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From: Gunars Neiders, Psychology Doctorate Student
Date: 10/4/03
Time: 4:31:43 AM
Remote Name: 12.211.116.92
Eugene,
I congratulate you for an excellent article.
I admire you as a human being. In San Diego you seized me, my urgency in a blink of an eye. On the other scale you have really advanced the study of stuttering (together with my friends Larry Molt, Walt Manning, Bernstein-Ratner, and a horde of others with whom I have not had personal interaction) An aside, Judy Kuster is one of my heros/heroines in this world. Even though she has not written papers on stuttering per se. She has given all of us a medium to communicate. Long live Judy! One day, I hope that she will recognize that I am a psychologist, MA at least. But that is immaterial. LoL.
Gene, you have covered so much ground that includes my case. You have quite astutely understood that chronic stuttering has nothing to do with “stuttering as a speech disorder” but a disorder of cognitive attitudes.
We in Cognitive Behavior Therapy and especially Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy start with existentially teaching the client to accept himself or herself unconditionally. “Yes, I stutter! Tough! It gives me practical disadvantages, but it does not make me a lesser person.” “I can have my dignity and my unconditional self acceptance whether I stutter or not.” (See the literature on REBT as in www.rebt.org)
Stuttering as a visible symptom of malaise, not a cause of our pain. If we accept ourselves unconditionally, stuttering is not causing our pain. It is our DEMANDS that we don’t stutter that causes us our pain. Unnecessarily.
You talk about attitude adjustment. Stoic philosopher Epictetus said, ”Things do not disturb us, the view of them does.”
In my humble opinion Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy is the best psychological/psychiatric help.
Instead for searching for perfect speech, I have a goal of tension and forcing speech. Actually also the absence of controlled speech. I have too much to do to screw around with impressing other people. I want to communicate and feel relaxed. So what if I have a few re-repetitions.
Affectionally, Gunars