Tag: Planned Parenthood

THE MIND OF THIS PSYCHIATRIST IS ONCE AGAIN SHOCKED, by Art Smukler, author & psychiatrist

Maybe I need some Prozac or Xanax? Better yet, maybe just a little more reason…

Once again, the “religious right” is marching against the right of employers and government to medically insure women who desire birth control. The catholic church doesn’t believe in unnatural means to prevent pregnancy; so it’s only logical for them to foist their beliefs on everyone else.

It almost ruined my morning coffee ( a wonderful pleasure plus caffeine is now supposed to prevent heart disease) to read how the religious right is enraged that pro-choice people are taking away THEIR rights. As I understand this, the pro-choicers are trying to stop THEM from having the right to jam their beliefs down everyone’s gullet. That’s just what we need, more control freaks trying to control people who believe in letting people choose for themselves.

Listen, I’m not holding it against Tom Cruise and John Travolta for believing that Xenu brought billions of people to earth in spacecraft resembling DC-8 airplanes. The Thetans (souls) then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living. Yep, the Thetans are still doing it today. I still enjoy Cruise’s and Travolta’s movies. See, I’m not trying to force them to believe the way I believe.

It’s not easy to think for yourself, to actually evaluate what our parents, peers and religious advocates have programmed us to believe. But, it’s doable. Actually evaluating what we’ve been force-fed from the age of 1 day, is brutally hard, but if you succeed, the relief to finally be free is enormous.

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WILL YOU STILL GO TO HEAVEN IF YOU DON’T DRINK THE KOOL AID? by Art Smukler, author and psychiatrist

A patient reminded me about the November 1978 Jonestown massacre. 913 members of The People’s Temple cult committed suicide by drinking grape-flavored Kool Aid laced with potassium cyanide. Their leader, Jim Jones, after a number of practice sessions, ordered the entire cult to drink the deadly mixture. They did exactly what he said!

Psychotic, crazy, mass hypnosis, gullibility? Probably all.

Is it that much different now, 34 years later?

Charismatic preachers, acting like messengers from some crazy god, continue to have enormous religious and political power. In their eyes, birth control and homosexuality are clearly a sin. Now the preaching has taken on an even crazier tempo. Republicans are battling each other to prove who is the “true” conservative.

As a psychiatrist, I often wonder what is really going on. Am I the crazy one? If I don’t believe, will I not get into “The Kingdom”, or wherever religious fanatics go who are true believers? Whatever their fantasy might be, I’m not interested in joining them.

When a patient is overtly psychotic, logic doesn’t help. Talking to rigid evangelicals also won’t help. So what will?

Join groups like Planned Parenthood, work to have all 50 states pass equality laws supporting gay rights, speak out against any school that won’t teach evolution, speak out against any use of violence to advocate a religious belief, and do whatever you can to expose any hint of terrorism that will limit our right to have the freedom to come to our own conclusions about the world.

Because so many people need to drink Kool Aid, doesn’t mean that we have to respect or ignore the dangers that it breeds.

Any thoughts?

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