Tag Archives: קוגנוטיבית

Cognitive Pearl #089 Sivan 27, 5775 June 12, 15 Old Navy & Miracles Part I

brighter than bright

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complete recovery from schizophrenia is sadly the exception rather than the rule. Whether it’s due to severity of the pathophysiology or a combination of other factors, people suffering from schizophrenia usually become chronically impaired. Their functional abilities decline. Their medications, as wonderful as they are, leave them stuporous and undermine their health. They become ‘locked’ into a state which defines what they can do and what they can’t do.

Miracles still happen, though! When given useful psychotherapy, support, and opportunities, people can enjoy life a bit more. They can become more active in their families and communities. They can find new zest in life, moving from mere, colorless existence to raucous, joyous living.

This was driven home to me many years ago when I coordinated an aftercare group for adults who had been considered to be hopelessly locked into their psychiatric disability. This group was developed in response to a wonderful initiative taken by the Old Navy & Gap clothing stores. The owners of the chain had instituted a policy that all of their stores were required to employ a significant percentage of adults with severe psychiatric illness and disability.

In order to support that initiative the company expanded its mental health insurance coverage and also worked with local plinics to support their workers. My hospital was located in the same area where Old Navy had ten stores; and that’s how our group came to be.

Sitting down together in those first months however was a bit difficult. Members were shy, much like one might expect out of someone diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Until the coffe maker broke.

To be continued…

Cognitive Pearl #071 Iyar 15, 5775 4 May, 15

Be Somebody

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During this Jubilee year, you shall return, each man to his property.

From this week’s portion, Behar. VaYikra 25:13

It is human nature that we collect stuff. Bags and bags of stuff, both literal and metaphorical. Books, clothes, tools, identities, debts, hurts, and resentments are just a few that crowd my home and my head. People tell us to ‘let it go’ but that’s hard. Life gets weighted down, almost impossible to navigate. We keep on doing things, not because they’re smart, but simply because of inertia and the deep attachment to symbols of the one truly universal illusion of humanity: the past. 

The Mitzvah Of Jubilee is the antidote to our despair. 

Human societies stratify themselves along the lines of ‘have’ and ‘have not’. Those who have (and you fill in the blanks: land, tenure, money, looks, yichus, job, whatever) get to rule over those who don’t have. Stratifications are quite stable; they’re multigenerational. The rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. 

This is an arrangement that, despite the few good things that can emerge from it, is terrible for humanity. Human growth requires upheaval. We are all most alive when we are improvising, changing in a dynamic environment. 

The Jubiliee and the social engineering implied by it liberates us. It breaks the economic stranglehold of social class giving the have nots a new chance and the haves peace of mind. Returning to our property is not only about returning to our ancestral land; it’s about returning to our basic selves, that pristine moment before we were kidnapped by social class and indoctrination. In so doing it compels each of us to clean out our lives, to rid ourselves of our baggage, to reclaim the only transcendent truth: we are what we are.

Because who we are is the only property that is truly ours. 

Cognitive Pearl #065 Iyar 7, 5775 April 26, 15

File this one under Pygmalion effect or a really questionable use of projective identification.

Our clients, and for that matter everybody else, are social creatures. That means that we are as influenced by the social context as we are by our inner drives and longings. In fact, since the vast majority of our knowledge is second hand (we would not even know our name or gender without someone telling us) it can be argued that social influence is an even greater factor in our inner lives than our intrapsychic activities. What all of this means is that our joy, our aspirations, and even our physical and cognitive being are shaped by the people around us.

Here’s why I bring this up: my clients, like yours, are members of social environments. All have parents (duh), all live in the company of others (I assume that none of us are working with people located on the moon), and all are trying to make personal changes in the midst of social pressures.

Each of us is are part of that social pressure cooker.

So when we see the unruly Godliness in our clients they see it too. And if Heaven forbid we see them as trapped by circumstances (including our diagnoses!) they trapped in our projections. 

I don’t know about you, but I love to see people fly. 

פנינה קוגנוטיבית #005 ח׳ כסלו 29/11/14

יש לי פלאפוןיש לו שתי מצביםמחובר לתדר ומנותק מהתדרבמצב של חיבור הוא מכשיר משוכללגולש באינטרנטמוריד ושולֹח מידעועוד ועוד ועודמנתוקיש מחשבון יפהאבל תכליס אפס נטומצד שנימכשיר מחובר מוריד וירוסיםמל–וארוחומר שסתם טופס מקום בזיכרוןוכמובןמכשיר מנותק לא פגיע כלל וכלל

וככה זה איתנובן אדם מחובר לאחריםהוא מחובר לתדר כמעט אין סופית של תמיכהעזרהמידע וכל טוב במידה והתדר הוא לשידור הנכוןטיפול קוגנטיבי מדגיש את הפוטנציאל בתדר החברתי התומך חייםלכן אנו מקפידים לאסוף מידע על השטח החברתי וטיב החיבורים ויוזם התערבויות מתאימות

כי אין חבוש מתיר את עצמו מבית אסורים

פנינה קוגנטיבית #004 ד כסלו, תשעה 26/11/14

פינג פונג פינג פונגלוף (לולאהשל משחק

מודעותעירונותוחשיבה כלואים בתוך ׳לוּף׳ של המוכרהרגילֹוה׳סביר׳לכןאנו מפותים על ידי קוסם עם צחות לשון שהשפן פתאום ׳פרסטו!!!’ יוצא מהכובעלא אשמתנוחלילהככה נוצרנוואם מודעות עצמה יוצרת הליכון ללא סוף של פיתיויםמצבי רוח ירודים עאכ׳והתפתחות דרביניאן קבעה שעדיף ברירת מחדל של נטייה להסתגרותלהמנעותלחשדנות מעל ברירת מחדל של אופטמזיםפתיחותוהתחברותלכן,הקליינטים שלנו מסתבכים ב׳לופ׳ים ומוצאים את עצמם בתוך לול של שאולתרפיה קוגנטיבית מראה אור על המנעולים ומושיט יד לאסירי הגיון

וזה קסם אמיתי