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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971
1970-07-24 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 3
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[background is a woman sitting on a stool with her hands over her face] Don't Go Did Go When my mother discovered that I was a lesbian, she sent me off to a psychiatrist to make it go away. The stated purpose of that year was to get me to fit into society. Now, you may ask, "What's so wrong with that?" ...But the whole argument that I should be fit into society assumes that it is me that has the problem and not society. How sane is a society which keeps millions of people starving, homeless, and out of work? Well, it took a long time to realize that such a country, and not its people, is very maladjusted. Unfortunately, I didn't know this then. I swallowed the psychiatry line, hook and sinker. I felt that I was the sick one and it was the worst kind of sick because it was inside my head and I could never get away from it. I would be just crying inside and everyone around me would be doing what they usually do and even smiling sometimes. I couldn't stand it! I wanted to scream at them for not being aware of how absurd their happiness was next to my pain. I would go up to my friends room and sit there wanting to put my head in their lap--to be comforted and free from it for just one minute. But, of course I couldn't. I couldn't admit that I was sick, that I was going to a psychiatrist, that I needed help, that I wasn't normal. All year I worked to improve my concept of men. I went out with guys and tried to have a good time, but they were so boring. I was even considering marrying one to complete my "heterosexual adjustment". Thank goodness I did not because I was thinking of it just so I could once and for all be done with this problem. One of the reasons that the year was so painful was that although my mind had been co-opted into desiring to become heterosexual, my feelings were elsewhere. In May I fell in love with a bass player who lived in the dorm with me. She and I were worried about what the shrink would say when I confessed, but he surprised us by declaring that it was all right to have interspersed homosexual relationships just so long as I continued along the Hetersexual Way. Anyway, the time finally came when he felt I was well on my way to being normal; he patted me on the head and sent me into the world. That was that. Once I got out, I realized how ridiculous it had been trying to be straight in a crooked world. Did Go Psychologists and psychiatrists used to speak truths to me. Now I hear their rigid, socially-condoned ideology that is based on and reinforces present inhumane attitudes and actions. Psychologists and psychiatrists used to look like saviors to me. Now they appear to be Pigs, perpetuating the values and standards of this Fascist, racist, imperialistic country. The grossly counter-revolutionary goal of this noble profession is to help the individual adjust to society--to fit in to cease making waves! Pigshit! And to do this, they treat the individual... they treat the individual... as a guilty, suffering, maladjusted, freak stray. Obviously this is an Establishment, WASP influenced, analysis of where the problem lies. When responsibility is placed on the individual, the society in which that individual functions remains aloof, blameless, and sits in judgement. Keeping the burden of change at the individual action level insures a lifetime of self-indulgence, self-analysis, personal guilt, shame, and degradation. Psychologists and psychiatrists don't seem to be interested in a broader analysis of collective guilt--they already have more patients than they can handle. The work and energy directed toward personal change might better be used in evaluating and changing a society which penalizes people exercising freedom of expression. This profession is a Pig front. It stands for everything this society stands for and perpetuates those ideas through one-to-one controlled encounters. With an attitude of authority the profession guides beaten down, guilt-ridden, frightened victims back to the very society which caused these symptoms. The audacity of these 5 to 10 year college-educated (what that's good for) people to sit in judgement of others, to manipulate feelings, to affect change of personality, to act as a god or otherwise knowledgeable being freaks me out. By studying the behavior of rats, and worse---by studying the behavior of fellow Amerikans, they think they've got humans figured out and are ready to administer virtually untested drugs that control consciousness, and play with attitudes and personalities. I object! In "KINDE, KUCHE, KIRCHE as Scientific Law" Naomi Weisstein questions the reliability of 'years of intensive clinical experience' which is offered as the major support for psychological theories. The ability of judges, chosen for their clinical expertise, to distinguish male homosexuals on the basis of three widely used clinical projective tests-the Rorschach, the TAT, and the MAP-was no better than chance. The reason this is such devastating news, of course, is that...if what is considered gross sexual deviance cannot be caught, then what are psychologists talking about when they, for example, claim that at the basis of paranoid psychosis is 'latent homosexual panic'? (p. 4) Their accurateness is vague, therefore dangerous to anyone placing themselves in their hands. What about their effectiveness within present societal expectations? Quoting Naomi Weisstein again: In 1952, Eysenck reported the results of what is called an 'outcome of therapy' study of neurotics which showed that, of the patients who received psychoanalysis the improvement rate was 44%; of the patients who received psychotherapy the improvement rate was 64%; and of the patients who received no treatment at all the improvement rate was 72%. These findings have never been refuted; subsequently, later studies have confirmed the negative results of the Eysenck study. (Barron & Leary, 1955; Bergin, 1963; Carwright and Vogel, 1960; Powers and Witmer, 1951) (p. 4) The validity of the entire profession as it exists now may be questionable. My personal experience with counsellors, a psychiatrist and psychologists (male and female) lasted seven years. Their influence on me couldn't have been as great as they intended, or I wouldn't be writing this for a women's liberation paper and have the politics that I have. I did find out some things about my feelings and how to deal with them more honestly (with my two-year, female therapist). I like that that happened. It's had an affect that I'm comfortable with on how I relate to people...mostly women, because I like to relate mostly to women. I never paid anything. I never cried. I lost my temper a little. I was frustrated a lot. They talked and I listened and we switched. I was never convinced by their persuasive reasoning for being a way that I was not, and did not want to be. From my analysis, I conclude it is not a privilege, but a RISK, for anyone to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist because 1) their training and theories are unjustified by scientifically proven facts, 2) their reasoning is Establishment, therefore they cannot help someone who does not share Establishment values, and 3) their unquestioning loyalty is to the belief in helping all people adjust to arbitrarily set morals and values. DON'T GO!! Sorry We Went When we got into Women's Liberation, we realized what psychiatry has done to women by trying to fit them into an oppressive feminine role that has been created by a sick male dominated society. It is destructive. It makes people channel all their energy into trying to solve individual problems instead of rising up together against the monster that causes them. For example, it drives women into shrink's offices to find out why they don't adore being cooped up with their children 24 hrs a day when they should be organizing neighborhood day-care centers. This government makes life so hard that people have to make it the best they can. Lower class women know this. Psychiatry isn't open as an option for them because of its cost. Change costs money and money is what makes a difference in this country. If you don't have it, you can't control your own life. Lower class women see psychiatry for what it is-an indulgence. When you don't have the necessities of life you can't be worried about luxuries like whether your mind is in the proper order or not. [Footer] a Woman? [drawing of a flexing arm] July 24, 1970 3
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[background is a woman sitting on a stool with her hands over her face] Don't Go Did Go When my mother discovered that I was a lesbian, she sent me off to a psychiatrist to make it go away. The stated purpose of that year was to get me to fit into society. Now, you may ask, "What's so wrong with that?" ...But the whole argument that I should be fit into society assumes that it is me that has the problem and not society. How sane is a society which keeps millions of people starving, homeless, and out of work? Well, it took a long time to realize that such a country, and not its people, is very maladjusted. Unfortunately, I didn't know this then. I swallowed the psychiatry line, hook and sinker. I felt that I was the sick one and it was the worst kind of sick because it was inside my head and I could never get away from it. I would be just crying inside and everyone around me would be doing what they usually do and even smiling sometimes. I couldn't stand it! I wanted to scream at them for not being aware of how absurd their happiness was next to my pain. I would go up to my friends room and sit there wanting to put my head in their lap--to be comforted and free from it for just one minute. But, of course I couldn't. I couldn't admit that I was sick, that I was going to a psychiatrist, that I needed help, that I wasn't normal. All year I worked to improve my concept of men. I went out with guys and tried to have a good time, but they were so boring. I was even considering marrying one to complete my "heterosexual adjustment". Thank goodness I did not because I was thinking of it just so I could once and for all be done with this problem. One of the reasons that the year was so painful was that although my mind had been co-opted into desiring to become heterosexual, my feelings were elsewhere. In May I fell in love with a bass player who lived in the dorm with me. She and I were worried about what the shrink would say when I confessed, but he surprised us by declaring that it was all right to have interspersed homosexual relationships just so long as I continued along the Hetersexual Way. Anyway, the time finally came when he felt I was well on my way to being normal; he patted me on the head and sent me into the world. That was that. Once I got out, I realized how ridiculous it had been trying to be straight in a crooked world. Did Go Psychologists and psychiatrists used to speak truths to me. Now I hear their rigid, socially-condoned ideology that is based on and reinforces present inhumane attitudes and actions. Psychologists and psychiatrists used to look like saviors to me. Now they appear to be Pigs, perpetuating the values and standards of this Fascist, racist, imperialistic country. The grossly counter-revolutionary goal of this noble profession is to help the individual adjust to society--to fit in to cease making waves! Pigshit! And to do this, they treat the individual... they treat the individual... as a guilty, suffering, maladjusted, freak stray. Obviously this is an Establishment, WASP influenced, analysis of where the problem lies. When responsibility is placed on the individual, the society in which that individual functions remains aloof, blameless, and sits in judgement. Keeping the burden of change at the individual action level insures a lifetime of self-indulgence, self-analysis, personal guilt, shame, and degradation. Psychologists and psychiatrists don't seem to be interested in a broader analysis of collective guilt--they already have more patients than they can handle. The work and energy directed toward personal change might better be used in evaluating and changing a society which penalizes people exercising freedom of expression. This profession is a Pig front. It stands for everything this society stands for and perpetuates those ideas through one-to-one controlled encounters. With an attitude of authority the profession guides beaten down, guilt-ridden, frightened victims back to the very society which caused these symptoms. The audacity of these 5 to 10 year college-educated (what that's good for) people to sit in judgement of others, to manipulate feelings, to affect change of personality, to act as a god or otherwise knowledgeable being freaks me out. By studying the behavior of rats, and worse---by studying the behavior of fellow Amerikans, they think they've got humans figured out and are ready to administer virtually untested drugs that control consciousness, and play with attitudes and personalities. I object! In "KINDE, KUCHE, KIRCHE as Scientific Law" Naomi Weisstein questions the reliability of 'years of intensive clinical experience' which is offered as the major support for psychological theories. The ability of judges, chosen for their clinical expertise, to distinguish male homosexuals on the basis of three widely used clinical projective tests-the Rorschach, the TAT, and the MAP-was no better than chance. The reason this is such devastating news, of course, is that...if what is considered gross sexual deviance cannot be caught, then what are psychologists talking about when they, for example, claim that at the basis of paranoid psychosis is 'latent homosexual panic'? (p. 4) Their accurateness is vague, therefore dangerous to anyone placing themselves in their hands. What about their effectiveness within present societal expectations? Quoting Naomi Weisstein again: In 1952, Eysenck reported the results of what is called an 'outcome of therapy' study of neurotics which showed that, of the patients who received psychoanalysis the improvement rate was 44%; of the patients who received psychotherapy the improvement rate was 64%; and of the patients who received no treatment at all the improvement rate was 72%. These findings have never been refuted; subsequently, later studies have confirmed the negative results of the Eysenck study. (Barron & Leary, 1955; Bergin, 1963; Carwright and Vogel, 1960; Powers and Witmer, 1951) (p. 4) The validity of the entire profession as it exists now may be questionable. My personal experience with counsellors, a psychiatrist and psychologists (male and female) lasted seven years. Their influence on me couldn't have been as great as they intended, or I wouldn't be writing this for a women's liberation paper and have the politics that I have. I did find out some things about my feelings and how to deal with them more honestly (with my two-year, female therapist). I like that that happened. It's had an affect that I'm comfortable with on how I relate to people...mostly women, because I like to relate mostly to women. I never paid anything. I never cried. I lost my temper a little. I was frustrated a lot. They talked and I listened and we switched. I was never convinced by their persuasive reasoning for being a way that I was not, and did not want to be. From my analysis, I conclude it is not a privilege, but a RISK, for anyone to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist because 1) their training and theories are unjustified by scientifically proven facts, 2) their reasoning is Establishment, therefore they cannot help someone who does not share Establishment values, and 3) their unquestioning loyalty is to the belief in helping all people adjust to arbitrarily set morals and values. DON'T GO!! Sorry We Went When we got into Women's Liberation, we realized what psychiatry has done to women by trying to fit them into an oppressive feminine role that has been created by a sick male dominated society. It is destructive. It makes people channel all their energy into trying to solve individual problems instead of rising up together against the monster that causes them. For example, it drives women into shrink's offices to find out why they don't adore being cooped up with their children 24 hrs a day when they should be organizing neighborhood day-care centers. This government makes life so hard that people have to make it the best they can. Lower class women know this. Psychiatry isn't open as an option for them because of its cost. Change costs money and money is what makes a difference in this country. If you don't have it, you can't control your own life. Lower class women see psychiatry for what it is-an indulgence. When you don't have the necessities of life you can't be worried about luxuries like whether your mind is in the proper order or not. [Footer] a Woman? [drawing of a flexing arm] July 24, 1970 3
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