The Mass Psychology of Fascism

[Ghetta Life]

Nice overview.  Thanks.

I'd never heard od Szaz, so I Googled over to his website.  He seems to have 
promoted a Libertarian slant on psychiatry, which is fine - but seems more 
civil rights than therapy.

Then I checked out Laing:  "Existential-Humanistic Psychiatry."  This is 
deeper stuff, it seems to me.  Not easily blurbed.

http://laingsociety.org/colloquia/psychotherapy/kjs1999sym.htm
Laing's Existential-Humanistic Practice: What Was He Actually Doing? 1

Ghetta

>From: mikebailey at speakeasy.net
>
>After the scholarly part of his career, where he made some peer-reviewed 
>contributions that are still respected, Reich morphed into a mad scientist, 
>who spun big theories and built a variant worldview from first principles.
>
>So in a way he grew from producing case histories and monographs to 
>producing literature, which is fun to read like stories about Vheissu or 
>Prester John, yielding interesting reflections...and he made some tentative 
>mappings on big blank areas that seem like they'd be interesting things for 
>people to investigate someday...some delectable reading! The guy at 
>orgonelab struck me as being pretty darn smart, he's dedicated his 
>professional life to following up some of Reich's leads, and he writes 
>quite well.  Not that I'm ready to quit my day job to sit at his feet or 
>anything...
>
>...but anyway, when Reich claimed a cancer cure he posed a threat to the 
>AMA monopoly/trade-union whose amazing political power then and now is not 
>to be underestimated. In M&D, cousin DePugh, after lessons from Mesmer, 
>contemplated moving out to the wilderness to practice medicine; whereupon 
>his relatives remind him that those already practicing might resent his 
>incursion, since monopoly, rather than competition, is favored by many 
>tradesmen...he begins thinking about acquiring firearms...but then is 
>reminded that a city like New York or Philadelphia might have room for 
>Mesmerists...so maybe Reich's mistake was in moving to Maine...
>
>(---Mises.org has some good stuff on the AMA - in a truly free market, 
>Reich's medical claims could sink or swim on their own merit; he must have 
>had some satisfied customers, even if simply due to the salutary effects of 
>"placebo with props."
>(like Crowley's "nothingness with twinkles - but o, such twinkles!")---)
>
>The power Reich claimed to influence the weather could pose a legitimate 
>security threat.  Another suppressed technology, radionics, made similar 
>dangerous claims about being able to train the devices onto a map and kill 
>pests, o-or even people.
>
>Reich was imprisoned for not showing up in court, even though his lawyer 
>was convinced he had a good case.  Ie, the gov't was not particularly harsh 
>or brutal, but was acting within custom to guard the populace and the 
>financial interests of the politically favored.  He had a chance to find a 
>compromise or even vindication within the law but opted to become a martyr. 
>The osteopaths persisted in court and won the right to exist after a legal 
>struggle, and more recently chiropractors and homeopaths have made some 
>strides - the US legal system is our friend!
>
>Reichian therapy seems more desirable than some - for instance, lobotomies, 
>which were still being performed in his time; ect; insulin shock; expensive 
>drugs with severe side effects and limited efficacy.
>
>That said, for psychology, I like Szasz and Laing better.  a-and that A.S. 
>Neill, who knew Reich, who appeared in "Mad Scientist" with Kevin Bacon --- 
>and Lloyd George knew my father (-:

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