How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land | Hacker News Reader

How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land

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65 pointsnotagain10 comments

"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

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

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.

Even better: listen to it! https://youtu.be/S7kpAxJD7Wc

Seems the Vittoz work still exists: http://www.americanvittozsociety.com/. Has anyone here tried it?

The Waste Land is amazing but I recommend Four Quartets even more. Which reminds me, one of my goals for this year was to memorise it… better get back to that.

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.

What kind of meditation did you try?

I mostly practice mindfulness meditation where the mind is quieted and one observes the random thoughts that drift by. But lately I've tried shifting more often, where an intention is set like "how can I (xyz)?" or "please help (so and so)" etc and then I observe any insights and my outer reality seems to come into focus around the new path.

Also letting go of expectation and attachment has really helped. I've come to think of life as kind of a giant video game that angels enter to pass the time. Notions like truth and lies and good and evil have blurred into ways of being or vibes like peace and love and forgiveness. My rational mind is still effective, but now has subjective meaning to support it in a quest aiming more for wisdom than power. Taoism and Buddhism and zen resonate with me, which all started when I read 101 Zen Stories:

https://www.101zenstories.info/p/table-of-contents.html

It was worth something for me.

The discursive mind is more trouble than it is worth 90% of the time.

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