On "The Effort To Drive The Other Person Crazy"
In an article of 1959, 'The Effort to Drive the Other Person Crazy', Searles examined six modes of interpersonal communication, arguing that “each of these techniques tends to undermine the other person's confidence in his own emotional reactions and his own perception of reality”. Among these techniques were switching emotional wavelengths while discussing the same topic; and dealing with different topics (life and death/trivial) while remaining on the same wavelength.
Such attempts at crazy-making were often applied by patients to therapists, who had the task of enduring them without retaliation. Searles added moreover that it was important for the therapist to survive their own wish to kill the patient.
Read more about this topic: Harold Searles
Famous quotes containing the words effort, drive, person and/or crazy:
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Are only “incidents”
In the effort to keep day and night together.”
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“One of the most important things we adults can do for young children is to model the kind of person we would like them to be.”
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“Development, it turns out, occurs through this process of progressively more complex exchange between a child and somebody else—especially somebody who’s crazy about that child.”
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