In addition to everything Eric just wrote about the no way but reality approach, which I like and agree with, I want to add that what I saw could be categorized into two parts. One part is acting out the way people may have spoken to her and treated her and the way she felt as a child, which provides access to the meaning she made out of that treatment (beliefs about who she is and what her value is as a result of those experiences) and how that continues to limit her as an adult. The other piece is claiming power, definitely, and also a kind of statement to herself (both the adult and child parts) that she deserves respect, etc. What’s so gorgeous about this technique is that in a sense she is learning authenticity, strength, and confidence as if these are learnable attributes, which they are, not gifts given by God/Fo/Ma/Ba/JesusMary to the worthy and withheld from the sinners. And imagine how wonderful she would feel as the learns and gains more. There were a few moments in which I read real pleasure and pride on her face.
That is Fritz – authentic to the core. He viewed therapy as one thing, a process of not being full of shit, therefore accessing your authenticity in the moment. (And if someone thinks you’re an asshole, so what.) The thing we all complain about is how full of shit everyone is. The thing we dislike about ourselves most of the time is how we fake, feign lack of confidence, feign confidence, and lack the presence of mind to be adults who can be who we are and move on with our lives.
In the alternate, we hide out; we hide from ourselves, our lovers, our talent, our families. Unlike therapists who would charge you for years on end, listening to you sit there and whine, Fritz believed therapy could take five minutes, if you were willing to wake up and pay attention to your existence.
He is explicit that he’s pushing the woman — manipulating, to use his word — out of her “comfort corner” were she’s feigning being a damsel in distress waiting for a guy to scoop her up onto his horse. Her angry state is actually authentic. From there she could access passion, creativity, or anything she wanted. She can say how she feels and claim her space as an adult.
Among the things we have lost in our time of history is the simple ability to be pissed of, or to admit any real feeling. We want to seem spiritual and nice and New Agey and proper and basically in many ways life is a study in being full of shit, or texting while you drive, or tweeting what you’re having for dinner, more than it ever was. Anger is not the end goal of therapy but it’s a state we can use to get to the end goal — particularly if what we’ve done is suppress anger for our whole lives.
Is anyone pissed off at the shitbags in Congress who won’t let anything else through till we charge the credit card $700 billion more and give it to the already-wealthiest Americans? Who were elected on a platform of fiscal reform and saving money? Is anyone willing to be openly pissed off about that, or do we owe our slave masters that $700B credit charge? Or, in the alternate, is anyone offering a creative solution? The creative solution is blocked by the simple ability to respond to our own anger and frustration, which is a childlike emotion caught in an adult body — and that is precisely the point that Fritz is making here.
We love Ali G because he’s direct and to the point — just like Fritz. He’s just funnier. But he’s doing the same thing — he’s present in the Here and Now and thinking what everyman is thinking, or wishes he could say, or wishes he could even think. On national television, he discusses with the most famous young couple in the UK what it would be like to fuck her ass, or fuck her however, or watch them fuck — it’s all good. He is ignoring the bullshit marriage contract and responding to how she presents herself, in that fuck me outfit, which every other interviewer is supposed to ignore and pretend is not there. He goes on to call out the supremely famous and venerated Beckham for acting like a fag, and everyone sees its true. Ali G gets the girl. She looks like she might fuck him on the spot. She’s already naked…
The only way you can do all of that is to pay attention and Be Here Now. And that is what Fritz is demonstrating.
Hyp,
Is Prick supposed to be Fritz Perl or are you talking about some other video? I don’t get it.
I didnt watch the Prick video all the way through, but I thought Ali G. was much more effective in drawing out Posh than Prick was with his “client”. It was fascinating to see how Posh “warmed” up to Ali and started to let down her socially constructed prude facade. If it had gone another 30 minutes, we just might have seen them boning each other right there, or at least talking about it. Or rather, if it hadnt been filmed and televised, they’d all be in a sweaty naked tangle.
The differences we see in the two videos is a fabulous social commentary.
In the Prick video the interviewee/patient just kept getting angrier and angrier. While it is good to get the anger out, the whole scene between them was full of hidden messages. It kept going on and on…. and I felt that the “therapist” was working out his “issues” and/or getting off on his own position of power, at the same time he was trying to treat the client!
The laughter was there for both female “clients”, but they seemed different to me, I cant put my finger on it. (no pun intended)
I love Ali G. and in this one I loved seeing him holding back his laughter…
In addition to everything Eric just wrote about the no way but reality approach, which I like and agree with, I want to add that what I saw could be categorized into two parts. One part is acting out the way people may have spoken to her and treated her and the way she felt as a child, which provides access to the meaning she made out of that treatment (beliefs about who she is and what her value is as a result of those experiences) and how that continues to limit her as an adult. The other piece is claiming power, definitely, and also a kind of statement to herself (both the adult and child parts) that she deserves respect, etc. What’s so gorgeous about this technique is that in a sense she is learning authenticity, strength, and confidence as if these are learnable attributes, which they are, not gifts given by God/Fo/Ma/Ba/JesusMary to the worthy and withheld from the sinners. And imagine how wonderful she would feel as the learns and gains more. There were a few moments in which I read real pleasure and pride on her face.
That is Fritz – authentic to the core. He viewed therapy as one thing, a process of not being full of shit, therefore accessing your authenticity in the moment. (And if someone thinks you’re an asshole, so what.) The thing we all complain about is how full of shit everyone is. The thing we dislike about ourselves most of the time is how we fake, feign lack of confidence, feign confidence, and lack the presence of mind to be adults who can be who we are and move on with our lives.
In the alternate, we hide out; we hide from ourselves, our lovers, our talent, our families. Unlike therapists who would charge you for years on end, listening to you sit there and whine, Fritz believed therapy could take five minutes, if you were willing to wake up and pay attention to your existence.
He is explicit that he’s pushing the woman — manipulating, to use his word — out of her “comfort corner” were she’s feigning being a damsel in distress waiting for a guy to scoop her up onto his horse. Her angry state is actually authentic. From there she could access passion, creativity, or anything she wanted. She can say how she feels and claim her space as an adult.
Among the things we have lost in our time of history is the simple ability to be pissed of, or to admit any real feeling. We want to seem spiritual and nice and New Agey and proper and basically in many ways life is a study in being full of shit, or texting while you drive, or tweeting what you’re having for dinner, more than it ever was. Anger is not the end goal of therapy but it’s a state we can use to get to the end goal — particularly if what we’ve done is suppress anger for our whole lives.
Is anyone pissed off at the shitbags in Congress who won’t let anything else through till we charge the credit card $700 billion more and give it to the already-wealthiest Americans? Who were elected on a platform of fiscal reform and saving money? Is anyone willing to be openly pissed off about that, or do we owe our slave masters that $700B credit charge? Or, in the alternate, is anyone offering a creative solution? The creative solution is blocked by the simple ability to respond to our own anger and frustration, which is a childlike emotion caught in an adult body — and that is precisely the point that Fritz is making here.
We love Ali G because he’s direct and to the point — just like Fritz. He’s just funnier. But he’s doing the same thing — he’s present in the Here and Now and thinking what everyman is thinking, or wishes he could say, or wishes he could even think. On national television, he discusses with the most famous young couple in the UK what it would be like to fuck her ass, or fuck her however, or watch them fuck — it’s all good. He is ignoring the bullshit marriage contract and responding to how she presents herself, in that fuck me outfit, which every other interviewer is supposed to ignore and pretend is not there. He goes on to call out the supremely famous and venerated Beckham for acting like a fag, and everyone sees its true. Ali G gets the girl. She looks like she might fuck him on the spot. She’s already naked…
The only way you can do all of that is to pay attention and Be Here Now. And that is what Fritz is demonstrating.
Hyp,
Is Prick supposed to be Fritz Perl or are you talking about some other video? I don’t get it.
I didnt watch the Prick video all the way through, but I thought Ali G. was much more effective in drawing out Posh than Prick was with his “client”. It was fascinating to see how Posh “warmed” up to Ali and started to let down her socially constructed prude facade. If it had gone another 30 minutes, we just might have seen them boning each other right there, or at least talking about it. Or rather, if it hadnt been filmed and televised, they’d all be in a sweaty naked tangle.
The differences we see in the two videos is a fabulous social commentary.
In the Prick video the interviewee/patient just kept getting angrier and angrier. While it is good to get the anger out, the whole scene between them was full of hidden messages. It kept going on and on…. and I felt that the “therapist” was working out his “issues” and/or getting off on his own position of power, at the same time he was trying to treat the client!
The laughter was there for both female “clients”, but they seemed different to me, I cant put my finger on it. (no pun intended)
I love Ali G. and in this one I loved seeing him holding back his laughter…
simply brilliant. damn!