I really appreciate these two posts; they meet with what I’ve always sensed about modern pharmacological prisons for the mind.
Such a far cry from the extraordinary C. G. Jung, his explorations of the personal and transpersonal unconscious!
Perhaps it was B. F. Skinner’s behaviorism that wrenched psychiatry from its natural focus, the realm of mystery, and into listing categories of “behavior,” “normal” and not, the labeling of which, of course, changes over time.
Or perhaps it was the religion of 3D science itself, scientism, that did the job, with its insistence on evidence, parameters, closed experiments, (pretended) “proof.” After all, psychiatry, as a branch of modern industrial medicine, had to fall under the same rubric.
But of course, actually, it’s the profit-motive, capitalism, run amuck, with one of its byproducts so-called pharmaceutical “cures” for “symptoms” of bodies or minds that are deemed “abnormal” in some respect or other.
One of my sons would have been labeled hyperactive, had I allowed him to be tested. I did not. The one time I myself went to “see a psychiatrist” was when I wanted my first husband to go into counseling with me, and he wouldn’t, said I must be crazy, please go see a shrink. So I did! Walked in there and grilled him about his assumptions, his training, his view of the mind and the spirit. Noticed that as the hour went on he kept backing his chair up further and further until it finally hit the wall at the same time as he hit the wall internally. Couldn’t stomach my presence even one more second. Told me that I was “fine,” “normal,” didn’t need to see a psychiatrist. Hilarious!
And then, of course, I read and re-read Ronnie D. Laing, the bete noir of psychiatrists, the one who actually listened to so-called “schizophrenics” describe their experience as if it really was meaningful and not crazy. That changed everything for him, and for many of us back in the ’60s when we woke up and recognized so-called “sanity” as relative, a social construction. The “sanity” (the conditioning process) advocated then and now was/is Cartesian, splitting body from mind, mind from spirit, earth from heaven, and all of us from each other.
Fuggetaboutit! Not my cup of tea. And yours?
Psychiatry goes insane: every human emotion now classified as a mental disorder in the psychiatric manual DSM-5.
and
Amen, sister!
Are the large-font lines intended to be hotlinked to articles?
Oops! Sorry. Now fixed.
Ann,
Doggone it! I can’t let these two lousy posts go by without commenting.
I’ve read a lot of stupid things in my life but there’s nothing more ignorant, asinine and horribly wrong than Rappoport’s “Don’t let your child see a psychiatrist. Ever.”
Ann, do you have any idea how terribly belittling this kind of “journalism” is to the hundreds of millions of people that suffer with mental illness?
Do you actually believe Rappoport? Do you actually think he’s the final authority on brain disorders? Do you actually think that mental illness is a figment of our imaginations?
The human heart is an organ. It can malfunction. Would you agree with me on that?
The human brain is an organ. It can malfunction. But you don’t agree with me on this?
Why?
Ann, I spent 12 long years taking care of my beautiful wife who suffers with clinical depression and schizophrenia. Our marriage couldn’t survive the stress and we divorced.
During that time I became an active member in NAMI and networked with many families who have loved ones that suffer with brain disorders. I became an amateur expert in the field of psychiatry.
As a member of NAMI, one of our most important jobs is to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and bring the facts of these disorders to light.
What Rappoport wrote is so far removed from the truth, it’s laughable. He is actively perpetuating the stigma of mental illness by denying it even exists.
His “investigative journalism” is garbage.
Think I’m kidding?
Come with me to a local NAMI meeting where wonderful people meet and try to help each other cope with family members who are suffering horribly.
Your entire perspective will be changed.