WHEN PROBLEMS MAKE SENSE
At first glance, a patient’s longstanding psychological problem appears to be senseless and useless. But what if, at some time in this person’s life, it did make sense? What if a patient’s relational problems or their depression, their relentless anxieties or frequent angry moods, or any other troublesome pattern began long ago as the best response the person had to otherwise impossible circumstances? If the trouble is not simply a defect, if there might be some meaning here, then we would want first to ask what the “disorder” was originally responding to, what it was trying to accomplish, and how might it actually work for the person in some hidden way.