Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 1:01am
'Going sane' with Dr. Jeffrey Rubin
Column: Spiritual Psychology
From time to time I feature the important spiritual psychology work of other psychologists and mental health practitioners. For today's column I interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Rubin, author of "Psychotherapy and Buddhism," "The Good Life" and "A Psychoanalysis for Our Time." Dr. Rubin is a psychotherapist in practice in New York City and Bedford Hills, N.Y. In addition to being a prolific writer, he's an inspiring and sought-after public speaker, teacher and facilitator. He has practiced meditation and yoga for over 30 years. Currently he is best known for his workshops on the art of living, psychotherapy and meditation: partners in healing, deepening intimacy and how to stay sane in an insane world. He also leads retreats for executive groups on improving communication and deepening intimacy.
At the top of Jeffrey Rubin's list of concerns — you might even call it an obsession — is helping people cope with what he perceives as a world gone haywire. To help his clients and others, he has developed a powerful program for "How to Stay Sane in an Insane World."
Question: Jeffrey, how does what you call an insane world impact people?
Answer: Many of us feel a strange funk and an elusive malaise — an anguish-we-can't-quite name — characterized by exhaustion and numbness, resentment and disillusionment. We are prone to doubt the reality of our own perceptions, become easily enraged with seemingly little provocation, and feel that nothing we do or say will make a difference in the world. If truth be told, many of us intermittently wonder if we are ... crazy.
Q. Do you feel that this is an appropriate or realistic response rather than a reflection of personal failings or limitations?
A. We are not crazy, but we are being driven insane, and not by a malevolent Dr. No.
Q. What are the specific factors that are driving us "insane"?
A. What's making us insane is not terrorism and the economy, the erosion of civil liberties or global warming, as many commentators and the media tell us. These surely are disturbing us — and should. But there are seven other forces that are difficult to put into words, although they are right in front of us, and seemingly intractable.
Q. What are they?
A. We are bombarded with information — much of it trivial and addictive — which sabotages our capacity to think clearly, stifles our imagination, and undermines our capacity for empathy.
Our minds are being polluted everyday by vulgarity and decadence in the media, entertainment and political campaigns.
Values are perverted, and there is rampant immorality.
Truth is murdered by politicians and the media, which makes us doubt the validity of our perceptions and erodes self-trust.
Our trust in those sworn to protect us is shattered at a time when we feel increasingly psychologically and physically endangered.
We feel increasingly alienated from each other, locally and globally.
Our response to these six afflictions — poor self-care and emotional anorexia — is not only dysfunctional, it makes it impossible to address what ails us.
Q. That's quite a bit to contend with. But aren't most of us aware of these factors?
A. While we may be aware of some of them, the fact is, we have yet to calculate fully the enormous negative impact of these seven forces.
Q. Once they are stated as explicitly and starkly as you've done, what can we do?
A. We must first realize that things are worse than we believe.
Q. That sounds pretty dreary.
A. That would be true if I stopped there. But I quickly add my deep conviction that there's more hope than we are aware of.
Q. What's the shape of that hope?
A. In my workshops on "going sane," I teach people how to access their untapped psychological and spiritual resources that can neutralize and often counteract the negativity that engulfs us.
Q. Can you spell that out?
A. Sure — I address very specific resources that all of us have at our disposal:
We embrace realistic hope, as opposed to relentless, empty optimism, by confronting what truly ails us and constructively addressing it. We can resist the colonization of our minds and hearts and expand inner space, the capacity to reflect, imagine and empathize. We can lessen our exposure to the decadence and vulgarity that leeches life of beauty and meaning. We can seek or create beauty — which is everywhere — giving life meaning. We can engage in genuine self-care — involving going beyond anxious self-preoccupation and serving others as well as nourishing oneself — as opposed to cotton-candy substitutes. We can learn to follow a moral code that gives everything its due — from atrocities in the world to the joy of friendship — while balancing altruism and self-care. We can compost fear and cultivate self-trust. We can deepen self-reliance, weed out destructive dependencies on unreliable authorities, and increase the capacity for healthy interdependence. We can unite with like-spirited people, which validates the reality of our perceptions, affirms that we are not crazy, buffers us against attempts to drive us insane, deepens self-trust and helps us dream about — and then create — a better world.
Q. How do people respond to your workshops?
A. Many tell me that the workshops are tremendously self-validating, and frequently transformative.
Q. What about feedback after they return to the trenches?
A. Participants report being better able to access realistic hope by learning to protect themselves against some of these negative forces and by discovering hidden potentials for deeper self-awareness, enriched self-care and expanded compassion. While 100 percent transformation usually eludes us, almost everyone establishes a new beachhead for contending with an ever increasing challenging world. And like all personal growth, the degree of progress will be determined by the amount of sincere and persistent effort.
Thanks, Jeffrey — surely no one will argue with tools for "going sane."
You can learn more about Jeffrey Rubin and his important work at: www.drjeffreyrubin.com.
(My book "Escape Your Own Prison: Why We Need Spirituality and Psychology to be Truly Free" is now available at Amazon.com,Barnes & Noble.com and other major book outlets.)
— — —
Bernard Starr, Ph.D., formerly professor of developmental and educational psychology at the City University of New York, now teaches "Spirituality in Film" and leads "The Spiritual Forum" at Marymount Manhattan College. In addition to his work in radio, he is a longtime contributor of commentary and opinion articles to numerous major publications. He is also the president of the Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy and is the main United Nations representative for the Institute of Global Education that founded the Mucherla Global School in Mucherla, India. His book "Escape Your Own Prison: Why We Need Spirituality and Psychology to be Truly Free" has been published by Rowman & Littlefield. He can be reached at {email OmniCns@aol.com}OmniCns@aol.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Bernard Starr.
At the top of Jeffrey Rubin's list of concerns — you might even call it an obsession — is helping people cope with what he perceives as a world gone haywire. To help his clients and others, he has developed a powerful program for "How to Stay Sane in an Insane World."
Question: Jeffrey, how does what you call an insane world impact people?
Answer: Many of us feel a strange funk and an elusive malaise — an anguish-we-can't-quite name — characterized by exhaustion and numbness, resentment and disillusionment. We are prone to doubt the reality of our own perceptions, become easily enraged with seemingly little provocation, and feel that nothing we do or say will make a difference in the world. If truth be told, many of us intermittently wonder if we are ... crazy.
Q. Do you feel that this is an appropriate or realistic response rather than a reflection of personal failings or limitations?
A. We are not crazy, but we are being driven insane, and not by a malevolent Dr. No.
Q. What are the specific factors that are driving us "insane"?
A. What's making us insane is not terrorism and the economy, the erosion of civil liberties or global warming, as many commentators and the media tell us. These surely are disturbing us — and should. But there are seven other forces that are difficult to put into words, although they are right in front of us, and seemingly intractable.
Q. What are they?
A. We are bombarded with information — much of it trivial and addictive — which sabotages our capacity to think clearly, stifles our imagination, and undermines our capacity for empathy.
Our minds are being polluted everyday by vulgarity and decadence in the media, entertainment and political campaigns.
Values are perverted, and there is rampant immorality.
Truth is murdered by politicians and the media, which makes us doubt the validity of our perceptions and erodes self-trust.
Our trust in those sworn to protect us is shattered at a time when we feel increasingly psychologically and physically endangered.
We feel increasingly alienated from each other, locally and globally.
Our response to these six afflictions — poor self-care and emotional anorexia — is not only dysfunctional, it makes it impossible to address what ails us.
Q. That's quite a bit to contend with. But aren't most of us aware of these factors?
A. While we may be aware of some of them, the fact is, we have yet to calculate fully the enormous negative impact of these seven forces.
Q. Once they are stated as explicitly and starkly as you've done, what can we do?
A. We must first realize that things are worse than we believe.
Q. That sounds pretty dreary.
A. That would be true if I stopped there. But I quickly add my deep conviction that there's more hope than we are aware of.
Q. What's the shape of that hope?
A. In my workshops on "going sane," I teach people how to access their untapped psychological and spiritual resources that can neutralize and often counteract the negativity that engulfs us.
Q. Can you spell that out?
A. Sure — I address very specific resources that all of us have at our disposal:
We embrace realistic hope, as opposed to relentless, empty optimism, by confronting what truly ails us and constructively addressing it. We can resist the colonization of our minds and hearts and expand inner space, the capacity to reflect, imagine and empathize. We can lessen our exposure to the decadence and vulgarity that leeches life of beauty and meaning. We can seek or create beauty — which is everywhere — giving life meaning. We can engage in genuine self-care — involving going beyond anxious self-preoccupation and serving others as well as nourishing oneself — as opposed to cotton-candy substitutes. We can learn to follow a moral code that gives everything its due — from atrocities in the world to the joy of friendship — while balancing altruism and self-care. We can compost fear and cultivate self-trust. We can deepen self-reliance, weed out destructive dependencies on unreliable authorities, and increase the capacity for healthy interdependence. We can unite with like-spirited people, which validates the reality of our perceptions, affirms that we are not crazy, buffers us against attempts to drive us insane, deepens self-trust and helps us dream about — and then create — a better world.
Q. How do people respond to your workshops?
A. Many tell me that the workshops are tremendously self-validating, and frequently transformative.
Q. What about feedback after they return to the trenches?
A. Participants report being better able to access realistic hope by learning to protect themselves against some of these negative forces and by discovering hidden potentials for deeper self-awareness, enriched self-care and expanded compassion. While 100 percent transformation usually eludes us, almost everyone establishes a new beachhead for contending with an ever increasing challenging world. And like all personal growth, the degree of progress will be determined by the amount of sincere and persistent effort.
Thanks, Jeffrey — surely no one will argue with tools for "going sane."
You can learn more about Jeffrey Rubin and his important work at: www.drjeffreyrubin.com.
(My book "Escape Your Own Prison: Why We Need Spirituality and Psychology to be Truly Free" is now available at Amazon.com,Barnes & Noble.com and other major book outlets.)
— — —
Bernard Starr, Ph.D., formerly professor of developmental and educational psychology at the City University of New York, now teaches "Spirituality in Film" and leads "The Spiritual Forum" at Marymount Manhattan College. In addition to his work in radio, he is a longtime contributor of commentary and opinion articles to numerous major publications. He is also the president of the Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy and is the main United Nations representative for the Institute of Global Education that founded the Mucherla Global School in Mucherla, India. His book "Escape Your Own Prison: Why We Need Spirituality and Psychology to be Truly Free" has been published by Rowman & Littlefield. He can be reached at {email OmniCns@aol.com}OmniCns@aol.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Bernard Starr.