jj (02/16/83)
This should be in net.flame, but I guess I'll leave it in net.misc where the rest of this discussion abides. I have known about 15 people who have taken EST. They are roughly separable into two groups: 1) The group of those who were not self-assertive. 2) The group of those who were VERY self-assertive. My own observation is that group 1, for the most part, after recovering from the psychological trauma (unfortunately, two people did NOT recover), benefitted from the 'training'. Group 2, on the other hand, showed a strong tendency to become overly agressive, self-confident, and VERY disparaging of those who did NOT exhibit these tendencies. I (unwillingly and unwittingly) 'deprogrammed' several of these people when they tried to run me over. I have taken self-assertiveness courses myself. (For the record, I tend to be overly shy until I have reached the point of loosing my temper) My experience is that those courses which teach REASONED self-assertiveness are those which have the most beneficial effects. From what those who took the training have told me, the EST method consists of bullying the participants into asserting themselves. (and sometimes becoming bullies?? question, not statement!) While some people, including myself, are generally very shy and loath to attempt to influence others' perceptions of the world through emotional or intimidating tactics, a large number of these same people have developed strong methods for dealing with bullies(due to a superfluity of data on bullying techniques), and thus would not have the 'correct' reaction to the techniques used in EST. I must emphasize that my impressions are strictly on a second hand basis, with about 15 <never to be named> dati, and thus may not represent the usual (or current) results or representations of EST. While I welcome reasoned opinions and discussion (by mail, please) I must point out (complain, perhaps none to subtly) that mail discussions consisting of unreasoned assertion or emotional manipulation will be rudely rejected, and continued examples of such will be returned to the source system's root user. Cautiously, rabbit!jj