I have anecdotally experienced this, among other more measurable negative outcomes of therapy. My experience was in America, which as I understand has a similar

I have anecdotally experienced this, among other more measurable negative outcomes of therapy. My experience was in America, which as I understand has a similar psychology industry to most European countries, albeit the extra double dose of exceptionalism, rigidity, and economic depravity one would expect. Misdiagnosis was the worst part of my experience, but not the beginning or the end. Diagnoses are naturally a double edged sword and some therapists avoid them altogether, but it seems a clear mistake to focus on this conflict. Bureaucracy notwithstanding, a lot of the reason for diagnoses is that the suffering seek closure. I declare however that a lot of the reason for the mental health field is that the citizens of a suffering society seek closure. The therapist delivers that closure in the form of: “It’s you.” Whether this contributes something wholly productive to that person’s mental health is surely circumstantial. For me, it was a disaster. I’m not comfortable making similarly broad assertions about therapy itself, but in my experience, it was just me opening up to someone who didn’t open up to me. Having a 3rd party to resolve disputes is not any new invention so couple therapy and similar should probably be considered separately. As for individual therapy, I have been inable to map the process by which what we call therapy today evolved from what was psychoanalysis. My fear is that it was painfully basic and painfully stupid. Can someone fill me in? Some of my friends are in the mental health field and a couple of them are very open minded, willing to discuss these things. Our conversations led me to make a vow that I will never visit another mental health professional for as long as I live. Being no stranger to the history and other less contempory criticisms of psychology, the experience motivated me to learn more about the industry of psychology in America. I think the issues are strikingly congruent with contextual issues in the structures that empower it. In the US, this would be law enforcement, healthcare, academia, public education, the economy. In a sum, I concluded that capitalism is simply not as fit to address mental health problems as it is to create them.