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

[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.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

State law? Huh?

More like they think that an "MD" appended to the end of their name automatically makes them geniuses at everything from business to finance to real estate. Of course, too many attorneys think that "JD' does the same thing.

I know as a fact, from personal experience, that it does not.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of a different aspect of the profession where doctors are called in to settle property issues. I know what you mean about the arrogance of doctordom.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Do you think it's pretentious for someone to sign their name on any correspondence with a "JD" even if they don't practice law?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Juvenile Delinquent? That's not pretentious.

[ginnyjake.livejournal.com]

It's pretentious even if you do practice law. When I pass the bar (hopefully) in October, I plan to sign my name with "Esquire" at the end.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the exams. I suppose it is easier to pass the Bar in Nebraska than it is in California.

[ginnyjake.livejournal.com]

The nice thing about the the Midwest is that there are less of us, so they don't have weed people out. I'm taking the Iowa bar, but one of the Nebraska commissioners told us "If you've graduated from a good law school, who are we really to tell you that you don't have what it takes to practice law."