I've never felt as sorry for the Chilean miners as I did on reading this report:
In an effort to dominate the miners, the team of psychologists led by Mr Iturra has instituted a series of prizes and punishments. When the miners behave well, they are given TV and mood music. Other treats - like images of the outside world are being held in reserve, as either a carrot or a stick should the miners become unduly feisty.
In a show of strength, the miners have at times refused to listen to the psychologists, insisting that they are well. ''When that happens, we have to say, 'OK, you don't want to speak with psychologists? Perfect. That day you get no TV, there is no music - because we administer these things,''' said Dr Diaz.
Psychologists are sometimes accused of being tyrants who seek to impose their authority on patients by rather subtler means. But this extraordinary situation has unleashed the inner tyrant within the shrink:
"We are measuring each other's strength." Dr Diaz spoke from a windswept plateau 100 metres from the mouth of the now-collapsed San Jose copper mine and described what he called a ''complex marriage'' with the miners. ''This marriage might break up, that's true you know? At any time. That is the analogy and that's how you have to see it,'' he said. ''We are in the difficult period.''
A marriage with a rather lop-sided power relationship. A marriage as Natascha Kampusch might once have understood it.
(h/t: The Browser)
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