Hi everybody. We recently had a Thread in which a New Poster asked for help, and several of us jumped right in. But the poster dismissed all of our collective advice… either directly or by simply ignoring the posts, but all the way up until the end was still asking for the same Help.
Apparently, all of our Suggestions did not measure up to the Expectations of the Poster for what he or she perceived as Effective Advice. My thoughts on this is that I suspect the Poster wanted some kind of Miraculous ‘Catch-Phrase’ that would stir her down to the bone and transform her Life in an instant. Maybe she saw something like that in a Movie once.
Tell me if I am wrong, but I think we have all seen this before, that Posters expect us to provide instant results. Well, yes, we KNOW that it doesn’t work like that, BUT, considering the NEED for it, I wonder if there IS anything we could say that would at least Appear to these Impatient Posters as a ‘Plausible’ Instant Fix… something that could keep them Positive and Engaged long enough until, by a kind of social osmosis , it ‘seeps’ into them about how it Really Works, but by that time they would have become Self Committed and won’t shy away in disappointment.
I was thinking of the Placebo Effect, you know, A Confident and Respected Member of obviously Great Status, Skill and Authority, could make some Quasi-Magical Pronouncement … like a Guru giving out a silly Mantra and making a True Believer… for at least a while. I think Richard could pull it off… But while I read that the Placebo Effect can be quite powerful, still, some studies say that it drops off to nothing in about 72 hours. I think even less, from my limited experience with the Placebo effect. For instance, Revival Tent Healers like to Get Out of Town on the night of the ‘Show’… pull up stakes and run, before all the people they ‘cured’ realize they are still sick and in pain.
Could the Placebo Effect work with Anger? Well, Anger usually needs a Trigger, but generally Chronically Angry people know just by the Negative Quality of their Internal Dialogue that they are Ready to Blow up at the next Person, dog or cat that walks into the room. I do think that a good strong Dose of the Placebo Effect could calm a troubled persons mind… for at least a day… maybe two.
But what would the magic phrase be? You know, I remember when I went into Therapy myself once, decades ago, my Psychologist gave me a book to read and told me how helpful the book was with all of his other patients. Now that I think about it, he was probably putting just a bit of Placebo Spin on that Book.
But even though he was a very good psychologist, he never even tried to come out with any Words of Wisdom or Great Insight that would change my life.
But it would be nice if we could think of a good Plausible Sounding Magic Answer… to keep these Posters from ditching us so soon, wouldn’t it?