Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind: A Bridge between Mind and Society

Epilogue: My Background Both as a Psychotherapist and as a Peace Researcher Studying Genocide

KimE — University of Nebraska Press / Page 371 / DEC . 14 . 2005 / Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind / Charny 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 [First Page] [371], (1) Lines: 0 to 50 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [371], (1) epilogue My Background Both as a Psychotherapist and as a Peace Researcher Studying Genocide As a practicing psychotherapist for many years, and for almost as many years also a devoted theorist and researcher of destructiveness and the terrifying phenomena of genocide and mass destruction of human life, my lifework and thinking have been marked by continuous interplays of searching to understand human behavior on both the levels of mind and society.1 Experience as a Therapist I have been practicing psychotherapy“all my life,”continuing from earning my PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Rochester (1957); as a psychologist in what was then the only center for treatment of psychotic children and their families in the city of Rochester (1956–1958); as chief psychologist at Oakbourne Hospital (1958–1962), which was the residential treatment center affiliated with the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic; then as founder and director of what was certainly the first group mental health practice in the Philadelphia area (1962–1973); and following my move to Israel (1973), I have been Associate Professor of Psychology at the School of Social Work of Tel Aviv University, where I founded and directed both the Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Program in Family Therapy and the Graduate Program in Family Therapy; and in later years Professor of Psychology and Family Therapy, and founder and director of the Program for Advanced Studies in Integrative Psychotherapy of the Department of Psychology and Martin Buber Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After arriving in Israel from the United States, I was the founding and 371 KimE — University of Nebraska Press / Page 372 / DEC . 14 . 2005 / Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind / Charny epilogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 [372], (2) Lines: 50 to 62 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [372], (2) first president of the Israel Family Therapy Association in the early 1970s, and then president of the International Family Therapy Association in the early 1990s. Through all these years, I have maintained an active clinical practice that I love and experience as a wellspring of meaning and learning. When asked to describe myself in terms of professional orientation , I normally identify the kind of therapy I practice as “existentialpsychoanalytic -family (systemic)” therapy, and if in a conversation I then add that I believe that the hyphens (which are bridges between the schools of thought) are the most important part of the identification. I have published various papers on family therapy and especially marital therapy, and two books on marriage including Existential/dialectical marital therapy (Charny, 1992). I also edited the work of my late colleague psychiatrist Shamai Davidson on the clinical phenomenology of Holocaust survivors (Davidson, 1992). Some years ago, I found myself discovering a new way for having an impact on some otherwise seemingly intractable cases of serious and long-term psychological disturbances, such as adolescent suicide and chronic anorexia/bulimia, by introducing into the treatment a new focus on the follies of the certainty and totality of the guiding idea in these respective symptoms. Thus, in the cases of teenage suicide, I focus on the obsessive commitment of teenage will and planning to the deadly suicide plan. In the cases of eating disorders, I focus on the bizarre repetitions of rituals, for example, forced vomiting, in order to protect an extreme idea of what one must do. In both instances the patient seeks to destroy any and all sources of opposition to the absolute rightness of their guiding idea – notwithstanding that their health is damaged and even their very life may be threatened (along with whatever suffering they are causing people close to them who also suffer as a result of their vengeful assault on life). Many such cases tend to be “stuck” and intractable. The therapeutic technique I introduced into a number of these tough and“stuck”cases explores not only traditional issues of the...