Objectivism and Psychiatry

For decades, Dr. Thomas Szasz has been advocating the position that "mental illness" is merely a metaphor for disapproved thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and that the primary function of psychiatry is to control thought, mood, and behavior on behalf of the State. If true, the involuntary hospitalizations that have resulted amount to involuntary servitude; and the insanity defenses presented in our criminal courts have been bogus excuses for deliberate acts of aggression against others.

I've read enough of Dr. Szasz's writings to believe that he's made a credible case, and one that should concern all individualists.

I may be wrong, but from what I can discern, Objectivist philosophers have completely ignored the Szasz position. Why the silence?

As a contemporary of Ayn Rand, did the two ever exchange views?

Larry

Post 1

Sunday, August 8, 2004 - 6:47am

Larry,

Thank you for bringing this subject to this forum. I think few here have probably read Szasz. His actual position (as well as his writing style) is a little odd, at times, but on the whole, his repudiation of "psychological disease," is exactly correct.

Objectivism has swallowed an unhealthy dose of the Freudian fraud, mostly I think through the influence of Brandon. Szasz pokes some embarassing holes in that nonsense, and that may be part of the reason he is ignored by Objectivists.

Personally, I regard the entire field of "psychology" as practiced professionally and taut academically, one of the biggest frauds ever put over. It is possibly the most wide-spread bag-of-superstitions of our day.

Regi

Post 2

Sunday, August 8, 2004 - 8:27am

Most of psychology is a load of BS, and most treatments amount to nothing more than brainwashing techniques and mind-altering drugs in order to make people think in socially acceptable ways.

However, there are people who literally have behaviors that works against their ability to live a normal human life that is the result of proplems with their brains and chemical imbalances in their bodies. There's no reason why it must be this way, and it is the task of medicine to help these people...this requires research, not into rats ploughing their ways through mazes, or asking a group psychology students to perform some obscure task (and then having a researcher attempt to extrapolate the mental causes behind it). It requires scientists to study and understand body chemistry and the many complexities of the human brain.

In the meantime, psychologists should only act as advisors, counseling those who feel that the psychologist might give them a new perspective. Behaviors have been observed, and linked to potential causes...a good psychologist can know this much, and help them unlink concepts that have no right to be linked. In this much, a psychologist is nothing more than a "philosophical doctor." Its when the drugs roll in, or the terms "illness," "disease," or "disorder" are used that a problem occurs.

But, the first great mind to truly unravel the mysteries of the brain and give birth to a true psychology will be physiologist.

Post 3

Sunday, August 8, 2004 - 9:41am

Joe,

I agree completely!

In the meantime, psychologists should only act as advisors, counseling those who feel that the psychologist might give them a new perspective. Behaviors have been observed, and linked to potential causes...a good psychologist can know this much, and help them unlink concepts that have no right to be linked. In this much, a psychologist is nothing more than a "philosophical doctor." Its when the drugs roll in, or the terms "illness," "disease," or "disorder" are used that a problem occurs.

But, the first great mind to truly unravel the mysteries of the brain and give birth to a true psychology will be physiologist.

Originally psychiatry and psychology were clearly distinguished and even today, a psychiatrist is a medical doctor (physiologist), a psychologist is not (he's just a quack).

The distinction between real physiological problems, chemical, physical, or hormonal, that cause problems with one's consciousness and behavior are real diseases which can be treated with medicine. Szasz is very careful to make that distinction, by the way.

regi

Post 4

Sunday, August 8, 2004 - 6:27pm

Oh, this is an awesome post...

I could go on and on about not just psychiatry, but the entire mental health industry that is controlled by the voodoo priest-kings: the psychiatrists.

First of all, all this "chemical imbalance" stuff is just shit. Yes, there are neurochemicals in the brain, but the monkeys in neuroscience and pharmacy have no idea at all what chemicals really do what, where... though they posture and talk as if they do.

The brain is, so far, an incomprehensibly complex lattice of interwoven chemical transmitter pathways, all over the place. And beyond simply being complex, it is also highly individualized, so that there is no such thing as knowing "the brain".

I have written a previous article here in this forum on the FDA warnings on psychiatric drugs; if you click on my handle and go to my profile page, the article should appear there.

Also, for those of you who really wanna be horrified about psychiatry, check out these links:

http://www.antipsychiatry.org and http://www.breggin.com

Enjoy.

Post 5

Sunday, August 8, 2004 - 6:38pm

In all fairness, however, I do have to say that many people today live on an imbalanced, acidifying diet... We may be told to take vitamins, but rarely minerals.

Much of that is changing, however... If things continue on their present trend, you will be hearing more and more about alkalizing the body, by reducing carbohydrate, sugar, and protein intake, and ingesting more alkalizing minerals like calcium and magnesium, and vitamins such as D. In addition, many spices alkalize the body, such as curry, which contains tumeric... and tumeric is being prescribed as a cutting-edge treatment for cancer.

In all of this, yes, these sorts of "chemicals" are really what the body needs, in order to stay healthy, both physically and mentally.

It's a sickening sign of the times, that we're being brainwashed to believe that we were practically born with a need for Prozac as an "essential amino acid" or something.

Have you met your Recommended Daily Allowance of Prozac? It's in the Food Pyramid, you know... under the "meds" group.

Post 6

Monday, August 9, 2004 - 7:51am

I think the wholesale criticism of the mental health industry is a bit extreme. However, as one who has been involved with various mental health professionals in the capacity of searching out effective therapy for my brother, the search has been, 1) exhausting and 2) very disappointing.

The psychiatric docs my brother has seen are more akin to the local corner thug who dispenses drugs for cash. His psychologists lack insight or just don�t have the follow through.

If an individual needs outside help and seeks out a professional in the mental health profession, he/she probably has to burn through many docs until one finds a solution. How many therapeutic modalities are out there? Dozens? What does that say?

I think what�s scary is that the disease model is alive and well, and the disease model docs run the med school academics. Where�s the balance? Szasz and Branden rejected that model along time ago.

Tom

Post 7

Monday, August 9, 2004 - 11:36pm

I love how the word "psychotherapist" is "psycho the rapist" joined together.

Most of you are probably already familiar with this play on words, of course.

Orion said: If things continue on their present trend, you will be hearing more and more about alkalizing the body, by reducing carbohydrate, sugar, and protein intake, and ingesting more alkalizing minerals like calcium and magnesium, and vitamins such as D.

I'm not a vitamin! I'm a vile man.

-D

(Edited by Darin on 8/09, 11:48pm)

Post 8

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 8:32am

Darin,

I love how the word "psychotherapist" is "psycho the rapist" joined together.

Most of you are probably already familiar with this play on words, of course.

I wasn't. Thanks. It is quite apropos.

Regi

Post 9

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 9:34am

T. Welsh,

I read your post, and I'd like to offer you what I can... without knowing at all your brother's particular problems.

First of all, I think that one of the hardest dilemmas in life is how to find real, therapeutic trust and also, the capacity for self-expression.

In terms of trust, might I suggest things like massage therapy and something called a "ropes course"... These are activities that require a person to place himself in positions of vulnerability, in order to be aided by others in some therapeutic capacity.

The feeling that we can trust no one is all too pervasive in our society, and at the root of many profound anxiety conditions. Mind you, you can't trust just anyone... but if you can't trust anyone at all, then that's a bad position to be in, metaphysically... perhaps the worst. These exercises retrain the mind to realize that oases of trust can -- and do -- exist in this world, and that the trick is to be discreet in how you locate and build them.

In terms of self-expression, might I suggest trying out for some very small-scale community theater house or local acting class... These activities are very good for the highly inhibited person, in terms of creating a convenient pretext by which it is acceptable for them to express themselves, and it gives them opportunities to choose and perform monologues and scenes which express some aspect of their inner sensibility which they may not feel able to express otherwise.

Post 10

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 5:23pm

"For decades, Dr. Thomas Szasz has been advocating the position that "mental illness" is merely a metaphor for disapproved thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and that the primary function of psychiatry is to control thought, mood, and behavior on behalf of the State. If true, the involuntary hospitalizations that have resulted amount to involuntary servitude; and the insanity defenses presented in our criminal courts have been bogus excuses for deliberate acts of aggression against others. "

did Szasz ever read Foucault? whatever one thinks of postmodernism as such, this reads vaguely like the Foucaultian view on the matter, where ideas are bound up with power relations, and, more specifically, that the shift in madness from being conceptualized as "moral failure" to "illness" has led to massive power being consolidated into the medical professions.

Post 11

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 9:50pm

In addition to the awareness of Dr. Thomas Szasz, I would also highly recommend that people become aware of the writings of M.D. Peter Breggin, who has faithfully been very specific in exposing and criticizing the depraved and injurious use of drugs to "treat" mental illness.

Dr. Breggin has brought to light that what many "mentally ill" people need is not drugs, but real counseling and therapies which truly increase their sense of ease in the world. He exposes the rarely-discussed, highly toxic effects of these drugs on clients, and alternatives to them.

Dr. Breggin has written a number of books, one of them entitled Your Drug May Be Your Problem... his website is at http://www.breggin.com

Post 12

Thursday, August 26, 2004 - 1:40pm

Speaking of faux mental illnesses, the following tidbit shows how people will exploit these supposed conditions to evade any responsibility for their actions:

http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=99683

Post 13

Friday, August 27, 2004 - 1:41am

Pete,

You know, dollar for dollar, I'm not sure if even a cocaine addiction is as expensive as an addiction to strippers and lap dances! And you don't even get anything for your money! What a stupid downward spiral to fall into...

The comedian Chris Rock did a service to the entire planet (if anybody heeded his warning) when he did his song telling us that there's "No Sex in the Champagne Room".

The kind of girls who "dance" in those clubs are nothing but adrenalin junkies... Be they having bodies like sports cars, they are almost always junkies and Valtrex slaves, and have long ago forsaken the biochemically different pleasure of simple human feeling for the catastrophically arrogant choice of living in the constant, whoosing rush of the fast lane. This lasts for a little while, until too many days and nights without sleep and proper diet deactivates their immune systems altogether, and they develop cancer or AIDS (which is not caused by HIV, but biochemical acidosis).

Chances are, most of these guys are either sub-attractive or lack that "killer instinct", and are drawn to these types of female in a foolishly delusional hope of being "on par" with them, and "worthy" of them... But they would be much, much better off to trade up to a less self-destructive and self-sustaining sort of female, even one who doesn't turn heads, but rather, hearts instead.

(Edited by Orion Reasoner on 8/27, 1:43am)

Post 14

Saturday, September 4, 2004 - 3:02am

Whoa!!!
AIDs is NOT casused by HIV???
Can you substantiate this?
Cass

Post 15

Saturday, September 4, 2004 - 12:39pm

Cass,

AIDs is NOT casused by HIV???

There's a good case for it, and not much of a case for HIV being the cause of AIDS, it seems.

  AIDSmyth  [http://aidsmyth.addr.com/]
  Alive&Well [http://www.aliveandwell.org/]
  ARC  [http://www.aidsrealitycheck.org/]
  JACK INDIA NEWS [http://www.eionews.addr.com/jack/jacknews.htm]
  Peter Duesberg [http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/index/pduesberg.htm]
  VirusMyth, Rethinking AIDS [http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/]

Regi

Post 16

Saturday, September 4, 2004 - 1:31pm

HIV does not cause AIDS? Totally absurd!

http://www.skeptic.com/03.2.harris-aids.html

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/evidhiv.htm

I invite those who think HIV is a harmless virus to infect themselves with it.

Post 17

Sunday, September 5, 2004 - 4:06am

This looks to be quite fascinating. It's been some 12years since I left the Molecular Biology fraternity, and I didn't bother keeping up with developments, (I left in disgust for a variety of reasons,), but this looks like a bit of a mind bombshell!!!. thanks to both Orion and Regi for the leads. I will need to take a bit of time to digest them all.
Cass

Post 18

Monday, September 6, 2004 - 9:17am