Plenty of people who are not scientologists believe psychiatry and psychology are corruption incarnate. Sometimes I wonder whether scientology was invented by psychiatry to discredit those who point out its lack of efficacy, cruelty, and financial exploitation of vulnerable and naive people.

Only in that it’s critical of the field of psychology as it is on the ground? I’m not a Scientologist, and I don’t think the cans are a substitute for care.

The state I live in was under DOJ investigation for using the police/prisons as default responses to behavioral health care. Even the people I call to report my own experience of abuse or children I advocate for - they are all like, yeah, all of the facilities here are like this.

It’s not that psychology is fundamentally bad (although we need to excise Freud entirely) - it’s that in practice there’s very little accountability and a lot of abuse that is covered up due to differences in power. I was able to call and report the fact that I was physically assaulted - the man I saw drugged in a holding cell will probably never be able to express what happened to him a way that will ever be taken seriously or lead to meaningful action.

CBT is flat out ineffective for many people and conditions. It is a serious problem that the majority of practitioners are only taught CBT and will outright lie if you tell them you don’t want CBT.

I have trouble telling the part sometimes, to be honest. I guess scientologists tend to be better actors and worse scifi authors than psychiatrists, but how often does that come up when you’re meeting someone?