AdamP

That guy seems to be implying that his "mistakes" are rare slip-ups, and rest of the time he is fixin' people left and right. The whole practice of therapy is largely a mistake.

Therapists are... phony bastards!

I was with you with all the way up to the herbal cures for cancer part. I find this much less exploitive and corrupt than the demons who pour chemo poisons into desperate people, and then shrug their shoulders when that person shrivels and dies. At least the herbs will not kill you more quickly than the cancer, and some (cannabis) are real cancer medicine. Anyway, agree that the fees therapists charge + the uselessness/harmfulness of the product + the vulnerable customer base = the fundamental predation.

1. I imagine most of them are not predatory by nature, but have been conditioned to be that way by training. They harvest weakness and despair for personal gain. They make career of that. 2. Probably both, but I def think they adopt a phony persona and sell it as authentic. Therapists are basically probhibted from being real people in the room, but they lapse into authenticity sometimes, then revert back.

Regarding therapists being predators, I don't see most of them as overt predators, but rather they are playing the role of predator. Agree, therapists violate boundaries by skipping consent and overselling their product. But they violate in million other ways. Pretending to care is a monstrous violation of emotional boundaries. So is pushing for exposure and disclosure, and then shoving the client out the door so the therapist can drag in the next customer. So is adopting an ambiguous and fake persona, while representing this as authentic. The list goes on.

I only listened to a few bits, but toward the end, talking about "safe vulnerability", the magic, opening and growing... so unbelievably patronizing and nauseating. And of course they bring up boundaries. I wish I could rig a system whereby anyone who mentions the word "boundaries" in a therapy context gets an electric shock or is hit with a club.

I find it ironic that they warn against predatory therapists. All therapists are predators.

That's a good point. Therapists get away with cursory consent up front and then after that nothing, just expect the client to plow forward blindly.

I've heard good things about the Kirsch book. It's true that anyone in the therapy biz has somewhat of a conflict of interest when it comes to going after drugs. Seems therapists/psychologists and psychiatrists are always feuding, and competing for customers. One thing about Whitaker, is that is he is a journalist and so has no direct stake in the "game". There's also Peter Breggin and David Healy.

One of the best health books I've read is Robert Whitaker's "Anatomy of an Epidemic". Exposes the horrors of Pharmageddon and the damaging effects of long term psych drug use. https://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Epidemic-Bullets-Psychiatric-Astonishing/dp/0307452425/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497142314&sr=8-1&keywords=robert+whitaker

Agree that overt gaslighting seems less common than therapists simply exploiting their position of power to get needs met, using subtle manipulation and coercion. It has to be one of the great lies of the whole practice -- the idea that i's client-focused. Therapy is by and for therapists.

Agree with what you said, across the board. Psychiatry and psychotherapy are almost entirely fraudulent and pseudoscientific practices. They are not legit forms of healthcare. Their only legitimacy is in crisis management, and even then the potential for harm is enormous and the purported benefits wildly overblown and distorted. And yet large numbers of people are totally invested in this system, as a way of life. Madness. Fluoride is a potent neurotoxin. Glyphosate (in the herbicide Roundup) is another poison that has infiltrated food and water supply. Most people have unsafe levels of mercury and other metals. Indiscriminate use of antibiotics has wrecked gut health which destroys overall health. Modern dentistry is one poison after another. The list goes on. Many of these things will cause psych disturbances. The MH system is not interested in any of this. And yea, their drugs create disease on all levels.

Seems at this point most published research should be assumed fraudulent until proven otherwise. Therapists are given the power to diagnose, but most know nothing about human health. I have quite severe chronic fatigue. I don't even pay attention to mainstream discussion of this. If a therapist (or doctor) told me I needed to exercise more or some such simplistic advice, I would show them how ignorant they are.

Agree, but some have impairments or demons that make this much harder than for others. So called mental disorders can be manifestations of real physical ailments that drive people into isolation. Some psychological wounds can produce debilitating physical symptoms. Things can get weird. My life is a disaster, partly due to this sort of confusing and debilitating can of worms. Agree that one's internal framing is critical, and therapy seems designed to intensify much of the bad stuff.