And this is our castle

Well, it is not a real castle, but sometimes we feel as if it was one. The flat, or penthouse, up left is where we hide. From there I try to get an overview not only of the lake, not only of Stockholm skyline, but of several things that matter – to me.
Today is the birthday of the Swedish king Carl Gustaf. He is now 63 years old. My congratulations! But, in the same time, this is not one of my priorities in this life and in this world.
Today is also a celebration day for the Swedish people. During the evening there will be several organized fires at well prepared places – within and outside the city. We say farewell to the long winter and welcome Spring and Summer. I would say that this matters quite a lot to me.
Tomorrow, the 1st of May, is the worker’s day. There will be organized (and perhaps also less organized)demonstrations against the government. Working people against those in power. Red flags. Songs from old, revolutionary times. This is not a priority holy day to me. Most workers have long ago put their savings not only at ordinary bank accounts, but in Big Company shares. They are part owners of the private companies that are run by people they demonstrate against. They want to make more money on their share savings – and at the same time they state that they are against private commercial companies. Not easy to stand on one side only. A double-bind, complex situation – just like so many other things in this world.
(By the way – if you read Swedish – have you follwed the discussion under Comments from my blog from April 23? Please welcome with your points of views.)

Why peek-a-boo is such a fascinating game

Our grandson, by us called Golden Boy, is today 17 months old. He has recently learned how to answer the question “How old are you?”. He then puts up one finger in the air – and we give him an applause.
He is very fond of several peek-a-boo-games, particularly opening and closing doors. If I stand on one side of the door he wants to close it – to immediately open it again to see if I am still there. Then he closes the door again, opening it once more – and so it goes. This is the old game of trying to master the separation anxiety. He knows by now, very well, that his parents now and then are gone to their work stations. He knows about the feelings of being left to the day care unit – or to his grandparents. It is absolutlely nothing wrong with neither the day care institution nor being with us, but being left to other people without his own control sends normal anxiety signals in his mind and body. Separation is separation and anxiety comes and goes. Life is a scary business – even though it is in the same time quite amusing. In this sense he is getting older.

Authorities and psychological treatment

Psychological treatment of people who suffer from anxiety, despair, loneliness or similar symtoms is of course based on the findings of psychology as a science. In order to really understand people and how all of us grow up and undergo different mental development phases a psychologist have to consider not only what is going on in the inside of the mind, but also what is happening in the social contexts of both present and historical times. We, all of us, are heavily affected by the culture in our nation where we live, and the culture is not just a set of behavioural habits, but also a complex set of rules directed by the authorities and behind them our politicians. We are, all of us, behaviour trained or gradually behaviour modified, primarily by our parents, but also by all other authorities around: teachers, relatives, friends, and all those people are also behaviour trained by all those who are representatives of the present society and its culture.
Good or bad?
Well, that is up to the researchers to try to find out. But this is not so very easy for the researchers as also they are products of the present culture in the present society. A really good and skilled researcher has to take some steps back in order to get a good view of what is going on, what kind of dynamics there are in the social contexts and how all these forces interact with the individuals. That is the only way. A skilled researcher can not lock himself up connected to a certain political ideology as this would lead to a blindness, at least when looking at some society sectors.
Now, since many years back most psychotherapists have walked straight into the trap, becoming registered by the authorities, following their guidance directives of what to treat and how to treat. The authorities claim that they are trusting the researchers and their results (evidence), meaning that they only trust those researchers that make their work hand-in-hand with the present and dominating political ideologies. That is why more and more psychotherapists cling to the behaviour modification tree, the one that says over and over again that the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is the only one to trust (the only one that has clear positive evidence of its effects).
So, the politicians are sitting on the horsebacks of its servants, the authorities. And the authorities are sitting on the horsebacks of its servants: among them the medical doctors and the modern psychotherapists. All of them are riding in the same circus ring, round and round they go, getting applause from the audience that believes that everything shown in the show is the very best on earth.
But it is not. It is not.
Authorities ought not to be involved in the directions of psychological treatment. I said so already some thirty years ago. And my belief is that I was right.

Two different schools of psychic treatment

A debate is since some years going on regarding which psychotherpeutic methods that are the best ones. In one corner of the boxing ring is the traditional Psychodynamic Based Treatment (PDT) and in the other corner is the Cognitive Behavioral (or Behavior) Therapy (CBT). A lot of reserach seems to point out CBT as the winner. It is efficient, quick, giving results that are very promising. PDT has its roots in the psychoanalytic schools and who is today, in the present societies, an admirer of late Sigmund Freud?
The fight between the PDT:ers and the CBT:ers is circling around the question of who is able to treat a psycic disease at the shortest and most cost efficient time. But are the symtoms shown by the so called patients really signs of a disease? To answer that question we have to return to a very old issue of medical-philosophical research: what and where is the border between a normal, human condition and a real disease? What, more exactly, is within the variations of a normal healthy condition and what, exactly, is a condition that ought to be diagnosed as a real disease?
There are lots of PDT:ers at work that will not acknowledge the symtoms brought into their working rooms as signs of a disease. Instead they are looking at the patient, or rather the client, from several existential points ofd views. And they are working with their minds occupied by thoughts of how the individual could have become mistreated as effects of a lot of dynamic forces caused by the groups and organizations around the client including the society itself. The PDT:ers are therefore striving for knowledge and insights of lots of complex social networks, aiming to provide the client with as much as possible of those insights.
The CBT:ers are more occupied with learning theory. Aha, a spider phobia – then you must have been taught that a spider could be very dangerous. I will have to re-teach you about that, step, by step, by step. And your phobia is of course a disease.
A PDT:er could in this case reply that spider phobia was not even known as a phenomenon before the year 1900…
Well, this fight goes on and on and I will come back to discuss it somewhat more. Until then – may the best man win…

Late Thailand history – part 2

The news from Bangkok were somewhat less hopeless than yesterday. Somewhat. The Royal Thai Army had made serious moves against the redshirts and used weapons enough to stop the demonstrations. The less good part in the news was the report of at least two dead persons and many injured. But Thailand as a famous nation, well known for its wonderful tourist attitudes and services, has suffered severely from the open political conflicts that now again have been brought out into the streets.
Yesterday I wrote in my blog the story from the the political life in Thailand almost hundred years back up to the end of World War II. The most interesting part is perhaps that Thailand, possibly under the influence of Japan, was the mouse that roared against both USA and UK, declaring war to those two giant nations. Did you know that? But it seems that the declarations were stopped, at least the one in USA, where Thailand had a clever young lawyer, Seni Pramoj, as ambassador. He refused to give the declaration to the US governement.
At the end of the war Seni Pramoj was called to his home nation to act as Prime Minister, and he saved the country from too harsh punishments from the Western allies. After that he resigned from his position. One of the revolutionary leaders from the early 1930´s, Pridi Panomyong, was after a while assigned as the new Prime Minister and one of the first issues on his agenda was to bring back the king from Switzerland. The king’s name was Ananda Mahidol and he had now grown up enough to take the scene of the Royal Court. The king and Pridi together agreed on a new constitution, in which free elections were to be held in the country. But suddenly there was a drama that changed a lot in Thailand history. This dramatic event is of such a grade that most Thai people try to avoid discussing or even to speak about it. No one seems to know exactly what happened, but in the morning on June 05 in the year 1946 the king was found dead in his bedroom, shot in his head. Suicide or murder? Well, the outfall pointed out that it was a murder. It was almost unthinkable that a king of Thailand had committed suicide. Some people said that it had been an accident. But the rumours went along the streets: the king must have been killed by someone who had been hired by…presumably Pridi. This rumour was possibly started by the political opponents to Pridi. A few years went by, the new king was Anandas two year elder brother, Bhumibol Adulyadej (who is still the very appreciated king of Thailand), and the rumours of the Pridi action behind the murder of King Ananda had not become completely silenced. There were lots of political gambling behind the curtains and one of the most prominent ones, now again in opposition towards Pridi, was Pibul Songkram, who had made his career in the Army. In 1947 there was a military coup that forced Pridi to flee the country – to China, from where he later tried to arrange a new resistance force and a new coup against Pibul and his government, but Pibul was warned in beforehand and by the assistance of the Royal Thai Army he defended himself and stayed in power. But just for a few years when new military coups were more successful and new leaders, most of them from the new, younger miltary elite came to power. New elections were held in 1958 and the winner was a new general, Thanom Kittikachorn. He was the one that proclaimed a new constitution and a new parliament, consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate. But as this somewhat later threatened his own position Thanom himself led the military, new coup in 1971, whereafter he assigned himself to act as Thailand’s Prime Minister, The Secretary of Defense, The Secretary of Foreign Affairs and, of course, the Supreme Commander of all Military Forces.
1973 became a black year in the history of Thailand. The students at several universities started to oppose the hard military run government and demanded a modernized, democratic system. Thanom was not happy about these very visible opposition movements. He gave order to the Chief of Police to arrest the student leaders, claiming that the students were communists that wanted to make a communist revolution in the country. The arrests were made, which led to several thousands of loud, angry student voices in the streets. A few days later, on Saturday October 13 1973, a giant demonstration was held in Bangkok, consisting of about 200 000 people. Most of the demonstration groups tried to walk up to the King’s palace in order to get his support.
On Sunday, October 14, the military started to fire with sharp ammunition against the students. The military men was also supported by some students from a Technical University and a lot of fights went on, a lot of students were killed. Late in the evening came an intervention by King Bhumibol. He appeared in the television and was broadcasted in the radio, proclaiming that he had accepted the resignation of the government and that he had assigned Professor Sanya Dharmasakti from Thammasat University to form a new government.
Three years later, after several minor disturbances in the streets and at the yards of some universities and after several political quarrels and after General Thanom’s return from his excile, says the military elite that enough is enough and on October 6, 1976 there is a bloodbath in Bangkok, especially in the yards of Thammasat University, where several students are hanged in the trees. The students were silenced, the parliament members were sent home and the Royal Thai Armed Forces were in power again.
And the story goes on and on and the history repeats itself over and over again. But changes have already come to stay and Thailand will change even more in the future. Democracy will prevail. In the long run. The very long run…

And history repeats itself, also in Thailand

Yellow shirts and red shirts and turbulences in Bangkok streets. Parties fighting each other, now and then riots and nothing is new under the sun.
We have to go back almost 100 years, where we can find one of the famous King Chulalongkorn’s sons, who had become Rama VI in the Chakri Dynasty. His real name was King Vajiravudh. He was, contrary to his father, not a very popular king and became the target for peoples’ despair and frustratioin, especially after a very heavy rainfall in 1917. King Vajiravudh died in 1925 without having had the possibility to provide a son as his possible successor. Instead Thailand now got Vajiravudh’s younger brother, Prajadhipok, as the new king, but he was not able to get the people’s support for his ideas. The people’s revolution started in June 1932, led by two intellectuals, Pridi Panomyong and Pibul Songkram, two friends that were not to stay as friends for so very long. But the Chakri Dynasty and its political power functions were now definitely stopped, a national representation, based upon free elections was built, but this new form of political democracy became also the start of a game of power, which led to severe political intrigues. King Prajadhipok fled to England, where he just resigned, Pridi had also to flee in an exile for a while. A grandson of King Chulalongkorn, the ten year old Ananda Mahidol, was now assigned as the new King, but he lived mostly with his mother in Lausanne, Switzerland. A couple of years later there were lots of accusations regarding corruption among the revolution leaders, they were threatened to leave the country, but Pibul, one of the strong men in the government, got the military power on his side, the parliament was suddenly surrounded by tanks and several parliament members were arrested. Later Pibul became known as a warm supporter of Adolf Hitler and he started to invade some parts of Kampuchea (Cambodia). But Thailand was during the World War III threatened by Japan, which wanted free passage ways through the country. Pridi said no, but Pibul said yes and suddenly was Pibul in favour by the Japanese. Ordered by Japan Pibul declared war against USA and Britain, but the Thailand amabassador in USA, the young lawyer Seni Pramoj, refused to give the declaration to the US government. Seni started now a new political movement for the liberation of Thailand in which he began to cooperate with Pridi and his resistance movement.
And here I make a break…I will continue later…but as you can see: it is parties against parties, fightings and struggles since many years back.

Easter – a Christian holiday for grief and joy?

Happy Easter! Wow, it starts already, at least in Sweden, on Thursday, which has become a pre-holiday event. The good Friday is open in the meaning that everything regarding food, movie theatres, shopping centers, all sorts of club fiestas and more are open and welcoming you. Then is the real Easter, three days long. Happy days. Eat and drink together with your relatives and friends. A lot of drinks! Cognac and eggs for example. Or just cognac, as a proper avec after all food (lots of food) and wine.
Most people I know don´t care a damn about the question why we have a great Easter holiday. They just want to enjoy.
But once upon the time people were taught that on Wednesday in the Easter week you should take ashes from the stove and let the ashes fall like dirty rain in your hair and in your face – as a remembrance of what once happened to Jesus Christ when he was betrayed by one of his own. Thursday is the cleaning day. You wash yourself, not only to bring the dirt off from your body, but your sins as well.
Friday is the day of grief – a remembrance of Jesus’ walk through the streets, carrying his heavy timber cross. He was then crucified and died late in the evening.
On the next day he was buried and on the day after that his body had disappeared, and the tale says that he woke up from the dead ones, preparing his return to his Father in Heaven. Halleluja! Now it is time for joy.
But even how well you tried to wash in order to liberate yourself from your sins you were, and are, not able to get rid of all sins. But Jesus said: I am the one that will bear all your sins. I take them on my shoulders – and I will die for your case.
Halleluja! Wow! Happy, happy Easter! Let´s have a big, fat, almighty party! It is fun, isn´t it?

Who are selecting the ones that select people?

Selection of people to special and qualified positions is not an easy job. Most candidates hide behind their CV:s, grades from their schools and universities and their former employments and a proper dress in the interview room. But how about their personality, or perhaps their personalities (most people are able to swing back and forth due to different social situations)? And how about their deeper resources? Are they carriers of sleeping potentials, not yet awakened? Or do they hide anything else that will be affecting their work outcome?
To answer questions like these there is a need of psychological knowledge and a continuous training in the field of assessment of other people, preferably including clinical oriented assessments.
So, one of the main questions concerns the selection of the selectors. Who are those sometimes so called professors? How well experienced are they? Are they reputed psychologists? And if so, what kind of psychologists? Are they working all year around within the area of recruitment and selection?
The qualified selection process starts with the selection of the qualified selectors. Who selects the selectors?

Psychological assessments of people

If I, for any reasons, want to get a real picture of you, trying to find out personality traits and layers inside you that will lead to certain consequences for you and people around you, I have to start by defining exactly what to look for. It is no meaning trying to find a picture of you as a person in a very general meaning. Such a task would be too wide and too difficult. In my profession as a psychologist I normally start with a well defined requirement profile – for example a requirement profile of a modern civil aviation pilot.
My search will after that become initiated. Some parts of the requirement profile will be investigated by the assistance of my psychological test instruments. That is the easy part of the assessment. But there are other areas that cannot become measured by tests. Just as examples: The maturity level, the art of being wise enough to decide after a good judgement of available information, the sense for other people expressed as a competence of cooperation. All these areas could not be detected by a machine or by a paper-and-pencil test. They have to be investigated and detected by – me.
And this is the difficult part of the assessment. I have to rely on myself and my abilities to make necessary evaluations and to come to good enough conclusions about these areas. It is a demanding task and it requires a lot of experiences and psychological knowledge.
When I was a small kid I had a dream to once become a private investigator (a detective). Yes, my dream was fulfilled. I am a detective – one who detects. But I don´t occupy myself with criminal investigations. That is up to others to do.

Treating phobias the easy way

If you believe that a phobia (an extreme form av anxiety and fear directed to one or more areas or subjects) is inherited in your genes, or if you believe that a phobia is an effect of what you learned in an early childhood – well, then the solution for its treatment could become quite an easy piece of cake. There are several quick-fix treatments on the market nowadays.
But if you believe that the human being is capable to symbolic loadings of different kinds (imaginations, illusions, early experiences with sexual and/or aggressive components involved) to her experiences of the world around her, then you have to try to understand a phobia from a different view. A spider is, just as an example, not just a spider. A spider could become experienced as a crawling thing that will not leave you alone, a thing that threatens to invade you – perhaps the way your mother (?) or your sister (?) once did.
Or the snake. What is a snake? It is probably just not an animal. It could very well be looked upon as a symbol related to someone or something that wanted to penetrate you in a way that you, yourself, have experienced as something dreadful. I don´t say that this dreadful event has ever happened to you in your real life. But you could have imagined it, or dreamt about it, or thought about it, or perhaps even had a secret wish about it.
If a phobia is constructed in this way there is no quick-fix solution ahead. But there is of course other forms of treatment.
Man is complex. Mind is complex. And I do not favour the quick-fix things until I have got an idea what the origins of the phobia.