How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
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Re: How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
#2If 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... .
Re: How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
#3If 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.
Re: How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
#4For 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.
Re: How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
#5For 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 t…
What kind of meditation did you try?
Re: How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
#6"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
Re: How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
#7For 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 t…
It was worth something for me.
The discursive mind is more trouble than it is worth 90% of the time.
Re: How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
#8Seems the Vittoz work still exists: http://www.americanvittozsociety.com/. Has anyone here tried it?
Re: How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
#9If 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
Even better: listen to it! https://youtu.be/S7kpAxJD7Wc
Re: How T.S. Eliot’s therapeutic practice produced The Waste Land
#10The 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.