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Originally Posted by HD7970GHZ
I agree with what you have said. I think these matters should remain public for many reasons.
What you wrote about cults brought something into my mind.
A lot of the abuse that takes place in healthcare is a result of similar cultural issues found in cults. The question is, how does a group of human beings become a cult?
Given the right environment - Human nature has a very predictable and disturbing path. In regards to the healthcare system, humans are fallible and make an insurmountable number of mistakes. When mistakes are made a choice presents itself: either admit to the mistake and risk professional loss and potentially millions of dollars for lawsuits, or simply cover-up the misdeed. Most corporations cannot risk public exposure for practical reasons, so they cover it up. Many professionals have a difficult time accepting this culture the first time it happens, but eventually they begin to see the benefit after they make hundreds of mistakes. In time, normalization of deviance at the expense of ethics and morals becomes a size-able issue and eventually professionals stop thinking they are doing anything wrong. Without accountability, and with management that rewards cover-ups and fosters a culture of fear and intimidation for anyone that speaks up about said issues, the environment fosters the worst in human nature; corruption, crime, abuse, etc.
THIS is the problem with healthcare. And it is in every industry all around the world. Organizations simply have too much to risk in telling the truth, so in short, they lie. Pretty logical - but also incredibly disturbing insight into human nature.
Sorry for the ramble,
HD7970ghz
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All true.
Cults, in general, is a fascinating subject. You are correct in saying that abuse in healthcare, psychotherapy specifically, often (but not always) resembles the dynamics of cults. But the cults phenomena is just an extreme expression of a general human tendency to be susceptible to brainwashing. But that is a huge subject of its own.
And your insight into the fact that abuse in the health industry is nothing unique to that particular industry is also correct. Abuse and misuse of power and the unwillingness to see it for what it is - all of it is part of human nature and, as such, it lives in each and every one of us. That's not to minimize the damage done by abusive actions but simply to describe the phenomena as it is because seeing it realistically helps to address it more effectively. But, again, this topic is also a separate discussion, which is useful to have in order to get the big picture, but, on the practical level, any particular problem can be addressed one step at a time within its specific context. We can have the big picture in mind when we discuss abuse in psychotherapy, but the ways to solve it is to start with the specific psychotherapy context. Otherwise, we will be all over the place discussing the corruption of out entire political system, corporate crimes of Big Pharma and many other global issues that perpetuate all kinds of systemic abuses. While all of it creates the environment for this particular problem to continue, discussing it on a global level won't help raise public awareness about this specific issue.
The place to start, the first step is for people to start going public with their stories under their real names. Until it happens, nothing will change. I know all the reasons why people are afraid to do that and I know that all those reasons are valid. So, I am not telling anyone to do that. All I am saying is that the reality is what it is, and the fact that people have valid reasons not to break their stories into public awareness doesn't change the reality that the public isn't going to care until it happens. No one cares about what Jane Doe says on some forum. No one would take notice. The public would start taking notice when real people with real names start writing their blogs, op-eds in local newspapers, make podcasts and youtube channels, talk about it on social media and so on. No other action will be successful until some degree of awareness emerges into the public consciousness.