Tuesday, August 8, 2017

If Psychotherapists Ran the World

If psychotherapists ran the world, it would look a lot different.

Let's start with the U.S. We would have universal healthcare, because all psychotherapists know that the patchwork system we have doesn't work and isn't fair. We work every day, in one capacity or another, with the healthcare system, and as most of us are self-employed, we know from personal experience that the current system is unworkable for self-employed individuals. Obamacare helped many people, but didn't resolve many of the underlying problems.

We would require large businesses to have onsite daycare, because psychotherapists know that there's no substitute for an early parent-child bond. All businesses would be required to offer both maternity and paternity leave.

We would have a different foreign policy. All psychotherapists who have worked with children or with dysfunctional families (all of us) know that the cardinal rule of behavior modification is "ignore the negative behavior." Paying attention to negative behavior rewards the behavior, and the child (or adult) is encouraged to continue or even to escalate the behavior. Responding to provocative behavior and threats from other world leaders by making threats in kind and engaging in provocative rhetoric is exactly the opposite of what you want to do.

Should I run for office?