My current undergraduate class, “Theories of Counseling Psychology” is now entering the fourth week of a 15 week course. Since I have been teaching since 1969, I have a very large database in place to help me gauge the details of a particular classes’ journey.
I have two definitions of my psychology profession and they alternate depending upon the subject matter in front of me. My first definition, if you will excuse my vulgar language, is “The Practice of Fecal Archaeology.” My second is the image that I am “Walking Through an Abattoir.”
The themes that these current students are beginning to deal with have to do with the almost universal search for the elusive father figure, and the consequences of that journey on the development of each individual. The danger of replicating a severely negative parental model and the lack of a positive model for a relationship are conspicuous themes. I talk about my own development in order to help the students begin to realize that past is not prologue.
Given my Russian patrimony, it is not unsurprising that the second emerging salient theme is the topic of loss, mourning, and death. Many of my students are quite nimble in attempting to hide behind the mask of the acronym D.A.W.N. (Denial, Avoidance, Withdrawal and Numbness) I call this strategy “Hiding Behind The False Friends} and they bear an uncanny resemblance to the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. (Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death)
This awakening process generally takes place in the middle part of the term and is followed by a large growth in self-awareness, self- understanding, and most important of all, self- forgiving.
At this point, the reader might wonder as to whether there was a difference between the educational process and psychotherapy. This polarity has never appealed to me as the overlap is impossible to parse. Many bright students grasp this point very quickly as the trail through the forest is clearly marked by M&Ms in order to guide their perilous journey.
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