People don’t want quick fixes? All the Latin and South American countries whose economies are centered around selling drugs to Americans may disagree with you. And anyone who looks at drug overdose data and sees that it’s mostly an American rather than a worldwide problem may also disagree with you.
Of course psychiatrists have hugely contributed to this, but saying they “should” be the ones to look at themselves and question what they’re doing is pointless wishful thinking. There is no way they’ll give up riding the gravy train they’re on. So I hoped that psychiatry’s consumers may be willing to look at themselves and independently question what they’re doing and why. But that’s not happening either. Such open-minded self-analysis and taking responsibility for one’s lot in life seems to have no place in American culture anymore.
l_e_cox:
In another of my MIA articles, “How Psychiatry Evolved into a Religion”, I explain how/why psychiatrists transformed from therapists into drug pushers. I was in training and then was practicing psychiatry as this happened, so I was able to see and understand it. But at the very end of that article, I naively suggested that the American public would eventually turn against biological psychiatry, due to being enlightened by MIA and other truth-tellers.
Instead, psychiatry’s medical model has become more and more entrenched in our culture. So I came to the conclusion that the medical model (or what I prefer to call the ‘helplessness’ model) was able to catch on and strengthen because: The public fell in love with it so much (individuals, parents, teachers, disability lawyers, entertainers, etc.), that it created a huge demand for this product. People have been knocking down psychiatrists’ doors. Without that huge demand, biological psychiatry would have fizzled out, and psychiatry would have faded away.
This helplessness model became wildly popular in other areas too: For example, people used to change their eating and exercise habits in order to address developing health issues like elevated blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight. But now they are told, and gladly believe (because it’s convenient), that these issues are genetic and thus out of their control and thus better dealt with by taking pills right away.
So unfortunately, the helplessness model, by telling people what they want to hear (what they wish was true), is likely here to stay for a long time. It’s the same way that religions were able to succeed and last so long.
– Lawrence
To all who disagree:
I’m not denying the powerful influence of all of society’s institutions teaming up to promote the medical model. I’m just suggesting that there is another, important missing-piece to the puzzle that’s never brought out into the open and explored at MIA.
To people who say there are sometimes no other options besides psychiatry, I ask: How did people cope with their problems before biological psychiatry offered its “cures”? After a short period of being overwhelmed by emotion, they reached out to friends, family, or local churches/synagogues for support. They strategized plans to recover and regroup. They threw themselves into their jobs, or creative/physical outlets, or some purposeful life goal. Today we still see people choosing to do such things in the movies we watch, so we know that there are other options.
And via movies such as ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, books, and children’s stories, we’ve all been exposed to the dark, tortuous horrors that psychiatry embodies, such as incarceration, ECT, and lobotomy. So when people choose the psychiatry option, they must be repressing their awareness of this, because it doesn’t work for them to face it.
For those who deny and are unwilling to consider that the 11 allures I outlined may unconsciously motivate them and work for them, I ask: Don’t we all seek attention, admiration, the path of least resistance, relief from our burdens, financial security, and to be taken care of? Don’t we all have a selfish/monstrous aspect to our nature which comes out at night when we create our dreams? Try reading “The Interpretation of Dreams” which makes complete logical sense out of our seemingly nonsensical dreams.
And to those who have rejected psychiatry’s medical model but still accept its most basic, alluring tenet about our being “helpless”, I ask: Could it be that once psychiatry has lured you into viewing yourself as helpless, then you’ll thereafter be reluctant to give up this identity even after you have given up its pills?
Lawrence
Steve:
I guess we disagree on this: I believe that Americans are always thinking for themselves and pursuing paths of their own volition, even if they’re not aware of their doing so. Even the decision to not think for yourself and to let an oppressive authority do so for you, is actually (ironically) one way of thinking for yourself. And it’s an understandably appealing choice that many people have gladly made for millenia.
Lawrence
Kevin:
During the 1990s, before every institution fully embraced the medical model, what I witnessed seemed to me to be a group effort. Doctors, teachers, parents, lawyers, government authorities, and clients all excitedly teamed up to create this belief system, as opposed to the authorities creating it by themselves and then shoving it down people’s throats.
I remember in the very early 1990s when busy parents began eagerly seeking out MDs like me for letters that could greatly ease their kids’ workloads, just by documenting an “ADHD” diagnosis. Also at that time, I remember clients coming to me who confidently exclaimed that all their pain was from a chemical imbalance that I must fix; They said there was no need to talk about any issues bothering them, because there were none.
Do you agree that a “mental illness/brain disease” identity has become popular because it can work well for people in many different ways? I can understand how it’s easier to view oneself as purely brainwashed, rather than to acknowledge that one’s choices may to some degree be unconsciously driven by socially-unacceptable motives.
But this brainwashing narrative sounds similar to the medical model, in that both suggest we humans are helpless when we’re not. I think the only way for our society to truly reject the medical model, is to replace it with an empowering model based on humans having free will and thus responsibility for their choices, as well as limitless abilities to learn ways to flexibly adapt to life’s challenges.
Lawrence
Lily Pad:
Before 2000, I worked at a hospital that was of a type that no longer exists: it was more of a place that people went to in order to get away from the stresses of life that were overwhelming them. There was no emergency room or involuntary commitment, and staff generally was very nurturing and patient. The focus was on going for walks on the extensive/beautiful grounds, participating in creative and physical outlets, and opening up and connecting to others in individual, family, and group psychotherapy. I had regular, long individual therapy sessions with all my “patients”, often while walking the grounds and appreciating nature together. I’m ashamed to admit that I did sometimes (sparingly) prescribe psych drugs. But I always stressed it was short-term for the crisis period, and often tapered people off them by discharge. It was never a focus; the psychotherapy always was.
Lawrence
Lcostanzo:
Yes; the point of the medical model is to get people to shut up, placidly conform, and deny being upset about anything. For another example of this, I should have included the classic psychiatrist line: “This isn’t you …It’s your illness talking. Once you’re on the right meds, you’ll be back to your old/real self, and all these symptoms will go away”.
Lawrence
Cole:
I don’t think it’s a matter of intelligence. I think man has a tendency for wishful thinking to the point of devout religious fervor, and this is what psychiatry has ‘successfully’ capitalized on and derived its power from. I explain/support this hypothesis in more detail in my previous article “I believe there’s a gene for psychosis…And we all have it”.
People don’t want quick fixes? All the Latin and South American countries whose economies are centered around selling drugs to Americans may disagree with you. And anyone who looks at drug overdose data and sees that it’s mostly an American rather than a worldwide problem may also disagree with you.
Of course psychiatrists have hugely contributed to this, but saying they “should” be the ones to look at themselves and question what they’re doing is pointless wishful thinking. There is no way they’ll give up riding the gravy train they’re on. So I hoped that psychiatry’s consumers may be willing to look at themselves and independently question what they’re doing and why. But that’s not happening either. Such open-minded self-analysis and taking responsibility for one’s lot in life seems to have no place in American culture anymore.
l_e_cox:
In another of my MIA articles, “How Psychiatry Evolved into a Religion”, I explain how/why psychiatrists transformed from therapists into drug pushers. I was in training and then was practicing psychiatry as this happened, so I was able to see and understand it. But at the very end of that article, I naively suggested that the American public would eventually turn against biological psychiatry, due to being enlightened by MIA and other truth-tellers.
Instead, psychiatry’s medical model has become more and more entrenched in our culture. So I came to the conclusion that the medical model (or what I prefer to call the ‘helplessness’ model) was able to catch on and strengthen because: The public fell in love with it so much (individuals, parents, teachers, disability lawyers, entertainers, etc.), that it created a huge demand for this product. People have been knocking down psychiatrists’ doors. Without that huge demand, biological psychiatry would have fizzled out, and psychiatry would have faded away.
This helplessness model became wildly popular in other areas too: For example, people used to change their eating and exercise habits in order to address developing health issues like elevated blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight. But now they are told, and gladly believe (because it’s convenient), that these issues are genetic and thus out of their control and thus better dealt with by taking pills right away.
So unfortunately, the helplessness model, by telling people what they want to hear (what they wish was true), is likely here to stay for a long time. It’s the same way that religions were able to succeed and last so long.
– Lawrence
To all who disagree:
I’m not denying the powerful influence of all of society’s institutions teaming up to promote the medical model. I’m just suggesting that there is another, important missing-piece to the puzzle that’s never brought out into the open and explored at MIA.
To people who say there are sometimes no other options besides psychiatry, I ask: How did people cope with their problems before biological psychiatry offered its “cures”? After a short period of being overwhelmed by emotion, they reached out to friends, family, or local churches/synagogues for support. They strategized plans to recover and regroup. They threw themselves into their jobs, or creative/physical outlets, or some purposeful life goal. Today we still see people choosing to do such things in the movies we watch, so we know that there are other options.
And via movies such as ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, books, and children’s stories, we’ve all been exposed to the dark, tortuous horrors that psychiatry embodies, such as incarceration, ECT, and lobotomy. So when people choose the psychiatry option, they must be repressing their awareness of this, because it doesn’t work for them to face it.
For those who deny and are unwilling to consider that the 11 allures I outlined may unconsciously motivate them and work for them, I ask: Don’t we all seek attention, admiration, the path of least resistance, relief from our burdens, financial security, and to be taken care of? Don’t we all have a selfish/monstrous aspect to our nature which comes out at night when we create our dreams? Try reading “The Interpretation of Dreams” which makes complete logical sense out of our seemingly nonsensical dreams.
And to those who have rejected psychiatry’s medical model but still accept its most basic, alluring tenet about our being “helpless”, I ask: Could it be that once psychiatry has lured you into viewing yourself as helpless, then you’ll thereafter be reluctant to give up this identity even after you have given up its pills?
Lawrence
Steve:
I guess we disagree on this: I believe that Americans are always thinking for themselves and pursuing paths of their own volition, even if they’re not aware of their doing so. Even the decision to not think for yourself and to let an oppressive authority do so for you, is actually (ironically) one way of thinking for yourself. And it’s an understandably appealing choice that many people have gladly made for millenia.
Lawrence
Kevin:
During the 1990s, before every institution fully embraced the medical model, what I witnessed seemed to me to be a group effort. Doctors, teachers, parents, lawyers, government authorities, and clients all excitedly teamed up to create this belief system, as opposed to the authorities creating it by themselves and then shoving it down people’s throats.
I remember in the very early 1990s when busy parents began eagerly seeking out MDs like me for letters that could greatly ease their kids’ workloads, just by documenting an “ADHD” diagnosis. Also at that time, I remember clients coming to me who confidently exclaimed that all their pain was from a chemical imbalance that I must fix; They said there was no need to talk about any issues bothering them, because there were none.
Do you agree that a “mental illness/brain disease” identity has become popular because it can work well for people in many different ways? I can understand how it’s easier to view oneself as purely brainwashed, rather than to acknowledge that one’s choices may to some degree be unconsciously driven by socially-unacceptable motives.
But this brainwashing narrative sounds similar to the medical model, in that both suggest we humans are helpless when we’re not. I think the only way for our society to truly reject the medical model, is to replace it with an empowering model based on humans having free will and thus responsibility for their choices, as well as limitless abilities to learn ways to flexibly adapt to life’s challenges.
Lawrence
Lily Pad:
Before 2000, I worked at a hospital that was of a type that no longer exists: it was more of a place that people went to in order to get away from the stresses of life that were overwhelming them. There was no emergency room or involuntary commitment, and staff generally was very nurturing and patient. The focus was on going for walks on the extensive/beautiful grounds, participating in creative and physical outlets, and opening up and connecting to others in individual, family, and group psychotherapy. I had regular, long individual therapy sessions with all my “patients”, often while walking the grounds and appreciating nature together. I’m ashamed to admit that I did sometimes (sparingly) prescribe psych drugs. But I always stressed it was short-term for the crisis period, and often tapered people off them by discharge. It was never a focus; the psychotherapy always was.
Lawrence
Lcostanzo:
Yes; the point of the medical model is to get people to shut up, placidly conform, and deny being upset about anything. For another example of this, I should have included the classic psychiatrist line: “This isn’t you …It’s your illness talking. Once you’re on the right meds, you’ll be back to your old/real self, and all these symptoms will go away”.
Lawrence
Cole:
I don’t think it’s a matter of intelligence. I think man has a tendency for wishful thinking to the point of devout religious fervor, and this is what psychiatry has ‘successfully’ capitalized on and derived its power from. I explain/support this hypothesis in more detail in my previous article “I believe there’s a gene for psychosis…And we all have it”.
Lawrence