Re: A powerfull and dangerous idea

[Guest guest]

> Wow, you're right. I have *everything.* Who knew I was so

> screwed up in every single area of life?

>

> Fortunately I think there's a 12-step program for each of these

> diseases. :-)

Of course. To which the professional will send you right away. To

supplement your psychological treatment, of course.

There are people whose lives get tied up in all kinds of horse

doovers that way.

Wow.

>

[Guest guest]

> Wow, you're right. I have *everything.* Who knew I was so

> screwed up in every single area of life?

>

> Fortunately I think there's a 12-step program for each of these

> diseases. :-)

Of course. To which the professional will send you right away. To

supplement your psychological treatment, of course.

There are people whose lives get tied up in all kinds of horse

doovers that way.

Wow.

>

[Guest guest]

>

> He gave the example of Christianity. He said no one questions the

> many tens or hundreds of thousands of people who say they have had a

> Christian spiritual experience, or say they beleive that Satan is on

> earth causing trouble, or that there are angels in heaven, etc.

> No one says they are mentally ill.

It iusnt thissimple. Extreme Xtain religious experiences, especially

those disturbing to the person, will be viewed seriously. It has been

suggested that many African and Afro-Carribean Britons might be

mistakenly thought mentally ill because white spychiatrists dont

realize how religious they often are. This is of course, given as

evidence of psychiatric tyrrany. It's a no win situation for the

shrinks - view extreme Xtianity favorably or ill-favorably, somebody

will complain.

P.

[Guest guest]

>

> He gave the example of Christianity. He said no one questions the

> many tens or hundreds of thousands of people who say they have had a

> Christian spiritual experience, or say they beleive that Satan is on

> earth causing trouble, or that there are angels in heaven, etc.

> No one says they are mentally ill.

It iusnt thissimple. Extreme Xtain religious experiences, especially

those disturbing to the person, will be viewed seriously. It has been

suggested that many African and Afro-Carribean Britons might be

mistakenly thought mentally ill because white spychiatrists dont

realize how religious they often are. This is of course, given as

evidence of psychiatric tyrrany. It's a no win situation for the

shrinks - view extreme Xtianity favorably or ill-favorably, somebody

will complain.

P.

[Guest guest]

>

> Wow, you're right. I have *everything.*

For those of you who are not sick of me and/or Szasz, here is Szasz on

projective tests. The source is " The Manufacture of Madness: A

Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement "

published 32 years ago:

*The test by " swimming " consisted of restraining the accused witch's

bodily freedom, by tying hands and feet in various manner--usually,

" the right thumb on the left big tow, so that the witch was 'cross

bound' " --and throwing her into deep water, three times if necessary.

If she floated, she was guilty; if she sank, she was innocent. In the

latter case, she usually drowned, unless she was rescued in time by

her torturers; since her soul went to heaven, however, this test was

not considered absurd by either the practitioners or their clients.

Indeed, accused witches occasionally volunteered for it, perhaps

because it was one of the few " tests " through which, however great the

odds against passing it, they could establish their innocence; or

perhaps because, as a means of indirect suicide, they could bring an

end to their tortures without incurring the sin of self-destruction.

The aims and results of several modern methods of psychodiagnosis

resemble closely the ordeal by water. One is the use of projective

tests--like the Rorschach or the Thematic Apperception Test. When a

clinical psychologist administers this test to a person referred by a

psychiatrist, there is the tacit expectation that the test will show

some " pathology. " After all, a competent psychiatrist would not refer

a " normal " person for such costly and complicated testing. The result

is that the psychologist finds some kind of psychopathology: the

patient is either " hysterical, " or " depressed, " or " latently

psychotic, " or, if all else fails, " shows signs suggestive of

organicity. " All this pseudomedical hocus-pocus and jargon serves to

confirm the subject in the role of mental patient, the psychiatrist in

the role of medical doctor, and the clinical psychologist in the role

of paramedical technician (who " tests " the patient's mind instead of

his blood). In more than twenty years of psychiatric work, I have

never known a clinical psychologist to report, on the basis of a

projective test, that the subject is a " normal, mentally healthy

person. " While some witches may have survived dunking, no " mad-man "

survives psychological testing.*