[HN Gopher] How T.S. Eliot's therapeutic practice produced The W...
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       How T.S. Eliot's therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
        
       Author : notagain
       Score  : 46 points
       Date   : 2022-11-12 06:47 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lithub.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lithub.com)
        
       | zackmorris wrote:
       | For what it's worth, silencing my inner monologue was what
       | finally helped me overcome depressive and anxious thoughts. My
       | negative self-talk had gotten so out of control due to my ego
       | that I came to expect failure. I think that's why meditation is
       | so effective for shifting into a positive reality.
       | 
       | Also I tried kava yesterday at a local kava bar and discovered
       | that one of its psychoactive effects is that it silences the
       | inner monologue. I found myself observing the world with
       | childlike wonder, full of gratitude for life. It's popular in the
       | Pacific islands and can work as a substitute for alcohol.
        
         | keybored wrote:
         | It was worth something for me.
         | 
         | The discursive mind is more trouble than it is worth 90% of the
         | time.
        
         | nyc111 wrote:
         | What kind of meditation did you try?
        
       | robin_reala wrote:
       | If you're interested in reading _The Waste Land_ , Standard
       | Ebooks has a PD collection of his poetry,[1] and the poem can be
       | read online at https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/t-s-
       | eliot/poetry/text/poet... .
       | 
       | [1] https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/t-s-eliot/poetry
        
         | pge wrote:
         | There is also a version published by his estate that shows all
         | his rough drafts and edits. Fascinating to see his creative
         | process at work.
        
       | labrador wrote:
       | _" An insufficiency of control" was exactly the problem that
       | Vittoz' therapy was designed to correct. Under Vittoz therapeutic
       | system, Eliot would have been reassured that his brain was
       | healthy, but that his "brain control" needed training. He would
       | have learned, in other words, that his problem was functional
       | rather than structural and could be fixed. He was neither insane
       | nor hysterical - he merely had neurasthenia [an ill-defined
       | medical condition characterized by lassitude, fatigue, headache,
       | and irritability, associated chiefly with emotional disturbance.
       | - Oxford], an illness that Vittoz promised to cure._
       | 
       | The Expert Hand and the Obedient Heart: Dr. Vittoz, T.S. Eliot,
       | and the Therapeutic Possibilities of The WasteLand
       | 
       | http://mkgold.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/mkgold-jml.pdf
       | 
       | I went through a course in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for
       | anxiety and depression. I call what happened in that course
       | "reestablishing executive function" or taking charge of my
       | thoughts and feelings by getting some distance from them and
       | examining them to see if they are based on something real.
       | Don't believe everything you think              - saying in
       | Alcoholics Anonymous              Just 'cause you feel it
       | Doesn't mean it's there         There's always a siren
       | Singing you to shipwreck              - Radiohead, There There
       | 
       | Doing this is also consistent with Buddhist thought and the
       | practice of meditation. We are not our thoughts or feelings.
       | Quiet them and the still surface will reveal the deeper waters
        
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