Why training does not work?

The psychoanalysis Era vs. Training Era

In ancient times, when Freud came up with his psychoanalysis, therapy has been a very long and highly individual process. The analyst could be picked over the years in the intricacies of a sick soul and always receive from her a solid fee for each hour session of tedious analysis.

It continued this a happy time for a long time, and even today some talented psychologists manage to convince their patients that regular therapy sessions for a couple a week for at least a couple of years is the only key to success of therapy.

But when the charm of the first opportunities for individual and long-term psychoanalysis has passed, a new generation of practicing psychologists became increasingly wondering about how to reduce the time of treatment, to make it more popular and, of course, earn a lot of money. It is understood pragmatism so characteristic of Americans, who eventually came up with the group to carry out psychological studies, which we now call trainings.

Strictly speaking, the task of training has never been a substitute for individual psychotherapy and more profound one. Every training is devoted to only a narrow topic and promises to effectively solve a class of psychological problems associated with it. And even then, not so much decide how much help to cope with the uncomfortable symptoms of these problems. It’s like a quick inspection – then twirled, there is greased, cleaned up here – and you’re done, you can have some time to live. By this therapy is irrelevant.

How Training Works?

The classic example is the training of communication skills, or more of household formulation, training of confident behavior. The purpose of this training is simple, understandable and worthy of admiration – for a few hours of intensive training to save the participants from self-doubt. And with due professional zeal on the part of the coach is really achieved that goal … with some reservations.

How does a typical training pass? Gather in one room a group of fellow-sufferers, take their seats and open their mouths in anticipation of a miracle. The coach comes out and the first thing he makes is a good psychological kick of everyone in one form or another. For example, asks: “And why you are here ? You freaks, it won’t work! “- Or some other throws of an unexpected focus, the beat out the minds of members of the rut. And then, when everyone is hanging in a sort of psychological weightlessness, he begins training – given to the best of all sorts and too crazy tasks that take away all of the participants away from their usual state of mind. And it lasts for as long as the coach does not get bored. The longer-the better.

And to complete the training, participants are faced with furious facts for several hours, they behave very differently than it is inherent to them in everyday life. For example, insecure people are surprised to find that they can behave quite brazen and shameless manner – that is, exactly as they would have wanted. And this discovery gives them euphoria – “I can! I’m cool! Now everything is different! “And just for the experience these people again and again come to the training and pay a lot of money.

In fact, the training is a psychological theater, in which each member for himself is playing the role of another person, a strong, free and bold. And the greater the difference between the familiar and the played “I” is reached, the cooler seems the training. And then the curtain falls, and contented themselves members sprawl on their usual psychological holes. They feel that their lives are now changed, but after a few days, they discover that the blockbuster about themselves, they looked last week, has no relation to the real situation – they have returned to their weak and cowardly familiar “I” and independently go beyond it are not capable.

The trick is that the charismatic personality of a strong coach by his very presence can cause an altered state of consciousness in the course to the participants. And by using special techniques and psychologically in mutual induction, when the stronger pull of the participants that are weaker, with the group in general you can do anything and make the most incredible, to believe in miracles.

But when the allotted hours of study end, the psyche will automatically return to its usual state, and all the miracles, which man was capable of during the training, are only vague memories of him. One can’t return to the same state on his own – because he was not taught to enter this state, but simply was shoved back hard by someone’s else will. Left alone, the recent hero finds himself at a loss – until recently he was ready to jump into the inferno, and now he is scared to even think about it, all the heroism completely evaporated.

So why training does not work?

For this very reason, none at all, even the best training can not solve whatever it may be a psychological problem. The training provides an opportunity to experience new feelings and states, that in itself is very, very valuable, but to break the mechanism that returns the person in his usual state, the training can’t. Theoretically, you can teach a person to enter into a state of the same self-confidence, but even then the initial problem is not resolved, because the internal mechanism of the one who formed a human chronic state of self-doubt, will not go away and will continue to pull the blanket over himself.

Still, a good training is a very useful thing when used in conjunction with a more profound study of personality. The fact that traditional psychotherapy is faced with the reverse problem can greatly weaken the mechanisms of retention rights in a neurotic state of mind, but by itself it does not give a person to taste the state alternative. And because of this therapy is also often ineffective, because of no experience in other behaviors and other states, the patient is on the path of least resistance sliding to what he’s just familiar. That is, the freedom of choice in a patient appears, but he can’t use it because he needs to tread a new path in life and his behavior, his therapist has not prepared him for this. And here a good training would be very useful – as trips to other worlds.

So why training is so popular, if the use of them is not so much as promised in the advertisement? Yes, simply because the training is great fun. Some people like sports, some beer gatherings, and some of the more “advanced” individuals like to play in the psychology and cherish the illusion of work on oneself. Such characters are the backbone of every training group, psychological party-goers, wandering from one training to another. There are many people of this kind, therefore, there are provided trainings – a great business. But this is not psychology anymore, but the exotic entertainment industry.