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One of the things that most shocked me when I started skimming psychology papers (trying to understand the state of evidence and validated theories for psychotherapy and other psychosocial treatments) is how much of it revolves around attributing dysfunction to a person's beliefs. It feels a bit like virtue ethics dressed up in a lab coat.

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In a very real sense the ghost of Freud haunts us.

I'd even take it a step further and say that modern psychiatry and psychotherapy are generally just another arm of the state, directing people towards acceptable behaviors decided by white men. Much of it ultimately revolves around being a good little worker bee, and if they can't convince you to do that, they'll drug you until you're pliable.

I find your comparison a little too blunt, too rough and lacking in complexity, but ultimately the comparison of politic and psychology is a valuable one in literature. For example, Deleuze and Guattari's Thousand Plateaus explores this relation through a poetic, philosophical lens. As analytic philosopher and radical psychiatrist, these two synthesize a response to Freudian [more specifically, Lacanian] mode of thought. I assure you that this topic is old ground, and that this pair's writings on it paved the way for a larger positivist response to the problems discussed in this thread.

It's basically a purity cult

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