Freedomain Radio

I'm a doctor Jim not a philoshopher!

I don't want to save the world. But I want the world to be saved. I've gotten rid of bad people from my life, I've got great open honest and true relationships with the few people currently in my life and I'm about the begin a 4 year masters training course as a psychotherapist. I want to help people in the present rather than in the future I want to be (as stef says) the guy tending to the wounded rather thaan searching for and spreading the cure and it 's because I need to see that my efforts are having a tangible effect here and now rather than in decades hence. I realise that this puts a greater burden onto the rest of you who are prepared to fight for the future and that's why I feel the need to apolgise and thank you. My children and grandchildren will reap the benefits of your work and I don't have to endure the toil. I do feel good about the fact that I'll be helping people but I do want to apoligise for taking the resource of this community and then taking something of the easy way out. Sorry guys. Please keep up the good work.

Tom

If you've gotten the bad people out of your life, promised yourself to live with honesty, and have great relationships because of it, you're already saving the world.  As a therapist, you'll be able to help do your part as well.  Good luck with it!

I feel quite ambivalent about your post, to be honest. I'm not sure exactly why you would be apologizing for becoming a philosophically-aware psychotherapist. I'm also not sure exactly why you would consider it a betrayal of this community to take such a course. As you are aware, my wife is a philosophically-aware psychotherapist, and I don't think that I have ever indicated a need for her to apologize for helping people in the here and now.

I know that you are a very intelligent fellow, who is quite aware of all of this -- the need for ER workers as well as researchers -- and so I get the sense that there is some real passive aggression or ambivalence on your part behind your post. I could be wrong, but that is what my gut says.

Can you tell me what you were feeling when you were writing and posting this? Can you tell me what would have motivated you to spoil what would otherwise be wonderful news, which is that FDR listener is training to become a psychotherapist? I would really have liked to enjoy that announcement, but I don't really feel that I can...

Thanks!

My post is in response to your recent messages on philanthropy and saving the world. I didn't even think about your wife and I'm sorry if what I said or implied was offensive to you or her. I am ambivalent. I'm happy that I'm going to be helping people but sad that I may be wasting potential due to the fear of rejection. I am 24. Say I become a good therapist at age 30 and work (fingers crossed) for 30 years, and say I help 20 people a year that's still not even 1% the number you reach in a single podcast. Maybe I'm jealous. You are right though. I should be taking joy in the decision I have chosen and I will.

During writing this post I wanted to ask a question of you stef but I'm scared that it will be seen as an attack. I don't know why, (maybe it is an attack).

Well certainly you should ask your question, though if you feel it might be an attack, it might also be worthwhile or helpful to talk about the emotion that is prompting the question in you...

I am still a little bit confused, however -- if I thought that it was not a good idea to be a therapist, then why do you think that I would do my utmost to send people to therapy during the course of my conversations with them?

That would not seem to be very UPB-compliant...

Also, what are the fears that are keeping you from doing something larger than personal therapy?

If you are around, why not jump into the chat window?

Sometimes I used to harm people in small ways or simulate harm in small way in order to apologize to people, because people love being apologized to. I know i would try to be on the other end of that situation as well by simulating harm against me or inflating something that did happen in order to cause people to apologize to me.

Hi Stef, I just wanted you to know that I am another FDR listener who is in training to be a psychotherapist. I don't plan on spoiling that announcement with some ambivalence, but I have to say I can sympathize with Anarchyinuk, as it has taken me a long time to decide on what I planned on doing was right, in terms of what i should or could be doing in order to save the world. As I think I would be a good therapist, and enjoy doing it, that has become enough for me to know that it is right for me, and FDR has helped me realize that.

In terms of my path towards being a therapist, I am a bit stuck, but I have no doubt that the answers are here somewhere...

-Amanda

Hey Amanda - thanks for mentioning that - how are you stuck though?

Stefan Molyneux:

Hey Amanda - thanks for mentioning that - how are you stuck though?

Well I am in the last semester required to obtain my Bachelor's in Psychology. I had planned to go to grad school and get an MA in counseling. The idea of more school, though, frankly turns my stomach. I have not enjoyed my academic ride so far so to speak, I am a horrible student, but I love learning. Before going back to school to get the bachelor's, I had tried to think of alternative means to get where I wanted to be without further schooling. Ultimately it seemed that more school was required. I think I might have a possibility of getting to a place where I could intern for a therapy center, gain experience, and get a similiar type of position that would be granted if I had gone the academic route with a graduate degree. Granted, the pay would be less, but it would be definitely worth sparing myself more self inflicted torture.

So, I suppose I'm not really stuck, I just feel stuck, because there don't seem to be too many options. But I probably will try working in the field for a while, there are positions available once I have my bachelors. And this is acceptable to me, whereas more school currently isnt acceptable.

Thank you for taking an interest, Stef. You seem to have boundless time and energy devoted to your listeners!

aura20:

Well I am in the last semester required to obtain my Bachelor's in Psychology. I had planned to go to grad school and get an MA in counseling. The idea of more school, though, frankly turns my stomach. I have not enjoyed my academic ride so far so to speak, I am a horrible student, but I love learning. Before going back to school to get the bachelor's, I had tried to think of alternative means to get where I wanted to be without further schooling. Ultimately it seemed that more school was required. I think I might have a possibility of getting to a place where I could intern for a therapy center, gain experience, and get a similiar type of position that would be granted if I had gone the academic route with a graduate degree. Granted, the pay would be less, but it would be definitely worth sparing myself more self inflicted torture.

So, I suppose I'm not really stuck, I just feel stuck, because there don't seem to be too many options. But I probably will try working in the field for a while, there are positions available once I have my bachelors. And this is acceptable to me, whereas more school currently isnt acceptable.

Sorry to interrupt the original discussion.

I was wondering, what are the difficulties or unpleasant aspects that make continuing your education an unpleasant prospect? I'm curious because I have thought about going into the psychological profession but i have a bit of ambivalence around spending another 6 to 8 years in school.

Yeah, I feel like I have hijacked this thread--Sorry!

But in response to what you asked, matt, generally what I find unpleasant is just attending school. I find myself bored and unchallenged at best, and at worst I feel very angry and resentful at my peers and professors. This is my personal experience, resulting from a variety of circumstances, not alot that has to do with being in the psych major. Although, had I chosen a hard science instead of psychology, I think I would have felt more challenged, and less annoyed with my peers. Psychology has sort of become the default major at a lot of colleges for those people who can't decide what else to do--at least, that has been my sense as I have attended a couple of different programs.

This is just my experience with undergraduate school. It's possible that grad school is completely different, but I have such a bad taste in my mouth from previous schooling that the thought of more school is untenable right now.

I also have a lasting legacy from hating my undergraduate time--a low GPA, which will make it difficult to get into a master's program.

I hope whatever you choose, you have no such difficulties! If you have an ok relationship with academia in general, I don't think the choice of this degree in particular will pose additional difficulties. Certain classes, I do remember people having trouble with, like Human Sexuality or Abnormal Psych. But in any program that isnt super-restrictive, you could just choose to avoid certain classes if you wished.

I am sorry to hear about it, though it certainly does mirror some of what I experienced as an undergraduate. For what it's worth, though, I did find that graduate school work was much, much more enjoyable than undergraduate work, because I got to focus on the topics and research that I was most interested in, and because the environment as a whole was much more self-directed. I certainly do understand the burnout that comes from being an undergrad -- but I wouldn't necessarily judge what graduate school is like by looking at where you are...