Brock Chisholm's Psychiatry of Enduring Peace and Social Progress

 

These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:11)

 

America was founded on the idea that a responsible, God-fearing population possessed the morality for a people to live free from overbearing government. A constitution based on the principles of natural law, and the belief that when left to their own devices, men would make decisions that would contribute to not only their own prosperity but the nation’s as well, has guided our nation since its inception. America’s Christian beliefs and devotion to the ideals set forth in our founding documents, which many believe to be based on Biblical principles, have led to the greatest expansion of human freedom the world has ever seen. Freedom from a Biblical perspective means understanding that there is a universal purity, a code of morals that govern the human soul. A truth that, when pursued, leads to true love and compassion towards others while also allowing men to live in a state of genuineness. Striving to be better people as we try to tame our natural inclinations and fill our hearts, and enlighten our souls, with the word of God. Few could argue, as they wrestle with the question of how it happened, that America’s morality has slipped, and the concept of truth has been distorted and perverted to where its very existence has become nothing short of a scientific debate. Does a universal morality exist? How is true freedom defined? Being free to pursue truth or being free from so-called, self-described delusions of God and a higher purpose, of which some argue have served as mechanisms of control from generations past?

“Psychology has grown into the privileged but precarious position of defining with primary, if not exclusive authority, what the nature of man is.” (Bruner, Foreword in The new man in Soviet Psychology, 1952, p. xx)

Blaze Media recently ran a story highlighting a high school gym teacher being placed on administrative leave for refusing to acknowledge the school’s transgender policies. The teacher, Byron Cross, stated that he would not participate in lies that would defile the image of God in the minds of young, impressionable children. He was alluding to the undeniable truth that biologically, a boy cannot decide to be a girl and vice versa. This is a sickness that has infected the very soul of our nation. A direct result of disregarding the truth of God and allowing man to define our existence. America has been viewed as a Christian nation since our founding. How did something like transgenderism, the lie that children can choose their own gender identity, become so pervasive in our society? J.S. Bruner, in his foreword to The New Man in Soviet Psychology (1952, p. xx), writes that he who molds and defines the image of man does so with enormous consequences to the future of humanity, and this defining view can be an instrument of social control. American’s have allowed, through a slow and steady push of progressive ideology, social science to define our value. Psychology has replaced religion in almost all spheres of our lives, even in the very churches we attend.

“Fully persuaded that psychological training is necessary to counsel effectively, most pastors today refer their parishioners to psychologists and psychiatrists for treatment of serious emotional and behavioral disorders. Christian publishing houses pour out an endless stream of books written by psychologists to help believers solve their problems of living. These experts appear on Christian radio and television and produce film series to communicate their belief that pastors and churches can help parishioners with minor problems, but serious disorders must be entrusted to professional counselors.” (Bulkley, Learningtheology.com)

Pastors referring their parishioners to trained psychotherapists is antithetical to religion because, as I intend to show in this paper, the purpose of psychotherapy and psychology itself is to redefine man and his systems of morality. After World War Two, Canadian psychiatrist Brock Chisholm presented a paper to the World Health Organization entitled The Psychiatry of Enduring Peace and Social Progress: The Reestablishment of Peacetime Society. The purpose of this paper was to present psychiatry and psychology as a way of curbing man’s behavior in a time when the destruction of the world, made possible by the splitting of the atom, has become a feasible reality. Molding man to become a “global citizen” (Jui Wu, 2015) by curbing his anxieties caused by the inequality of capitalism, and the fears created by traditional belief systems was the goal. This is the point where psychology, opposed to religion, would shape and mold man’s nature and man would define his own existence. Chisholm, as many in the field of psychology do, viewed religious morality as the problem. It would be the responsibility, as Abe Fortas wrote in the foreword, of the church, school, home, and government to examine, understand and treat the ills which plague society and the individual, and it is the role of the psychiatrist to eradicate those causes.

Chisholm wrote the primary cause of man’s aggression, the reason we fight wars is what he refers to as “the lowest common denominator in all civilizations” (1946, p. 7), morality. The false belief that there is a universal right and wrong is the primary cause of all “fear, guilt and feelings of inferiority that cause people the need to control other’s behaviors and beliefs” (1946, p. 7). It is the conviction of truth as a universal concept that prevents maturity and rational thinking, and bowing down to the doctrine of sin and the existence of evil, which has prevented true progress (1946, p. 7). Religious belief is a dogma, writes Chisholm (1946, p. 8) which prevents men from reasoning and enjoying their inclination to follow their natural urges. Religion is viewed as something that restricts men’s ability to think freely while imposing limitations on where that thinking may lead. This is true, Christian morality would not encourage the type of free-thinking that leads to encouraging children to defy their given gender. Christian morality encourages the pursuit of truth. It is the difference in the way psychiatry and religion define truth that has led America astray. From the perspective of Chisholm and others in psychiatry, truth is defined in terms of Darwinist evolution, and because of that, it is the job of psychiatry to guide thinking and behavior away from the neurosis of religion and towards a more natural way of thinking. Darwin first posited the idea that man is nothing more than an evolved ape whose morality should be man-centered only up to a certain point (Rachels, 1990, p. 173). Because we evolved from animals, and not created by a divine being, it is logical, according to a concept known as moral individualism (Rachels, 1990, p. 173) to accept the notion that man has no greater value than any other animal. Moral individualism suggests that when judging whose life has more value, an animal, or a human, the characteristics of each should be the deciding factor. It was the introduction of Darwinism to the world which gave science the needed philosophy to redefine what it means to be human. If man is an evolved ape, and not the creation of an all-powerful god, the concept of right and wrong and good and evil is easily dispelled and cast aside.

The objective of all psychotherapy writes Chisholm (1946, p. 9), is the “re-interpretation and eventually, eradication of the concept of right and wrong which has been the basis of child training.” There is not a public school in America which does not have in its employ, counselors, and psychologists who monitor behavior and prescribe drugs to contain it. Chisholm suggested elementary education should be working along with those in psychiatry to do away with the prejudices of right and wrong and good and evil (1946, p. 9). It is the job of the psychiatrist to train psychotherapists and teachers into the ways of training children which will free them of such burdens (1946, p. 9). Psychology and sociology, and what Chisholm refers to as “the sciences of living” (1946, p. 9) should be dominant in elementary schooling while more advanced subjects should be saved for university studies.

With the other human sciences, psychiatry must now decide what is to be the immediate future of the human race. No one else can. This is the primary responsibility of psychiatry. (Chisholm, 1956, p. 11)

American’s continue to watch in astonishment as that which makes no sense challenges our basic sense of morality. We sit in frustration and helplessness as we watch our schools indoctrinate our children into transgenderism while also instilling in them a belief that our values are outdated, misguided, and not suitable for the world developing around them. We are blissfully unaware that even our most cherished institutions have allowed the poisoned view of psychology to replace religion. Unbeknownst to most, the system that is seemingly there to help exists solely to eradicate our beliefs of what is correct behavior, and replace them with evolutionary thinking to strip us of the morals which Chisholm holds, are the “lowest common denominator of all civilizations” (1946, p. 7) Values which the psychiatrist believes lead to the fears, prejudices, and feelings of inferiority responsible for man’s aggressive behavior and need to control others.

It is due time that those in the psychiatric profession take a hard look at their own behavior. Feeling the need to strip man of his religious belief is driven by only one thing. The fear of admitting that God exists in the first place. It could be theoretically argued that many of America’s problems didn’t come about until the Supreme Court ruled prayer in public school to be unconstitutional in 1962. The first amendment was radically interpreted to mean freedom from religion, opposed to freedom of religion. The concepts of right and wrong and universal truth have been gone for decades, and we are now weeping the whirlwind with generations of kids growing up to believe they can choose their own gender. As if that will lead to greater peace and prosperity.

Bruner, J. S. (1952) Foreword in The New Man in Soviet Psychology, p. xx. London. Oxford University Press.

Buckley, E. (2010) Is psychology needed in the church? Learntheology.com

Chisholm, G. B. (1946). THE PSYCHIATRY OF ENDURING PEACE AND SOCIAL PROGRESS (THE REËSTABLISHMENT OF PEACETIME SOCIETY)-The William Alanson White Memorial Lectures, Second Series. Psychiatry, 9(1), 1.

Rachels, J. Created from animals: The moral implications of Darwinism. (1990) Oxford, New York. Oxford University Press.

Supreme Court rules prayer unconstitutional 1962. Supreme Court Rules School Prayer Unconstitutional (historycentral.com)

Wu, H. Y.-J. (2015). World citizenship and the emergence of the social psychiatry project of the World Health Organization, 1948–c.1965. History of Psychiatry, 26(2), 166–181.

 

 

 

 

Same old rhetoric: Leftist’s admit they must discredit opponents to make message more effective

 The assumption that people cannot investigate for themselves, or make decisions that reflect their best interests, is prevalent among social scientists. Cass Sunstein’s book Nudge, for example, is based on the concept that people’s choices can be manipulated because they do not recognize what to do with conflicting information. Studies into mainstream media have suggested that individuals do not do the work necessary to retrieve pertinent memories when decision making (Shrum, 2002, p. 71), and they only rely on the most recently received stimuli when forming opinions or judgments. These are beliefs formed by the way social scientists regard humans in general. A bias driven by the idea that we are nothing more than stimulus-response organisms, and evolutionary instincts, opposed to free will, force our actions. Behavioral Psychologist B.F. Skinner (1971, p. 101), stated this viewpoint should guide any study of human behavior. The idea of free will allows for too much variance and prohibits any standardization of behavioral analysis. This view dominates science and is, at its core, is fundamentally flawed. People do think and investigate on their own, while also coming to sensible conclusions. Citizen inquiry into controversial Covid-19 data has shaken the scientific establishment to the point where they are freely admitting they must find new ways to present their message. Online studies into groups that question the mainstream narrative are showing they not only recognize how to do research but can use it to challenge the powers that be.

A recent paper entitled Viral Visualizations: How coronavirus skeptics use orthodox data practices to promote unorthodox science online highlights how effectively conservative groups questioning the Covid-19 narrative, follow and interpret the so-called science. Scholars from the prestigious MIT and Wellesley college discuss the methods in which “anti-maskers” could interpret the same data justifying the extreme measures combating the pandemic and productively make counter-arguments. While they take note detailing the competent methodologies in which these groups compiled and interpreted data, they also seem to harbor a resentment that anyone would challenge the scientific consensus. They take the view that science is settled, and we should just follow expert opinions.

For example, the writers acknowledge that anti-mask groups are “very prolific in their creation of counter-visualizations, but they leverage data and their visual representations to advocate for and enact policy changes on the city, county, and state levels” (Lee, Yang, Inchoco, Jones & Satayanarayan, 2021, p. 2). This quote suggests there is some concern that anti-mask groups are finding unsettling truths in the data which suggests lockdown policies, social distancing and mask-wearing are unnecessary. Anti-mask groups also tend to be “more sophisticated in their understanding of how scientific knowledge is socially constructed than their ideological adversaries, who espouse naive realism about the “objective” truth of public health data” (Lee et al. 2021, p. 2).

The writers view scientific inquiry as a means to an end, an unquestionable consensus that defines what we should believe. Anti-mask groups reject this and view the scientific method as “radically egalitarian and individualist” (Lee et al. 2021, p. 15). The writers criticize Covid-19 skeptics for their view that scientific rigor should “prize rationality and autonomy” (Lee et al. 2021, p. 15). In other words, people who can interpret their data and use it to challenge the status quo threaten them. The article points to issues like Covid-19 being labeled as the primary cause of death in many patients when in fact, it was revealed that comorbidities caused most fatalities. In September 2020, the CDC admitted that 94% of coronavirus deaths were the result of other underlying medical conditions. The writers refer to this as a sleight of hand used to manipulate anti-masker data interpretations. Another point of discontent made by anti-mask groups is the inaccuracy of the data. The PCR tests, for example, were running a high rate of false positives because they were running a cycle of 36. Shortly after President Biden was inaugurated, they dropped the cycle count to 28 to reflect a more accurate rate. An anti-mask investigative team in Texas discovered a backlog of unaudited cases which was contributing to the state’s high positive rate (Lee et al. 2021, p. 13). A similar thing happened in Oklahoma. Late last summer they started adding probable cases dating as far back as March 2020. They admitted this would inflate the case numbers. Shortly after this news was reported, case number skyrocketed.  The writers of this paper are not arguing these points are made up or based on misinformation. It shocks them to their core people can come to these conclusions and are rejecting the mainstream narrative.

How did they discover that anti-mask groups are so effective in compiling and interpreting their data? They infiltrated social media groups and ran studies so they could better learn to frame the message. They refer to this as Digital Ethnography (Lee et al. 2021, p. 4) and readily admit to lurking in online communities to document their attitudes and online activities.

“Using “lurking,” a mode of participating by observing specific to digital platforms, we propose “deep lurking” as a way of systematically documenting the cultural practices of online communities. Our methods here rely on robust methodological literature in digital ethnography, and we employ a case study approach to analyze these Facebook groups. To that end, we followed five Facebook groups (each with a wide range of followers, 10K-300K) over the first six months of the coronavirus pandemic, and we collected posts throughout the platform that included terms for “coronavirus” and “visualization” with Facebook’s Crowd Tangle tool. In our deep lurking, we archived web pages and took field notes on the following: posts (regardless of whether or not they included “coronavirus” and “data”), subsequent comments, Facebook Live streams, and photos of in-person events. We collected and analyzed posts from these groups from their earliest date to September 2020.” (Lee et al. 2021, p. 4)

Social scientists routinely infiltrate online groups to assess attitudes, opinions, and beliefs to gauge how effectively their message gains the desired compliance. For instance, the science journal JMIR Public Health and Surveillance conducted a study called Use of Health Belief Model–Based Deep Learning Classifiers for COVID-19 Social Media Content to Examine Public Perceptions of Physical Distancing: Model Development and Case Study. The aim of this study was to infiltrate social media communities and use the Health Belief Model as a framework from which they could evaluate attitudes towards social distancing interventions. The Health Belief Model is a model of behavioral change designed to examine people’s reactions to perceived health threats. By carefully analyzing social media interactions in response to information put out by health authorities, those framing the messages meant to influence behavior could change the message, as necessary. This study may not have contributed to the article being discussed; however, it does provide an example of how social media groups were infiltrated to acquire data.

There is a long-held belief that people cannot think for themselves and the scientific community is becoming frustrated that this is proving to be untrue. The question then becomes, how do you reframe the message so that anti-mask groups appear less credible? You do what leftists always do, accuse them of racism. Lee et al. (2021, p. 15) admit that convincing people to adopt the desired restrictive measures pertaining to Covid-19 will take more than accurate data. It will require “a sustained engagement with the social world of visualizations and the people who make or interpret them.” In other words, they need to make counter-arguments to steer people away from the anti-mask groups and the effective ways they are interpreting the data. They do this by equating those questioning the Covid narrative to anti-government groups and Christian fundamentalists who are “threatened by evolutionary biology” (Lee et al. 2021, p. 14). They even make the subtle suggestion that it is the questioning of mainstream science, and government institutions, which leads persuadable people to commit acts like the so-called insurrection at the capital this past January (Lee et al. 2021, p. 15). Finally, the writers readily admit that it would be necessary to appeal to the culture of wokeness to draw people away from anti-masker data interpretations.

Like data feminists, anti-mask groups similarly identify problems of political power within datasets that are released (or otherwise withheld) by the US government. Indeed, they contend that the way COVID data is currently being collected is non-neutral, and they seek liberation from what they see as an increasingly authoritarian state that weaponizes science to exacerbate persistent and asymmetric power relations. This paper shows that more critical approaches to visualization are necessary and that the frameworks used by these researchers (e.g., critical race theory, gender analysis, and social studies of science) are crucial to disentangling how anti-mask groups mobilize visualizations politically to achieve powerful and often horrifying ends. (Lee et al. 2021, p. 3)

American’s are waking up, and the establishment that believes people are nothing more than programmable automatons doesn’t know what to do about it. Aside from engaging in the same old rhetoric, they count on to discredit their opponents, they sit helplessly as people prove themselves to be capable of challenging the status quo, using their own systems against them. This is the type of citizen engagement that is necessary to retain liberty and hold government accountable. Unfortunately, leftist tactics of discrediting the opposition are effective at silencing many. While there are people effectively challenging the narrative, the masses remain naively compliant and seem unwilling to take a stand in their own interest. Anti-mask groups interpreting the data must at some point, realize what the left has; it will take more than skilled data interpretation to shine the light on the truth. It will take “a sustained engagement with the social world of visualizations and the people who make or interpret them” (Lee et al. 2021, p. 15). We must find ways to overcome the labels thrown on us by the left and engage with those sitting on the sidelines while also, bringing social credibility to our movement.

 

Bondy, D. (2020, September 1) CDC: 94% of Covid-19 Deaths Had Underlying Medical Conditions. MSN.com

Lee, C., Yang, T., Inchoco, D.G., Jones, M. G. & Satyanarayan, A. (2021) Viral Visualizations: How Coronavirus skeptics use orthodox data practices to promote unorthodox science online. CHI’21: Proceedings on the 2021 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Lenthang, M. (2020, August 30) Experts: US Covid-19 Positivity Rate Due to ‘Too Sensitive’ Tests. Daily Mail

Mills, R. (2020, September 4) How, When and Why Oklahoma Will Begin Adding Probable Covid-19 to its Daily Reporting. KRMG.com

Raamkumar, A., Tan, G, S. & Wee, L, H. (2020) Use of the Health Belief Model-based deep learning classifiers for Covid-19 social media content to examine public perceptions of physical distancing: Model development and case study. JMIR Public health and surveillance. 6(3)

Shrum, L.J. Media consumption and perceptions of social reality: effects and underlying processes. From Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (2002) Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, New Jersey. Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, Second Edition (ethernet.edu.et) 

Skinner, B. F. Beyond Freedom and Dignity. (1971) Pelican Books, Middlesex England. BF-Skinner-Beyond-Freedom-&-Dignity-1971.pdf (selfdefinition.org)

Sunstein, R., C. & Thaler, H., R. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness. (2008) Caravan Books, Yale University Press. Richard_H._Thaler_Cass_R._Sunstein_Nudge_Improv. (14).pdf