ON SHRINKS

Never talk to a shrink. It can wreck your life. These people have the power to slander you with a diagnostic label—something that can ruin your reputation, destroy people’s trust in you, limit your prospects, and even strip you of your rights and freedom.

Shrinks like to assure you their sessions are private and confidential. But that’s not entirely true. Every silly little thing you tell them, and every silly little thing they think about you will be written down at some point. There is no such thing as off record with these people. This paper trail will follow you around like a criminal record. There are many situations in life where you will be asked about your psychiatric “history”, and once to admit to having one your “confidentiality” becomes a meme. If you apply for a job in emergency services, aviation, intelligence, security, or military, admitting to a “mental health history” will effectively bar you from consideration and employment. They will ask to read your “confidential” records. You could choose not to hand over your records, but then you’re not getting the job.

Shrinks are the wrong people to confide in. You can never trust these wolves in sheep’s clothing because they operate on ulterior motives that are incompatible with helping you. These people view you like a maggot views a corpse. When you go into their office, you are on hostile ground. These people are not your buddies. Their sessions aren’t a friendly meet & greet or a fun exchange of personal trivia. A session with a shrink is a form of interrogation. They are conducting psychological reconnaissance on you. They are searching for weakness. Their tactical questioning is intended to extract incriminating information about you. They are trying to collect “evidence” of pathologies from your character. Everything you tell them will be interpreted through the warped prism of the DSM. Shrinks will use passive-aggressive manipulation tactics to conclude things about you based on implication and omission alone. Regardless of their worthless assurances, admissions of weakness, mistakes, and wrongdoing will be used against you. Too many “wrong” answers will be counted as “symptoms” until they collect enough to group into some “disorder”. These professional cherry-pickers can even pathologize perfectly normal behaviours and reactions with their repertoire of silly questions and diagnoses. The context and tone of a psychiatric record itself makes you look ridiculous and crazy the same way simply sitting next to a defence lawyer makes you look suspicious and guilty to a jury. Regardless of the truth, the impression alone will reflect negatively on you.

Shrinks do not listen to you. Though these chameleons can affect an impression of concern, compassion, agreement, and understanding, it’s all a practiced façade to keep the ball rolling. No one is home upstairs, just a DSM list being ticked or crossed until you are officially pathologized. You have little to gain from talking to a shrink and a lot to lose. The expert meme is just a form of seduction used to pry your trust making your more pliable and open to suggestion. But these people are not life experts, they are professional gas-lighters and expert pill pushers.

If you are ever assessed by a shrink, you MUST communicate normality. Shrinks will judge you on a first impression. Do not ever tell them more than they need to know. The less you say the better. Never explain yourself to them because they are committed to misunderstanding you with studied dishonesty. It is a mistake to appeal to their compassion; nothing you tell them will be charitably interpreted. Like vultures, these people feed off reactions. Do not fall for their emotional bait. Instead, expose gaps in their sophistry by asking for clarity and specificity whenever you are unsure of what exactly they are asking you. By asking questions you can assert some control over the narrative. Making someone explain themselves to you is a great way to subordinate them. Make up any bullshit stories as needed to make yourself appear normal and use such nonsense as red herrings to distract them. This will keep them talking until the clock runs out. Waste as much time as you can. If by the end of the session they got nothing on you, it means you’ve won.

OM