Nobody likes experiencing painful symptoms. We dread the scratchy throat of a winter cold, or the bleak despair of a depressive episode. We wish they would disappear, yet at the same time we know they are our messengersāinvisible laborers toiling in our bodies signaling that something has gone wrong. Symptoms are the language our body uses to communicate distress, both physical and psychological. That scratchy throat, despite being a nuisance, conveys crucial information about the state of the body. Similarly, without the black hand of depression pulling us down, we would not know we are depressed to begin with. As much as we would like them gone, symptoms refuse to be ignored.
For the sake of this discussion, it is worth noting that symptoms are not the same as signs. Signs refer to what can be objectively seenāa head wound, for instance, whereas a symptom is the subjective experience (āmy head hurtsā). In medicine, doctors can utilize both signs and symptoms to diagnose a variety of ailments, but ultimately rely on objective signs to make a clinical diagnosis.
But here we are talking about psychopathologyāthe ailments of the psyche, not the body (though the two can never be fully separated). Psychopathology has no signs, only symptoms. In other words, when we are talking about psyche, we cannot conduct objective tests to diagnose objective pathologies. Nevertheless, psychiatrists approach the mental in a similar way doctors approach the physical (remember, psychiatrists are ultimately medical doctors, and must go through the same core training). Like other physicians, they consult their manualsāin this case the latest edition of the DSMāand make their diagnosis accordingly. For instance, if an individual has a continuous low mood, trouble sleeping, and feelings of hopelessness, a psychiatrist will likely diagnose them with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) based on these symptoms alone. Despite the lack of objective measures, these diagnoses are both conceptualized and treated as medical conditions, as captured by the following reassurance from the American Psychiatric Association: āMental illness is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a medical problem, just like heart disease or diabetes.ā
Of course, psychiatry is only one of the many disciplines that take on the task of healing the psyche. But because it is most respected in the scientific field, the psychiatric paradigm dominates the modern approach to psychopathology. What this means is that the majority of therapists operate under the approach of ātreating mental illnessā, which, given the lack of objective signs, can only ever be the treatment of subjectively distressing symptoms. Therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) dominate the field of counseling, and target only the surface manifestations of underlying psychological issues. CBT in particular is highly standardized and often a short-term treatment which emphasizes coping with symptoms in the present moment. Though other forms of therapy may dig deeper and attempt to address underlying causes of distress, as a general rule mental health care considers symptom alleviation to be the ultimate goal of therapy, and therapy outcomes are often measured by the reduction in symptoms. Psychopathology, in this view, is considered cured only once the symptoms are no longer present, and both patient and therapist alike often consider the absence of symptoms to be representative of mental health.
Here I would like to suggest that much of contemporary psychology could be called surface psychology. This term is directly opposed to depth psychologyāan approach that focuses primarily on deeper, often unconscious aspects of the psyche, and has not seen mainstream success since Freudian thought dominated the field. In short, depth psychology, which includes psychoanalysis, attempts to uncover the source of the pathology, whereas any surface psychology will focus only on conscious manifestations of a given disorder. In psychoanalytic terms, āsurfaceā could be replaced with āegoāāin other words, a surface psychology is any psychology that does not look past the conscious part of the psyche. Therefore individual therapists may attempt to dig deeper and find the source of psychopathology in the family history or other past experiences, but so long as the unconscious is left out, and symptom reduction remains the goal of treatment, then they are engaging in surface psychology. Indeed, the fact that depth psychology is hardly recognized in mainstream psychology highlights the extent to which surface-oriented practices have come to dominate the field.
The problem of surface psychology
Surface psychology is not inherently a bad thing, and can be quite useful in many cases, especially for issues related to the many stressors of modern life. It is likely that we will always have some pathological symptoms related to the incompatibility of modern life with our instinctual makeup; Freud himself has discussed this at length in Civilization and its Discontents. The psychologist Bruno Bettelheim has pointed out that the original German edition bears the title āDas UnglĆ¼ck in der Kulturā, which more accurately translates to something along the lines of āThe Uneasiness in Civilizationāāa title that better captures Freudās thesis that some psychological uneasiness will always be present in modern society. It is precisely this type of distress that I find surface psychology can help alleviate, as there is no root cause to be uncovered, no depth to be explored. Examples of this include the burnt out college student, the stressed out parent, or the anxious teenager. Such individuals are simply experiencing what we might call āproblems of livingā, and may benefit greatly from learning to manage their symptoms until their stressful situation has passed.
When it comes to pathology resulting from other factors, however, surface psychology falls short. Many of us bear more than just the problems of living, and much of living itself has become so far removed from human needs that symptom relief alone will not suffice. Here we must return to the view of symptoms as useful messengers of the psyche. What happens when these messages are ignored? Or, perhaps more accurately, what happens when these messages are intentionally blocked out through various targeted therapies and pharmaceuticals? It has become apparent that decades of such practices have not led to better mental health outcomes, as the mental health crisis has only worsened in recent years.
The failure of surface psychology is not difficult to understand. Once seen from a depth psychology perspective it becomes apparent that neglecting symptoms can be quite harmful. If we come to view symptoms as representative of underlying psychopathology in need of our attentionāas depth psychology doesāthen drowning out the voice of the psyche is contrary to the nature of the psyche itself. Yet this is precisely what surface psychology does with its emphasis on symptom relief. This is the equivalent of putting a band-aid on an infected wound, in hopes that covering it up will prevent the inevitable spread of the infection. The psyche too can be infected; the DSM diagnoses which we now know by name can creep upon us unsuspectingly and spread through our minds. Our bodies detect organic pathology and send us painful symptoms in hopes of capturing our attention, and our psyche too cries out to be heard in times of mental distressāonly to be silenced with an array of therapies and pharmaceuticals.
Now we must recall that the revolutionary idea that symptoms of psychopathology have their source in the unconscious part of the psycheāand consequently demand recognition and integrationāwas Freudās great insight and the basis upon which psychoanalysis was established. Yet, in the rebellion against the so-called father of modern psychology, it appears that academic psychology has rejected the unconscious altogether in the name of science; we have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. The bathwater is not evidence-based, we say. It cannot be studied under controlled laboratory conditions. Therefore, we might as well toss the baby out too; the divine child upon whose shoulders the entire field was established. Yet if depth psychology has taught us anything, it is that the unconscious cannotāand will notābe ignored. We can rebel against the father all we want, but he still retains his authority. Freudās unconscious did not simply go away just because it was not included in the clinical trials of CBT or a grad studentās dissertation.
Modern psychology and the rejection of the unconscious
It seems that psychopathology has left the unconscious and found its new home in the physical brain, albeit in a place that has yet to be fully determined. Under this new brain-based paradigm, the unconscious is nothing but an artifact from psychologyās primitive past, and symptoms are now expressions of neurochemical imbalances, not complexes in the psyche. Even dreamsāthe primary means of accessing the unconscious, according to depth psychologistsāhave been reduced to the brainās method of processing junk.
Much of this stems from the reality that there can never be an evidence-based approach to the unconscious, as it cannot be studied objectively in the laboratory. Therefore the ego now dominates the psyche, as it is all that can be studied. This rejection of the unconscious has resulted in a new idolatry of ego-worship, forgetting that our ego is influenced by our unconscious just as much as our unconscious is influenced by our ego.
This one-sided approach to psychology entails the loss of the very same thing that established the field in the first placeāthe (re)discovery of the unconscious. Todayās psychologists have no choice but to resort to shallow behaviorist measures of surface-level distress. Symptom reduction is worshiped as if it is the only thing of value in the psyche, and any of the pesky symptoms that plague us can be alleviated with brief interventions already tested on a sample of college students. The results are published as scientific research, and thus the field gains credibility. Slips of the tongue, free associations, dream analysisāsuch ideas have become the flat Earth theories of psychology, embraced only by a few quacks who refuse to accept reality. Gone are the days of Freudian pseudoscience, now that science has entered the game.
Solutions to the unconscious problem
It should be apparent by now that any approach that claims to address issues of āmental healthā must also include the issues that are not recognized by the ego. Yet as long as we continue to embrace the fantasy of a scientific approach to the psyche, no such thing is possible. Science does not like unknowns, and dealing with psycheāwith peopleāalways includes the unknowable. We are not predictable machines that can be tinkered with and adjusted, as much as surface psychology may wish we were. Our approach to human problems, however, very much embodies this roboticism. Todayās talk therapy offers the same kind of fix one would offer to a malfunctioning machine that simply needs some minor adjustment. But putting a new coat of paint on the human machine cannot fix what is rusting inside.
I would take this image even further and apply it to society as a whole. The modern age seems to embody this same peculiar concern with the surface image. Indeed, the entirety of the Western world is built upon a deteriorating foundation, yet we are able to ignore this by maintaining a false image. We keep our grass green so we can ignore the ongoing environmental devastation, and we proudly wear our āI Voted!ā stickers like medals of honor, idolizing a new leader every few years, pretending that these heroes will save us. Little attention is given to what stews in the shadows, until glimpses of it creep into our newspaper headlines.
Perhaps Jung was right in his advocacy for individual wholeness as the starting point for the collective woes of society. How can we expect to fix the world’s problems if we are ignorant to the happenings of our own psyche? Any solution to healing the collective psycheāthe world soulāmust begin with each and every one of us; we must look under the surface both first in ourselves and then out in the world. And if the field of psychology would stand for wholeness, and not just mental well-being, then perhaps it could help us find this much-needed depth.
“Similarly, without the black hand of depression pulling us down, we would not know we are depressed to begin with.”
This is a tautology. Depression sounds like a label invented to alakazam itself into existence or a disease invented to sell a cure.
“Nevertheless, psychiatrists approach the mental in a similar way doctors approach the physical.”
Except psychiatrists are obligated to violate their hippocratic oath. Psychiatry is not a medical discipline, it’s the science of coercion; it just wears a nice labcoat to lend itself legitimacy, and to aid its mission to fund lavish lifestyles for its practitioners and advocates at the expense of its victims. Fake it ’til you make it, right?
“Psychopathology, in this view, is considered cured only once the symptoms are no longer present, and both patient and therapist alike *often* [emphasis added] consider the absence of symptoms to be representative of mental health.”
So if the “patient” and the psychiatrist only sometimes disagree about the goals of “treatment” then it’s not inherently objectifying. If someone wants to voluntarily submit to a psychiatrist’s crackpottery despite the long track record of abuses I would in a perfect world have the courage to warn them. However I do agree that they should be allowed to make a personal choice to access psychiatry. The primary problem is the suppression of information about its failures and the lack of education in general about its inadequacy to assist anyone in a bigger way than pushing ineffective drugs which cause “symptoms” worse than those they treat, which… *surprise,* the solution is more ineffective drugs which cause “symptoms” worse than those they treat, which……. etc, etc. One secondary problem is that when psychiatry is used as a form of intervention by the government it violates the principle of separation of church and state because psychiatry operates as a satanic religion willing to sacrifice anybody and anything on the bloody altar of cold, hard cash.
“It is precisely this type of distress that I find surface psychology can help alleviate, as there is no root cause to be uncovered, no depth to be explored. Examples of this include the burnt out college student, the stressed out parent, or the anxious teenager. Such individuals are simply experiencing what we might call āproblems of livingā, and may benefit greatly from learning to manage their symptoms until their stressful situation has passed.”
This is invisible hand, ghost-in-the-machine thinking. No suffering simply “exists.” (There is a cause that needs to be demystified.) My view is that political economy is the science of human happiness. People need to start blaming our politicians for all of our problems because their ineffectiveness/unwillingness/inability (it probably doesn’t matter whether the cat is white or black) to write better laws that serve our society cause these problems. We should be organizing letter-writing campaigns to our politicians to complain about the harms of “care” just like Reagan did. Otherwise study Buddhist philosophy. Free books about Buddhism mailed to your door if you visit budaedu.org by the way. (Personally I am on a hiatus from studying politics and religion due to the high levels of stress. Maybe someone else who’s more grounded than I am can cross these bridges safely.)
“Yet as long as we continue to embrace the fantasy of a scientific approach to the psyche, no such thing is possible.” I disagree. The writings of Lyndon LaRouche on creativity and the nature of the human mind are a case in point. Science is intrinsically subjective and the ability to turn one’s thought processes inward upon themselves is how to achieve higher levels of thinking. The problem isn’t developing a scientific approach to the psyche because Lyndon LaRouche and his predecessors and associates have accomplished exactly that. Rather, the problem is modern, reductionistic, positivist science and its adherents who want to assign linear models to non-linear phenomena such as human creativity for reactionary purposes of convenience, and to hell with the tears and blood shed.
I liked some of your points but these are a few bones I had to pick.
https://youtu.be/1i6zdnHXo64?si=VxzDKPAgz5ekanq1
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“One secondary problem is that when psychiatry is used as a form of intervention by the government it violates the principle of separation of church and state because psychiatry operates as a satanic religion willing to sacrifice anybody and anything on the bloody altar of cold, hard cash.”
Sadly, I have to agree that’s what psychiatry has turned themselves into today. But it’s even worse, since numerous or all of our mainstream paternalistic religions have also “partnered” with the state, psychology, and psychiatry’s DSM “bible’s” “satanic religion.”
And, yes I agree, “we need a revolution,” albeit hopefully a peaceful one … and I do think the Triune God likely inspires the artists … and in their subconscience, all people.
Thus, the psychological industry dismissing the subconscious self, the Id, or whatever the psych industries choose to change the name of one’s dreams and subconscious self to be, was and is morally wrong.
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Mr. Rosenfeld’s biography mentions his “critical awareness of the flawed mental health system” as well as his commendable desire to reform it.
I contend that the entire mental health field CANNOT be reformed, inasmuch as it is based on the fallacious premise of “psychopathology,” a notion that conflates various states of emotional distress with genuine somatic illnesses that have a demonstrable physical etiology.
Thomas Szasz aptly pointed out the inherent fatal fallacy of psychiatry in his many books and articles, as did Jeffrey Masson in “Against Therapy: The Myth of Emotional Healing.” I have yet to find a convincing rebuttal of their arguments.
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One thing that has become eminently clear in the past several years is the failure of working on the self as a means of addressing systemic political, social, and economic issues. I might argue that our inward gazing as promoted by all kinds of psychotherapy leaves us without the skills and tools to actually address the pressing problems that lead to much of our distress. Moreso, it has deprived most people of even imagining that such tools, skills, and strategies even exist. We have been been rendered hurting talking to therapists about problems much bigger than our individual lives getting nowhere, instead engaging in the work to make meaningful changes in the conditions that lead to so much suffering and aloneness.
I think your analysis is way off, if not backwards all together.
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This is a rather conservative and matter-of-fact essay on the problem psychology is having these days in a world of “science.”
I must say that a full and well-intentioned Science would include psychology in its sphere of activities and would develop reasonably “objective” methods for investigating the contents of the “unconscious” (more properly SUBCONSCIOUS, as unconscious means asleep – which this mind certainly is not) mind.
It is not clear to me that no objective research methods exist. The academic world is simply unaware of them because they have failed to study Hubbard’s work. They have made this mistake because the psychiatrists (Hubbard’s enemies) told them that Hubbard’s work was worthless. And they should know, right?
Hubbard’s work was far from worthless. And by the early 1950s he had found an objective way to detect the contents of the subconscious mind. It was an electronic meter (made with vacuum tubes back in those days) and with it he made numerous discoveries that underlie the rest of his work. His students deal with the subconscious mind every day and for the most part are rather successful at it.
So I think Mr. Rosenfeld’s conclusions are somewhat unfounded. Scientific thought CAN be applied to the problems of the psyche. People just need to stop listening to the lies of psychiatrists and start studying and applying the information that has already been made available to us on this subject.
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You claim that Hubbard’s students deal with the subconscious mind every day and for the most part are rather successful at it.
Could you be a little more precise and specific? What does “for the most part” mean–is Hubbard’s modality 51%, 75%, or perhaps even more effective in alleviating emotional distress? And what exactly is “rather successful” supposed to mean? Unless you can provide verifiable, measurable, universally valid criteria for assessing the efficacy of Scientology, I can see no reason whatsoever why Hubbard’s work deserves more credence than any other wholly subjective mishmash of pseudo-scientific hypotheses so typical of psychiatric cults.
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Man, you should write more critique of critical psychiatrists mate. I love your truth-seeking rigour and your ability to call out the bullshit. You also have a very nice and intelligent style which pulls no punches. You should put more welly in your writing mate (welly means boot in British, or roughly translated: hit the gas! Write more and don’t hold back!)
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No-one, thanks for your kind remark. I also enjoy your colorful, stream-of-consciousness style. You are certainly enriching my knowledge of British colloquialisms!
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If you want to bash non-drug non-hypnosis alternatives in the field of mental health the least you could do is study them first so you know what you are talking about. You have swallowed the psychiatrist’s narrative in this matter hook, line and sinker.
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There is no such thing as “mental health,” which exists solely as a wholly subjective metaphor describing certain states of mind either sanctioned or proscribed in accordance with ever-changing social and cultural norms. It would behoove you to study the works of Thomas Szasz, Jeffrey Masson, Karl Popper, Bruce E. Levine, and other critics of this logically absurd notion.
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“If we come to view symptoms as representative of underlying psychopathology in need of our attentionāas depth psychology doesāthen drowning out the voice of the psyche is contrary to the nature of the psyche itself.”
That’s exactly what my former DSM deluded psychologist did, by railroading me off to a psychiatrist within only two appointments, so the psychiatrist could also deny my dreams might have validity, and anticholinergic toxidrome poison me.
IMHO, the non-medically trained psychological industry really should go back to valuing their client’s psyches, including their dreams (like, for example, not claiming all dreams are “psychosis”). And they should divorce themselves from the scientifically “invalid,” systemic, neurotoxic poisoners of psychiatry.
I mean in reality right now, the psych industries are very literally “conspiring” against everyone in our society who is not considered to be a so called “professional;” so they may maintain a Ponzi scheme of a bad banking system, so they may maintain a failed pharmaceutical based “Rockefeller medical system,” so they maintain the appalling crimes of the maritime based legal system, so they may maintain “the status quo.”
When, in reality, it is the bad systems that need to be gotten rid of, and a lot of undeserved forgiveness is going to need to be given to those working within those bad systems. But God did point out in the real Bible that repentance, and especially changing from one’s evil ways, is needed … to fix society’s real problems.
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“Nevertheless, psychiatrists approach the mental in a similar way doctors approach the physical (remember, psychiatrists are ultimately medical doctors, and must go through the same core training). ”
Unfortunately.. Psychiatrists are not medical doctors. (Some honest psychiatrists are exceptions. They know that psychiatry is clearly harmful to people. They do not prescribe poisonous psychiatric drugs that are harmful and lethal to their patients. They do not use harmful and lethal psychiatric treatments such as ECT. They often recommend ‘non-drug treatments’ to their patients and/or administer these non-drug treatments themselves. Ect. ect.)
So.. Therefore… Real medical doctors do not harm people. But psychiatrists do the opposite. It clearly harms people. They do this damage with psychiatric medications and other harmful psychiatric treatments like ECT.
It should not be forgotten that… Psychiatry is not a medical field (science), but a ‘money-making’ industry. Psychiatry is a sector based on ‘conflicts of interest’ with pharmaceutical companies.
Psychiatry undertakes the role of ‘drug sales representative’ for pharmaceutical companies working in ‘hospitals and other mental health units’. Psychiatrists are also the ‘drug sales representatives’ of pharmaceutical companies (who work in these representatives).
And… Psychiatry is a ‘death industry’ that should be eliminated from medical schools. Probably… We can assume that it may have caused hidden harm (injuries and deaths) to an estimated tens/hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Considering that it has been going on for decades… If we consider that it has been going on for decades… The number of people harmed, including those who died, could even be in the billions.
Probably… Psychiatry is not called a ‘genocidal organization’ for nothing. Psychiatry is truly the chief architect of a hitherto unnamed secret genocide. Gather Adolf Hitler and other genocidal leaders together, and ‘none of them’ can hold a candle to psychiatry (the genocides it committed).
Psychiatry commits these secret genocides under the name of ‘mental health treatment’ with the LEGAL RIGHTS granted to it. In other words, it is done LEGALLY. It does not have legal sanctions. The fate of millions of people who have been harmed (injured and killed) by psychiatric treatments is unknown. Psychiatry is therefore a very dangerous organization. But people and governments do not know this.
As a final word.. Psychiatry should be removed from medical schools. ‘Mind and soul health units’ that offer drug-free treatment methods should be established in medical faculties. ‘Ministries of mind and soul health’ should be established. Psychiatrists and psychologists should practice as ‘mind and soul health physicians’. Mental health systems should be redesigned for drug-free treatment methods. Etc. etc. Best regards..
With my best wishes. Y.E. (Researcher blog writer (Blogger)
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It could be noted, though, that “real doctors” have put up with Psychiatry for – what? – over a hundred years now. And that allopathic doctors have also committed some serious crimes on their patients. “Real” medicine is not that much more honest than psychiatry, as many “medical” conditions also have roots in the mind and soul.
Ministries of mind and soul health actually exist today, but are fought by both psychiatry and “real” doctors. It could be seen as a territorial thing, as they do the same to naturopaths, homeopaths, chiropractors and others. They don’t want anyone “muscling in” on their territory, and they will fight to defend their supremacy in the subject of “health” even though their technologies are in fact highly flawed.
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Hi. Larry Cox.. I agree with what you said. I would like to add some things too… Yes… Real doctors have committed crimes just as serious as psychiatrists. They covered up medical errors. As you say, many “medical” disorders also have their roots in the mind and soul. (Of course, not all.) But ‘mental illnesses’ are not like that. None of the mental illnesses have anything to do with the brain. It’s all something that is completely ‘in the soul’. Even though real doctors commit medical errors, we cannot ignore physical illnesses. (Of course, not all.) We cannot claim that mental illnesses are also in the brain. Psychiatry has done this and has harmed billions of people, including deaths. The feature that distinguishes psychiatrists from real doctors is that “mental illnesses” are not evidence-based. There is no feature that can test, measure, or otherwise produce evidence of mental illness.
Yes, real (physical) doctors are just as guilty as psychiatrists. However, in the face of the secret (hidden) genocide committed by psychiatry… It is nothing compared to the medical mistakes committed by real doctors. Etc. etc. Best regards.
With my best wishes, š Y.E.
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āNevertheless, psychiatrists approach the mental in a similar way doctors approach the physical (remember, psychiatrists are ultimately medical doctors, and must go through the same core training).ā
And since we know “psychiatrists are ultimately medical doctors,” and we can research and learn that all MDs are taught in medical school, about anticholinergic toxidrome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxidrome
We can garner insight into the fact that the psychiatric industry is an unethical aspect of the medical industry, that took the medical knowledge of how to make a person “psychotic” … which does harm their patients … and turned systemically harming their patients, into their “gold standard of care.”
What the psychiatric industry has done is so unethical, it’s hard to actually believe … but, sadly, it is the truth.
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Yeah, you know that nothing exists although everything is. What does it mean that everything exists at the same time as nothing existing? It means what is right now, i.e. reality. Awareness is everywhere but nowhere can it be found. And awareness is all that is. The happenings in awareness are not even the wind sketch on a lake or a sketch by the sunlight onto the shadow of a snowflake.
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I can’t write this – it’s too unpleasant. OK then you forced my hand.
The whole Western world has been over-run by vampires pillaging the world and the socially conditioned Western factory farm people for everything they have, and these miserable socially conditioned factory farm human beings take a share of the profits of the destruction but at a cost to themselves that way outweighs these imaginary profits which is how we’ve become a society of self-fattening pigs where all the fattest pigs dominate the trough and all the less successful rabid vampiric pigs end up bitter and miserable and wanting all the more vulnerable populations to die, hang and burn in hell, hence the spread of the disease of right-wing nationalism like a cancer in the minds and the hearts of the fallen. Many Westerners are good, sincere and well meaning people, but because everything is invested in the society and in the false they will come crashing down with this society and end their days in bitterness, blood and confusion. And all we need to do is face the truth, and be honest with everyone, as we would if we could truly measure the gravity of our times. If that gravity alludes you today when it’s completely undeniable and unescapable you will have to confront it and it will slaughter you. All those with children who object to what I say are riddled with this cancer of the false because the truth is more important then your ignorance and wounded feelings or your false pig mask of pride. You’re children have no future. Admit this at once otherwise you’ve abandoned them, the Earth and yourselves.
Please accept my apologies for this unpleasant message but it merely reflects the unpleasantness of our reality which is undeniable to anyone who still has a brain.
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Here is your survival kid fellow unfortunates. Westerners can be happy again simply by an act of cognitive reframing. Don’t see the people around you as stupid – see them as WONDERFULLY stupid. Don’t see the people around you as sad and wretched – see them as PROFICIENTLY SAD and SENSATIONALLY WRETCHED. Don’t see the business and political class as patently evil – see them as FANTASTICALLY AND MARVELLOUSLY EVIL. Then you get into the aesthetics of hell and turn them into the comedy. And that is the only way we, God or anyone else is gonna get the last laugh today as all our lives become as dispensable and worthless as if they were merely cartoon characters and we can then laugh rather then experience shock and horror as we get bombed, starved and destroyed as if it’s merely tom chasing jerry again or the other way around. This is the form of the last laugh. Take it or leave it.
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Hi Gidi
You might benefit from some reading of Delueze and Guattari – where capitalism is the unconscious (although “unconscious” is actually an adjective and not a noun – as Wittgenstein pointed out “New regions of the soul have not been discovered by Freud”) – and by encouraging everyone to develop “Bodies without Organs” (BwO) (which is a metaphor for those disciplines that have you living a life without climaxes – plateau’s instead – such as tai chi, yoga, various sports, ars erotica, etc..) they will be able to resist the excesses of capitalism which feeds desire (especially greed).
Also look out for Trigant Burrow.
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Of course the chemical imbalance theory was and always was just that. Unproven. Everyone who published anything on the matter took that one very first study with the 50/50 (oopsie someone dropped the ball there, else why they ever publish it!) results that failed placebo, simply seemed to claim it was actually legit, then the drug administration passed approval for the mass sale of psychological medication and the monied men rushed to build pill packing factories and secure materials/logistics routes. Then for over thirty years and to this day peddle these drugs that lower quality of life by increasing complicity… somehow.
It cant be called medicine until it’s results are explainable, and more importantly capable of observation/measurement. As it is now the entire industry is based on 100% self reporting and the assumption of honesty or maybe of the interviewers capability to detect manipulation.
Either way I digress. To sum up what I wanted to start with: More than three decades of knowingly selling highly damaging and criminally misleading drugs under what was from the start a false premise of chemical imbalance, protected by infinite money and armies of desperate lawyers, preying on a massive population of highly arrogant yet uneducated individuals who all seemed to betray each other for even perceived rewards, in order to extract as much wealth from the general population which it basically holds captive as a dominating single corporate entity, monopolizing and selling a harmful substance to so many.
So what’s the punishment for that kind of crime? Those responsible cannot possibly have enough life left to make up for it. Take their wealth? Irrelevant the moment the boomers lose control of our government and we create a fair monetary system after killing everything at that f’ed up reservation. Execution? That’s basically them off rhe hook. We must create gits style braincases so we can imprison their minds for hundreds of years of constant automated ai torture, erasing even their very souls from the fabric of possible existence.
We aren’t quite there yet lol. God I hate those boomers they ruined everything in life.
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