You know, seeing how you and I meet so eye to eye on these matters makes me think how all correct we are on our perceptions. People usually dismiss psychiatric patient stories of abuse. They think is justified, or the patient just doesn't 'want to admit they have mental issues and is hating the psychiatrist for it.
So many people are correct, but if they weren't talked out of it by psychiatry out goes the profit. Psychiatry is designed to get into peoples' heads, both the patient and those around them. Any normal person who witnesses in depth the treatment of the mentally ill will say something has to change. But, its behind close doors with psychiatrists who know how to play with someones innocence. Nothing justifys injustice against the ill or those just having a rough life. In the end everyone suffers.
A small side note: The abused patients act out in our society or commit suicide causing more harm. Many no longer want to even approach a mental health clinic because abuse stories eventually leak out. Thus those who are in real need of it such as violent individuals never seek treatment when they otherwise might. The mentally ill are going into prisons since even the legal system has lost faith in psychiatry. Insurance companies no longer are as willing to pay psychiatric institutions since they have begun catching on they were being milked all along. Rather than doing the right thing and changing the quality of institutions and seriously helping those who need it, the profit has shifted to brainwashing the public their kids are all ill in some way with ADHD. Suddenly the latest trend is putting your child on mind altering drugs because a 'respected' individual with a degree in a psedo science said so.
Of course, similarly ignorant people also believe every "shrink" (psychologist or psychiatrist) is crazy. Most of the times, they're spot on.
90% of the times (I don't think I'm exagerating), a psychiatrist will be:
Bad medical student that found an outlet to be incompetent;
A sociopath/psychopath, who's in it for the sadism and power trip;
Someone troubled that got in the field due their own issues. Even the ones with good intentions, because of said issues, will eventually harm his patients;And those all the way at the top rig the system to get individuals into practice since its those types of character who can pull off the profit model while not giving a damn. An individual with morals would speak out. A good analogy is the recent VA hospital scam. Nurses are speaking out out of concern even though they might loose their job. To them, they would rather loose their job then be part of a crime. That is normal behavior, its only people like this who can take care of another human being. You cant have that in psychiatry. Hence why a psychopathic type of character is sought since they can commit any unethical act and not be phased to the point of trying to stop it. This is why the average mainstream psychiatric setting is ripe with the charters you speak of.
A puppet of big pharma: This, actually, is appliable to almost any medical specialization nowadays. And most of them are pushing not just meds, but "psychiatric" meds, since their use is so broad;
Pharma is the biggest influence and its been that way for over 50 years. Today they hold more power then ever. Every single bit of mental health has been touched by them, influenced to give them more profit. Medication management is saturated in the education of mental health professionals. An ever increasing number of studies are funded to justify the medication management. Everything else such alternative theories to the chemical imbalance model is not so important. And Im sure that theory does hold for some patients, but even those cases professionals can do things to help patients cope. CBT when done right is beneficial, and sensory modulation helps tremendously in inpatient settings since it teaches the individual constructed coping mechanisms. But those were skirted away from, especially in the past. Because, by having a patient stair at a white wall over teaching them how to manage a hard disease, they never get better. Symptoms increase which means more meds and being dependent on the system doing them a disservice.
He is a good doctor, good person, and healthy, however, he doesn't apply himself: He doesn't care about the more personable and circumstantial aspects of a patients illness/life. He just wants to go by the book - that is, look for obvious symptoms and prescribe a drug or therapy -, and push through psychiatry as if it were just a day job. He also doesn't keep up with research and doesn't believe any other information aside from what official pharmaceutical companies studies publish.Exactly!!!!!! The ultimate big pharma puppet.
Usually the same applies to psychotherapists, however, due to the less "physicial" these can have on their patients, you'll often find more actual scammers in this field. Most therapists are usually little sheetz who found an outlet to have a higher status than someone or make a living by doing nothing tangible. Honestly, what 99% of psychotherapists do that you can't do for yourself? Most people who are "in therapy" are there out of false hope or because people told them this kind of issues are to be dealt with a therapist. Honestly, psychotherapy is just snake oil in my opinion. Doesn't treat or cure anything. It promises to maybe do that or do this, but in the end, it's just someone charging a lot for NOTHING you can't get by yourself.Some do help, but others... well you put it well. Again
They should advertise it for what it really is: Renting someone to listen and sometimes pretend to be a friend. Don't like the term, but "prostitute of the mind" fits it well.
To the more active "psychotherapy approaches", you can advertise it as someone who will listen to some extent and profess an opinion at best, or someone who will force a philosophy/preach/demand actions at worst.

Im going to use that term from now on

Its a creative one
Most people who get "success" in psychotherapy are just suffering from placebo effect.
Arguably, it can be didatical. It can teach you something. But most of the times the psychotherapist will be such a miserably excuse for a succesful and/or mentally healthy person that it completely hinders anything good. And all the USEFUL stuff has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with psychology. Like CBT varieties, such as DBT: most of it has to do with well known physical approaches to "tame" emotions and shift focus. Breathing exercises and the whole mindfulness concepts are advices my grandmother (WHO WAS THE DAUGHTER OF A BRAZILIAN NATIVE AMERICAN WOMAN AND AN ILLITERATE SPANISH MAN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD) gave me!!
Argh. Psychotherapists disgust me on how they talk, talk and use such fancy terms to produce nothing of new of useful, but keep you there hoping and paying. Psychotherapy should be Conartistology.Some are more harm then good.
I
t amazes how slowly people are realizing psychotherapy is producing frustrations and placebos more often than anything tangible. And that people compare psychotherapy to a medication BAFFLES me. Depression or anxiety that requires medication has absolutely nothing to do with psychotherapy. Nor psychotherapy can guarantee to produce any improvements in your life.
If it does, it's because you "lucked out" and got a therapist who is a nice person and can relate to what you're going through, by either experience or studying anything aside from his psychology classes.
Psychology has so much crap based on nothing real, that a psychology student is more likely to unlearn how to guide people through life than the other way around.I have seen that. Its a twisted field, and again it goes back to big pharama and institutions who control it all for profit. And of course the independent shrink who see an easy way to profit giving false hope. A real psychotherapist empowers the patient, and when they cant help or dont know how to admit they politely cant rather than play ego.
This is a f*cked up world. Honestly, I don't know if I'm crazy or people who realize these things just aren't very vocal. If it was up to me, i'd ban psychotherapy from existance. And psychiatry, honestly, I don't know how to fix it.[/quote]
IMO I think psychotherapy is of tremendous help,
IF done right. Right and wrong are two separate worlds. While most can heal themselves some do need the extra support. And by no means should that support take advantage of them. Psychiatry needs an overhaul. It is IMO 2000 years behind the rest of medicine. It looks to be advancing, and in some ways it is, but the whole afr and lot is still smoke and mirrors. I really like what I read from a poster called "Kindnesstherapy". This person has the rights idea if not the ultimate idea. IMO his/her method will certainly scrub away the abuse mentally ill people endure in psychiatry. Abuse that makes them sicker further dependent on their abuser. Further dependent on a system that leads them no where.