The Mass Psychology of Fascism

[Paul Mackin]

On May 16, 2006, at 9:22 AM, Ghetta Life wrote:

>
> 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.



These are two names out of the past. Don't hear much of them anymore  
but in the sixties they were very fashionable, especially Laing.  His  
view might have been roughly summarized as seeing psychosis as just  
an alternative view of things. He never actually said that the  
mentally ill were the truly sane ones,  I don't think. Put a lot of   
stress of the (bad) effect of the family on the patient. Family  
dynamics problem.

Ran across Laing's name in currently reading Alan Bennett's "Untold  
Stories." Bennett was  describing his mother's hospitalizations for  
depression back in the sixties.  (Bennett of "Fringe" and "The  
History Boys")

>
> 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 (-:
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http:// 
> search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/
>