Psychiatric Doublethink: The Feedback Loop

By Patricia Lefave, Labelled, D.D.(P)

Who Can Tell Me What's What?

Though the doctor is qualified to tell me, as the patient, that I do not know my ass from a hole in the ground, I as the patient, can never tell the doctor he does not know his ass from a hole in the ground.
The doctor has been professionally trained to know the difference between an ass and a hole.
Some "specially" nurses, with training outside medicine, have had a similar training, in their very own system, including a module called "On Being An Asshole." I am not "joking." Ask Homewood about It.

As the designated patient, I am forced to admit , I don't know anywhere near as much about being an asshole, as though who are specially trained do.




The Way It Is
I "think" some people are engaged in some sort of covert operation and are watching me, following me, and reporting my movements to someone.

My community is now fully involved in A.C.T.T. watching for signs and symbols of madness everywhere. A.C.T.T. (or P.A.C.T. in the U.S.) is referred to by some survivors as an acronym for Abusive (or Assaultive) Community Traumatization Teams.
A.C.T.T. engages whole communities in watching, following and reporting on people, like myself, who are suspected of ( or already labeled as) being ''mentally ill,'' often because we simply will not "let go" of the ''sick'' notion that we are being watched, by the public at large, and being followed, reported on etc.

Obviously, what we need for our irrational fears and perception problems is a big tranquilizer dart. For once our conscious awareness is reduced by drugging, the fears of those who watch us, follow us and report on us are greatly reduced as well. Yes indeed. It is signs and symbols of madness everywhere except, of course, in those performing the A.C.T.T.
In terms of the absurd, this is certainly a tough A.C.T.T. to follow.

This doublethink requires every "identified" patient to be able to develop a talent for paradoxical thinking, and further, the ability to transcend that, to view the majority of "normal" people as quite stark raving "mad", while they remain completely unaware of their own split consciousness.
But remember, as psychiatrists like to tell us, " If you were really crazy, you wouldn't know it."
Psychiatry is a tricky business. I must admit that most of us labeled people have an extremely difficult time understanding the mysterious concepts upon which it is based. It just seems like doubletalk to us most of the time. The resemblance to psychology is slim to none. Of course, this is likely because we don't have the kind of training that enables us to think like psychiatrists think.
Now you psychiatrists won't take that the wrong way, will you?

It seems to many of us that people who are "helped" by Psychiatry are instantly subjected to a loss of personal identity, since Psychiatry decides FOR us what are "normal" thoughts and feelings, and what are not, and believes that "it" understands the patient's life experience better than the patient, even if the psychiatrist has never laid eyes upon the "patient" before. (My own diagnostic labeling took place with a psychiatrist I had never met before and it only took him ten, cost-effective minutes. ) There is a heavy reliance on consensus opinions, usually covert, with no debate "allowed." The term "allowed" is also a prominent feature of the experience.

It is apparently also a simple matter for Psychiatry to define the thoughts and feelings of those who complain about Psychiatry itself, and it's treatment of people, as "symptoms" of the complainant's "mental illness" which then "proves" Psychiatry right to "treat" the patient for those "symptoms" BY Psychiatry. It can be quite dizzying being on the receiving end of this while looking for logic within it. No real concrete evidence regarding what we say happened to us is looked for, or even "allowed," and the patient is frequently actively prevented from speaking for him/herself, or perhaps "humoured" for awhile, but not for too long. The "humouring" does not last indefinitely these days as to psychiatry, time is money.

This seems to some of us to be a repeat of the dysfunctional group dynamic re-packaged as a medical specialty, which gives it's practitioners legal, and unquestioned power over those who complain about it.

To understand the closed system this psychology creates see:
The Psychology of Totalism By Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.

The Co-Dependent Ultimate:

When you are in a state of Psychiatric Matrimony there are only two things you can be as "the patient."

1. The happy satisfied "bride" which proves your husband to be the perfect lover.

OR

2. The unhappy, dissatisfied "bride" who wants a psychiatric divorce. (which only proves how much you need your perfect husband to chain you to the bed until you decide to admit how truly happy and satisfied you really are and that really your former complaints had nothing at all to do with HIS performance nor his domineering attitude. )

Well I am looking for the third thing. This Bride of Frankenstein wants a Psychiatric Divorce. I'm afraid I just don't appreciate the way my "husband" has pieced it all together.


Patient Confidentiality:

Patient confidentiality is the number one priority of Psychiatry.

Although there is certainly no stigma attached to a psychiatric label, the diagnosis is better kept "confidential" as people tend to treat badly, any patients who have been given the label for complaining that other people are treating them badly.

So, in order to impress upon everyone the importance of confidentiality, psychiatrists, police and the A.C.T.T. organization, which officially involves the public in watching the labeled for signs and symbols of madness, hold meetings, instructing everyone involved, all over the city, to make the patient's confidential diagnosis their top priority.

The group behaviour and involvement is very much like it was before when we were "whining and complaining" about it, except now that it is has been formalized and officially organized, the denial of it is much deeper and much stronger. After all, could all this good work possibly be detrimental to the mental health of those it was created to "save?"

I would offer my own opinion on all of this but, I am not "allowed" to confront anyone. It is considered to be "inappropriate behaviour" on my part to do so, which would result in another covert meeting of psychiatrists, police, my relatives, my neighbours and the A.C.T.T. organization.

Remember now. This is all highly confidential so don't tell anyone or, if you do, tell whomever you tell not to tell anyone.

Patient rights are everything and confidentiality is the top priority.


The Sad Case Of Patient Who ''Thinks'' She's A Victim:

A psychiatrist "tests" a labeled rape victim to see if she's in touch with reality. He asks her if she thinks "people want to harm her"?

The victim answers "yes," and adds, "They think they are hidden in my sight but I can see them."

Really though, people are NOT trying to harm this rape victim. It's a perception problem of hers. Her answer "proves", just as her psychiatrist expected it would, that the rape victim is out of touch with reality because she "thinks" people, who want to harm her think they are hidden from her.

The fact that she has been raped is only incidental. The labeled woman knows the psychiatrist sees her rape as incidental and not as real as the rape of the non labeled woman.
The psychiatrist knows the patient doesn't really understand that people are not out to harm her.

The labeled woman can see the psychiatrist, and knows that the psychiatrist is not considering that the rapist, and others like him, are out to harm her. The psychiatrist sees no connection to the test he has given.

You see, the psychiatrist thinks he is hidden while in plain sight of the labeled woman. Yet the labeled woman can see him......just as she said she could.

The Double Standard:

It never ceases to amaze many of us how those who create such rules of ''appropriate'' conduct like:
''What goes on inside these four walls, stays inside these four walls''
are themselves, constantly; talking about us behind our backs, manipulating others, frequently violating our personal boundaries and justifying it, complaining to others about our objections to it, and instructing others to keep the fact that they are doing it a ''secret,'' so as not to upset us, by ''allowing'' us to ''find out'' about them, even though our knowing about them, and what they are doing IS the problem about which we are ''whining and complaining'' in the first place!

This denial of the blatantly obvious is beyond human comprehension. Yet, generally, that is exactly what the majority which involve themselves, in what was never their business in the first place, support and enable with self righteous enthusiasm. This, while they continue to kid themselves that ''we'' are too stupid and/or crazy to be aware of them!
It boggles the mind.




ONCP