.

His response to my question was that he wanted the items, and calculated that between his parents financial situation he would not be able to get items like this at this time any other way. Security in the store was non-existent the risk is low, he did not feel bad but would if caught. It was eye opening though one could say did my friend lack empathy which one would seem to be the case from that brief but matter of fact response.
I asked why didn’t he feel bad and he said plainly because the store was run by a “Paki” that being a derogatory term shorthand of Pakistani but used as an insult to those of South Asian descent who may or may not be from said country or India it doesn’t usually matter to the person speaking.

Suddenly this truth revealed bigger realisation and one that may not of been revealed if he was not allowed to speak clearly. I soon learned my friend had a hyper fixated dislike of those of South Asian appearance and further as the conversation went it started from him being dismissed by a young girl many years ago in school who called him ugly and then had 2 older males who were Indian make fun of him. These incidents all added together and in his mind justified up to this point stealing from the stores. Now was this to “get back” at that very original act of embarrassment or injustice as he saw it and at which point. Should I ask him was it the girl dismissing him or the boys and their ethnicity played a role in their reaction as well as his original attraction to the girl.

I’m going to stop here for a moment. Imagine I am psychoanalyzing my friend many years later his behaviour has spiraled out of control now he is part of a racist organisation and for the sake of argument let’s say he’s Caucasian. If one was trying to “cure” him through therapy would he ever share this story?

Where did it all begin? Did I truly gain the truth. It was certainly a factor back then but if I was questioning him now how many small incidents have now shaped his views and opinions and would he bother to Truly share them?

Do we patch a problem or fix the code?

Regards,

Alexander/Zenchi