Group Think In Healing

Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk talks about a study where it was found that 12.4 percent of child in foster care received antipsychotic medications compared to 1.4 percent of children in general.  According to what he writes in this book, The Body Keeps The Score, these medications make the children more manageable and less aggressive.


As he continues the discussion, he talks about drugs becoming so profitable, that major medical journals rarely publish studies on nondrug treatments.  People who look at treatments outside of the drug realm are typically marginalized as alternative and generally not funded.

We see group think in healing within medical establishments all too often.  As long as you keep those hospital doors open and you keep those surgery and exam centers bringing in the dollars, you are considered to be acceptable.  About the time that you suggest the body can heal on its own without all these medications, procedures, vaccinations, and treatments, you're considered to be a nut and someone everyone should turn away from.   Group think is what is required and the only thing that is permissible.


If we cross over into the alternative health treatment realm for a moment, we can easily see people perpetuating "treatments" as science and fact, when in all reality, it is anything but that.  There are numerous cases of this in the alternative health world, just as there is in the modern day medical establishments.

I still remember the time in Trager class when I was doing one of my required testing sessions.  I was following my intuition and applying what I felt I should do.  I was immediately stopped and asked why I was doing what I was doing.  I was not going around the body in the right direction even though I felt that was counter-intuitive to what I was sensing.  I was doing the "healing" wrong and it was a major turning point for me away from Group Think.

I've seen over and over how various alternative health people follow blindly concepts that have no basis in science, fact, or repeatability.  These individuals fully believe that their "concepts" they teach over and over to the multitudes are what heals people.  They will deny it, but if you open your eyes, you will see it first hand.  The trouble is, we follow blindly.  We close our eyes.

If we cross over into the religious realm, some believe the only thing you can do is pray.  Its group think at its finest.  Now, I'm not knocking prayer because I know studies have shown that it works.  What I am knocking is the thought that prayer alone is the only way.  Again, its group think at its finest.  I still remember when I had come out of the hospital after being paralyzed by Conversion Disorder.  One lady so emphatically showed me the error of my ways, saying I should have just prayed about it.  Without skipping a beat, I responded that if she had broken her arm, would she skip the doctors and just pray about it.

Group think in healing doesn't get us anywhere.  Group think, whether it is modern day medicine, religious practice or alternative health, stymies true healing.  We all do it.  Its human nature.  In the end though, it hurts the very people were trying to help.

Some of the reason that group think is so prevalent is that there is much money to be made for not only the pharmaceutical companies, but the hospitals and doctors and providers.  If that crumbles, many who profit off of it will lose their money stream.  

Group think is also the way you build your own ego up and get the masses to follow you.  If everyone follows what you preach and thinks like you, you have them under your control.  This happens across the spectrum from the medical establishment to the religious and to the alternative.  Its easier to sell your products if people believe the way you do.  Its easier to get people to come to your seminars if they follow group think.

There are elements of truth to each realm of healing, but we can't just follow everything blindly.  If we truly want to heal, we need to ask the hard questions of why the thing we are doing works.  Often we may find it does not work in the way we think it does.  We as humans like to find simple ways to explain some phenomenon.  It has happened since the beginning of time and still continues to this day.

Stretch your mind.  Find out what truly works and base it upon what is felt and experienced in the body.  Connect that with the mind and then you may have something to begin replicating.  Even as you begin replicating it, be your thoughts worse critic and try to find all the wholes in what you feel is true.  Challenge it and challenge yourself.  Don't settle for group think because it may very likely be that you will be just walking off the edge of the cliff with a lot of other people while viewing the pretty sunset.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2/16/15 by Don Shetterly

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