American Psy-Op

Modern psychology has traded the difficult process of spiritual self-discovery and soul-searching for the convenient antidotes of medicine and surgery.

“The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering,” wrote Carl Jung, one of the foundational figures of psychology.

The American Psychological Association (APA) recently elected a new president, Dr. Debra Kawahara. A quick look at her history of research in her biography might indicate the APA is doubling down on injecting the practice of psychology with preconceived notions of ideology. In theory, the hard sciences are sacrosanct, and a researcher is never supposed to actively infect their research with ideology. However, we live in a world where the current powers want to drag us further from truth towards isolation and decay.

The modern world is full of mental illness. Never before have we had more spirits crushed under the choking weight of runaway capitalism, abandonment of God’s law, and tyrannical liberal institutions. Suicide rates are climbing at a staggering rate, teenagers are being put on mind-altering medication every day, and people are genuinely confused about gender, something that should be so easy to understand.

So where are the great “experts,” the men and women of psychology, to answer the cry of help from a nation who has lost the will to live? They do not care. The study of psychology and practice of psychiatry is guilty of a mass dereliction of duty to an entire generation of people suffering from real spiritual problems that their minds alone cannot deal with.

Individuals with gender dysphoria, and so many others suffering from depression, anxiety, traumatic events, and other mental ailments need genuine help. The fundamental problem of modern psychology is that we currently treat mental illness as if it were some chronic disease, like a terminal illness, that needs a kind of medical or pharmacological intervention. This view allows for psychology to throw their collective hands up at issues like transgenderism, and simply give into the idea that merely thinking one to be a certain gender corresponds with its reality. Gender reassignment surgery is treated like it is equal to terminal care for a dead man. 

I want to qualify this all by saying I do not accuse all those who are in psychology of malpractice. There is a certain class of psychologists that have gained publicity during the debate of transgenderism. Matt Walsh’s “What is a Woman?” displayed these types for all to see: So-called “gender-affirming” therapists dosing children with castration drugs in the name of children’s “well-being.” They are a product of a psychological institution that tolerates liberal ideology in its research and in its real world practice. Take, for example, the APA’s designation of playing too many video games as a “disorder,” but its promotion of cutting off your genitals and calling yourself a woman is considered behavior of a well-adjusted human.

This cannot go on. The answer to these ailments does not lie in a pill, a surgical procedure, or even in some cases, extensive talk therapy. Psychology must enable people, equipped with the right tools, to delve deep into the darkest parts of their mind, and in their darkness, bring forth the light of truth and peace. To go in for help is to look for a guide to take you into your own mind, using your spirit to traverse the labyrinth of your unconscious mind. Only though that spirit, which God has granted you, can you find peace. This is why religion is essential to a full, peaceful, and well-lived human life.

When people are mentally ill, it is true when psychology tells us that there is usually a reason in the patient’s life why this is the case and that it is in the patient's power to right his mind by dissecting his problems. It seems modern psychology does not really believe this, however, as it has no interest in helping people with gender dysphoria. Psychologists wish to simply let them be delusional, and in the worst cases, indulge in their delusion and recommend surgery.

In areas like depression and anxiety, the outlook is better in that therapy is given to varying degrees of efficacy, but yet again, the overprescription of mind-altering drugs like SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, which we are not even certain of how they work) has put a generation of young people in an experiment, of which we do not know the long term consequences. There are even online clinics that quite literally give out these medications like candy, greatly reducing the effort required to drug yourself into a stupor.

It is anathema to most psychologists that we first try to give people a spiritual life before putting them on drugs. The fear of religion in the modern West as “archaic” and “superstitious” completely ignores the absolute necessity of a spiritual life for human flourishing. In the 1930s, the inspiration for Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was Jung’s recommendation to AA founder and client Rowland Hazard III to seek the Oxford group, a Christian fellowship organization, to deal with his alcoholism. Religion saved Hazard’s life from alcoholism and animated it with meaning. It is one of the largest tragedies that young people beset by hardship and mental toils first go to the clinic before they investigate their own souls.

Psychiatrists who engage in delusional ideas about gender are the worst offenders. They are guilty of having people mutilated and killed. Any practitioner of psychiatry that is actively deluding their patients into a lie should be stripped of their license to practice. Every possible therapy available that is able to be done free of drugs, surgery, or any life-altering decision should be considered, even if academia has deemed these methods “outdated.” The Jungian Model, for example, provides a unique perspective on the psyche that is injected with reverence for divineness in psychology. There are many therapies that even modern psychology has made that work without medication. These options should be explored before any talk of medication is explored.

Seek first the Kingdom of God, patients and practitioners, and then countless souls will be saved from oblivion. Only God can truly save an ailing mind. We need to reintroduce the truth and “humanity” into mental health resources and treatments. Psychiatric treatment is not a vending machine of pills and comforting statements, it is a daring leap into the darkest parts of a soul to mend its wounds. It deals with symbols, dreams, feelings and many other things that no empirical study or methodology can fully comprehend. The territory of psychology and psychiatry has an inherently spiritual element to it, as the study attempts to comprehend the phenomenon of the mind, attempting to trap ghosts and demons of thought that fade in and out of conscious awareness.

That kind of spiritual discovery, in their acceptance of the unknown and mystical elements of the mind, is what psychology needs right now. Freud and Jung are targets of criticism, and for good reasons in many ways (see Freud’s “Oedipus complex”), but their daring in trying to grapple with the unknown mystery of the unconscious mind in themselves and their patients is commendable. Jung went through a period of his life characterized by hallucinations and visions, and he wrote them all down, trying to make sense of his psychosis. He eventually made a full recovery. 

Modern psychology has traded the difficult process of spiritual self-discovery and soul-searching for the convenient antidotes of medicine and surgery. We live in a world that needs mental care. If we cannot change the world to be more humane, then we should at least not give up on genuine psychological care that is grounded in truth and soul discovery, not medication and temporary consultation. We must bring God back in aid of his children. Do not block Him out in favor of convenience. The spiritual realm extends far into the mind, and ignoring this is to man’s own peril. Psychology must re-examine itself in brutal honesty, bringing back restraint, morals, and proper therapies to the forefront. We need help, now more than ever.

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