The coverage of catharsis in current texts is unclear and leaves
students more perplexed than enlightened. I try to emphasize the research
showing when venting and expression can be worthwhile and when it can be a
problem (excuse and impetus for violence). The following piece also
illustrates a problem of grief counselors rushing to scenes of tragedy with
their presumptions about victims and catharsis. Relationships established
on such foundations, by strangers outside the community, represent an
interesting commercialization of clinical work and the "giving away of
psychology" that raise ethical, professional, and historical questions. As
we discuss the Colorado tragedy and the various psychological implications
in our classes, I thought this Op Ed piece also presented some food for
thought regarding research on venting, the social psychology of grief,
community work, professional ethics, social relationships, and professional
identities. What psychological research have you utilized in class
discussions of the Littleton tragedy?
Are the school shootings centered in the southwest (see Nisbett, 1993).
Is this a recent phenomenon? Here in Michigan, we have had similar school
massacres. Forty-five people died in one, including 38 children, when a
school official set off bombs inside a school because of his anger over a
tax increase threatening his farm (he felt like an outcast and faced a
threat to his social identity?). He had wired the basement with more than
500 pounds of dynamite. The news account did not indicate if grief
counselors rushed to help, there was probably not a lot known about media
influence, and psychological analyses were not as pervasive. It was 1927.
He was simply described as "pugnacious" and "morose." It would be
interesting to find socio-historical research on the changes in social
support and grief work from the 1920's to now, and the problems in providing
support then and now. (Possible paper in Abnormal or History classes?)
Getting my red/black ink pens ready for finals week, Gary Peterson
Nisbett, R. E. (1993). Violence and U.S. regional culture. __American
Psychologist__,48, 441-449.
Saginaw News article, April, 23, 1999 "In 1927, a worse massacre" Taken
from Hector Tobar article in the Los Angeles Times.
Gerald (Gary) L. Peterson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center, MI 48710
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1-517-790-4491
>==================New York TimesOp-Ed================
> April 23, 1999
>
> An Overabundance of Counseling?
>
> By SALLY L. SATEL
>
>WASHINGTON -- Shortly after the police, paramedics and television crews
>screeched onto the scene at Columbine High School, the grief counselors
>arrived. Coming in by the busload, such experts are now a fixture of
>tragedy's aftermath in America.
>
>Many people, including President Clinton, who spoke of dispatching teams
>of
>counselors, assume that they are essential in traumatic situations.
>Trained
>in a technique called grief work, which says that the healthy response to
>trauma is to "work it through" and find "closure," counselors urge the
>victims to take several steps. First, they must focus on the awareness of
>mental pain. Second, they must express their emotions. And third, they
>must
>talk about it. And talk. And talk.
>
>The problem is that this doesn't always work. An emphasis on experiencing
>psychic pain can make some people feel even more vulnerable and out of
>control. Forced ventilation makes little sense for those whose ordinary
>coping style is to remain calm, maybe too calm for some people's taste,
>and
>spring into purposeful activity, like organizing fund-raisers for
>victims'
>families.
>
>Others, like Susan Cohen, who lost her only child in the bombing of Pan
>Am
>Flight 103 over Scotland, just want to be left alone. Writing in Time a
>few
>years ago, Mrs. Cohen called grief counselors "ambulance chasers." She
>said
>that the man assigned to the Cohens showered them with clich�s about
>hope,
>quizzed them on their daughter's hobbies and simply wouldn't go away,
>even
>when her husband insisted on their privacy.
>
>Perhaps this counselor was unusually clumsy, but even so, evidence
>suggests
>that grief work can sometimes do more harm than good. "There is
>surprisingly little evidence that talking about trauma in its immediate
>aftermath is particularly helpful," says George A. Bonanno, a research
>psychologist at Catholic University. "A number of studies even show that
>expressing or talking about painful experiences can lead to further
>emotional difficulties."
>
>Dr. Bonanno isn't saying that those who want to talk about their grief
>should be discouraged from doing so, only that a one-size-fits-all
>response
>to disaster and loss is na�ve.
>
>So why do we impose that? Is it because we, the unafflicted, feel
>helpless
>and simply need to "do something," as my colleague David Fontes believes?
>Dr. Fontes, a Sacramento psychologist, was called in to help with the
>Northridge, Calif., earthquake of 1994. "Yes, of course professionals can
>be helpful, but we shouldn't be intrusive," he says. "We should be
>available, maybe set up a tent where people can seek us out, but not
>burst
>onto the scene as white knights who are going to save these people from
>their misery."
>
>And then there's the commodification of grief. The Grief Industry is
>apparently booming: bereavement books, grief chat rooms, expensive
>workshops in grief education and exams for certification. You need us,
>the
>experts say. But do we?
>
>Most people, in fact, are quite resilient and don't need registered
>experts
>to deal with anguish. Are our priests and rabbis not up to the task? Are
>our families' instincts to comfort not keen enough? The deployment of
>counselors -- a well-meaning effort, I wholly grant you -- sends an odd
>message: that people are too fragile to soothe and strengthen themselves.
>
>
>Add to the tyranny of experts the tyranny of the news media and you have
>an
>unholy therapeutic alliance. While grief counselors push people toward
>open
>self-expression, the microphones are on and the cameras rolling. Making
>agony so public is unlikely to help their "clients."
>
>As a therapist, I find this especially unnerving. One of our tasks is to
>help our patients protect their dignity. Even more important, as numerous
>studies have confirmed, is that the repeated communication of intense
>sadness or distress can actually drive away loved ones, the people we
>depend on after the experts have packed up their manuals and gone home.
>
>Qualified counselors can be a great help to those who seek them out. I
>strongly encourage having them available on the scene and afterward. But
>Grief Workers Inc. can't help by presuming that there's one set
>prescription, imposing rules for mourning and telling people how they are
>going to feel. Communities have long had rituals for coming to terms with
>calamity. Grief counseling should not automatically become one of them.
>------------------------------------------
>Sally L. Satel, a psychiatrist, is a lecturer at the Yale School of
>Medicine and a senior associate at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
>============================================
>
>
