|
|
|
 |
 |
Dating service through therapist for accurate matching |
|
Score
58%
|
|
5 votes,
Feasibility
23%
Originality
30%
Humour
68% |
|
The Problem:
Unsuccessful dating and matching...
The Social Invention:
A new dating service aims to match people who are psychologically and emotionally compatible, by obtaining data from their therapists. Clients wishing to enrol with TheraDate ask their therapist to fill out a confidential questionnaire on them, information that is then assessed and used by a TheraDate’s panel of therapists to match people up.
In the opinion of its creator, US psychoanalyst Frederick Levenson, people using therapy are among the “brightest, most verbally adept and success-oriented people”, and he believes that they would be more likely to have successful relationships with other people who are also involved in self-reflection and openly talking about their feelings. To put it another way, the system could match up people who are ‘working on themselves’, and is based on the belief that people in therapy will be attracted to other people with similar experiences.
In theory, the therapist should also paint a much truer picture of their client than the person themselves might; rather than the person’s profile being about their love of tennis or Scrabble, it will include character traits like obsessiveness or being someone prone to ‘intellectualising’. In this way, the creators claim, the panel will be able to match people more effectively than would be the case with standard dating services.
'People will be offered up to eight dates annually'The system is designed to avoid ethical conflicts because the individual therapist is not, for example, matching up two of his or her clients (and then having to deal with possible consequences). TheraDate also recommends that the client pays their therapist for filling out the form, as it is a service they are doing for them. At present, the firm has about 200 people signed up in New York and Los Angeles, and they are hoping for three times that number before starting the matchmaking process. If and when that process does begin, people on the system will be offered up to eight dates annually, though the annual fee will be $800 rising to a substantial $2,000.
Somewhat inevitably, there have been a considerable number of raised eyebrows from the therapy community, not just on whether this is at all ethical for a therapist to do, but also on whether, for example, it is sensible to match up two people in therapy with similar experiences and character traits.
- More information on the scheme can be found at www.TheraDate.com
Summarised from an article by Beth Whitehouse, entitled ‘ TheraDate offers match with others in therapy’, on the Salt Lake Tribune website (June 30th 2002; www.sltrib.com), and from an item, entitled ‘Dating service aims to match people using their therapist’, on the Ananova website (September 10th 2002; www.ananova.com).
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Give us your ideas and join
the most exciting thing to happen to social invention since two hairy
guys rubbed a couple of sticks together! |
| SUBMIT YOUR
IDEA NOW » |
|
|
