I HATE psychologists!

A friend of mine fell into their (psychiatrists) hands a few decades ago. Almost destroyed his life, and I'm pretty sure he was staying inside both ends of the normal range. Some of them know some stuff, though.

If I hadn't gone to a psychologist, I'd probably be dead by now.

If my husband hadn't been to a psychiatrist, he definately would be dead.

I was badly damaged by one, but others helped me get through a couple of crises. Because of my initial experience, I only use them as sounding boards now. And only when I feel I cannot talk to friends about something. Thankfully, that has only happened twice in the last 30 years.

Homomorph, I'd be delighted to help you rant. I've had terrible experiences with both a psychologist and a psychiatrist. My parents sent me to the psychologist when I was still in junior high because I was being picked on at school and my grades had fallen. Before I saw him for the first time, he interviewed my sister supposedly to learn about my background. When my sister came out of his office, she looked furious. Years later I found out that the psychologist had contradicted just about everything she told him about me. She should have told our parents about the psychologist's unwillingness to listen to her.

There was not a single way in which he helped me in the four years that I saw him. He was also arrogant and was not above mocking his patients. Once, I was in a therapy group with other teenage boys and admitted that I had a problem with premarital sex because I had a strong sense of modesty and didn't like to use people. He ridiculed me so much that I got mad and stormed out of his office. He attempted to give my mother a guilt complex by blaming her for my problems (when, in fact, she had absolutely nothing to do with them). He even accused my dad and another middle-aged married man who was a fellow patient of his of having a homosexual attraction to each other. My mother laughed when she heard this. Absolutely ridiculous. My father was as straight as an arrow. At that point my parents stopped seeing him as patients of his. At the end of our last session during the summer of my graduation from high school, he insulted me (without any prompting from me) by saying that I had the emotional maturity of a 16-year-old.

Even before I started seeing him, I had developed an emotional problem (not scadalous, but of a private nature) when I was 13 years old. I had not told anyone about this problem, not even my parents. By the time I was a senior in high school, it had blossomed into chronic depression, replete with recurring dreams. The psychologist hadn't a clue what it was about.

About two years later after dropping out of college, I started seeing a psychiatrist, who also turned out to be useless. He had lousy advice. He recommended that I deal with my emotional problem by going to a house of prostitution! Fortunately, I didn't get sexually aroused there because I was repulsed by the thought of using a human being for an exclusively selfish purpose. Prostitution may be "the world's oldest profession," but to me it's quite grotesque. His approach of sending a sensitive guy to a "house of ill repute" had the potential of creating more problems.

To cut to the quick, several years ago I sent an e-mail to a friend of mine, who happened to be a sociology professor, describing what my emotional problem had been for all those years. Unlike the psychologist and the psychiatrist, he understood the nature of my problem. As he indicated in his response via e-mail, the "problem" that I had experienced as a boy was "normal dynamics." In other words, I had suffered a lot of anxiety and depression for nothing. He explained what my problem was in a single e-mail; whereas, the psychologist and the psychiatrist had no inkling at all what I was dealing with. I had seen them for years, but they didn't have a clue.

One of my daughters' former high-school math teachers also started teaching psychology one year. I was surprised to hear him criticize psychologists one day. He claimed that many psychologists already know what their patients need to be told about how they can deal with or overcome their problems, but they deliberately string their patients out so they can milk them for money. At least that's what he told me.

Here's a disclaimer: I realize there are competent psychologists and psychiatrists, but you really need to watch out for the others.

That being said for the sake of being "fair and balanced," as Fox News says ...
Brother/Sister Homomorph, I join you in your rant!

Hi, chai2. Long time, no see. Well, actually, you did "see" me in that bullying thread where I had just lost my temper again, this time with hawkeye10. But I did apologize to him later in a PM. (I seem to do a lot of apologizing around here. )

Anyway, I believe you when you say that the psychologist you went to and the psychiatrist your husband went to saved your lives, which means I hope you're not offended by my post. I just wasn't lucky like you and your husband were.

I forgot to mention that when my parents informed the psychologist of their decision to stop seeing him as patients of his, he actually threw a temper tantrum right there in his office and soon drove away in a rage!

I'm seeing a psychologist now who has opened up and enriched my life. She doesn't guide me. She sort of noodges from behind. I take the lead. Wonderful.

Psychobabblers only have power over those people who choose to consult them - or, as in the case of children, military personnel, or detainees, are forced to. The children - especially those forced to take psychiatric drugs even when aged a few months - are a horrible tragedy; but at least the detainees (and sometimes, also the soldiers) generally have other options. I have a friend who was involved in a single-car accident (he was driving very fast, drunk, crashed into a highway abutment but wasn't hurt) and was given by the judge the option of undergoing counseling in lieu of a few days in prison; my friend told the judge he'd rather go to prison. The judge - obviously a decent sort - tried to explain the disadvantages of having a prison sentence on one's record, but my friend was adamant. Finally the judge let him go with a warning.

Personally I've never, ever, come across anyone who feels he was genuinely helped by talking to a psychobabbler of any kind, but since I see a couple of people posting here who claim otherwise I'm curious to find out what their problems were or are, and in what way those "experts" solved them.

You could have saved yourself the trouble - that poster has been so widely exposed as an obnoxious fraud, e.g. only yesterday >
http://able2know.org/topic/144149-11#post-4354069 and
http://able2know.org/topic/138210-30#post-4354993
> that at this point the only ones willing to talk to him hang out on the "rape" thread which I can't bear to look up, sorry.

On your previous post though - how on earth did your parents manage to stick with visiting this obvious crackpot for so long?

Thanks for calling my attention to hawkeye10's failings. Still, I did lose my temper and stooped to name-calling. Besides, one has to keep a cool head in order to present his point of view effectively.

I'm afraid I don't have a very satisfactory answer to your question, as all this took place more than forty years ago. What gets me is that the psychologist actually had a good reputation, which I now believe was created artificially by him cultivating social contacts and establishing friendships with people in the local news media. My sister was a journalist during that time and made the observation that many of her fellow journalists were lazy in their work. In other words, they frequently would not take the time to fully investigate what they were reporting about by checking out more than one source of information. Hence, this psychologist became the single "authority" the local news media would and have continued to cite as a pyschologist. And he continues to be locally popular today. Why? I don't know. Perhaps he has helped other patients. All I know is that he definitely did not help me and hurt my mother deeply. Everything I've said about him in my posts of this topc is true.

Part of the problem I had when I was a teenager was that I was naive, ignorant, and trusting. I also had a passive personality at the time, which burns me. (I've mostly overcome that problem.) I assumed that just because he had the title "Doctor" before his name that his opinions carried as much weight as those of a medical doctor. But psychology seems to be far less based upon empirical results and more based upon opinion and theorizing.

As far as my parents figuring out that he was less than competent is concerned? I don't know why. Both of my parents were bright, intelligent people. So, I don't get it. My sister, though, says that he's a master manipulator.

Sorry, but I have to cite two more examples of how whacked off he really was. During my freshman year in high school during a "therapy" session, I said that I hated surfers. It was simply a statement that was not well thought out. After all, I was a typically inarticulate teenager. I actually didn't hate all surfers. One of my leading tormentors at school was a surfer; so, I made the dumb statement. As soon as I said, "I hate surfers," the pyschologist tore into me as if I were some kind of racist bigot. If I were a psychologist and a patient of mine who was a teenager said, "I hate surfers," I would ask him, "Why?" The psychologist didn't even do that. He seemed to make up his mind without listening to his patients much. At least that was the way he dealt with me.

During the Christmas break of my freshman year, my sister had dropped out of an out-of-state law school because she had become disillusioned and had returned home, as she was still living with us. To add to this low point in her life, after undergoing wisdom tooth surgery in town, she came down with an infection and became ill. Since I was enjoying the Christmas break, the psychologist accused me of chortling over my sister's misery because she had excelled academically and I hadn't done so. His claim was a total lie. I was never jealous of my sister. I've always been close to her, and I was not chortling over her temporary misery. The reason why I was happy during the Christmas break was that I was having a two-week respite from the bullying that I was being subjected to at school. And what gets me is that I was so stupid that I thought he knew something about me that I didn't know. What I should have done is tell our parents, "Dr. ------- is an idiot. You shouldn't take me to see him anymore."

What's sad is that mental illness is a reality. Sometimes people need the help of a professional. Again, I realize that there are some good psychologists and psychiatrists; but some psychologists and some psychiatrists don't know what they're talking about.

No one may believe this, but I no longer hold a grudge (as I did for decades) against this psychologist today. Several months ago I resolved that I was not going to continue to allow him to live rent-free in my mind anymore. Continuing to hold a grudge against him would only give him power over me. Besides, we all make mistakes (including yours truly); and perhaps over the last 40 years he's learned from his own mistakes. By making all these comments in this topic, I was only trying to commiserate with poor Homomorph. Besides, telling horror stories is fun!

hi wmwcjr

I was indeed "lucky" to have ended up with 2 good people.

I forgot, I have to add another pychiatrist to the pychologist I saw, because I needed meds. She was very helpful also, and I will always remember one eye opening sentence she said to me, that changed so much for me. Such a simple sentence it was too.

I don't deny that there are a lot of mental health people out there who are "crackpots" or just plain asses.
Just like a medical doctor, teacher, hair dresser, or any profession, there are skilled people, and one's that have no right to hold the job.

Me personally?

I always look at myself as part of the team, and need to do my part as well, which sometimes means looking elsewhere.

That's horrendous. I gained 100 pounds on some anti-psychotic for an undiagnosed, but "strongly suspected" condition, as well as coughing up a couple thousand dollars. I was in high school, so I had no choice either. Before that I was running a 5:15 mile. Ridiculous. Just another big pharma stunt probably (the entire "field").

You wouldn't happen to be a nondisclosing scientologist? If so then your built in bias would need be disclosed in order to add or detract from your rant.

Good grief. I'm truly sorry that happened to you. The psychiatrist I saw prescribed two drugs that were completely irrelevant to my emotional problem.

I've never been to a psychologist or a psychiatrist but I did have a brief encounter once.
I used to suffer from terrible headaches after I had been in a car accident. I went to doctors, masseuses, physio, dentist and a neurosurgeon. Nobody could help me.
It was suggested I go to a chiropractor. He cracked my neck and things went downhill from there. When I complained two weeks later of how my head seemed to hurt even more, he suggested that I was the cause, at fault, maybe it was stress.
I thought this was reasonable. I had just left my husband. I was in school full time, worked part- time and was now a single mother to two small kids. The quack suggested I see his partner, I can't remember which discipline this doctor was, one of the psychs...
I made an apt. He called me the next day. He said he always got a feel for new clients over the phone. He began to ask me questions...
Was I abused? No. Where my parents alcoholics/drug abusers. No. Did my ex beat me? Yes, once - that's why I left. Was I bullied in school. No.
Did I have a horrible childhood? No.
Well then, he said, I can't help you... huh?
5 questions...
I guess I wasn't complicated enough to help. C'est la vie.
I eventually found a great chiro who cracked my jaw. Yay! No more headaches.

I went to a good psychologist, who helped me to get
relief from an obsession with a girl named Joyce.

I enjoyed my sessions with him.
Thay felt pleasant. His ministrations soothed my mind.
It felt like I had gotten a brain massage.

I tend to LIKE psychologists.





David

Even liberal ones?

Yes; truth be told, I 've had good personal relations nazis, liberals, commies and also with decent people.
One of my girlfriends, Marilyn, who lived with me on 2 occasions for a few years, is a liberal.
2 commies of the 1930s are frequent dinner companions now.
As a libertarian, I respect everyone 's right to his own opinion.

My dead friend, Neil, was my tenant for several years
and I loved arguing freedom of abortion with him.
(He argued the Catholic position and I argued for freedom
of defense from an intrusive parasite.) We were good friends.





David

I QUESTION that u had "no choice" merely because u were in hi school.





David