Medicine: Freud? Fiddlesticks!

(2 of 2)

In essence, Low tells his patients that when they have unreasonable fears, they can cure them by just realizing that they are unreasonable. If they suffer from "sensations" (e.g., pains, spasms), they must practice "muscle control" ("When the abdomen tightens up, command your muscles to continue the meal"). Members are instructed not to dramatize themselves, not to make their own diagnosis, not to question the doctor's orders ("Patients have an absurd hankering for explanations and probings"). Patients who fail in these respects are known as "saboteurs," those who go on extravagantly about symptoms are "defeatists." Says Dr. Low: "I am the authority." ¶ His method is illustrated by some cases: One woman lamented: "I can't plan. I get flustered when I begin, and then I do not know what to do next." When Dr. Low rejected her complaint as "devoid of logic," she shouted: "I merely wish to make you understand my point of view." Dr. Low quickly set her straight: "Whether I understand . . . you is of no significance. The thing that counts is that you make every effort to understand me." ¶ For five years, one patient suffered from an itchy scalp and an obsession that made him drum wherever he was—on tables, walls, etc. Reports Dr. Low: "The patient was asked: 'Why don't you stop drumming?' . . . The patient replied: T like music.' He was promptly reprimanded [by Dr. Low] for daring to offer a nonsensical explanation of this sort." In the end the patient realized that he was practicing sabotage, and managed to cut down on his drumming. ¶"Gertrude" was afraid of death. But Dr. Low taught her that "we cannot be exceptions, and if the average man and woman can think of death, we can too." Today, reports Gertrude, "I live only a short distance from three cemeteries, but most of the time I am not even aware of their being there." ¶Friends & Foe. Most Recovery members swear by Low's laws; many claim that he helped them where psychoanalysts failed. The group now has 75 chapters spread across the U.S. from Greenwich, Conn, to Bremerton, Wash. Last week, fresh from a bang-up Recovery session in Detroit, where he addressed 1,000 people, Dr. Low 1) conducted a big (250 people) indoctrination session in Chicago, 2) helped run five daily Recovery panel sessions, and 3) held a Recovery-style class for his own private patients. Dr. Low's fellow psychiatrists, for the most part, do not openly condemn his methods, although at least one has called them "a throwback to the worst kind of authoritarian psychiatry." Despite such sabotage and defeatism, Dr. Low may yet try to teach all America how to pull itself together.