By David Grossack
The human species is very skilled in adapting to difficult situations. Since time immemorial humans have built tools to hunt, farm, cook, eat, provide shelter and wage war. Our species has survived millennia of frosts, heat waves, natural disasters, invasions and epidemics and stands on the threshold of intergalactic exploration, the cracking of the genetic code and perhaps even immortality itself.
Humans have united in groups to form communities, governments and armies. Like insects who develop colonies, fish who travel in schools, birds who fly in formation, human beings are animals who use their tools to organize societies.
It is believed that there is a basic herd instinct which is at least in part responsible for this behavior.
In the animal kingdom, organized communities are controlled by leaders. From ants to elephants, hierarchies are entrenched social orders that govern the lower classes. A strong case can be made that a genetically transmitted instinct passes from generation to generation of animals to follow the herd and to stay under its influence.
What keeps human beings under the control and influence of social groups is more complex. The mechanisms of control by institutions are thrust upon children in our formative years. We watch the television programs that 70 million other children watch. We go to school and read the same text books that 70 million other children read. We go to houses of worship and get exposed to the same man-made theologies that millions of others are exposed to, and tithe to support huge "religious" bureaucracies.
In Eugene Ionescu's play "Rhinoceros" we observe a critical satire of the human herd instinct.
A significant portion of the indoctrination process into society is through forms of marketing and merchandising. The merchandising of religions, soap operas and fashion are examples of building and branding new herds within the human species. Not only are we white, yellow or brown, we are Lutherans, Sunnis, Reformed Jews or Mormons, or one of the many other brands. We use Crest, Gleem or Tom's Natural Toothpaste. Some women dye their hair any of dozens of colors, wear styles and colors found in great abundance in and the selection of our beverages and automobiles are said to identify our personalities.
We become "products of products," almost worshiping things society manufactures. The entire culture of our society, for many, many people, is based on "getting" things. If this is a remnant of our primitive days as "hunter gatherers" it nevertheless represents the basis of considerable neurosis found in those who constantly striving for "more," "better" and "what the neighbors have." In such a world, fighting injustice doesn't take a high priority.
People are too busy making payments on their installment credit debt, compound interest arguably being the source of establishment wealth and the misery of the rest of us.
Once the individual becomes part of society he or she is of course subject to its laws, courts and police powers. Questioning the legitimacy of the System becomes heresy.
This has been enshrined in the law and culture of social systems for ages.
The western world had embodied the Divine Right of Kings. The jurisprudence of the Talmud has stated that "the powers that be are ordained of God and must be followed." In the eastern world the Chinese believed the Emperors enjoyed "the mandate of heaven."
English common law and much of American law including the Eleventh Amendment of our national constitution tells us that the government cannot be sued, though this has eroded. This is the principle that you are not supposed to turn on the leaders of the herd.
Break away from the herd at your peril! Think outside the herd, and you'll become hunted or perhaps just an ignored freak, is the unwritten implication. If you do not know what Brittney and Madonna did, if you do not know who pitches for the Cardinals, if you do not watch Fox Reality shows, you are a minority group member.
What has the modern herd really become? It is like living on a Georgia plantation in the last days of the Civil War.
The powers that be, the leaders of the American herd, could not save folks in New Orleans from drowning .
The powers that be could not save 3000 Americans from death at the hands of Al Qaeda despite 101 warnings. They had even supplied the killers with $4 billion in our tax money years before the events of September 11!
In other words, the herd here has become dysfunctional. The dysfunction is reflected in the lawyers, judges and courts who serve it.
The dysfunction is noted in the widespread, rampant corruption in government at every level, the alienation many people feel from the national and local political arenas and the frequent low turn outs in many elections. A widespread view is that politicians are so in hock to corporate interests that communication with them is futile.
Against this context, an epidemic of abuse at the hands of the justice systems and the government is virtually a tradition at every level in just about every country.
The conditions resulting from legal and government abuse are not unlike those after a serious physical assault. Post traumatic stress syndrome has been documented among many victims.
Unlike the forms of psychotherapy which require intervention by therapists to deal with emotional disturbance, Radical Self Therapy (RST) recognizes that the expectations of positive results from a conventional patient therapist are unrealistic. More damage than benefit may very well result.
RST therefore is a tool to be used without a therapist unless the symptoms are so severe that medical intervention is necessary, i.e. hospitalization for severe depression or medication.
After all, what is the social role of the psychologist in American society?
A great number are employed by law enforcement, by prisons, courts and even the intelligence agencies. Their view of the patient's treatment may be to require him to adapt to the herd rather than to drop out or to try to change it because the therapist's own bias may lean that way.
The therapists are themselves "products" of the System, enjoying comfortable lives as servants of power, dependent on insurance agencies, hospitals and other bureaucracies for sustenance. And of course, they are licensed by the various states.
A field of study where entire branches are devoted to help manufacturers sell their products, to help politicians subliminally reach voters or to help armies launch propaganda campaigns are risky prospects for helping to heal anybody of anything. In fact, the role of the psychologist is one of counterinsurgent or bully in so many aspects. Troublesome patients are often drugged after criticizing their doctor or lawyer.
A litigant is sent by a judge or even his own lawyer to a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist will inevitably make some judgments on him affecting the court case. The judgment may be coded in medical terminology and will no doubt be colored by a partisan view of the case. But the psychiatric opinion will be used an excuse by a judge or lawyer for making a decision, unless the judge really does not like it!
Parties seeking to divorce may have the welfare of the children investigated by a psychologist with close connections to a judge and biased, partisan reports will affect the family negatively for decades.
Psychologists continue to bill the insurance company as long as he tells you that you are not well and keep coming back for visits. They almost have a vested interest in you not getting well.
Modern psychology simply is not trustworthy.
For all of these reasons, it is my belief that it is safest for the victims to heal themselves with a minimum of outside assistance using RST tools and techniques that are easily applicable at home
or in leisure moments.
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