Friday, March 10, 2006
Giving Up The Suffering "Contest"
May Well Save Us from Further Suffering
By Patricia Lefave, Labelled, D.D.(P)
Recently, some members of the Jewish faith in Canada and The U.S. have voiced objections to the comparison of seemingly minor cases of oppression and abuse to the obviously major oppression and abuse of the Nazis of Germany. Some feel this minimizes the reality of the Holocaust; that it trivializes it.
I think we should consider this from another perspective.
If we see the same basic concepts used by the Nazis for building up power and control in other systems, we may be able to change something while there is still time to do so.
If we listen to those who went through the horrors of the Holocaust and lived to tell us about it and what happened, we hear a recurring theme.
Those who foresaw what was coming were ridiculed, often called crazy, enemies of the Fatherland, and early on, the majority of German citizens minimized the Nazi threat, since a few minor incidents of possible oppression against a sub group could certainly not be considered to be a sign of evil intent. That assessment didn't seem all that unreasonable at the time. It was only with hindsight that it was seen to be what it really was.
Perhaps we should be LOOKING for the Nazi mind where we least expect it. If seen very early on in it's growth , evil won't continue to grow in the darkness of the denial of it's existence.
Sometimes those who see a similarly constructed evil where others do not, prevent suffering like that of the Holocaust from being repeated. Some horrors are better not seen with Hindsight.
In relation to this topic, it has been said by some of Peter Breggin's detractors that Breggin has stated in the past that American Psychiatry is based upon a construct that came out of Nazi Germany. I think this is intended of course to undermine Breggin and his open opposition to the psychiatric establishment, by showing him to think like a wacko. Like us. We often compare the "help" we are given by the establishment to Nazi control etc. Which is said to prove we are nuts. Just as it did in Nazi Germany, where we who thought we were being oppressed and persecuted were murdered in asylums, by psychiatrists, who were originally only trying to "help" us with our delusions of persecution, of which we would not "let go." Because according to psychiatrists, we were (and still are ) genetic defectives who's thoughts and feelings aren't as "real" as theirs and who therefore see no need to compare American or Canadian Psychiatry to Nazis.
That's just crazy to see any comparison, according to those who judge these things...as experts...like those psychiatrists did...in Nazi Germany..
Isn't it?
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1 comment:
This is a good issue, Pat. Not at all easy to put into words. People interpret these thoughts in many different ways, as soon as Nazi Germany is mentioned.
People in the U.S., perhaps in Canada, tend to view ourselves as heroes with respect to Nazi Germany. Eventually we entered armed resistance, but we never had much unarmed resistance and certainly contributed to the unchecked growth of the Third Reich.
Companies such as ITT, GM, and DuPont traded with the Third Reich. David Wyman's book, The Abandonment of the Jews: America And The Holocaust shows how Washington kept the extent of the killing of Jews secret from the U.S. public, and tended to block the flow of Jewish refugees into the U.S.
Breggin hasn't said that American psychiatry came out of Germany, but I think he has cited authors who've illustrated how heavily the Third Reich drew upon American psychiatry and eugenics.
Eugenics and lobotomy continue to be dark chapters in U.S. history, not to be touched or it will expose the chemical lobotomy through "medications" now practiced on perhaps twenty million people. The denial about this cruel, transparent hoax is certainly comparable to the kind of head-in-the-sand mentality in Germany that eventually resulted in the gassing of psychiatric patients, followed by Jews and others.
We never want to compete on the subject of who is more oppressed. I don't think that's what's happening when ex-psychiatric patients mention Germany. In terms of denying incredible cruelty and stupidity, we are in some ways repeating history, and certainly when it comes to psychiatric diagnoses and treatment. Standard psychiatry is an alternative to thinking, and its perpetuation keeps us back in the Thirties in some ways. There is deep shame in humanity about this, and society owes praise to the "patients" who've worked so hard to bring common sense back to our lives.
Jim Shackelford
U.S.A.
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