American Psychiatry: A Far Cry from German National Socialism

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The recent breakdown of a Southern California Christian who attempted to profit from the misery of African children gave some our students food for thought. One imagined him strapped to a gurney ranting against the forces of evil as a kind physician injected him with mind altering substances. Another pictured him in a padded room wearing a straitjacket blabbering on about Satan's plan to cheat him of his pile of gold as he gladly downed brain damaging pharmaceuticals. Although our students were not happy with Jason Russell's business plan, they completely sympathized with his mental distress.

When the topic of medical treatment of mentally deranged patients comes up, some people think of physicians such as Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung. An association with German scientists of the 1930's who treated their victims as laboratory animals comes to mind only to the elite few with the inside skinny on how psychiatry actually operates in the US. Those effete elitists can be easily dismissed as a lunatic fringe who could not find their way around the cranium of a rhesus monkey. They have never severed the corpus callosum of a living victim and probed for differences between hemispheres, so what do they know?

American psychiatrists are not the same as their German counterparts because of at least one essential distinction. Unlike German National Socialist scientists, American psychiatrists obtain the permission of the victim's family before they administer destructive "treatment" in the interest of scientific inquiry. That makes it all okay. A psychiatrist in our network claimed that psychiatrists treat all people equally. One could interpret this as a claim that all psychiatrists conform to egalitarian principles. On the other hand, one could interpret this to imply that psychiatrists treat all of their patients like laboratory animals.

What are your hopes and wishes for Jason Russell? Do you hope that those nice physicians will help him to eliminate enough mental capacity that he can move forward in life as a Christian entrepreneur? Or, do you hope that he survives his hospitalization without an addiction to brain damaging pharmaceuticals?

Comments

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

I prescribe some clozaril for your paranoid delusions.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I am more interested in what you prescribe for yourself.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

The more you claim to know the "truth" about psychiatry, the more you demonstrate how little you know.

The truth may set you free, but it looks more and more likely that an inkling of truth cherry picked from a vast array of complex and dynamic professional practices is easily inflated into an increasingly pompous psuedo-critique dressed up with quasi-religious puffery.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

I can only imagine some serious childhood trauma for sophia because I don't know anyone who goes into medicine hoping to manipulate people or treat them like lab rats. It's by and large a desire to help people with a touch of love for science.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

If you knew what I know, you would never make such an assertion.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I am glad that your daughter has been spared the degradation that you experienced.

As for Jason Russell's alleged masturbation, that may have been an exaggeration on the part of the neighbor who dropped a dime on him. There were also reports that he pounded the pavement with his fists, but the video of him shows him slapping the ground with his palms. The former could be considered self-destructive. The latter could not be seen as such.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

I agree that there are problems with psychiatry in this country, I just disagree with the notion that it's somehow inherent to psychiatry.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

Only things I know about doctors are 1.) they have horrible handwriting and 2.) they think that MD degree automatically confers upon them a godlike ability with regards to real estate dealings.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The latter is more a matter of state law than medical tradition, however doctors do tend to take advantage of it.

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

What the fuck is this shit?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Fertilizer for rumination, obviously.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Hey, I actually do enjoy your posts, but I've got no idea who or what you're talking about here. A link in the OP would have been awesome.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

To which OP do you refer? Jason Russell is one of the individuals involved in Invisible Children and Kony 2012.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The Nazis viewed psychiatry IIRC as "Jewish science" and thus never engaged in it very much. Abuse of psychiatry was a Soviet pattern inherited from the Tsars. The Nazis were never subtle enough to demonize their enemies as just outright insane.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Thomas Szasz scoffs at the way American psychiatrists pointed the finger of blame at Soviet psychiatric abuses, all the while ignoring similar abuses in the US. It is like the way that the Chinese are not free to criticize China, but Americans are free to criticize China to their heart's content.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

So you spent 4 paragraphs to say "US psychiatrists are Nazis"? Seems wasteful.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

That is not what I said. There are differences.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

I think she said that they are wannabe Nazis.

[usekh.livejournal.com]

Without psychiatry several of my closest friends would not be here today. So in short, fuck you.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Were it not for psychiatry, some of my friends would still be alive and others would lead more full lives than they do. You may credit psychiatry with the rescue of your friends, but there are other factors that went into the preservation of their lives.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

And coffee with chocolate cake helps too!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Coffee and chocolate are basic food groups. I would not advise screaming obscenities in Jason Russell's neighborhood. His neighbors are likely to drop a dime on you.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

I approve this post.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I am glad that you do. Many thanks.