By Sandra Levy Ceren, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist

Many patients seek therapy expecting to discover truths about themselves that will result in profound beneficial changes in their lives. They incorrectly assume that once they know the cause of their problems, all will become clear and they will be forever changed for the better.

Initially they appear to be at a loss as to why their relationships failed or their careers stalled. They may not recognize that their behavior is chronically self-sabotaging. They may blame others, or their own bad luck. Failing to take responsibility for their part in the situation, they often use the power of negative thinking to worsen the situation. Without professional intervention they may continue this behavior all their miserable lives.

A compassionate friend, relative or colleague may suggest psychotherapy, explaining that all the solutions to their woes will be revealed. But first they must seek the magic, the epiphany, the antidote for their woes called “insight.”

It has long been thought that insight is essential for psychotherapy to work. Understanding the reason you may behave in certain ways may serve to justify the otherwise inexplicable behavior. It may help you feel better, provide relief of anxiety or sadness, but it doesn’t change your behavior. Your epiphany is not a motivator. In fact, it may excuse it, creating a justification for continued self-defeat, a reason to lay blame and wallow without gaining any benefit. At the extreme end it may deny personal responsibility, allowing a person to blame bad behavior on a screwed-up childhood.

Does one have right to bully others because one was bullied as a youngster? Does early deprivation give a person the right to steal? Insight is not an excuse, only an explanation for bad behavior.

Yes, psychotherapy may help a person gain insight. This is a good thing. It may feel like the solution to a mystery, and thus offers a salve, a dose of relief, but it is often woefully insufficient to enable a person to change.

Insight offers a possible — but never with complete certainty — explanation of why we may be the way we are based on our entire history as we remember it, but memories may be flawed. No one will ever know for sure. No research can reproduce the past to make the connection with the present. Thus, how reliable is insight, after all? No research experiments exist that provide a path to the past to determine if this or that is the root cause of a specific problem. The entire chronicle of anyone’s history is based on selective memory formed in a way that appears comprehensible to that person. It is easy to forget important nuances in memories that are veiled or eroded. One may feel exonerated and entitled to blame his situation on his negative experiences or how he interpreted the experiences then and now to confirm ideas he holds dear that have become part of his personal culture, but still, this does not help alter his behavior.

With current health insurance limitations, many of today’s practicing psychologists and other psychotherapists may not focus on helping patients to achieve insight, because it may take too long. If insight does occur, it may be regarded as a bonus because it may temporarily ease emotional pain. For example, if you anticipate a panic attack every time you enter an elevator, you may attribute it to an earlier traumatic event that happened to you in another enclosed space. It makes sense, you feel a little better now that you know the cause, but you still have to deal with the effect.

Long ago, a patient reported that although he was an excellent worker, he was never promoted and in fact had been fired at several jobs for starting arguments with his supervisor. The patient drew the conclusion that his behavior must have stemmed from experiences with his abusive, volatile father who had never earned a decent wage. Therefore the patient felt destined to experience difficulty with men in power with whom he provoked heated arguments. However, his insight did not help him curtail this behavior and he continued to have difficulty controlling his impulses when confronted with the possibility of success. He would not allow himself to rise above his father.

Current psychotherapy can be seen as an educative process in which the patient and therapist establish apparent do-able goals and construct appropriate plans to meet these goals. When this is the focus, the “ah-hah” experience called insight may not be necessary for change to take place. More important is motivation, the willingness to change self-defeating behavior.

If you want to understand yourself and what makes you tick, there is an array of methodologies available such as psychoanalysis, psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, psychodynamic therapy to help improve your life. For a quicker fix, cognitive behavior therapy is the current preferred route.

Sandra Levy Ceren, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and author of the books Essentials of Premarital Counseling and Look Before You Leap (Loving Healing Press).

Visit her website at www.drsandralevyceren.com.

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