Click Here to Read:  By Jonathan Alpert in  The New York Times on April 21, 2012.

Click Here to Read: “We Have Nothing to Fear, But . . . “We have nothing to fear, but…”; Makari on the Anxieties in Today’s NYTimes on this website.

 Click Here to Read:  Jonathan Alpert’s Mis-Statements, And Possible  Misconduct by Todd Essig on the Forbes Magazine website on April 23 2012.

Click Here to Read: Is Quick Therapy the Best Therapy? Letters to the Editor in the New York Times on on April 23, 2012.

Response to “In Therapy Forever: Enough Already,” (NYT 4-22-12)

Nathan Szajnberg MD Managing Editor

Imagine retitling Alpert’s OP-Ed “In Therapy Forever? Enough Already”: into “In Medical Treatment Forever? Enough Already.”

This is not entirely wrong; it simply doesn’t make sense. If medical treatment is for a runny nose, of course medical treatment shouldn’t be forever; any Doc-in-the-box can handle this. If it is for a diplococcal pneumonia, of course  treatment is not forever; perhaps two weeks.

If it is for Type II Diabetes — oops, (forever or until death do us part). How about Rheumatoid Arthritis — forever. How about Parkinson’s — ibid. Then there are the terribles — leukemia, breast cancer. Would you believe a physician who said that he could treat you in one visit with 88% improvement (as Alpert claims in his article)?

So, the degree to which treating the mind is a clinical practice — which it should be, if we respect our minds as much as our bodies — then treatment should be for as long as the diagnoses indicate, provided the clinician makes good diagnoses.

For Alpert, “anxiety” or “depression” appear to be simple matters, needing perhaps one visit, maybe eleven, he says. But, read Makari’s recent thoughtful reflections on “anxiety”: then decide whom you would want to treat you.

But, psychoanalysts have an obligation to articulate, to show that our work over time benefits our patients. Fonagy and Target did so for child analysis. Leutzinger-Bohleber and colleagues are doing so for adult treatment. American analysts should step up to the plate.

Alpert’s article is typically American: faster, better, sooner and doing something to someone. Nothing completely wrong with that. In fact, Alexander and French pioneered such work in Chicago psychoanalysis. But, when Jean Piaget visited the University of Chicago in the mid-60′s, he bewailed the American tendency to try to get babies to do things sooner, faster (and for American researchers to change research problems to fit their methods, rather than devising to fit the problems). It’s possible to get babies to do things sooner, such as toilet training at six months. But, whose achievement is this? Or in clinical practice, our task is to provide the patient with the capacity to guide her or his own life.

Click Here to Read: Does psychoanalysis have a valuable place in modern mental health services? No by Alistair D. Sweet on the BMJ website on April 3, 2012.

Alistair D. Sweet

Click Here to Read: Does psychoanalysis have a valuable place in modern mental health services?  no letters by Adrian Salter, Ronald S Doctor, William J. Lang, Francis Dunne, Anuradha Menon, Andrew F Clark, Peter J. Gordon, T.David Simpson and Raymond F Travers on the  BMJ website on  March 2, 2012.

Adrian Salter

Click Here to Read: Letters: It’s Asperger Syndrome … or Is It? Letters to the Editor of the New York Times on February 3, 2012.

Click Here to Read: ‘Goldilocks’: Balancing learning and self-esteem, Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post by Herbert Gross on January 21, 2012.

Click Here to Read: The article Herbert Gross was respondidng to:  In schools, self-esteem boosting is losing favor to rigor, finer-tuned praise By Michael Alison Chandler in the Washington Post on  January 15, 2012.

Click Here to Read:  Treating People With Schizophrenia, Letters to the Editors of the New York Times on November 29, 2011.

Click Here to Read: Letter: ‘Mandated reporter’ applies at Penn  by Richard R. Hansen on the Newsday website on  November 17, 2011.

Click Here to Read:    Tomorrow’s Psychologists (3 Letters) in the New York Times on November 14, 2011.

Click Here to Read: Training Lawyers: Theory vs. Practice: Letters in the Editors in the New York Times November 21, 2011.

Click Here to Read: Tomorrow’s Psychologists (3 Letters) to the New York Times on November 14, 2011.