Psychiatry Has Failed America

... And Now It is Failing the World

A colleague in a different field wrote to me:

Bandy,

You’re the only one I know who has picked up on the Trump’s contagion effect—even though it should be pretty obvious by now.  Right down to gestures, phrases, scripted public appearances.  Bolsonaro went so far as to imitate January 6.  It’s stunning that so many supposedly educated brains have been free-dried.

Similarly for the clinical point you’ve elaborated on regarding the unique opportunity he presents for diagnosis of malignant narcissism+.  As I’ve read, in-person “therapy” leads nowhere, given the variety of subconscious defenses a true narcissist has in place to avoid any recognition of that sacred, compelling inner self.   Anyway, how could a series of 50-minute sessions in a controlled environment compare to innumerable days of behavioral displays.  Mustn’t some of your colleagues acknowledge this?

I responded:

M.,

This may be obvious to you because you are brilliant!  But the average psychiatrist is beholden to the pharmaceutical industry, which does not allow for anything to “exist” outside of conditions that can be treated in a private office for the dispensing of medications—even if it defies the “biopsychosocial” model of psychiatry.  The rest who do not subscribe to this have watched what happened to me and learned that they cannot risk offending the establishment.  And then the remaining few who are interested in speaking publicly, cannot get into any media….