Psychoanalysis and pschoanalytically oriented psychotherapies are in their death throes. Techniques are outmoded, slow and ineffective. Language has become incrusted, formalized, impenetrable. There is no lifeblood in psychotherapy these days, just arid and monolithic structures, just dust. Not enough people can be reached, especially one at a time. And to even these few, worn-out, agonizingly slow, cold and distant approach of these therapies will not suffice. One neurosis is replaced by another in traditional therapy, Outward "functioning," not inner peace and joy, is the measure of success. There is no transformation of the individual or of society. The economic disintegration is evident, People cannot afford the fifth-minute hour four to six times a week for anywhere from three to fifteen years. Most cannot even afford to come in weekly. Insurance policies and managed care are drastically limiting payments. made important contributions to our understanding of the functioning of the mind, the existence of the unconscious, childhood sexuality, and to dream analysis, but psychoanalysis has no spiritual roots and cannot release the spiritual nature of humans. Freud may not have seen his theories as terminal, but his disciples set them in stone. One major flaw of psychoanalysis and related traditional psychotherapy is the concept of ego repair. The ego is the "I", the executive function, the part of us that has to integrate and deal with everyday reality. It is our ordinary or "everyday" mind. The everyday mind is logical, rational, has to make decisions, uses thought and memory, plans for and worries about the future, and broods about the past. It is always making judgements, putting thoughts in our minds, reviewing the data of the past, asking questions like "But suppose...?" and "What if...?" Unfortunately, most psychotherapists are constantly trying to repair our damaged egos. Our egos got bruised, as they see it, by our critical and dysfunctional parents, our childhood traumas, our inescapable physical limitations as an infant, and so on. These therapists are always soothing or repairing or even hyper-inflating our egos. In truth we must learn to go beyond our egos. But surely we will fall apart! How can we function and survive without our egos, our everyday minds, in control? The answer is very simple. Traditional therapists are stuck in the illusion that functioning is the ultimate goal, but inner peace and joy are actually much more important. If we can gradually decrease our concern with functioning and fitting into our sick society, with acquiring things and worrying about what other people are thinking about us, then we can gradually begin to increase our inner joy. Our minds trap us in the past and in the future. Constantly worrying, analyzing, and thinking, our egos prevent us from truly being in the present, from climbing out of the rut of habit and conditioning. How can we see things as they really exist in the present when our past conditioning and assumptions, our preconceived ideas, biases, and prejudices, are constantly getting in our way? We must control this ego in order ot save ourselves and, ultimately, our world.
page 175-175 , Messages from the Masters, Brian Weiss, M.D. published 2000
