However, when it is done without the proper insight or thinking, than it can do far more damage than good.

• When it is done in order to satisfy a predetermined goal
• To place a person in a category in order to handle a problem
• To close a case without thinking about it properly
• When it is done without relating to the individual itself

  It can only be carried out properly when certain criteria are met:

  • The psychologist must be trained properly
  • He should not do it as a hobby, based on feelings
  • He should care for the individual
  • He should not see that person as yet another case
  • He should not be paid by the case load
  • He should be prepared to delve into the situation deeply
  • He should be capable of showing empathy
  • He shouldnot see the person as a mere source of income

  This means that things have to “click” between the psychologist and the patient.

  After all of the psychologist’s work is completed then we should consider the patient.

  • Where is he coming from?
  • Why did he act the way he did?
  • What should he have done?
  • What other recourses did he have?
  • What inner pressures did he face?
  • What peer pressures did he face?
  • What pressures did he face from other psychologists, rabbis, or from others whom he respected or feared?
  • Did he act because they felt that there was no recourse?
  • Was he pushed into his actions?
  • Is this a psychological issue, or should other factors be considered as well?
  • What are those other factors?
  • How is it possible to help the person to deal with them?

  The alternatives to these suggestions are both significant and problematic. If the child is not given this treatment then he may face even greater problems.

  Having selected a response the child will then have to justify that response. He will begin to internalize it. After all he will be thrown into therapy with others and he will see others who supposedly do fit his problem and this problem becomes the norm within that particular setting. In order to feel part of the group he will have to convince himself that he indeed faces the problems that are discussed in this group.

  The more that this happens the more he convinces himself of a problem that never existed in the first place. This is even more dangerous. Not only will he be treated for a problem that doesn’t exist but by the very treatment will create its own problem as a self fulfilling prophecy.

  The non-problem will then exist.

  Worse yet, the true problem which he never stated will never be treated. It will be ignored. The child will be treated for another problem that does not exist whereas the real problem will be ignored.

  We have taken a problem that was serious enough to merit treatment and exacerbated it. The original problem may be less than the new problem, and the real problem is a combination of the original un-diagnosed problem and the new problem which until now had not existed, plus the results of an interaction between the old and the new problem as they work on each other.

  

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