For purposes of our study, this can be the most important section, demonstrating what the fruits of the psych field are and will be. Some of the fruits of the philosophy behind the psych fields are harmful to individuals undergoing the counseling, while the entire civilization is harmed by the psych fields in general. These are the fruits of this world view which is based on such an anti-God philosophy. I will begin this section with harm caused to individuals.
The Bobgans quote Dr. Jeffrey Masson, former Projects Director of the Sigmund Freud Archives, as saying, “Everybody should know, then, that to step into the office of a psychotherapist, regardless of the latter’s persuasion, is to enter a world where great harm is possible.” Knowing this, why would anyone, let alone a Christian, put himself at the mercy of a psychotherapist?
Torrey cites a review of 12 studies which says that psychotherapy is harmful in one out of 20 people, and that some types of “therapy” have even higher harm rates. He says that, “Even individuals who do not have a brain disease may become agitated, anxious, and severely depressed by psychotherapy.” Torrey also points out that there are “other adverse effects of psychotherapy, which occur more commonly with insight-oriented therapies as found in the United States. One is a syndrome described. . . as the ‘utilization of a psychotherapeutic experience to rationalize feelings of smugness, superiority over others, or utilizing “insights” to aggressively comment on other people’s behavior.’” He says that a “variant of this is the fully ‘analyzed’ client or therapist whose insight becomes a rationalization for self-serving behavior.”
The Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change says, “. . . research suggests that some patients are worse as a result of psychotherapy. . . . Many more recent studies continue to document rates of deterioration in patients, even in those who participate in carefully controlled research protocols. . . . After reviewing the empirical literature and the critiques of the evidence accumulated, it is our view that psychotherapy can and does harm a portion of those it is intended to help.”
Hunt tells us of a disturbing case: “Indeed, in the famous Cambridge-Sommerville Youth Study, involving 650 underprivileged boys six to ten years of age (divided equally into two groups), follow-up 30 years later revealed that those who received therapy had more problems with ‘alcoholism, mental illness, job dissatisfaction and stress-related diseases’ and committed significantly more serious crimes than those who were not given the ‘benefit’ of psychological counseling. Any scientific evidence we have been able to compile proves that psychotherapy is at best ineffective and is even harmful in many cases.”
Hunt also cites the following from Bruce Wiseman’s Psychiatry, The Ultimate Betrayal: “For eons some children, like adults, have always been more active than others. Perhaps they play harder or wander mentally because of a short attention span. . .[and] parents simply dealt with this as a fact of life. . . . And the wise parent saw that children, like adults, learn to change their behavior for the better. . . . However, psychiatry has deemed there is something wrong. . . . The child and parents thought he was normal when they walked into the psychiatrist’s office. They think he is abnormal when they walk out. . . . As a normal child he would have been tolerated, endured, disciplined. . . whatever parents have done for thousands of years. And in all likelihood, he would have grown out of it with little significance made of the situation. As an abnormal child, however, he would have been treated much differently by his parents, his teachers, and possibly his classmates. He would have been ‘special’. . . on years of medication. . . . He himself would, of course, think he had something inherently wrong with him. . . . Most likely this sense of ‘abnormality’ would be with him the rest of his life.” (This is certainly what we see with the government schools diagnosing so many as ADD/ADHD and medicating them for their school career.)
Torrey tells us that studies have shown “that counseling and psychotherapy given to young juvenile delinquents do not decrease later criminal behavior. On the contrary, insofar as it has any effect at all, it appears to increase later criminal behavior.” This is certainly harmful to these individuals, and to their victims.
From this point we will be looking at the overall harm to society in general that has come by way of the psych fields. Although the problem is world-wide, it is more prevalent in the United States due to the full embracing of the psych fields in this country for the past century. Carl Rogers stated that, “Yes, it is true, psychotherapy is subversive. . . . Therapy, theories and techniques promote a new model of man contrary to that which has been traditionally acceptable.” This philosophy of being subversive to the point of promoting that which has never been traditionally acceptable is indeed bringing ruin to our society.
As previously noted, the overarching philosophy of the psych fields is that the self is most important, that we as individuals should be determining values without resorting to an outside source for guidance, and that our happiness is supreme over everything. This causes major problems since, as Paul Vitz reminds us, “individual relativism leads to social anarchy and. . . it flies in the face of simple common sense.”
Torrey tells us, “The core of Freud’s theory and therapy are both fundamentally narcissistic in assuming that one’s happiness is the greatest good. . . . Indeed, the focus of virtually all psychotherapy systems, many of which come and go in America like cerebral fall fashions, is not some higher ideal, not one’s fellow man, but merely oneself.” But has this self-focus been good at all? Absolutely not! Hunt tells us that, “Numerous studies by secular psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that the higher one’s self-esteem, the more likely one is to be immoral, violent, and prone to trample on the rights of others.”
Even Maslow recognized a major problem with his self-esteem theory. The Bobgans cite his book Motivation and Personality where Maslow says, “The high scorers in my test of dominance-feeling or self-esteem were more apt to come late to appointments with the experimenter, to be less respectful, more casual, more forward, more condescending, less tense, anxious, and worried, more apt to accept an offered cigarette, much more apt to make themselves comfortable without bidding or invitation. In still another research, their sexual reactions were found to be even more sharply different. The stronger [high self-esteem] woman is much more apt to be pagan, permissive, and accepting in all sexual realms. She is less apt to be a virgin, more apt to have masturbated, more apt to have had sexual relations with more than one man, much more apt to have tried such experiments as homosexuality [and other itemized behaviors]. In other words, here too she is apt to be more forward, less inhibited, tougher, harder, stronger.”
Vitz also has some good insights. He states that, “The growth of self-expression in our classrooms in the last two decades has not served to bring a glorious increase in student happiness and mental health. If anything, the great rise in student violence and the continued decline in student test scores are evidence that the opposite has occurred. In short, the assumption about the complete natural goodness of the self, which stands at the heart of the values clarification theory, is false.” Vitz avers that ". . . .modern psychology has created widespread 'social pollution' by its analytical (and also reductionist) emphasis on the isolated individual and its relentless hostility to social bonds as expressed in tradition, community structures, and the family."
As an example of the problems originating in this idolatry of the self, Vitz states, “The increase in the rates of divorce owes much to the values advanced by self-theory, at least if the comments of former partners can be taken at face value.” He also points out that, “Many self-theorists, especially Carl Rogers, give very little value to marriage - and indeed encourage divorce on theoretical grounds. . . . Rogers states that ‘a relationship between a man and a woman is significant, and worth trying to preserve, only when it is an enhancing, growing experience for each person.’”
Are there other teachings in the psych fields that aid in this breakdown of marriage and family? Most certainly. As previously noted, Freud, as well as many of his followers, were very misogynistic. This makes the theory inherently so, as well as being very patronizing of women. Karl Menniger, for example, claimed that mothers were the cause of just about every problem with individuals or civilizations! Torrey says that, “This theory has led logically to an epidemic of mother-blaming and women-bashing among mental health professionals. For example, a study of 125 articles in professional journals published between 1970 and 1982 reported that ‘mothers were held responsible for 72 different kinds of psychological disorders in their children . . . not a single mother was ever described as emotionally healthy, although some fathers were, and no mother-child relationship was said to be healthy.’ A social worker recalled that during her training, ‘We took it for granted that mothers caused much pathology. . . . If a patient is in trouble, the underlying assumption is that the mother must have done something wrong. . . . If [the problem] is not viral or bacterial, it must be maternal.’ The concept of pathogenic mothering has come to permeate almost all forms of psychotherapy and is used to explain most individual and family pathology. . . . …according to Freudian theory, women rather than men are said to be responsible for many of the world’s problems.”
With this view of women, is it any wonder that sexual relationships are not respectful of women; that sexual “freedom” becomes the norm so that women are nothing more than objects of satisfaction for men? If one denigrates marriage by idolatry of self, and believes that women are the cause of all the problems in the world, why not just use them for gratification of sexual desires by men? Just what other ideas in the realm of sexuality do we have projected by the psych fields; what philosophies are prevalent today that have led to such abuse of sexuality? Let’s look at some of these ideas.
Torrey cites Paul Goodman, a Freudian, as saying that “the repression of infantile and adolescent sexuality is the direct cause of submissiveness of the people to present rule of whatever kind.” So apparently even children should be sexually active to avoid such a “neurosis.” It is quite apparent to anyone reading the daily newspaper just where this has headed, with public school sex education becoming more of “how to” rather than limiting the instruction to biological information, while they hand out condoms to students, advocate homosexuality as an alternative, aid students in getting abortions, and leave the whole subject of morality up to the students themselves.
The sexual revolution which has led to all sorts of sexual immorality is indeed rooted in the psych fields. As a result of a vote, rather than any scientific or medical evidence, the American Psychiatric Association and American Psychological Association both removed homosexuality from their list of mental illnesses in 1973, which led to more and more societal acceptance to the point where it is propagated as a normal lifestyle in all arenas of public life. This is also what led to the acceptance of homosexuals adopting and “civil unions.” The decision to remove homosexuality from being a mental illness was done under pressure from homosexual lobbyists. In 1998 the American Psychiatric Association stated that therapy aimed at changing homosexuals should be rejected. In the summer of 2004 the American Psychological Association even came out with resolutions supporting homosexuals adopting and homosexuals “marrying.”
To demonstrate just how far the psych fields have gone in advancing sexual immorality, it was only a couple of years ago that at their conference in San Francisco members of these associations suggested that adult-child sex was not harmful.
Torrey tells us that “A second major liability of Freud’s theory has been its promotion of irresponsibility. This evolved logically from the belief that individuals are governed by powerful unconscious forces, arising from early childhood experiences, which thereby usurp their freedom of action. . . . It is the areas of child rearing and criminal behavior in which Freudian theory has had the most profound effect and in which traditional concepts of responsibility have been challenged. In the Freudian scheme, men and women are seen increasingly as puppets of their psyches governed primarily by the edicts of their egos. The corollary of ‘don’t blame me’ is ‘blame my parents,’ expressed clearly from the earliest days of the Freudian movement. . . . In the Freudian schema, mother, father, family, social circumstances, and culture become the causal agents for whatever is wrong. The ripple of personal irresponsibility spreads slowly outward to cover ever greater areas until the very terms ‘good’ and ‘bad’ seem to no longer have meaning.”
Most of today’s leaders in just about every part of society were products of child-rearing practices of the 1950s and 1960s, which were based on Freudian concepts that were promoted primarily by Dr. Benjamin Spock. These teachings can be directly linked to the permissiveness that became so prevalent from the 1960s on. Torrey cites Dr. Louise B. Ames, Co-director of the Gesell Institute of Child Development as saying, “Most of the damage we have seen in child rearing is the fault of the Freudian and neo-Freudians who have dominated the field. They have frightened parents and kept the truth from them. In child care I would say that Freudianism has been the psychological crime of the century.” Torrey also cites Norman Vincent Peale as characterizing Spock’s teaching as “Feed ‘em whatever they want, don’t let them cry, instant gratification of needs. And now Spock is out in the mobs leading the permissive babies raised on his undisciplined teaching.” Peale is also cited by Torrey as saying that his was “the most undisciplined age in history.” Interestingly, Spock is also cited as saying that parental problems with child rearing “occur mainly in families with college background or with a definite interest in child psychology.”
Dave Hunt makes the clear nexus between these child-rearing practices and irresponsibility in our young people. He says, “The explosion of youth’s rebellion, crime, and immorality has coincided with the exponential growth of psychology since the early 1950s. There was a 43-percent increase in the number of Americans in the 10-19 age bracket who were committed to psychiatric hospitals from 1980 to 1987, while the number of private psychiatric beds per 100,000 persons more than doubled in the five years from 1983 to 1988. What a growth industry! Psychology has been rightly called the only profession that ‘creates the diseases which it claims to cure.’” Hunt continues by pointing out, “What was once disciplined as laziness, disinterest, stubbornness, or rebellion is now excused as a mental ‘disorder.’ The number of children diagnosed as having ‘learning disabilities’ nearly tripled from 1977 to 1992!”
As I have demonstrated previously, it was the Freudian theory and its follow-ons which taught the idea that no one is really responsible for their actions, because they only behave the way they do due to some problem that took place during their childhood. “Mental illnesses” have multiplied exponentially over the years to the point that just about everyone in society has some sort of neurosis! This has led to pleas of “not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect” by many criminal lawyers. A U.S. Court of Appeals decision has even stated that a person “could be ruled not guilty of a crime by reason of irresistible impulse.” Personal responsibility is absolved! Again, daily references to the newspapers will show how many criminals are judged innocent because of various “mental diseases,” and how many lawsuits are won against corporations because the judicial system, following the psych fields’ teachings, refuse to assign personal responsibility to the so-called “victims” who smoke, over-eat, misuse products, etc.
One result of the psych field is our tradition of age-segregated public school systems. The following lengthy citation demonstrates the connection between the psych field and the belief in evolution which it propagates:
“While a public fight was going on over what would be taught in the public school science curriculum, evolution was being applied to the schools in a more subtle manner. In the late 1800s, Granville Stanley Hall was a prominent educator at Johns Hopkins University. He believed in evolution and was a leader in the developing field of psychology. In 1904, he published a book on adolescence, advocating a new theory of child development based on evolutionary recapitulation . This theory was soon to be applied to classrooms across America.
“Hall’s recapitulation belief was that child development reflected evolutionary ancestry; certain ages, he argued, represented stages of evolutionary development. Infancy and early childhood corresponded to early “pre-civilized” mankind just grown out of its animal stage. Ages 6–7 were “crisis” years, where children could enter school and leave the “pre-civilized” state behind. Ages 8–12 corresponded to “the world of early pigmies.” Ages 13–18 were what he declared to be the stage of adolescence. This period, Hall claimed, was critical, as the child entered a “stormy” ancient civilization stage, and finally grew into full civilization.
“Hall’s book was a major influence on the public schools as age segregation became more emphasized. Before Hall, the “stormy” period of adolescence was virtually unknown. John Quincy Adams, later to become US president, received a diplomatic appointment overseas for the federal government when he was only fourteen years old. For those who acquired a college education in the 1700s, thirteen-year-old freshmen were not uncommon. But Hall made little allowance for the fact that children mature differently. Now all six-year-olds, seven-year-olds and eight-year-olds get their own classes, learn to stick with their age group peers, and it is regarded as odd—if not suspicious—if a ten-year-old associates with a fifteen-year-old. Today it is often a terrible thing for a child to be ahead of his peers—public school children must fit into Hall’s evolutionary mold. (Perhaps this is why we don’t see children like John Quincy Adams any more.)
“Hall’s theory was widely accepted because it was in full character with the mood of academia at the start of the twentieth century. Freud’s humanistic psychology was growing in acceptance, and Hall was a leader in psychology. The theory of embryonic recapitulation was also popular, and Hall merely extended this belief (namely, that human embryos recapitulate—or retrace—their evolutionary history) to children after they were born. Thus, the days of the one-room schoolhouse were numbered, and age segregation became more and more emphasized. Age segregation, it should be noted, is certainly foreign to “real life,” where one must interact with people of all ages. (Incidentally, even Benjamin Rush, one of the “fathers” of American public schools, stated that public schools should imitate conditions of a “private family.”) So when creationists began fighting in the 1920s to keep evolution teaching itself out of the schools, the subtle application of evolution in the schools was already being made.”
Some other fruits of the psych fields are eugenics and racism. Psych was part and parcel of the eugenics movement of the 1920s and 1930s in America. Torrey tells us that, “As late as 1942 Foster Kennedy, a professor of neurology at Cornell University, writing in the American Journal of Psychiatry, urged a program of euthanasia ‘for those hopeless ones who should never have been born - Nature’s mistakes. . . . It is a merciful and kindly thing to relieve that defective - often tortured and convulsed, grotesque and absurd, useless and foolish, and entirely undesirable - of the agony of living.’” As for racism, this thinking is essentially based on evolutionism, that different races are on different levels of evolution. The Psychological Review of January 1930, for example, had an article discussing the superior intellect of the Nordic race. Of course eugenics and racism are bound up with one another; part of the reason for eugenics was for the destruction of so-called lesser races.
The problem of “repressed memories” leading to many false accusations among thousands of Americans also has it’s origin in Freud. Freud wrote, “We must not believe what they [patients] say [when they deny having memories], we must always assume, and tell them, too, that they have kept something back. . . . We must insist on this, we must repeat the pressure and represent ourselves as infallible, till at last we are really told something. . . the pressure technique, in fact, never fails.”
A particular fruit offensive to the Christian faith is in the area of spirituality. Aside from the fact that psych is seen as another religion and is antagonistic to God in general, Hunt’s book has an entire chapter discussing the occult connections with the psych field. The issue of multiple personalities has been raised into the claim that we all have them and that we need to get in touch with them. The connections to the mind sciences is established, the use of hypnosis in treatments opening up the client to the occult, the affiliation with shamans among members of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and the connections between the psych field and the search for extra-terrestrials. In this same area of thought, the Bobgans cite Dr. Maureen O’Hara as saying, “It is significant to remember that the present New Age movement has its origins in the counterculture of the sixties and early seventies. Early inspiration came from the writings of Abraham Maslow, Eric Fromm, Rollo May, Carl Rogers, and others.”
Some last thoughts to give cause for concern about where the fruits of psych are heading will close this section. Torrey has demonstrated that the Freudian theory has influenced the majority of the liberal intellectual elite, and that the Democratic party as a whole has succumbed to this philosophy. He also cites Dr. G. Brock Chisholm, at the time president of the World Federation for Mental Health, as saying, “if the race is to be freed from its crippling burden of good and evil, it must be the psychiatrists who take the original responsibility.” And Hunt cites leading psychologists as suggesting that “parents be licensed to have children only upon demonstrating a sound understanding . . . of truth dispensed by psychologists.”
Will you be licensed?
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