AlterNet: Has American Society Gone Insane?

[marmar]

Has American Society Gone Insane?

By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet. Posted September 11, 2008.

America's mental health problems may be more than a matter of some "unadjusted" individuals. The entire culture might well need adjusting.



For many Americans who gain their information solely from television, all critics of psychiatry are Scientologists, exemplified by Tom Cruise spewing at Matt Lauer, "You don't know the history of psychiatry. ... Matt, you're so glib." The mass media has been highly successful in convincing Americans to associate criticism of psychiatry with anti-drug zealots from the Church of Scientology, the lucrative invention of science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

However, Americans who gain their information outside of television and beyond the mass media may be aware of a secular, progressive tradition that is critical of how psychiatry has diverted us from examining societal sources of our malaise. This secular, humanistic concern was articulated, perhaps most famously, by the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm (1900-1980).

In The Sane Society (1955), Fromm wrote, "Yet many psychiatrists and psychologists refuse to entertain the idea that society as a whole may be lacking in sanity. They hold that the problem of mental health in a society is only that of the number of 'unadjusted' individuals, and not of a possible unadjustment of the culture itself."

Is American society a healthy one, and are those having difficulties adjusting to it mentally ill? Or is American society an unhealthy one, and are many Americans with emotional difficulties simply alienated rather than ill? For Fromm, "An unhealthy society is one which creates mutual hostility (and) distrust, which transforms man into an instrument of use and exploitation for others, which deprives him of a sense of self, except inasmuch as he submits to others or becomes an automaton." Fromm viewed American society as an increasingly unhealthy one, in which people routinely experience painful alienation that fuels emotional and behavioral difficulties.

Unlike Tom Cruise, Fromm would not have been terribly upset that actress Brooke Shields found happiness in antidepressants. No genuinely humanistic critic of psychiatry believes that adults who choose prescription psychotropic drugs should be mocked or shamed, or prohibited from using them. Rather, humanist critics of establishment psychiatry advocate for informed choice about all treatments. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/97934/has_american_society_gone_insane_/

[Bob Dobbs]

1. Brilliant analysis.

Erich Fromm was a genius.

[marmar]

3. Yup. Studying Fromm was my favorite part of college Psychology class....

n/t

[ixion]

2. A common language is the veil that makes society appear sane...

remove that language and the symbolism that accompanies it, and you have chaos. Alienation is a by-product of this. With the advent of neo-con-speak (a.k.a. doublespeak), the core constructs of language have been corrupted. That is, the integrity of sub-text communication -- the thread of the social fabric -- has been compromised. As it continues to progress, language will continue to break down, and the social fabric right along with it.

Think the Tower of Babel, Pt II.

[shadowknows69]

4. It's going to end up being cell phones, mark my words

Or an overabundance of electromagnetic fields in general too close to us.

[marmar]

5. I wonder about that sometimes.....Do we really have any clue about the damage.....

.... to physical and mental health, that cellphones are doing? The results probably really haven't started showing up yet.

[shadowknows69]

7. There has been similar studies about people living close to power lines too

Always conveiently debunked without opposition by the company involved of course.

[Odin2005]

14. Uh, LIGHT is electromagnetism I hope you know.

We are constantly bathed by the electromagnetism coming from the rest of the universe (the Sun, especially), so I don't think some radio waves is going to hurt anything.

[shadowknows69]

15. The light is also filtered, albeit not as well as it was, by the ozone layer

That's why there is increased risk of skin cancer over the last few decades. Of course we're bathed in these energies all the time but its certain concentration levels of them that has been shown to cause tumors in test animals. I can't recall the case but I think there was some attempted litigation against power lines being built near residential areas due to studies that showed increased levels of brain tumors in people living in close proximity to them.

[opihimoimoi]

6. We been saying it for years....Bush proves America is Fucked

McCain reconfirms....Palin is overkill....we have been engineered to be stupid/ignorant...

[intheflow]

8. Personally, I think the US is suffering from PTSD from 9-11-01.

I mean, we on the left were already depressed from the stolen election, but then for 9-11 to happen before we could even come to grips with THAT, and then the quick escalation to unjust war with Iraq, Gitmo... and it's just been one scandal/national psychic trauma after another since then. And no fact-based acknowlegement from our leaders that's anything's wrong. Impeachment proceedings would go far in healing the national psyche. I believe Pelosi, et al, are denying their own trauma by denying us justice.

[marions ghost]

17. agreed

massive denial is practiced by our govt and society, so there is no validation of our concerns.

"Pelosi et al are denying their own trauma by denying us justice." -- ABSOLUTELY.

[KoKo]

9. Alienation. The rise of the Mega Church...folks looking for something to believe in

a place where they can go and be part of a mass movement. All so they don't feel alienated by their culture. The fundie preachers make their own culture around Jesus and attract millions who don't feel they have a say in their Government or in their culture.

[NOLALady]

12. Alienation=

Religion and guns.

[nichomachus]

10. It's television

Americans are addicted to television. Many people -- my sister is one -- put it on when they get up and turn it off when they go to bed. Go to the doctor -- you have to watch tv. Go to get your oil changed -- tv while you're waiting. My last dentist even had it in the treatment room.

The thing about TV is not so much that they tell you what to think, but -- and this is worse -- they tell you what to think about.

I went to my favorite bar for happy hour yesterday. It's an outdoor bar, but they had four TVs. Fortunately, no sound. However, three of the four had people, according to the captions, talking about fucking LIPSTICK. (The other TV had the Red Sox-Devil Rays.) Who the fuck cares about lipstick? The economy is dying. We are becoming a debtor nation. Unemployment is rampant. 4,200 American dead in Iraq. North Korea about to become destabilized. The Middle East still a boiling cauldron. Dick Cheney and Condi Rice skulking around in secret doing God-knows-what. And all the pundits were talking about fucking lipstick.

Ask any of the Sheeple today what the hot item is and they will tell you either the hurricane or lipstick.

That is insane!

[truedelphi]

19. You say:

The thing about TV is not so much that they tell you what to think, but -- and this is worse -- they tell you what to think about.


That's why it is so insidious. They control what we think about.

And as Jon Stewart points out - all the Far Right media decides on the subject to be discussed, and the tact taken towards that subject. If Obama looks silly wearing a bow tie, then EVERY Station has their talking heads discuss how silly Obama looks wearing a bow tie. They use the same buzz words, and there is no deviation from one station to another.

[Lorien]

11. This seems to be the more pertinent paragraph:

Those comfortably atop societal hierarchies have difficulty recognizing that many American institutions promote helplessness, passivity, boredom, fear, isolation, alienation and dehumanization for those not at the top. One-size-fits-all schools, the corporate workplace, government bureaucracies and other giant, impersonal institutions routinely promote manipulative relationships rather than respectful ones, machine efficiency rather than human pride, authoritarian hierarchies rather than participatory democracy, disconnectedness rather than community, and helplessness rather than empowerment.

So true. :-(

[Romulox]

13. Complete disconnect between "every man for himself" capitalism and cooperative society

If a man loses his home due to a flood, this is a tragedy, and the taxpayers should rebuild it for him; if a man loses him home due to trade policy, it is simply "efficiency", and we have no compassion.

It is a schizophrenic p.o.v. that obviously breaks down when under stress.

[truedelphi]

20. Very well put. n/t

[Schema Thing]

16. It seem to me that too many of our fellow citizens are willing, eager even, to....

...give away their vital bodily fluids. This is leading America to the brink of catastrophe.

[radfringe]

18. to answer that question - yes

the big "uproar" is who is or isn't wearing a flagpin, who has hand over heart and who does not when saying the Pledge of Allegience, and what color lipstick looks best on a freaking pig

and people wonder why the country is going to hell in a chinese knock-off of a gucci handbag