Posted by
TheBean on Monday, January 12, 2009 10:21:37 PM
Modern psychology, in almost every major form of therapeutic practice, subscribes to the idea that emotions, if not expressed, build up internally and must be released to prevent them from taking over the subconscious or otherwise damaging the psyche. The means of engendering this release (catharsis) is usually very open communication with a therapist. Many people, when depressed or under pressure, talk their situations out with friends to release themselves from their internal burdens.
The support for this idea is primarily a matter of (a.) the feeling of release and the departure of gloom that comes with its expression, and (b.) extrapolation from this that comes very close to being an argument by analogy (that of buildup/release).
Think, for a moment, about how you experience something like greed and how it is best dealt with. Suppose you had an insatiable lust for money and wanted to curb it. Would it help if you talked to your therapist about your love of money and got it out in the open? If you talked to your friends about how desperately you want to get rich? Kept an "I want money" journal?
The above is obviously not how this desire is best dealt with. If you feel that your desire for wealth is clouding your judgment, the clear path is to stop obsessing about it--to repress it.
Repression of gloom is not necessarily an appropriate approach to dealing with it. But, if the catharsis idea does not apply to some desires, it can be doubted in the case of depression. There are two obvious reasons why talking to a friend about problems would make you feel better, even without resolution: (1.) Friends can be very sympathetic and encouraging, and can grant a kind of legitimacy to what you're feeling, and (2.) putting problems into words is an interpretive process; what may have been difficult-to-handle mental images are rendered more manageable when put into the logical categories that words provide.
The implication of this is that the above process is a dangerous one. Social support should be taken with many grains of salt, because friends may grant the kind of personal legitimacy you seek without understanding the full nature of what's on your mind. They may help you distort your view of reality. Similarly, putting concerns into words can distort events; aesthetically pleasing or self-pitying wording may creep in and inaccurately describe a situation, leaving you unable to respond to its actual nature.