This video is a great help explaining to others the task of our time.
No one I speak with is aware how mental health experts have been muzzled by the media, or have muzzled themselves, from warning the public about the dangers of Trump and Trumpism. Never have mental health experts been more needed and never has their silence been so unconscionable.
I remind myself that no matter whether Trumpism is contained or unleashed, we need genuine mental health experts articulating dangers and presenting strategies for containment and healing. I'm also reminded of the story of Arjuna in his chariot who can't bear the thought of fighting those whom he loves the most and knows the best. But, with help, he learns he must do his duty while at the same time remain indifferent to the result. This is how all of us with tasks keep balance no matter the circumstance.
Thank you, Dr. Lee, for the recording of your excellent overview of events leading to this historic juncture in time, and for your clear outline of the conference in September and of tasks to be done in the cause of mental health and political sanity. You and your colleagues continue to lead the way in mental health research and in the continuing development of a positive profile of power management, and the expert identification and containment of a negative profile of power abuse.
Dr Lee, a goal of thinker is to find generalities to analyse the whole - holistic thinking. You say that Mental health experts are silenced at critical juncture. But there's a generality - real thinkers and experts from all critical arenas are silenced in our sociopolitical discourse. The scientists, the economists, the engineers, the technocrats, the sociologists etc.
Perhaps the worst case of muzzling is of independent economists who have been warning since decades about the cataclysmic model of our economic system which is thoroughly corrupted, generates gargantuan inequality, destroys ecosystem and planet itself and concentrates power in hands of few. Plutocrats who then funds Donald Trump.
Then there is silencing of all kinds of scientists. You well know that Scientists have been warning about the risk of Nuclear weapons which we are building more & more. Even an accident in this area is sufficient to doom mankind. (Interestingly, Joe Biden has authorized Trillions $$$ program to modernize & build hundreds of more nukes in coming decade
The Climate scientists have been warning about the peril of global warming. But politicians and society don't care. Recall the Film 'Don't look up'. The research of scientists continue to pile in many scietific journals while our sociopolitical discourse is oblivious to the emergency.
Historians and sociologists are warning about parallels between Fascism of last century and Trumpism of today. But media continue to 'normalize' Donald Trump and present him as an eccentric politician to public.
Experts on healthcare know how the for-profit business model of Big Pharma & Private insurance is an inefficient and unfair system of healthcare delivery. There are so many things.
There's a pattern to this muzzling of independent experts, thinkers, philosophers etc. They are sidelined in our sociopolitical discourse everywhere. And various hacks and blob are made the temple guardians of conventional wisdom. All this represents broader failure of our political and economic system.
Edit - A very important thing for activist-thinkers is to start building 'coalition of thinkers' to develop and present the full picture of society and create remedies and resolutions. Like building an alliance of people like - you, Yanis Varoufakis, Dean Baker, Steve Keen, Peter Hotez, James Galbraith etc and many others known & unknown brilliant thinkers who remain obscured in our bankrupt and corrupted sociopolitical discourse.
I'd suggest that as we mature, our Ego becomes increasingly identified, sidelined, seen-through, and tamed to the point we can even participate in its permanent annihilation. Human nature is not set in stone, but is dynamic. If we imagine Self to be like a donut with Ego at its center, we can ponder that when Ego is annihilated, Self becomes a donut with a hole in the center.
All mainstream sciences and spiritualities agree Ego must be tamed, although each differs describing what remains after Ego is gone. What is agreed is that when Ego is gone, without effort, human thought, feeling, senses, and intuitions becomes Non-Egoic, often described as the flow of Tao in Taoism, realization of Atman in Hinduism, awakening of Anatman in Buddhism, revelation of YHWH in Judaism, and the incarnation of Christ in Christianity.
The muzzling, the corruption, of natural Non-Egoic discourse is the result of untamed Ego defending itself. A weakness of the European Enlightenment and our spiritualities arises from not recognizing the reality and truth of Non-Egoic experience where we permanently think, feel, sense, and intuit without Ego, which is to say individuals effortlessly participate in the Oneness of immutable, annihilating unknowable of unbeing, however we may encounter or know such imponderables.
There are several factors behind the muzzling of experts in our sociopolitical discourse. A big factor is really the basic human greed and thirst for control and maintenance of power structure.
We live in a Plutocratic institutional structures and the system is such that it tries to eject independent experts from public discourse who threaten the conventional wisdom and exposing the corrupted institutional structures. The gag order imposed by APA is mainly due to the hefty paychecks (federal perks, private grants, bonuses from Pharma lobby etc) of its top executives which will get threatened if they start enabling whistleblowers about utter lack of mental fitness of politicians.
Similarly, the media minimizes giving platform to independent experts and thinkers because they raise questions which can undermine the conventional wisdom and corruption of our institutions. Media enterprises are a tentacle of big business interests. They're not interested in objective analysis which may threaten their own interests.
My analysis here. Currently i am writing part 2 of subject.
Your essays are thoughtful and prompt me to make a few comments.
"A big factor is really the basic human greed and thirst for control and maintenance of power structure." (Sanjeev).
From where I sit, human greed and thirst for control are functions of Ego. When Ego is gone, we have everything in Oneness and no interest in control.
"The gag order imposed by APA is mainly due to the hefty paychecks (federal perks, private grants, bonuses from Pharma lobby..." (Sanjeev)
If Ego remains at the center, all it sees is itself, needing for itself. The APA is governed by Egoic minds.
"The interest of ruling class / Plutocracy are opposite to the interest of broader public most of the time." (Sanjeev)
You're describing the dichotomy between an Egoic view of life and life in Non-Egoic Oneness.
"There's also a fundamental flaw in US economic system and modern Neoliberal capitalism in general." (Sanjeev)
Yes. The US economic system is almost 100% Egoic, predatory.
"...a deserving book is also needed on 'Dangerous case of American ruling class" (Sanjeev)
Yes. I'd say we need a book on "Dangerous Case of Untamed Ego."
I don't mind chatting, Sanjeev, if Bandy doesn't mind. From where I sit, Egoic human nature is not set in stone. Similar to how we lose baby fat and baby teeth as we mature, we also lose Ego as we mature, but it has to be a conscious choice to do so by turning Ego upon the task of losing Ego. This isn't a popular idea, though, because unless tamed, Ego will do everything in its power to protect itself.
Ego is driven/inflated by certain explicit and implicit factors. Wealth is a strong driver of ego. Those who have the money, the billionaires, the super wealthy derive their ego from their accumulated wealth, special privileges (earned or otherwise) and powerful position. This is the primary toxicity of American ruling class - created by enormous wealth. Even earning wealth is not required to develop ego. The inter generation wealth transfer, inheritance and born into wealth is sufficient to create toxic ego.
There can be other reasons that drive and inflate ego. For some people, intellectual superiority, intelligence and hard work can inflate ego. For some people, a pathological cause can inflate ego (even without any wealth or intelligence) like common in narcissists.
What we face is not a crisis of ego but the enabling factors and environment. Like the broken economic system which generates mass inequality which itself generates and inflate ego of those who sit at top of social pyramid. You cannot tame or cure ego in itself. The solution is a building egalitarian society which creates a more equal society. The solution is dismantling the unfair plutocratic power structures of our institutions.
Think of Ego as a mental organ that develops as a young child grows and becomes able to identify itself as 100% distinct from everything about it--such as the child Sanjeev who becomes distinctly aware that he/she is Sanjeev. (I don't know your gender.)
In my own life, I recall the exact moment Ego activated within me. I was 7 years old about to go to bed and reached for my mother to hug her. My mother was a college student and was preoccupied with her book. I wanted a hug. As my arms went around her I knew I wouldn't get the hug and strangely began watching my hand touch her shoulder. Suddenly I was dismayed as I sensed I could no longer experience a hug because I was now watching myself. In that moment, I thought something had broken in me as I watched my hand. "This is my hand," I thought. "Why am I watching my hand when I should be hugging? Why aren't I simply hugging? Why am I watching?" It was as though I were disassociated from myself. That's the birth of Ego--when watching ourselves becomes more interesting than living itself.
For the next 40 years whenever I needed to do a hard task, I gathered my Ego to focus myself on doing a difficult task, such as learning a language, or moving a piano, or getting a college degree. I gathered all the energy in my body and focused it. Ego is what we use to focus all our energies to a single point. Ego is a tremendous powerhouse within us. The focusing power of Ego helps a child grow into a beautiful, unique individual because it focuses our attention on ourselves. Ego only sees itself.
The problem with Ego is it's unstable. Unless it's continually fed, it can explode with horrible power hurting everything around it for itself. So, as adults, we learn to identify, sideline, see-through, tame, and even participate in its permanent annihilation. Life without Ego is radically different than life with Ego. Without Ego, we're driven by Oneness and the wonderful Oneness of others, life, and earth. With Ego, we're driven by Ego's focus on itself.
Wealth is a strong driver of ego. (Sanjeev)
I'd say this is backwards. Wealth on its own is nothing. Ego's needs fuel a belief in needing wealth, which only exists when Ego focuses on the need for it. Without Ego, infinite wealth exists everywhere for everyone (Oneness), but it's a wealth Ego can't see.
"...the super wealthy derive their ego from their accumulated wealth, special privileges (earned or otherwise) and powerful position." (Sanjeev)
What you're describing here is untamed, unseen Ego, what you call toxic Ego. As humans, there's more to us than Ego. As we mature, we learn that Ego is a small part of us.
But some people are so immature all they know is their Egoic experiences. Trump is like this. When we focus solely on our own Egos, Ego grows like a cancer and metastasizes throughout Self. Bandy has wonderful psychiatric terms for this condition. Ego can become so unseen and untamed it becomes pathological. Unseen, untamed, pathological Ego can found at all socio-economic levels, but the super-wealthy are in the position of being able to hurt an exceptional number of people. They simply get more attention for a pathology that can be found everywhere.
Think of inflated Ego as an unbalanced Self. When Ego becomes cancerous and metastasizes, the remaining Self is starved of conscious attention and atrophies.
What we face is not a crisis of ego but the enabling factors and environment. (Sanjeev)
Remember the saying that we can't control the world around us, but we can control our reaction to it? As humans, we have the ability to chose our reactions. Immature people simply react. Mature people are mindful as they identify, sideline, see-through, tame, and even participate in the annihilation of Ego.
But this raises the question what is it in us that is able to separate ourselves from our own Ego? Is it just another form of Ego?
Another way to phrase this is if Ego makes us watch ourselves, what watches Ego? What is beneath Ego? To approach this, we refer to the spiritual disciplines. Each presents a unique view of how it works. What is the best discipline? That's up to each individual to find for their needs.
You are treating Ego as an independent concept. Human mind (that includes ego, id and super ego) is shaped by our environment, social structures and external relationships (family, friends, co-workers etc). These structures and relationships are very different for average person and a plutocrat (someone with enormous wealth).
You talk too much about ego but more relevant thing is super ego (& how it balances with id). How super-ego is shaped depends upon environment - something very different for plutocrats. Read the book - Theory of Leisure Class by T Veblen . The value system of plutocratic class is very different from average person because they grow up in very different environment.
Super-ego is shaped by parenting, education, care etc. For someone like Donald Trump. His father used to take him alongside for evicting tenants in NY. His father (a scoundrel rentier) taught him that he has to be the winner. Trump do not have a healthy super-ego or he has an extremely malformed one. (For a psychopath, they don't have tripatrite personality structure. Maybe Trump don't have a super-ego at all).
Dr. Lee, thanks for taking the lead on this VERY critical & serious issue. 45 is not only an aberration, he is, as you have so often said, not someone who should be anywhere close if the White House. His presence on the planet Earth is equally suspect.
This video is a great help explaining to others the task of our time.
No one I speak with is aware how mental health experts have been muzzled by the media, or have muzzled themselves, from warning the public about the dangers of Trump and Trumpism. Never have mental health experts been more needed and never has their silence been so unconscionable.
I remind myself that no matter whether Trumpism is contained or unleashed, we need genuine mental health experts articulating dangers and presenting strategies for containment and healing. I'm also reminded of the story of Arjuna in his chariot who can't bear the thought of fighting those whom he loves the most and knows the best. But, with help, he learns he must do his duty while at the same time remain indifferent to the result. This is how all of us with tasks keep balance no matter the circumstance.
Thank you, Dr. Lee, for the recording of your excellent overview of events leading to this historic juncture in time, and for your clear outline of the conference in September and of tasks to be done in the cause of mental health and political sanity. You and your colleagues continue to lead the way in mental health research and in the continuing development of a positive profile of power management, and the expert identification and containment of a negative profile of power abuse.
Dr Lee, a goal of thinker is to find generalities to analyse the whole - holistic thinking. You say that Mental health experts are silenced at critical juncture. But there's a generality - real thinkers and experts from all critical arenas are silenced in our sociopolitical discourse. The scientists, the economists, the engineers, the technocrats, the sociologists etc.
Perhaps the worst case of muzzling is of independent economists who have been warning since decades about the cataclysmic model of our economic system which is thoroughly corrupted, generates gargantuan inequality, destroys ecosystem and planet itself and concentrates power in hands of few. Plutocrats who then funds Donald Trump.
Then there is silencing of all kinds of scientists. You well know that Scientists have been warning about the risk of Nuclear weapons which we are building more & more. Even an accident in this area is sufficient to doom mankind. (Interestingly, Joe Biden has authorized Trillions $$$ program to modernize & build hundreds of more nukes in coming decade
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-u-s-s-plans-to-modernize-nuclear-weapons-are-dangerous-and-unnecessary/ )
The Climate scientists have been warning about the peril of global warming. But politicians and society don't care. Recall the Film 'Don't look up'. The research of scientists continue to pile in many scietific journals while our sociopolitical discourse is oblivious to the emergency.
Historians and sociologists are warning about parallels between Fascism of last century and Trumpism of today. But media continue to 'normalize' Donald Trump and present him as an eccentric politician to public.
Experts on healthcare know how the for-profit business model of Big Pharma & Private insurance is an inefficient and unfair system of healthcare delivery. There are so many things.
There's a pattern to this muzzling of independent experts, thinkers, philosophers etc. They are sidelined in our sociopolitical discourse everywhere. And various hacks and blob are made the temple guardians of conventional wisdom. All this represents broader failure of our political and economic system.
Edit - A very important thing for activist-thinkers is to start building 'coalition of thinkers' to develop and present the full picture of society and create remedies and resolutions. Like building an alliance of people like - you, Yanis Varoufakis, Dean Baker, Steve Keen, Peter Hotez, James Galbraith etc and many others known & unknown brilliant thinkers who remain obscured in our bankrupt and corrupted sociopolitical discourse.
I'd suggest that as we mature, our Ego becomes increasingly identified, sidelined, seen-through, and tamed to the point we can even participate in its permanent annihilation. Human nature is not set in stone, but is dynamic. If we imagine Self to be like a donut with Ego at its center, we can ponder that when Ego is annihilated, Self becomes a donut with a hole in the center.
All mainstream sciences and spiritualities agree Ego must be tamed, although each differs describing what remains after Ego is gone. What is agreed is that when Ego is gone, without effort, human thought, feeling, senses, and intuitions becomes Non-Egoic, often described as the flow of Tao in Taoism, realization of Atman in Hinduism, awakening of Anatman in Buddhism, revelation of YHWH in Judaism, and the incarnation of Christ in Christianity.
The muzzling, the corruption, of natural Non-Egoic discourse is the result of untamed Ego defending itself. A weakness of the European Enlightenment and our spiritualities arises from not recognizing the reality and truth of Non-Egoic experience where we permanently think, feel, sense, and intuit without Ego, which is to say individuals effortlessly participate in the Oneness of immutable, annihilating unknowable of unbeing, however we may encounter or know such imponderables.
There are several factors behind the muzzling of experts in our sociopolitical discourse. A big factor is really the basic human greed and thirst for control and maintenance of power structure.
We live in a Plutocratic institutional structures and the system is such that it tries to eject independent experts from public discourse who threaten the conventional wisdom and exposing the corrupted institutional structures. The gag order imposed by APA is mainly due to the hefty paychecks (federal perks, private grants, bonuses from Pharma lobby etc) of its top executives which will get threatened if they start enabling whistleblowers about utter lack of mental fitness of politicians.
Similarly, the media minimizes giving platform to independent experts and thinkers because they raise questions which can undermine the conventional wisdom and corruption of our institutions. Media enterprises are a tentacle of big business interests. They're not interested in objective analysis which may threaten their own interests.
My analysis here. Currently i am writing part 2 of subject.
https://takeindiaforward.blogspot.com/2024/08/why-trump-happens-part-1.html
Hi Sanjeev,
Your essays are thoughtful and prompt me to make a few comments.
"A big factor is really the basic human greed and thirst for control and maintenance of power structure." (Sanjeev).
From where I sit, human greed and thirst for control are functions of Ego. When Ego is gone, we have everything in Oneness and no interest in control.
"The gag order imposed by APA is mainly due to the hefty paychecks (federal perks, private grants, bonuses from Pharma lobby..." (Sanjeev)
If Ego remains at the center, all it sees is itself, needing for itself. The APA is governed by Egoic minds.
"The interest of ruling class / Plutocracy are opposite to the interest of broader public most of the time." (Sanjeev)
You're describing the dichotomy between an Egoic view of life and life in Non-Egoic Oneness.
"There's also a fundamental flaw in US economic system and modern Neoliberal capitalism in general." (Sanjeev)
Yes. The US economic system is almost 100% Egoic, predatory.
"...a deserving book is also needed on 'Dangerous case of American ruling class" (Sanjeev)
Yes. I'd say we need a book on "Dangerous Case of Untamed Ego."
I don't mind chatting, Sanjeev, if Bandy doesn't mind. From where I sit, Egoic human nature is not set in stone. Similar to how we lose baby fat and baby teeth as we mature, we also lose Ego as we mature, but it has to be a conscious choice to do so by turning Ego upon the task of losing Ego. This isn't a popular idea, though, because unless tamed, Ego will do everything in its power to protect itself.
What drives and inflates Ego?
Ego is driven/inflated by certain explicit and implicit factors. Wealth is a strong driver of ego. Those who have the money, the billionaires, the super wealthy derive their ego from their accumulated wealth, special privileges (earned or otherwise) and powerful position. This is the primary toxicity of American ruling class - created by enormous wealth. Even earning wealth is not required to develop ego. The inter generation wealth transfer, inheritance and born into wealth is sufficient to create toxic ego.
There can be other reasons that drive and inflate ego. For some people, intellectual superiority, intelligence and hard work can inflate ego. For some people, a pathological cause can inflate ego (even without any wealth or intelligence) like common in narcissists.
What we face is not a crisis of ego but the enabling factors and environment. Like the broken economic system which generates mass inequality which itself generates and inflate ego of those who sit at top of social pyramid. You cannot tame or cure ego in itself. The solution is a building egalitarian society which creates a more equal society. The solution is dismantling the unfair plutocratic power structures of our institutions.
What drives and inflates Ego? (Sanjeev)
Think of Ego as a mental organ that develops as a young child grows and becomes able to identify itself as 100% distinct from everything about it--such as the child Sanjeev who becomes distinctly aware that he/she is Sanjeev. (I don't know your gender.)
In my own life, I recall the exact moment Ego activated within me. I was 7 years old about to go to bed and reached for my mother to hug her. My mother was a college student and was preoccupied with her book. I wanted a hug. As my arms went around her I knew I wouldn't get the hug and strangely began watching my hand touch her shoulder. Suddenly I was dismayed as I sensed I could no longer experience a hug because I was now watching myself. In that moment, I thought something had broken in me as I watched my hand. "This is my hand," I thought. "Why am I watching my hand when I should be hugging? Why aren't I simply hugging? Why am I watching?" It was as though I were disassociated from myself. That's the birth of Ego--when watching ourselves becomes more interesting than living itself.
For the next 40 years whenever I needed to do a hard task, I gathered my Ego to focus myself on doing a difficult task, such as learning a language, or moving a piano, or getting a college degree. I gathered all the energy in my body and focused it. Ego is what we use to focus all our energies to a single point. Ego is a tremendous powerhouse within us. The focusing power of Ego helps a child grow into a beautiful, unique individual because it focuses our attention on ourselves. Ego only sees itself.
The problem with Ego is it's unstable. Unless it's continually fed, it can explode with horrible power hurting everything around it for itself. So, as adults, we learn to identify, sideline, see-through, tame, and even participate in its permanent annihilation. Life without Ego is radically different than life with Ego. Without Ego, we're driven by Oneness and the wonderful Oneness of others, life, and earth. With Ego, we're driven by Ego's focus on itself.
Wealth is a strong driver of ego. (Sanjeev)
I'd say this is backwards. Wealth on its own is nothing. Ego's needs fuel a belief in needing wealth, which only exists when Ego focuses on the need for it. Without Ego, infinite wealth exists everywhere for everyone (Oneness), but it's a wealth Ego can't see.
"...the super wealthy derive their ego from their accumulated wealth, special privileges (earned or otherwise) and powerful position." (Sanjeev)
What you're describing here is untamed, unseen Ego, what you call toxic Ego. As humans, there's more to us than Ego. As we mature, we learn that Ego is a small part of us.
But some people are so immature all they know is their Egoic experiences. Trump is like this. When we focus solely on our own Egos, Ego grows like a cancer and metastasizes throughout Self. Bandy has wonderful psychiatric terms for this condition. Ego can become so unseen and untamed it becomes pathological. Unseen, untamed, pathological Ego can found at all socio-economic levels, but the super-wealthy are in the position of being able to hurt an exceptional number of people. They simply get more attention for a pathology that can be found everywhere.
Think of inflated Ego as an unbalanced Self. When Ego becomes cancerous and metastasizes, the remaining Self is starved of conscious attention and atrophies.
What we face is not a crisis of ego but the enabling factors and environment. (Sanjeev)
Remember the saying that we can't control the world around us, but we can control our reaction to it? As humans, we have the ability to chose our reactions. Immature people simply react. Mature people are mindful as they identify, sideline, see-through, tame, and even participate in the annihilation of Ego.
But this raises the question what is it in us that is able to separate ourselves from our own Ego? Is it just another form of Ego?
Another way to phrase this is if Ego makes us watch ourselves, what watches Ego? What is beneath Ego? To approach this, we refer to the spiritual disciplines. Each presents a unique view of how it works. What is the best discipline? That's up to each individual to find for their needs.
You are treating Ego as an independent concept. Human mind (that includes ego, id and super ego) is shaped by our environment, social structures and external relationships (family, friends, co-workers etc). These structures and relationships are very different for average person and a plutocrat (someone with enormous wealth).
You talk too much about ego but more relevant thing is super ego (& how it balances with id). How super-ego is shaped depends upon environment - something very different for plutocrats. Read the book - Theory of Leisure Class by T Veblen . The value system of plutocratic class is very different from average person because they grow up in very different environment.
Super-ego is shaped by parenting, education, care etc. For someone like Donald Trump. His father used to take him alongside for evicting tenants in NY. His father (a scoundrel rentier) taught him that he has to be the winner. Trump do not have a healthy super-ego or he has an extremely malformed one. (For a psychopath, they don't have tripatrite personality structure. Maybe Trump don't have a super-ego at all).
Our understanding of things is very different.
Dr. Lee, thanks for taking the lead on this VERY critical & serious issue. 45 is not only an aberration, he is, as you have so often said, not someone who should be anywhere close if the White House. His presence on the planet Earth is equally suspect.