Do Ts abuse our feelings to get money?

Not all doctors go into psychiatry because they want to help mentally ill people. Some get through med school and realize they can't stand the more hands on aspects of medicine, so they go into the one specialty where they don't typically have to do physicals, handle bodily fluids, perform surgeries and procedures, etc.

Other people don't have the test scores for the most lucrative areas of medicine. You don't simply go through med school and then say "I choose plastic surgery!" or "I choose ophthalmology!" You have to apply for a residency, and if you don't have impressive test scores, your chances of getting into the highest paid specialties are very low. Furthermore, anyone who thinks psychiatrists or even therapists aren't making bank is kidding themselves. Does a psychiatrist bring home a neurosurgeon's salary? No. Does a psychiatrist bring home 6 figures? Undoubtedly...and he doesn't have to saw people's skulls open for it.

I'm not saying there aren't psychiatrists who go into it because they want to help mentally ill people. Plenty do. I'm just saying it's far from the truth to say that a lot don't do it because they want the money (and prestige). It's the same with therapists. Sure, they're not in the 1%, but they earn a pretty nice salary. A lot of people don't want to go through med school or jump through a gazillion other hoops to come out filthy rich in the end. A lot of people just want to have a nice, comfortable lifestyle.

These things (how doctors become specialised, and how therapists are trained) are very different in different parts of the world, though. Your examples seem to apply to the situation in the U.S., which is different from the situaion in many other places.

That is true. The user who stated doctors who are after money go into other specialties is from the U.S., however.

As much as everyone here is pro-psychiatry, I have to say, I think it is a very, very sleazy business. Many, if not, most clinicians have little to no interest in helping anyone. It effectively is a way to get those in a vulnerable state to pay them large amounts of money after being convinced that they are permanently severely disturbed if they do not keep going to sessions. The crazy thing is that people think they are like doctors (who can be somewhat sleazy too in my opinion, but not as bad), but they aren't. Psychological conditions are by nature highly subjective and also there is much less scrutiny, so the system is designed to attract sleazier, scummier people to the mental health industry. Honestly, if it were not for them having gone into the field, many of them would probably be scam artists of some kind. They essentially are scam artists, just legal, socially accepted scam artists.

For what it is worth, I am not very or even somewhat pro psychiatry or pro therapy.

I'm respecting your opinion , are you saying that the system attracts sleepy scummy clients? Or therapist?

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The "therapists" are often scumbags, not the clients. The clients are often taken advantage of in a similar manner to the way a scam artist would get someone to send them money

I wouldn't doubt there might be some therapists like this, just as there might be some who are sociopathic and/or sadistic, but I'd think it to be very uncommon.

I have never experienced therapists this way.

I'm really sorry you are hurting.

I'm sorry you feel this way- you must have had a pretty bad experience. This is has not been my experience in therapy at all and while I have my issues, consider myself pretty sharp and not gullible. I also don't consider myself scummy or a scam artist, and i am going into the field. But you're entitled to your opinion and you are certainly not the only one who believes this.

Wow.
Here in the U.K., to be a registered, accredited therapist (and not all are by any means) you have to have a relevant degree, then do a post graduate course of between two and four years, have forty hours personal therapy for every year in training and practice, three weekly supervision, then usually something like a ten thousand word thesis, and exams.
It's very expensive, it's very intense, and the personal therapy is potentially difficult, as we know.
Personally, I can think of easier ways to scam people.

it's funny to me how similar this wording your t used is to what a former t of mine would say. I guess it's pretty generic wording so must be a coincidence. That t turned out to be a jerk who didn't care. But just from what you wrote here alone, I don't really have any sense about whether your t is caring or isn't very caring. I like to think most t's care, but some of them are pushy and jerks. I wish I hadn't assumed that most t's tend to care as much as I did, since that's why I trusted my last one too much. Then I found another t who was over the top generous with me, as far as her fees and everything else. I hope that after 2 years your t will work it out with you.

There are two issues here:

One, that there are all kinds of therapists, good and bad. Given that providing therapy is a kind of a service and a profession and a business, it means that there are some therapists out there who try to get the person to stay in therapy for longer and actually hurt the patient, all that so they can make more money. But given that being a therapist is a profession, every one of them wants to make money. So the difference is about violating principles and rules that protect the client (who should not be tricked or forced or manipulated to staying longer if that is more likely to hurt the client). Wanting to make money itself is not problematic. This is their job. They need money, like everybody else.

Two, in a more general sense, this is about the issue of how people feel about receiving therapy, where providing therapy is considered a professional service. It took me a very long time to come to terms with this. It is quite an unusual relationship, if we can call it that. We are giving money in exchange for being validated and accepted and loved and feeling good about ourselves? Is this like going to a prostitute...and wondering if the prostitute to really loves us?

Look, every time you interact with someone in a limited professional role (as is the norm in modern Western countries), you are interacting with only a part of that person. Their job defines their interaction with you. Is the girl working in the customer service smiling at YOU or is she smiling because it's her job to smile and keep customers happy? Is the president saying hopeful things because he is really hopeful or it is his job to be hopeful and confident? Is the therapist saying "I believe in you" or "I am so sorry you were hurt so badly by your parents" saying so because she really feels that way or is it her job (and she get paid) to say that?

This is the nature of professionalized society. People's roles (and all the rules and laws and limitations around them) tell them who they should be at work. For them to act any differently is seen as unethical, from that perspective. In other words, a therapist who would work for no money would actually be seen as doing something wrong! This does not mean that how therapists behave is the "right" way to do things. But they are working within this system. And they themselves are treated this way too, like when they go to see a therapist themselves. This professionalization of society has a lot of problems and I feel like it makes relationships more limited and makes them somewhat fake. But given that this is what we have right now, once I accepted that's how things are, I came to appreciate therapy much more. It's not perfect I thought but good enough for me, in this place, in this time.