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Say No To Psychiatry - Main Site Index

Click HERE for large online selection of books about the flaws and dangers
of modern psychiatry and psychology.

Psychiatric treatments are harmful. All psychiatric treatments are harmful. Psychiatric drugs, ECT (electric shock) and brain surgery (lobotomy) each harm the individual and the society. This sometimes goes against what we have been taught or indoctrinated into believing, and also against what we would often like to believe. Taking a pill as a "cure" obviously is easier than confronting and dealing with the actual personal reasons for one's difficulties with their own mind and life. The alternative requires personal responsibility, expenditure of effort, self-control, and can take time, but the final results far exceed the quick fix (drugs, shock, etc.). In fact, the "psychiatric solutions" do not even slightly exist as true "fixes" in the first place. The "psychiatric" methods "fix" nothing at all and actually make things worse, because the "treatments" always interfere with the healthy and optimum functioning of any human mind.

The field of psychiatry is rooted in German experimental psychology, racist eugenics theories, and anti-human materialistic opinions parading as scientific facts. The promotional activities and tremendous profits of the major drug companies play no small part in understanding the development and tremendous expansion of modern psychiatry. Psychiatry as a field is not the natural result of 100 years of sincere, dedicated, and honest investigation into solving the problems of Man, but rather, of millions upon millions of dollars spent in the ruthless promotion of a severely flawed field which has dedicatedly (and falsely) clothed itself in a flashy and exaggerated suit of "scientific fact". Modern psychiatric theories and methods deny everything comprising man's "inner" personality of thoughts, feelings, values, hopes, dreams, intentions, goals, and ultimately, life itself. Because without a human mind there would be no "life" at all - at least not for you or me.

Modern education and all aspects of the social sciences are rooted in flawed theories of psychology, which deny the importance of Man's mind, and instead concentrate upon genetics, environmental forces, social conditions, biochemistry, and biology. This has had disastrous effects on individual people and western societies as a whole, because the mental processes of thought, will, intention, responsibility, imagination, concentration, attention and self-control are not appealed to in the solving of any problems or situations. As difficult as it may be for the reader to believe, modern psychiatry and psychology have very little to do with the mind - what it is, what it does, how to help one, how a mind relates to life, etc. In fact, they don't even pretend to deal with the "mind" any longer, because they consider doing so "archaic", "outdated" and "unscientific". This is one of those things that many of us simply can't believe until we study up on it a little and see what they say about it themselves in their own words. The fact is that they tried, quite half-heartedly, to investigate the mind at the beginning of this century, failed to understand it much less "solve" it, gave up, and now instead primarily concentrate on and deal with biology (and more recently genetics), or social and environmental factors and forces in some form.

The word psychology comes from the two roots "psyche" and "ology" (derivation - "logos"). By definition this means "study of the mind or soul". The "psyche" part (i.e. mind, soul) has all but been surgically removed from the fields of psychiatry and psychology. For the most part these fields claim to be involved in studying something that they actually don't even consider to exist. The mind (as a subject) has been jettisoned in favor of concern for genetics, environmental forces, social conditions, biochemistry, and biology.  It would be more accurate to rename these subjects "people control", "physical duress techniques", "social behavior adjustment", "conformity management", or "biochemical manipulation", because these subjects do not involve the ideas and things that the subject names are legitimately defined to mean and involve.

The links to information here supply a formidable basis of information leading towards an accurate and true understanding of what psychiatry really is. And make no mistake about it, psychiatry as a subject and field of activity is only what it has done in the past and now does in the present. The reader must learn to judge things by results and not by claims, assertions and PR. Look at the history of psychiatry and observe what they have done and what they do to people (and thus also what they have done and what they do to society - because society is nothing more than a group of individual people). Sources are referenced and much additional reading material is given both on the Internet and in books. Your local psychiatrist will never refer you to this information. Sadly he believes it completely, asserts it endlessly and happily enforces his view of Man and life on everyone else, just as did many 14th century priests of the Spanish Inquisition. It is important to arrive at the understanding that pretenses to "caring", "compassion", "help", "science" and "truth" have never guaranteed positive results. The 14th century priest tightening the thumb-screws on a declared heretic completely believed he had the truth, based upon "facts and evidence" (as he saw things), and he happily tortured and murdered his victims while sincerely believing and asserting his "care", "compassion" and "concern for the souls of the unrepentant sinners". The Nazi leaders mapping out intricate plans to improve the "genetic pool" of the race completely believed their philosophic and scientific notions (the "truth" as they saw things) that justified the eradication of millions of "sub-humans", and they did this while also claiming their concern for the betterment of people, life and the world. The point is to LOOK at the results and don't listen to the logic, reasons, scientific justifications or complex theories. The 14th century priest, the Nazi world planner and the psychiatrist all suffer from the same lunacy.

The 14th century priest truly "felt" for the heretic as he lit the fire under the stake which the heretic was tied to just as the severely misguided psychiatrist may often honestly "feel for" the "manic-depressive" strapped to the table as the sudden, high-amperage electric current is jolted through his skull in the modern sham "therapy" known as ECT. The priest probably even cried in genuine sympathy for the sinner's "predicament". Of course, it was his belief system and his actions which put the person into the predicament of being tied to a stake and burned in the first place, but he never understands that. Equally, it is the nonsense psychiatric theories and beliefs that enable the poor fellow to be strapped to the table so that some naive nurse working her way through medical school can push the button to jolt the brain of the "poor mentally disabled patient". Both the priest and the psychiatrist believe they "understand" and possess the "correct version of the truth", and both happily inflict harm on others while imagining themselves to be doing something else entirely.

That neither is aware of their own idiocy does not excuse either of them of their crimes against their fellow man. That both may "feel" care, concern and even compassion for their victims (who they call "patients" or "sinners"), even if only in their own twisted fashion, also does not change the fact that they bring about harm to others. That many people agree with them, and support their invalid ideas (theories, beliefs, opinions) and practices, and even though some of these people are "well respected educators, scientists, and leaders", does NOT alleviate them or those supporting them of their gross idiocy and harm caused to others. Simply, it's a nutty world and far too many people agree with far too many stupid ideas and concepts. The torturing priest completely believes he is dealing with "objective truth", "actual reality" and "facts" and never for a moment considers that his opinions, notions, concepts, or belief system may be very far removed from the (imaginary) elevated status of "truth" and "fact" he so confidently and eagerly asserts them to be. Part of this is that he and others see and believe their ideas and practices to be "scientific", "rational" and "reasonable" even though they are not. In a similar manner the modern psychiatrist wreaks havoc on lives and society by ramming his unique beliefs and techniques down the throats of the general public, head-nodding members of the academic communities, and very frantic governments that are often far too willing to accept any "solution" handed to them.

In a very real sense both the 14th century priest and the modern psychiatrist are nothing more than very dull people, incapable of a calm detached observation of what actually is, and asserting very stupid ideas which far too many people readily accept without any careful examination or resistance. Both appeal to extensive "educated reasoning", "authority", "logic" and "rational methods", but as will be discussed more in this web site, "logic" and "reason" fail completely at arriving at "truth" or "positive results" when the logic or reasoning is based upon false, absurd, and incorrect basic ideas, notions, postulates or fundamental axioms. It makes sense to torture and burn heretics if one accepts and firmly believes in the fundamental ideas of Satan, heaven, hell, hierarchies of demons and angels, witches, witchcraft, Cosmic battles between Good and Evil, God's Plan, original sin, heresy, salvation, the Holy Good, and on and on. "Logically" and "according to reason" it is consistent to torture, burn and save the poor souls if these basic notions are true. And realize, at the time, the priests and most people did accept all of these ideas. The problem with this is that all the basic ideas and notions are largely nonsense. And therefore so are the ideas and actions of torturing, burning and saving souls which derive from those more basic underlying concepts. So while "logically consistent", and "reasonable" the ideas and results are quite crazy. Of course, I would hope most of us would not need to resort to "reason", "rational thought" or "logic" to arrive at the conclusion that burning people alive or torturing people, for any reason, is wrong. But, sadly, that was not the case then and it isn't now.

You see, you don't really need "scientific proof", "authority" or "rational arguments" to know something is true or not - as hard as that may be to accept by some of the staunch materialists or proponents of scientific naturalism. You either know and understand people should not be tortured or burned alive by other human beings or you don't. You can be taught this. But in the end your certainty of this has much more to do with your own individual sense of humanity (an "inner quality") than depending upon any moral arguments or concatenation of logic. It has absolutely nothing to do with "science" or any products of scientific thought. "Logic", "consistency" and "reason" do not necessarily lead anyplace decent if the underlying fundamental ideas being used as starting points for the "logic" or "reason" to operate upon are incorrect or flawed. Marxist Communism was firmly based upon a supposed "scientific analysis of natural human and social processes", and look what that did in Russia and where it ended up (they murdered over 50 million of their own people). Chinese Communism (also Marxist based) murdered off almost the entire population of Tibetan monks - some of the most gentle and compassionate people one could ever hope to meet. Theirs was (and still is) another modern "logical" system based upon a purported "scientific analysis" of man and reality.

The point here is that "logic" and "science" lead only to hell on Earth when the fundamental assumptions that the "logic" and "reason" work with and rely upon are asinine and flawed. It can all be so very consistent, and it was in Nazi Germany. It was all very "scientific", "rational" and "logical", and Hitler was extremely consistent in systematically murdering off the Jews, gypsies and mentally retarded. You just have to admire that German scientific ingenuity and engineering skill involved in figuring out the best way to utilize them all as slave labor while planning and arranging their eventual deaths. (sarcasm) Nazi Germany, what it asserted, and what it did was a direct result of the "best" and most "modern" of German philosophy and science. Again, "science" leads to disaster when the basic assumptions it deals with are false.

Of course, anyone who has taken the time to study up on it knows that the primary architects of the mass murders in Nazi Germany were actually and factually psychiatrists with a heavy eugenics bent who were simply trying to "scientifically" cleanse the genetic pool of it's poor chromosomes and help bring about a "superior human being and race" (i.e the Übermensch). Science, including psychiatry (which as a subject wants so very much to be accepted as a "legitimate science") never has had anything to do with morality, ethics, decency or humanity. But it's not "science" per se that is the problem, it's the people who practice what's called and considered to be "science" and the people who put into use the results of "science" that are the problem.

"Science" is simply a way to observe, tabulate, and determine the behavior of things, so as to enable prediction and control of these things in the future. There is a standard way to theorize, test, and come up with models and formulas. This has worked fine on "raw matter and energy". It hasn't and isn't working well on people. One may venture to ask just how "science" can or should even bother to deal with people and societies when it's goal has always been to control behavior, whether this behavior be of electrons, chemicals or objects. Extrapolating this idea of "controlling behavior" to people and society results in totalitarianism and abuses. The goal of science is always to control behavior. This entire approach is completely wrong and misguided, although adhered to by almost every member of the psychiatric and psychological communities. They want to be "scientific" and accepted by the physical scientists. Why? Their aims are misguided and fundamentally wrong. It's a stupid goal. It won't and can't ever "work". It will always degrade to duress, abuse and force. If you try to "help" people by controlling their behavior, which is just exactly what any "scientific" attempt to deal with Man or society intends to do by it's very nature, and does do in practice, it will always be at the point of a gun. It cannot and will not ever be any other way.

Science, by it's nature, attempts to understand so as to predict and control behavior. That's what it does historically and in modern practice in physics, electronics, computer science, mechanics, etc. The actual way to "handle" people is to make better, competent, well-thinking, and responsible people, and society will take care of itself. This idea is paramount to a legitimate understanding of a correct and workable approach to bettering people, society and the world. Concentrating on "fixing society" or "erasing social problems" is so much nonsense. The only way to actually improve the "society", which is nothing more than a group of individual people, is to first "improve" each individual person, or at least to improve enough individual people so that it makes a difference.

But doing that can only involve working with and improving the abilities of the individual minds of the members of mankind - an area which is all but taboo today in these fields. The only way to "improve" a person is to "improve" their mind and mental abilities. Instead the apparently tireless social scientists come up with micromanaged notions of social control and manipulation in the form of endless social programs, belief manipulation, value adjustment, and on the other biological end, the psychiatrists come up with powerful psychoactive drugs and constant banner waving about the hope and promise of modern genetics. As usual, they continually omit and fail to ever address or deal with individual minds, as minds, as if the capabilities of minds will somehow just magically become enhanced through their social and biological manipulations. Of course it won't ever happen, and all the belief, hope, and assertions by Nobel Prize winners to the contrary will not change that one iota.

The way a legitimate science could address the area, but never has, would be to investigate and develop ways to understand and improve the functioning of any mind, so that a predictable, controlled and desirable improvement in capability, awareness, responsibility, attention and concentration could be effected. The control and prediction would be in the expansion of personal ability. Instead of viewing a person and the mind as a "sick thing" and only aiming to remove dysfunction and ailment (through drugs, shock and surgery), approach it from a viewpoint of what is good and useful about a mind or minds, and work out ways to build on and improve on that. This approach would involve the personal actions of each individual with the use of their own minds and it's various functions - functions which still need to be delineated and investigated, such as attention, concentration, imagination, value creation, belief formation, etc., and techniques of improvement of these things developed. But instead of doing this, modern approaches concentrate on exact "outcomes" or forms of behavior and attempt to bring these about exactly and rigidly through belief manipulation, value adjustment, indoctrination, drugs, and endless social programs. They need abandon this compulsive attention on exact results, which while possible in the physical sciences, is NOT possible or even desirable with people and societies.

Again, concentrate on making better people, by making better minds, and let the people themselves get on with making their own version of a better world. But the control freaks in the government, sciences, social sciences, medicine, economics, politics and psychiatry certainly abhor that idea.

As a simple example, anyone can improve their concentration and ability to control their attention by doing the following exercise.

1. Multiply two numbers of two digits each (such as 11 x 14) in your head - not with pencil and paper. Do this until you are sure your answer is correct. Do this with larger and larger numbers. Do this for a few weeks at least once a day for at least 15 minutes. Then do the same with numbers having three digits each (such as 216 x 467). Do this for a few weeks.

Obviously one of "tricks" and problems with working with a mind is first, ensuring you actually do what the drill or technique says to do, and second, that you do it completely and honestly. Anyone who does the above simple drill sincerely and completely, will find themselves improving in ability to concentrate and in directing their attention. Their memory will improve. Their susceptibility to attacks of depression or anxiety will decrease. All this from this one simple exercise where you actually have to use your own mind in a controlled fashion. That is what is missing in all this is the learning to use your mind, and learning to control it's various aspects on your own, by yourself, on yourself. This is fundamental and I will repeat this because it is probably the most important thing to understand about all this. The key thing is:

Learning to use your mind, and learning to control it's various aspects on your own, by yourself, on yourself.

This IS control, but it is self-control and not external control.

People simply do not often do this, and they are surely never taught anything about doing such things, because no part of the established educational system, public or at any college level, so much as even considers such a possibility. This approach is very much alien to the modern approaches of belief manipulation, indoctrination, drugs and electric shock. They view you as something to be acted upon, to be influenced, to be shaped and controlled. The view as something wrong or damaged that needs to be fixed. A more useful and beneficial approach is to view you as something which can control yourself, and as something which has the ability to effect and cause things around you through your own conscious decisions, intention, responsibility and actions. Of course, if no one ever bothers to teach people these things and effectively get them to practice doing these things, well then these abilities never develop or get put into practice.

Interestingly, the only place where much investigation has been done in the area of the mind is in what are considered "religions". The above exercise is from a Rosicrucian handbook on spiritual expansion. Of course, it works, and it gets results, but the modern established scientific community immediately pooh-poohs everything and anything about the above drill because it came from "nutty religious whackos". Zen Buddhist materials, various Hindu practices and especially Tibetan Buddhist studies are filled with exercises and drills to improve mental ability, and to also learn about and develop mental skills most of us deny even to exist. It IS also true that much of this information is mixed up with strange religious notions and beliefs, but an intelligent team of investigators could unravel it all and separate the nonsense from the useful techniques. The point here is that modern science has failed to examine and solve the human mind. And the solution to the human mind is the only real solution which opens the door to then solving any human problem with self, others or society. But modern psychiatry has nothing at all to do with this approach, and instead deals with delusions (something a more accurate understanding of the mind makes clear and obvious).

The same situation as with the Spanish Inquisition is exactly true with modern psychiatry. The modern subject "makes sense", is "logical" and appears "rational" ONLY if one accepts the numerous (flawed) psychiatric concepts such as "mental illness" (as a "disease" of some sort), "brain disorders" (as causing all emotional difficulties), "mental health" (as some "medical" notion where removing "illness" or it's symptoms somehow magically results in "health") , "depression" (as illness), "anxiety" (as a disorder), biology as all and mind as nothing, and on and on. The problem here is that all these basic ideas are also complete nonsense. Almost all psychiatric ideas and concepts refer to no actual, existing thing or phenomena. To me, someone who sees complete absurdity and lunacy in all their fundamental notions, the entire subject is a gross and obvious farce. It is entirely as absurd to me just as were the beliefs and actions of the participants of the Spanish Inquisition. The magnitude and extent of the idiocy are very comparable. It's actually quite scary that so many supposedly "intelligent" people can accept, believe and sincerely promote all this rubbish.

Far too many of their notions are what I call "unmoored ideas" - ideas which are not attached or related to any observable or experiencable thing. The word "moor" is defined as "to make fast (a boat or buoy) by attaching a cable etc. to a fixed object". The idea here is that a valid or legitimate concept or idea MUST directly refer to some object, phenomena or thing which can be viewed, experienced, seen or observed by others. Otherwise it's nonsense. There can be words and concepts which refer to non-existent things, such as a "unicorn", "Luke Skywalker" or "the Great Turtle Upon Which the Earth Sets", but it is clear in these cases that "make believe" or "pretend" is greatly involved. We understand these to be "made up" and not actually referring to "things out there". In other words a legitimate concept would and must "moor" to an observable thing. The word and concept "car" refers to an actual thing which can be pointed out and mutually observed by others. The idea "completely" can be shown, displayed or demonstrated as something done to a full extent. Even "invisible" things can be "real" because we can all experience them individually in our own minds. Things such as "love", "hate", feelings, concentration, imagination, and intention, can all be "seen" or experienced by any of us. They are "real" to each of us, even though "invisible" to any objective third-party observer.

This is actually where modern psychology went astray. They decided that since a third party could not objectively observe a mind in action, in it's own "arena" as it were, that all such research was futile, and that effectively, as far as they were concerned the mind was of no value and didn't exist! This is not my opinion. This is actually what they decided to do and did do and they unabashedly discuss it exactly in this manner. Of course, ways and methods, based upon scientific methodology could have been worked out to deal with the interesting problem of investigating the phenomena of human thought and consciousness, but they didn't do it, and simply gave up. As far as you or me are concerned though, we know we have a mind, we know we have ideas and concepts about things, by direct personal observation and experience, and we can understand the idea that concepts can be "moored" or "not moored" to actual things, objects or phenomena.

It is important to realize that what actually exists in place of legitimate investigation of the human mind, thought and consciousness, is a never-ending parade of (complex) opinions, (haughty) assertions, (pseudo-intellectual) guesses, and (unwavering) beliefs. Most of these are simply false or off the mark in some big way.

In the case of the Spanish Inquisition and 14th century priests, things such as "demons", "heresy", "legions of the devil", "angelic hierarchies", and "Evil" forever remain only ideas and fail completely to ever connect to any actual experiencable thing. The problem is that people do assert these to be real and to exist, and they do not remain satisfied to leave them quietly in the realm of "make believe" or "pretend", and they want others to accept as true what they have also accepted as true. I consider this 1) chronic acceptance of idiocy by people, and 2) their compulsive demand that others accept and follow the same or similar idiocies to be one version of real mental illness. Psychiatrists suffer from this just as did the priestly torturer.

Certain folks completely believe certain things to be true that have no definite and verifiable existence, and the words and concepts never get outside the minds of the people who hold them because these words and ideas never referred to anything legitimate that can be observed or experienced in the first place. It is truly a case of delusion, belief in the non-existent, assertion of the make-believe, and fabrication of reality. Psychiatry is a modern example of this. It is a modern example of this totally and completely. Realize that just because people get together, talk "educatedly" about these things as if they were real, relate the various concepts together, and conduct what they consider "research" does not change the truth of the matter which is that they are dealing in delusion and imaginary realities. The priests could also spend months and years discussing and arguing the fine points of their religious beliefs, how to correctly torture a sinner, how to extract a legitimate confession from a heretic, and on and on. None of their "intelligent discussing of concepts and ideas" changes anything at all about the fact that both systems of ideas both primarily involve total nonsense. What the above examples actually show is that people have an uncanny ability to believe nonsense, believe it sincerely, become extremely convinced of it, and to forever incessantly strive to make others agree and conform to their own ideas and expectations of behavior.

"Unmoored ideas" and "unmoored concepts" do NOT relate to and are not attached to any fixed thing, object or phenomena. In this sense all the underlying notions discussed above involving heresy, burning heretics, and religious torture were largely unmoored ideas. The notions of Satan, demons, Cosmic battles, and the Holy Good, while all quite interesting and making at times for great movies and books, are NOT directly or consistently experiencable or observable by anyone. That many people have written books about these things, relayed these ideas to others, and promoted these notions over the centuries means nothing except that people have a strange tendency to do and believe stupid stuff. This trend continues today unabated in the social sciences. Most of the fundamental ideas and notions in the social sciences do not directly relate to anything outside the imagination and minds of various human beings. They think and consider that their ideas and concepts directly relate to real things, but they don't. In other words, the ideas and concepts do not and cannot be fixed or attached to any objects, things or phenomena any of us can detect. These are unmoored ideas.

They may exist, but then again, so can just about anything. The idea I am trying to convey about this is that these "unmoored ideas" more or less "float" around by themselves in the minds of people, like an unanchored boat in a storm at sea, and have nothing to do with anything really, except that people assert and accept that these ideas do have to do with something, and that these things do have value and meaning to themselves and others simply because they say they do. See? There is never, not really, any "proof" based upon direct experience that results in a person "accepting Jesus" or believing in the Devil. They do what they do in these cases because they simply choose to do so despite a very noticeable lack of evidence and personal experience. The worst and most dangerous aspect of all this though is that people force others to believe and undergo all sorts of lunacy in accordance with a certain set of unmoored ideas they themselves accept and assert. Religious ideas are an example where this occurs frequently.

Psychiatry is a modern version of such a situation. One important aspect of such a situation is that the people involved in it never for a moment entertain the notion that their ideas, beliefs and actions are anything less than 100% truth based on 100% fact (observable or otherwise). They believe it completely, whether as a religious fanatic or as a disciple of science. These two things are flip sides of the same coin. The religious fanatic or the scientific zealot are simple different versions of the same nutty phenomenon.

(Note: The truth is that what people do fundamentally, as minds, as thinking beings, foregoing all "reason", "logic" and "sense", and before any "reason", "logic" and "sense", is to simply accept and assert ideas, concepts, notions, and attitudes, relate them to things quite arbitrarily, and attach value and meaning to these things, themselves and others all just because they say so or decide it to be that way. It is pretty much ALL arbitrary, but that doesn't mean it is meaningless. It simply means one must understand their own participation in the game of reality. If something is meaningless to you, it's because it's meaningless to you. You make it that way. "It" doesn't make it that way for you. And on the flip side of the coin, if life has meaning and value for you, it's because you make it that way. You "do it" to the world around you. It doesn't "do it" to you. A good understanding of this can lead to a positive, creative, and responsible interaction with people and life. But the downside is the more common chronic, uncontrollable personal acceptance and assertion of ideas and concepts, done unconsciously without any knowledge or awareness of one's own participation in the "belief acceptance process", and the compulsive forcing of others to accept and adhere to the same or similar beliefs. There can be and should be a world where everyone understood how they decide and create their own view of reality, and where this could be done without force or duress of some small clique of "authorities", and where tolerance of opposing views was a natural inclination, but that place is definitely not 21st century Earth.)

The same exact thing is true of modern psychiatry. And just as with the misguided religious folks during the time of the Spanish Inquisition (which spanned almost 500 years!), people can and do believe just about anything and these ideas and concepts too often refer and correspond to no actual observable thing or phenomena anywhere outside of their own minds and imaginations. The problem though, and this has always been a major problem on Earth with humans, is that far too many people assert and require others to accept their own severely limited and unique personal unmoored ideas. Additionally, far too often practices, methods and behaviors are enacted and enforced which are largely based on the same shoddy set of unmoored ideas. In a way, people get these weird ideas in their heads, they accept and hold them to be true, and then they push them on everybody else. They never notice for a moment how their own minds deal with "beliefs", and what they do with these things. They are too busy thoroughly confusing the beliefs with actuality (where there is actually very little correspondence). This was obviously true for the ideas and activities of the Spanish Inquisition, and is also, but not so obviously, true for the ideas and activities of psychiatry. It is not that it's "not obvious" because the above statement is not true, but because the person for whom it is "not obvious", possibly you the reader, is most likely mired in their own rigid ideas about these things and is incapable of untainted observation free of preconceived notions and biases. In other words, you cannot simply look at what's sitting right in front of your face because your "thinking" prevents you from doing so. "Scientists", especially but not only limited to the members of the "social sciences", are far more guilty of allowing their preconceived notions, biases and slanted opinions to influence their observations and "objective" studies they they themselves or others generally recognize.

Most people "view" reality and life "through" an extensive array of unexamined and preconceived notions about the very same things they are viewing, thinking about or experiencing. These preconceived notions limit, mold and restrict your actual perceptions, and then your supposed "objective" perceptions, along with your often complex "logic" and "reasoning", which are also closely based upon and interwoven with the same preconceived notions, act to "explain" and "justify" what you claim to experience or detect as "truth". People "rationalize" or "explain logically" what they would probably hold to be true anyway without any requisite observation or "reasoning" done in the first place. This notion is vital to a correct understanding of what is going on here. This is true for both religious and scientific people. They each seem to have their own inherent tendency to believe along certain paths, despite any and all evidence to the contrary. People accept and assert certain things as true, and then use "logic" and "reason" to justify and explain why they believe these things or to support their opinions. But, they generally accept what they hold to be true before reason  or logic ever enter the picture. Most of the time people choose their beliefs before any serious observation is ever done. 

Psychiatry is far from the only place this happens, but it is more dangerous in the case of psychiatry, because of their influence on individuals and society. In other words, if a young starry-eyed New Age neophyte chooses to believe in some "strange" belief system involving Cosmic beings, a long drawn-out spiritual evolution spanning eons, and alien entities, it really makes do difference as long as it isn't taught authoritatively in the colleges, forced on patients in hospitals, or funded by the government. It makes a big difference when a lunatic belief system, like psychiatry, is taught in the colleges, forced on patients in hospitals, and funded extensively by the government. People should be allowed to believe whatever they choose. They should be allowed to pass onto their children whatever beliefs they feel appropriate and correct with no interference form anyone else whatsoever.

But NO belief system, religious or scientific, should be accepted, endorsed, and enforced above any other. Psychiatry and to a large degree "materialism", or "scientific naturalism" are pushed way above any other view. Of course, they say and claim that this is done because "it is true". But realize that asserting and demanding acceptance "because it is true" is the primary sign of what I am trying to explain to be any nutty belief system - the believers truly believe it to be true no matter what, above all else, and they demand that others view things similarly. Interestingly, really "together" and confident people don't care so much about "what they believe" and surely do not have very much attention on getting others to view things the same as they do. The realm of belief is much "looser" to them and they allow greater variation and tolerance in the beliefs of others. But the modern materialist, sincere adherent of Darwinism, or anti-religious naturalistically-inclined atheist, is as much guilty of this intolerance and demand that others view things similarly as any religious believer has ever been. While the content of their beliefs may differ, they function and act in exactly the same way as far as asserting rightness, demanding adherence to their ideas, attacking opposing views, attempting to monopolize the conceptual playing field, and claiming 100% correctness of their view of truth and reality. Put a Creationist (one who believes in the idea that God created the universe and everything in it) in a room with a Evolutionist (one who believes in the Big Bang theory and the idea that all life "evolved naturally" as a result of chemical accidents, genetic mutations, natural selection, and LOTS of time). There will be no end to the lunacy. They are both equally fruitcakes (a slang term meaning "a nutty person" or "crazy person") of the same caliber. The argument is a parade of hilarity (to me anyway).

It's like two prisoners in a maximum security prison arguing and fighting over which one of them has more freedom. Who cares? They are both in a prison! In a very real sense they, and all of us, need to just get out of the prison - out of the prison of belief and the need to ram these beliefs down the throats of everyone we encounter. Also, in the Creationism versus Evolution argument above, note that what they are arguing about fundamentally is over beliefs and not facts or reality. There isn't now, and there will never be enough "proof" or "verifiable evidence" for either side. You weren't there when it "all started" and neither was I. You weren't there as it all came about, changed and developed over millions or billions of years (I choose to not use the word "evolve"), and neither was I. Other than that it is mostly guessing, theorizing, and when it comes down to it, what we each arbitrarily choose to believe despite all proof or evidence and the immense lack of either. We like to kid ourselves that we have the "right evidence" and the "right view of it all", but obviously we don't, and really, we can't and never will. It has little to do with "what is" and mostly to do with people asserting their beliefs about what is. That is the truth of what is going on with people and the universe around them.

This nonsense just never seems to end. I suppose that it's not a "religious" problem, or a "science" problem, but a "people" problem. People do it no matter what they are involved in. There will always be those who assert their ideas as right, and demand everyone else accept them. The labels or names of fields of human endeavor, such as "religious", "scientific", "political", or "economic" may change but the same stupid pattern just mentioned above will surface and play itself out. It is interesting to look at human history from this idea of who has done this and who hasn't. In the past the religious folks have done it. Today the scientific folks are doing it. And the funniest part is that generally the scientific folks attack and claim to be so superior to the religious folks, in terms of "truth", "reason" and "legitimacy" when they really do exactly the same thing! They suffer from the same degree of lunacy as did the religious nuts of the past they so correctly criticize and attack.

Said in another way, it is so easy to look back and observe the apparent stupidity and absurdity of the ideas, notions and actions of the people of 50, 100 or 500 years ago. Each of us can sit back, laugh, and sincerely ask "how could those people believe and act on such nonsense?" It is never so easy to pull back and out a little from "modern" ideas and from one's own current personal notions and observe the same exact type of stupidity - absurdity of ideas which exist and functions right now, as they always do at any time in human history and as they do in much the same way as they did at anytime in the past. One of the purposes of the information in this web site is to attempt to assist the reader in "pulling out" a bit from some of the "dumb" ideas of modern western civilization (although the "dumbness" has not been restricted only to western civilization)  and from their own rigidly held ideas and notions, ideas and notions which the reader won't and can't just right off usually recognize as being held rigidly, and thereby allow the reader to observe and judge a bit more honestly and clearly.

Of course, the psychiatrist types can appear to be, and do present themselves as being very "smart", "educated" and "knowledgeable", and far too many people can err and incorrectly assume the psychiatrists possess these attributes in some legitimate manner, but that is actually just more undetected pretense and also discussed extensively in this web site. Please realize that back in the 14th and 15th centuries the Christian priests were the most educated folks in the entire world. They had the largest libraries, operated the printing presses, ran the "colleges" and they attained the highest degrees of "education" possible anywhere in the world. They truly "knew" more than anyone else. And they believed and promoted largely nonsense. The fact of the situation is that they achieved the greatest degree of "indoctrination" into unmoored ideas. The same is true of psychiatry and the modern university system which relays a modern version of conceptual nonsense. "Educated folks" like to think that mankind has "evolved" and "advanced" and that the past errors of mankind no longer occur. Sadly, this is not at all the case. One set of dumb ideas and notions have simply been swapped for another. There has been little "advancement". It is business as usual on planet Earth. Of course, this is not easy for many to accept, and many reading this with giggle to themselves, smirk or flippantly utter comments of scorn and ridicule about my comment here. But is true nonetheless. "Education" is largely education into the modern range of arbitrary ideas and indoctrination into the current conceptual structure of nonsense, and this is especially true in the humanities and social sciences. Modern technological gadgets and devices may deceive an uncareful observer into deciding "humanity has advanced", but take away the technological props and mankind would be in the same sorry state he had been in up until about the 18th century. "Man" as a "thinking entity" has advanced exactly not one inch. Man knows nothing much more about himself as a mind, or as a creative thinking entity than he did a thousand years ago. And the "modern scientific" view of a human being as solely a biological, chemical and electrical machine with no consciousness or mind is quite representative of the same sad state of affairs. How could the "mind" of Man, his responsibility or his awareness advance or improve when the self-proclaimed scientific and academic folks have all but denied the mind's very existence? Well, it can't and it won't as long as the current trend continues.

Getting back to the the psychiatrist, I will mention again, sincerity of belief, assertions of "caring", displays of confidence, and claims to "scientific facts" have never guaranteed truth, decency or positive results. One must learn to disentangle assertions to "caring, compassion and concern" with the results of the methods the caring and compassionate people practice. Far too often the two have absolutely nothing to do with each other. By the way this flaw is not at all limited only to psychiatry. Take a look around and see for yourself. (Note: There can be and are caring people who do also get worthwhile results. The two things are not necessarily mutually exclusive, although far too often they are. Psychiatrists just do not happen to be members of that group of people who both care and who also get real, honest, and worthwhile results.) Pretense to caring and concern is far too common, while workable methods which get useful, positive, and worthwhile results, sadly, are not.

Do not base your opinion only on what members of the psychiatric field tell you. Liquor manufacturers will not tell you their products cause liver damage, are the source of numerous auto related deaths every year, and encourage you to cease drinking liquor. In fact, they will involve themselves and you in endless "rational" discussions and "reasonable" arguments about "responsible partying", "drinking with control", "take lots of B vitamins" and so on, and do everything but suggest the one and only effective and sensible thing - simply choose not to drink at all and encourage others to do the same. Similarly, no psychiatrist will tell you that psychiatric procedures harm people and that you should avoid them at all cost. Even if he or she knew or suspected this, he or she couldn't endure the loss of income, status and authority this would entail. After all, psychiatry is primarily a business - a money-making venture just like the liquor manufacturers - and not a field ultimately concerned with "helping" people and society. Any honest study of it's history and practices makes this abundantly clear. And again, pay no attention to what they say or claim. People can and do believe and say anything, and far too often what they say and do has nothing at all to do with "truth" or your best interests.

The major drug companies and psychiatrists, who are the salesmen for the drug company products, form a huge money making enterprise which can tolerate no criticism. This is a fact. Each psychiatrist has gone to school for many years, spent much money on their "education" (i.e. indoctrination), and invested a good part of their life towards building their "profession". That is a fact. It isn't easy for anyone, regardless of one's "profession", to flush years of "education", expense, time spent in their field and one's source of a very good income down the drain, much less also confront that what one does for a living is fundamentally harmful to other people and society. That is also a fact. So, don't argue or even discuss the facts with them. It is very similar to trying to argue or reason with a Jehovah's Witness, or the 14th century priest. It cannot be done. They perceive and experience reality "through" their belief system. Their fixed ideas and rigidly held opinions completely prevent them from being able to accurately observe or judge much of anything. Most of them won't listen, cannot honestly observe actual reality, are incapable of understanding simple facts, and instead will defend their opinions to the end while sarcastically and "authoritatively" criticizing the proponents of anything at all more closely resembling the truth. In a very real sense they are morons.

They function very much as did the priests of the Spanish Inquisition, and this is not simply a "cute" or disingenuous analogy. Just as, and exactly in the same way as the 14th century priest they believe adamantly in their doctrines (i.e. theories, assertions, "studies", "research"), tolerate no criticism, ruthlessly attack disbelievers, enforce their beliefs and practices on the general public, cause continual and extensive harm while claiming to help, align closely with state agencies, obtain state support, infiltrate positions of power and influence, behave as if they "know it all" while actually knowing next to nothing, flaunt their undeserved and feigned status of intellectual and moral superiority, and enjoy and vigorously protect their positions of authority and control. The members of the medieval Christian Church functioned much in the same way. Further honest and real objective study makes this very apparent.

Some of this may be hard to believe for anyone who has been brought up in "modern" society, because these "psychiatric" ideas are everywhere. The only thing an honest and truly caring person can do is investigate the subject for oneself and come to one's own decisions based upon one's own sincere efforts to observe, look, understand and reason. If you really do this you will have no choice but to:

Say NO To Psychiatry!

Pursuing Truth in all subjects...

©Gene Zimmer 1999 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED