Interview with Dr. Sarno's Chief Psychologist Arlene Feinblatt
In my second interview with Dr. Arlene Feinblatt, I focused on learning about the collaborative relationship between Dr. Sarno and her. It was a pleasure to get to hear directly from someone who knew Dr. Sarno so well about his attributes and how his personality contributed to the success of this duo. Arlene acknowledges how she and Sarno had to band together to keep getting through the criticisms lobbed their way as they tried to make progress.
We talked about the importance of a particular characteristic in the beloved doctor with which all at Crushing Doubt should be able to identify: certainty. On top of that, Arlene notes that being able to accept anger and rage as an emotion is key to recovery, especially if we can focus on deciding what to do with it, rather than getting stuck on judging it. I noted with Arlene one of the key variables she brought to the table in helping people as well in the form of her curiosity and capacity to keep asking questions.
Overall, we talked about the baseline idea of getting the patient to think emotionally, which then builds on itself. The information begins to do the work all by itself and we talk about why a short term therapy that is more active really helps in this process.