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Welcome! My name is Daniel Mackler and I am a psychotherapist in New York City. (Feel free to visit my therapy website: www.macklertherapy.com.) My essays focus on the causes, consequences, and radical significance of childhood trauma. I see childhood traumas as ranging from the extreme, which are common, to the mild, which are so much MORE common that few even notice them at all, much less call them by their proper name. I view the norm in our culture as being highly traumatized, and I view the average, and even above-average, childhood as being extremely traumatic – and the average parent as lacking both awareness of this and deep empathy for the child. I have come to realize the incredible denial most people have around trauma and its consequences, and this has motivated me to expose this denial to the best of my ability. I see our world growing more pathological, confused, polluted, overpopulated, and disturbed by the day – and I feel that to stand by and say nothing while we destroy our planet is irresponsible and even criminal. Yet I write these essays with great hope – both for individual healing and for the collective healing of our world. I seek to offer a new perspective – on psychology, on relationships, on enlightenment, on truth, on sex, on narcissism, on healing, on trauma, on life’s purpose, on parenting, on celibacy, on the pathology of the family system, and on the future of our species.
The basis for all childhood trauma starts in the family, with parents, and for that reason I devote much of my energy to the study of parenting and families – and to studying the experience and consequences of being a child in a partially unenlightened family.
Although my essays are intense, I sometimes write in a lighter vein. For a humorous view into my perspective, try: The Hypocrite's Dictionary: A Peek Into The Mindset Behind Hypocrisy.
Also feel free to view a list of a sayings that I have written, as well my amazon.com book reviews. My amazon.com critique of Judith Herman’s classic “Trauma and Recovery,” in particular, expresses my point of view on trauma in a nutshell.
Although I am a therapist by trade, I am a radical believer in the power of self-therapy – mostly because I have seen how much it works, both in myself and in others. It’s also a lot cheaper than going to a therapist – much as it requires a huge amount of self-motivation, self-confidence, and self-guidance. What I have found, however, is that being in self-therapy and being in psychotherapy with a professional therapist can dovetail nicely, as long as the therapist recognizes that the patient is the real healer and that self-therapy comes first!
And to expand my point of view:
And now, some longer essays. Although my essay on Alice Miller – my favorite writer in the psychology field – is quite a bit more lengthy than my other essays, I believe it is well worth the read – and may be the most important piece on this website.
And finally, a three-part assessment of the life, the scientific findings, and the self-therapy method of Elnora Van Winkle, the creator of Redirecting Self Therapy (RST):
ON ELNORA VAN WINKLE I was introduced to the work of Elnora Van Winkle by some members of this website’s bulletin board. Van Winkle is a now-deceased scientist and psychological theorist who wrote about healing one’s traumas and mental illness through redirecting one’s buried anger back to one’s original traumatizers, primarily one’s parents. She claims to have discovered a foolproof method for recovery – which of course piqued my interest. I have provided a link to websites about her work. Although some of the writing by her is disjointed and difficult to follow, it is worth perusing nonetheless in order to get a background for the three critiques that are to follow: Link 1: www.gocure.com Link 2: www.redirectingselftherapy.com Oddly enough, I discovered that I read Van Winkle’s work years ago. A close friend and colleague of mine in New York City, Frederick Timm, had been friends with Van Winkle for years and knew her well. Because the biographical information on her websites is limited, and is all based on self-reporting, I asked Fred Timm if he would grant an interview about Van Winkle, and he agreed. It provides a fascinating – and penetrating – view into her character, background, and work. VAN WINKLE CRITIQUE #1: Interview With Frederick Timm About Elnora Van Winkle, The Creator of Redirecting Self Therapy. By her own account, Van Winkle’s self-therapy methods hinge on her neurochemical theories, but as I am no neuroscientist, I could not assess their accuracy myself. I contacted Grace Jackson, M.D., a prominent psychiatrist who publishes and lectures widely about the dangerous effects of psychiatric medications, and she agreed to assess Van Winkle’s scientific findings. Her paper, which is easy to read and doesn’t mince words, is quite surprising – and shows us a thing or two about good science! First, a bio of Dr. Jackson. VAN WINKLE CRITIQUE #2: The Toxic Mind: The Biology Of Mental Illness And Violence – A Brief Critique Of E. Van Winkle’s Hypothesis And finally, to wrap it all up, I wrote an overall assessment of Van Winkle’s work. VAN WINKLE CRITIQUE #3: An Assessment Of The Self-Therapy Methods of Elnora Van Winkle.
© 2006 Daniel Mackler, LCSW 
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