Cat on the rat, rat on the rope...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition

On Killing Pain

  (Click to access)

My comment:

Cat on the rat, rat on the rope...

According to an article in the NYT, the PhRMA (The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing of America) states that there are 60 million citizens in the US being more or less dependent on drugs to alleviate mental disorders and they remain strongly committed to the development of new drugs. This is fully in line with another article, also in the NYT, “Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy” informing that many of the nation’s 48.000 psychiatrists no longer provide talk therapy; instead they prescribe medication after a  brief consultation and send the patients away to less costly therapists with unexplored and unresolved personal crisis/pain.

Robert Whitaker is in his book “Anatomy Of An Epidemic” giving a picture of how mental health care has developed over the last 50-60 years and turned into an established epidemic. From 1954, when Thorazine was introduced, it kicked off a psychopharmacological revolution and antidepressants, and antianxiety agents were discovered and represented another leap forward in the treatment of mental disorders. In 2007, the US spent 25.000 million USD on antidepressants and antipsychotics.

So when you in your Reflections are saying that there is no recognition of mental pain there are apparently 60 million patients more or less depending on mental painkillers, and a pharmaceutical industry which is laughing all the way to the bank - as long as their patens are in force. With a documented decline in the number of talk therapies and considering that painkilling drugs are just short term symptom blockers, the Primal Therapy ought to be in an exceptionally good position if managed with professional responsibility.

Because of that I was successful in following the primal principal, I have, sadly enough, through my blog over a period had some letters of concern. In a summary, they say: “Our years in Primal Therapy have been lost, those in charge have stolen our lives and money, which they have no right to. It was not what they promised.” These letters are an echo of your last sentence in your latest Reflection.

Even if I sense that heavy feelings are involved, there is a practical reality to take into account. Who is responsible for that assessment / evaluation?

Truth and democracy must constantly be conquered.

Jan Johnsson