"The first edition of Manufacturing Victims drew volatile reactions from within The Psychology Industry instantly. It was instantly dismissed as "a conspiracy book" and later called 'The Ripley's Believe It Or Not of Psychology.'....". (1998, p. 15)
She goes on to describe how one colleague diagnosed her as suffering from "burnout" without even reading the book itself, and how another filed a formal complaint against her after she talked about the book on national TV. The complaint was filed in the name of "protecting the television watching public.'
The mainstream practices and diagnostic standards used in the treatment of "abnormal" mental states continue to be paternalistic, patriarchal, and loyal to the dogmas of authoritarianism. The idea that the protection of any living thing is more important than the supposed right of wealthy and powerful men to control, and dispose of as they please, property, machinery, capital, and other human beings is still considered "extremist" and even "psychotic" by the learned defenders of the status quo.
I suppose that the above convicts me of a narcissistic pathology or at least, extreme individualism that borders on the pathological but the life I lead now is the least harmful to me or to others that I have lead since leaving childhood. I choose to think, and, like many writers, I like to believe (rightly or wrongly) that what I am thinking is really important, motivating me to commit my thoughts to my disk drive and ultimately to paper. It's important that those of us who choose to think keep thinking and comparing notes with other thinking beings.
References:
American Psychiatric Association. (1994)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th Ed.).
Camus, Albert,
Resistance, Rebellion and Death(1960)
New York, NY Random House
Dineen, Dr. Tana (1998) Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry is Doing to People,
Robert Davies Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Icke, David (1995) And the Truth Shall Set You Free, Bridge of Love, London , UK
Rand, Ayn The Ayn Rand Lexicon:
Objectivism from A to Z
Harry Binswanger, Ed. Penguin Books, New York NY
Reich, Wilhelm
The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1970)
Simon and Schuster, New York, NY
Szasz, Thomas, Insanity, the Idea and its Consequences,
(1997) Syracuse NY, Syracuse University Press
DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Association
http://dsmivtr.org/
(Originally Published February 28th 2008 on Associated Content, no know as "Yahoo Voices")
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