Terminology

[kallijean]

I heard a term in massage school that I can not (4 years later) remember. Here goes...

When someone goes to a doctor, they may be told to do something that they are not sure about, but rather than ask the docotr, they figure 'this person is a doctor, and they wouldn't tell me something to do something that was bad for me, so I should do what they say'.

The same could be true for massage therapists. Someone might go to a therapist, and this person might not be too reputable. They start doing something they shouldn't and the client gets uncomfortable. The client doesn't say anything because this therapist should know what they are doing and would not do anything that wasn't right, even though I am unfcomfortable with what they are doing.

There is a term for that situation. Can anyone tell me what it is?

 

[Automatic Avalanche]

Sorry Brian, the only thing that comes to mind is the psychology term "Transference."
And I'm not exactly sure if that's what you're looking for.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transference

 

[Zip Zipper]

Terminology

It sounds like "power differential". The person standing over us while we are vulnerable can have more power, at least in our minds, than we do.

 

[<insert witty name here>]

Terms

No, it is neither of those. It is a specific medical term, but I have not been able to find anyone that knows it. We were taught it in massage school.

It is the belief that the person working on us is a professional and being such is correct and knows what they are doing, even if what they are doing makes me very uncomfortable. I know someone that one time got a massage form some male therapist that actually massaged up into her vagina. She did not do anything as she felt he knew what he was doing and it was necessary, although she felt really uncomfortable with it (which she should).

 

[Pooky]

paternalism?

 

[itisabeccathing]

How about Archetype?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype

A book I have (Psychology of the Body) describes that behavior and describes Jung's Archetype of a Healer to classify it.

 

[tmpafford]

i revisited an excellent book we were required to read in school, The Educated Heart, by Nina McIntosh...

maetra---i do think its transference.

on p. 52 of the book it discusses "positive transference"..

'In this case, clients fall into an illusion that wer are wiser and somehow better than they are.....Clients may put up with the practitioner's self-centeredness the same way, perhaps, that they put up with their parents'. It's survival. Would anyone risk offending someone who holds the key to helping or hindering them? Clients come to us seeking relief from pain, and sometimes they are desperate. Who would risk offending their bodyworker?"

There is more on this in the book....

 

[??p??pl? p??????]

Only ideas that hit me here are:
Dual relationships
Transference
Power Diff as stated above.

Or at my "day job" we would call it a God complex....lol

Robyn

 

[farnoush]

The god complex was what I was thinking about... Ego trips are very bad...

I hope you found what you are looking for... I will keep searching. I typed in God Complex just to see if anything triggered, I know what you are talking about but I can't put my finger on it.

 

[Elissa]

I think the term you are looking for is...

Compliance..which has a specific definition in behavioral psychology...
The term cam into use after an experiment where subjects were asked to shock another "subject" when they responded incorrectly to a test question...the subject proceeded to give ever increasing shocks even when the other "subject" appeared to suffer serious pain and harm... the shocked subject was actually an actor....
the reason given by the subjects giving the shock for why they continued when the other person seemed to be in large amounts of pain an possible injury was " the doctor (psychologist) was right there telling me to do it and he is a professional who knows more than I do.

It was called the miligram experiment....

 

[joanne342]

I think the term you are looking for is...

It was called the miligram experiment....

What a crappy experiment....at least it's better than the Executive Monkey experiment.

 

[Cato U]

And I hate to ask...

What is the Executive Monkey experiment?