Adrian Scott Counsellor Supervisor MBACP Accred

The Doll Test is an experiment to show how attitudes to race are already set in young children.
Imagine a sponge sitting in a centimetre of vinegar. Nobody would be surprised that the sponge soaks up the vinegar.

The primitive brain is a sponge. It develops through what is seen, and felt: not what is instructed or told. So when it comes to race huge hidden symbols embedded in culture and language influence the primitive brain.

White wedding, pure as driven snow, white priviledge. Political Correctness notices the language used to describe social politics. People complain that nothing can be said or joked about. But it is not the word but the association to the word that is crucial. Some associations we share with others are deeply personal to us. And the feelings associated with the words shape us as people. 

So racism is a bias we are fed from early years. If we have the skill to notice – prejudice is in everything. Parents, family, media, culture, politics are biased. To notice the frame or environment we live in makes sense of what we bias. To see our bias is to understand our prejudice. Then we can acknowledge and lessen our prejudice’s impact on our behaviour. 

Copyright Adrian Scott
North London Counsellor Blog 2020
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argment and critique 

Freud forgot. He was settling his accounts. And came across client M who he could not remember. The 14 year old girl was suffering from abdominal pains and he diagnosed her as having Hysteria. Freud treated her and she improved. Unfortunately the patient died two months later of sarcoma of the abdominal glands. Freud missed her physical illness and treated her psychologically.

He wrote about this in his book Psychopathology of Everday Life P.152
Freud had failed. So he wanted to forget his failure.

What he was trying to describe was that we have have no choice in our forgetting. Like we have no control over what hurts us or causes us pain. So Freud’s psyche felt the pain triggered by the failure and tried to dismiss the incident by forgetting. Freud’s life was invested in his clinical reputation: so to fail was a big deal for him. Noticing how we forget is one of the keys to what hurts us and how we were hurt.
Freud Forgot

 

Copyright Adrian Scott
North London Counsellor Blog 2020
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argment and critique 

Painful Manners are a part of UK life. Even in these times of indivualism and consumerism, not saying what you really feel or think is a necessary tool for living in the UK. The motives are well intentioned. Nobody wants to hurt anyone’s feelings. Politeness is key.

To other cultures this is confusing. Nobody really knows what’s going on. Guesses are made. Interpretations discussed. But the ‘the truth’ remains elusive, unknown.

To avoid causing pain, pain can be caused. The person is hurt but they don’t really know what is going on. Is their hurt justified? What did the person mean? Was something said under pressure which hasn’t been discussed? Did anger temporarily override politeness? Only for the veil of politeness to be quickly drawn again.

At other times in a culture of manners people can unwittingly say or do something setting off a trap or chain of events unintended. While being in the world of the unknown the uninitiated bump into stuff. As a kid in the culture of manners the cue to be silent, not to speak is casually ingrained. Outsiders complain that it can never be learnt. 
Beware politeness.

 

Copyright Adrian Scott
North London Counsellor Blog 2020
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argment and critique 

Greece opened its first underwater museum on August 1st. The ship was loaded with thousands of Amphorae – jugs usually of wine – untouched for amateur divers to witness. The wreck is 25 metres underwater showing a shape of a very big ship sunk in a storm.

The metaphor of jug is useful in thinking about ourselves psychologically. From our beginnings how we are filled up/related to has a big impact on how we grow up to be adults. Most of us have holes in our jug, or even no bottom at all.

The love and care we receive or not forms our own jug. Sometimes in times of stress we are more leaky than others. Amphorae

We fill ourselves up with the modern world, but cannot be satisfied. Because what is poured into the jug cannot be retained. So the work is to try and build up a more secure jug. To notice how we fill ourselves up, and in what circumstances is crucial. We can develop a sense of who we are authentically & objectively. Then we can really se what stresses us and what makes us happy. Sometimes in opposition to who we think we are.

Copyright Adrian Scott
North London Counsellor Blog 2020
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argment and critique 

SCoPED is a new framework for counselling and psychotherapy. Nobody likes it. Nobody wants it. Anyone who dares to criticise it – is insinuated to be a bully.
SCoPED Power

The truth is out: counsellors and therapists are just like everyone else. Ambitious, competitive, heirarchical, and wanting autonomy. (Read Janet Malcolm’s The Impossible Profession to see how trainee therapits find clients.) So when a membership organisation come along to control and dominate the profession. Sparks fly.

Therapists are just like anyone else. Except they should have the capacity to think about what the environment we live in. The enormous largely unseen power these forces have over us. Schooled to think about the environment of the client – the family – the therapist has an opportunity to be tuned into external forces of power inflicted on us all.

So when a framework is pushed through political style therapists react. Like political parties there is no rhyme nor reason except dogma, and the same old way of grouping people together to represent them. Then not represent them. Power is not representative. Power is political and personal. Power is held in small groups, and individuals. Thatcherism started this trend of wealth and power held by indivduals rather than institutions.

There are a few exceptions where organisations are organised flatly, and profits shared with the work force or members. Not many.

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2020
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argment and critique 

So the Chancellor drinks out of an expensive smart mug.
A once in a life time chancellor who has given out more money to the UK population rather than trying to get it back off the UK population. Married to the daughter of a billionaire, he had a private education at Winchester, Oxford University and Stanford University.

The photo shows the mug standing proud on his desk. Hidden in plain sight. If he had his time again would he have removed it? A sense of irony sitting at his desk posing for a photo showing him working on a budget?

We all live in budget bubbles. Our friends & family have similar salaries? Similar monetary values? Financial expectations? Some given more opportunities in the family than others. We get accustomed to a certain standard of living. It becomes every day to us. Do we notice people who earn less the same as we notice people who earn more? Do you know a smart mug? 

Some might say that all politicians should own/are a smart mug.

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2020
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argment and critique 

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2020
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argment and critique 

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2020
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argment and critique 

Ed White Elite Astronaut first American to walk in Space.
Ed’s father was an expert pilot himself, so White was born to fly.
He started flying at 12 yrs old under his  father’s guidance and discovered a natural ability. He learned to fly Sabre jet fighters in Germany, until 1957 when the world of flight changed.

The Space Age began. The opportunity for pilots to become astronauts began. On June 3rd 1965 he became the first American Astronaut to walk in space outside the capsule on the Gemini IV Programme.

On January 27th 1967 Ed White (pictured on the left ) died with two other astronauts on the launch pad in a craft beset with problems. Fire ripped through the pure oxygen capsule, with flawed safety equipment hampering their rescue. 

On the spacewalk he was wearing an Omega Ed White Speedster watch.
NASA contacted watchmakers and only four responded. Omega, Longines, Rolex, and Hamilton. The watches were trial tested including extreme high and low temperatures, pressure, humidity, shocks, and decompression.
Only the Omega Speedmaster survived the tests.
So a watch legend was born on the back of space flight and death. 
Ed White Speedy

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2020
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argment and critique

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far Western Industrial nations particularly the US and UK have fared worse. In comparison to Asian Nations and Scandanavia who seem to have done better in controlling Covid19.
Each country has its own history and customs that enable or disable its reaction and capability to deal with Covid19.
Can’t be Told Pandemic

Like an individual person suffering from trauma. The trauma cannot be changed. The person’s life experience and genetic disposition prediacte the trauma reaction.

Same with countries. In Kerala there was a virus outbreak 2 years ago where the medical authorities gained the trust of the local population by dealing with the virus effectively. Testing and isolating containing the outbreak. So when Covid19 struck there was organisation, medical infrastructure and compliance. A trust between populace and authority saved the day. Compliance and trust in government at this stage seems key to coming out well in the face of Covid19.

In the UK, Europe and the US compliance and trust are less. The more individualistic and entrepreneurial the country: less compliance and trust. Seen to be a strength in everyday trade, it is a weakness against Covid19. The running down of infrastructure and a belief in the omnipotent self invites Covid19 to rampage. Open up the economy for a further invitation.
Strength and Weaknesses alter depending on the frame/situation. Personal and Political, Cultural, Economic.
Can’t be Told Pandemic

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2020
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argment and critique