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

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

Chew your own turdcuds, then.

Are you a Scientologist or something?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Far from it. Would you suspect Thomas Szasz of membership in a cult?

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Ironic, given his close cooperation with Scientology in attacking psychiatry back in the day.

His most vigorous criticisms are from nearly half a century ago.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Those criticisms from a half century ago may have made the greatest impact on the profession. His influence is responsible for changing terminology from mental illness to mental disorder, for example. There have also been significant legal reforms in the area of patients' rights that could be traced to his influence. His more recent work is nothing to belittle, though.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

And yet here you are citing his work of a half century ago to bolster your CURRENT claims against the profession as if a) those changes you acknowledge ar bupkas and b) as if there has been no growth in the knowledge or practice in the field in the intervening decades. Your OP does not compare an electroshock operator of 1960 to a Nazi. You compare the entire field NOW to a Nazi.

But please do continue to regale us with how only you know anything.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Pst, you might've been caught in a trap!

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Damn, is that why my feet feel all sticky?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I did not say that psychiatrists were Nazis. On the contrary: I advocated at least one difference. That is a contrast, not a comparison.

As for the timeliness of my criticism, Szasz's original observations still hold true. The profession enacted some reforms but continues to practice abuses. Also, as I alluded to in the previous comment, more recent publications by Szasz have documented ongoing abuse and a continued need for reform.

It is not only I who have made inquiries into the profession. The difference between you and I is that I investigate, where you simply kowtow.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

When you cite but one difference between two groups of people and one of those groups are mong history's greatest criminals, you are comparing them, not contrasting. Have the courage to stand by your own words.

The difference between you and I is that I investigate, where you simply kowtow

I had no idea that vague allusions to the work of half a century ago constituted inquiry. But if you ever just came out and for once just FUCKING SAID what you were getting at, everyone might pass out from the shock.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Yes, Szasz's seminal work was published a century ago. The most recent work that I have read was published less than a decade ago, yet you keep harping on that first text. The points made in all of those works are still relevant today.

Why should one not place two historically great criminals side by side and see where they differ? It seems apropos.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

The difference between you and I is that I investigate, where you simply kowtow.

While I'm sure there are huge differences between you and for instance malasadas, you shouldn't claim that people "kowtow" when you don't have half a clue on that.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

The difference between you and I is that I investigate, where you simply kowtow.

Careful with that whole 'open mind' thing, let it go to far and your brain falls out.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

On a side note: Cooperation does not membership imply. I cooperate with a Sister of Mercy. That does not make me a Sister of Mercy. Nor does it make the Sister a member of our order.

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

I dunno who that is and I'm disinclined to google it. Any relation to Charles Victor Szasz? Because much as I liked him, I am digging Renee Montoya as the new Question.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of Zsasz from Batman.

[jerseycajun.livejournal.com]

I knew I had heard that name somewhere before.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Thomas Szasz is the most significant voice for psychiatric reform in the US. It is probably better to be familiar with his work before succumbing to a psychiatric event.

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

Uh. Most people don't have a choice of what they study before they suffer a break, honey. Privileged much?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Certainly, I had the great privilege of having a sister become a victim of psychiatry. She is the one who lent me a copy of Ceremonial Chemistry. I feel better equipped to deal with charlatan practice as a result.

We all have a choice of what we do and do not study.

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

I'm so sure your sister is just DE-FUCKING-LIGHTED that her mental status was such a PRIVILEGE for you.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Timothy McVeigh is the most significant voice for political reform you know.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

You and I obviously have different criteria for our choice of voices. Thomas Szasz was trained in psychiatry. Timothy McVeigh was only trained in sabotage.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Is there a better political skill than sabotage? :P

[the-s3ntinel.livejournal.com]

Well let me list the people I've come across who loudly pledge allegiance to the ideas of Thomas Szasz, or who loudly crusade against psychiatry on much the same grounds:

• The Elliot Temple clique. (Bunch of weird, emotionally stunted, ultra-dogmatic libertarian internet trolls who think that stopping children from running into the street rather rationally dissuading them is some sort of cosmic violation of Morality.)
  Scientologists
  
• You
  

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Do some more research. You will find that people from a variety of experiences have a healthy skepticism toward psychiatry. (Of course, you may not consider that skepticism to be "healthy," but a manifestation of a cult mentality.)