A Plea to Therapists, Everywhere

(Especially to non-prescribing Marriage and Family Counselors)

▫  You may have had years of experience.
▫  You may believe your skills are sufficient for every (or almost every) case.
▫  You may or may not be a believer in psychotropic drug therapies.
▫  You may feel you keep up-to-date with advancements in your professional field.
▫  You may have thought (even said), more than once, “I am very good at what I do.”
▫  And you may, indeed, be very good,

but in this age of Big Pharma¹ and polypharmacy,² if one of your first inquiries of a new or returning patient is not: “Are you taking any medications?” then, in nigh 100% probability, you are prolonging the suffering, confusion, and peril, not just of your patient, but of those who love that patient. (The same applies to a second question: “Have you attempted or are you now attempting to end a medication regime?”)

So this is the PLEA: Please, no matter how skilled you are:

▪  if you are not asking a patient about medications (& even herbs, supplements, or hormonal therapies that have psychoactive potential);
▪  if you are not factoring in known and potential side-effects;
▪  if you are not knowledgeable about adverse reactions, drug-induced CBI (Chronic Brain Impairment); anosognosia; medication spellbinding, etc.;³
▪   if you think it is not your place to question a prescriber;⁴
▪   if you are not open to the observations of family and friends of the patient;⁵
▪   if you are not reading and informing yourself about the mounting, evidence-based damage reports surrounding psychotropic drug use (and other psychoactive substances), AND the pervasive suppression of critical data by drug companies and others;⁶

then please, please, become humble enough to look beyond your present paradigm. Be humble enough to listen to:

Ben Goldacre: What doctors don't know about the drugs they prescribe
TED talk (Time 13:30) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKmxL8VYy0M

Peter Breggin, MD: Simple Truths about Psychiatry (1)
Do You Have a Biochemical Imbalance? (Time: 7:42)
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARZ2Wv2BoFs



Peter Breggin, MD: Simple Truths about Psychiatry (2)
How Do Psychiatric Drugs Really Work? (Time 10:50)
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Xb29geVwE



Peter Breggin, MD: Simple Truths about Psychiatry
Psychiatric Drugs Are More Dangerous than You Ever Imagined
(Time: 9:18) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luKsQaj0hzs
(See also the balance of the Simple Truths series)

Please, be open to the truths of independent, evidence-based medicine and the credible, professional witnesses that are exposing the dark-side of Big Pharma.

Please explore:

•  Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families by Peter R. Breggin, MD,  (Springer Publishing Company, New York, © 2013)
•  Psychiatric Drug Facts at http://breggin.com/
•  Toxic Psychiatry at http://www.toxicpsychiatry.com/
•  Beyond Meds at http://beyondmeds.com/
•  Numerous other credible witnesses. They are everywhere.

Please, do not wait before you investigate medications, side-effects, and adverse withdrawal reactions. If you ignore the unscriptable, chemical distortions of the mind, how can you hope to guide the mind and soul toward a lasting healing?

Please, be part of the solution to this manufactured epidemic profiled in

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker

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1. “Twenty percent {1 in every 5] of adult Americans were taking psychiatric drugs in 2010—15% of men and 26% of women (Medco, 2011).” As quoted in Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families by Peter R. Breggin, MD, (Springer Publishing Company, New York, © 2013), p. 1.
2. “’Polypharmacy’ refers to the concurrent use of multiple medications in a single patient.” Quoted from a DovePress abstract titled, “Polypharmacy or medication washout: an old tool revisited” at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215520/
3. See Breggin, Chapter 3: Chronic Brain Impairment: Four symptom complexes: 1. Cognitive dysfunction; 2. Apathy and indifference; 3. Emotional worsening; 4. Anosognosia (patient’s lack of awareness of their symptoms).
Anosognosia: is viewed as a deficit of self-awareness, a condition in which a person who suffers certain disability seems unaware of the existence of his or her disability. It was first named by the neurologist Joseph Babinski in 1914. Anosognosia results from physiological damage on brain structures, typically to the parietal lobe or a diffuse lesion on the fronto-temporal-parietal area in the right hemisphere. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anosognosia )
4. Review Breggin, p. 2-3, section titled: “Relationship between Prescribers and Therapists”; and Chapter 12: Developing Team Collaboration, p. 147-158.
Consider: What is your primary interest—to help your patient in healing or to protect the status of a prescriber?
5. “Always take seriously the concerns of family and friends; they can be the prescriber and the patient’s best ally during psychiatric medication treatment and withdrawal” (Breggin, p. 17). “The patient’s family and friends are often the first to notice adverse drug effects, including overmedication, and the prescriber and clinicians should pay close attention to their concerns and observations” (Ibid., p. 18).
6. Suppression of Data: review Ben Goldman at TED Talks; Breggin, p. 14-16, and numerous others studies and observations.

Washout ?

(Re-viewing psychotropic drugs)

Washout

4. (informal)

1. a total failure or disaster

2. an incompetent person

(http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/wash-out)

3. dose tapering of medication to more safely discontinue

its use or to (ostensibly) eliminate its effects

before commencing a different treatment regime

(source: industry idiom¹)

But perhaps we should expand the meaning of “washout” as we consider:

▪  the effects of profit motive on integrity and compassion;
▪  the psychopathology² of most profit-driven corporations;
▪  the psychopathology of many HyPEs;³
▪  the massive, addictive profits in PR and propaganda;⁴
▪  the practice of off-label drug marketing;⁵
▪  too many slap-on-the-wrist fines (relative to profits); “do NOT go to jail” standards;
▪  the myopia of permitting industry-funded efficacy studies and of FDA revolving doors;
▪  the pervasive “cancer” of publication bias and research misconduct;⁶
▪  the “accountable to shareholders” con;⁷
▪  the “rapid increase in the use of polypharmacy in psychiatry”;⁸
▪  the number of (ignored) witnesses coming forward,⁹ as in


» Gwen Olsen, former Rx Drug Rep.
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIm8fHxqUAM (Time: 7:18)
see also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4bYng7X7Kk (Time: 5:51)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIASdSFV8fI (Time: 8:52)



» Documentary: Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tse5TtcNZ8U (Time: 1.34.42)



» Dr. John Abramson (UCTV) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o8CIDuxCC0 (Time: 29:40);
author of Overdosed America

» Podcast: Robert Whitaker on Psychiatric Drugs at http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/features/2014/06/08/robert-whitaker-on-psychiatric-drugs/ (Time: 29.50); and author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America

» Website: http://www.drugawareness.org/ 

Of course, some(?) percentage of patients may benefit (or believe they benefit) from chemical intervention, but the broad picture established by independent studies is that other non-prescription treatments achieve results (without the severe or dangerous side-effects) that psychotropic drugs do not and cannot achieve by the very nature of how they work and what they, in reality, do.

So, if we consider all the above (and more), perhaps we should add to the washout definitions:

Washout

5. (observed)

1. loss of life, hopes, and dreams of millions of mis-medicated

2. impunity for many drug companies for false and misleading

speech; for frauds and depraved indifference

3. mis-education (and/or apathy) of the prescribed and their

prescribers because of PR / propaganda, (& Rx perks)

4. loss of life, hopes, and dreams of many family, friends, and

victims¹⁰ of the mis-medicated

Interesting, is it not, how washout and whitewash seem twin strategies for this profit-driven Hydra?

So here are three questions:

•  How long this culture of denial?
•  How long, with the knowledge and unbiased studies that are out there, before the first question of every marriage & family therapist is: “What are the medications in this family?”¹¹ (Please read the footnote.)
•  How long before we utterly refuse to participate any more in WASHOUT and WHITEWASH?

Here are a couple of beginning answers:

•  Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs: A Harm Reduction Approach to Medication Withdrawal | Will Hall at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4bdG601k4k (Time 39:15)

•  Website: http://beyondmeds.com/

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1. Derived from various online readings & videos, plus “Washout” article at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215520/
2. http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/05/a-plague-of-psychopaths.html ; The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan, et al. at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6zQO7JytzQ (Time: 2.25.18)
3. (Highly Paid Employees); http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/10/public-enemy-1.html ; http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2014/12/without-conscience.html
4. University of California TV:
•  Overview of Pharma Industry Marketing Practices (1) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHHC5AYAUVI (Time: 23:47)
•  Industry Sponsored Research and Marketing (Pt. 2) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoDdQ6foEtc (Time 27:46)
•  Industry Sponsored Education and Marketing (Pt. 3) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrcdKB6_I4w (Time: 27:40)
•  Direct-to-Consumer Pharma Marketing (Pt. 4) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrSoTvhIPzc (Time: 28:56)
•  Effects of Marketing on Prescribing: Does It Matter? (Pt.5) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AjwPZuivBY (Time: 28:49)
5. Off-Label Marketing & Free Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_3wrbuwum0
6. Ben Goldacre: What doctors don't know about the drugs they prescribe ~ TED talk (Time 13:29) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKmxL8VYy0M
7. The Great Con: http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2012/03/great-con.html
8. “’Polypharmacy’ refers to the concurrent use of multiple medications in a single patient.” Quoted from a DovePress abstract titled, “Polypharmacy or medication washout: an old tool revisited” at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215520/
9. Numerous additional witnesses can be found by searching “Big Pharma,” “SSRI,” “Prescription Suicide,” etc. Here are a few extras:
•  Risky Business: Reporting on Research in the Media (UCTV) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it5yyn_lIKg (Time 57:26)
•  The Truth About the Drug Companies - Dr. Marcia Angell at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDbQNBla6aU (Time 1:17:36)
•  Manipulation of Data: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/18775/do-washout-periods-in-drug-studies-lead-to-underestimates-of-side-effects
10. See http://www.drugawareness.org/ for the expanding list of tragic victims of the mis-medicated.
11. Please understand: This is not to say that all family problems arise from medication, but with the known problems, the listed (and expanding) side-effects, and massive over-prescribing, why do we not comprehend that medicines play a key role in understanding behaviors and solutions?

Remembering George ?

On this date—December 14—215 years ago, General George Washington died under the watchful eye of three physicians. They were using the then standard-of-practice of bloodletting,¹ but after four bouts of it, Washington’s fate was assured. Perhaps we could say, he was bled to death.

And perhaps we are in the midst of a latter déjà vu at this very hour as Uncle Sam bleeds toward the same fate—except there are no attendees allowed about the bed. Those trying to enter and save the patient are mocked and defamed while most everyone else is:

▪  at the stock exchange,
▪  “treasure hunting” with their devices,
▪  too busy trying to staunch their own bleeding, or
▪  crying against the offenses of socialism and communism.

However, despite the real offenses of communism / socialism, the more vital, critical health question is: What is the difference between excessive bloodletting and corporate capitalism? No, that’s not quite right. It’s not the difference that concerns us—‘tis the similarity!

See, whichever you choose, the patient dies.

Too bad, we’ve forgotten, not just George, but Thomas:

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.  (Thomas Jefferson ~ 1816²)

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1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodletting
2. This is a verifiable quote. See the transcribed copy of Jefferson’s letter to George Logan, Nov. 12, 1816 (p. 68-69) at Hathi Trust Digital Library: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t3pv6bn68;view=1up;seq=92 .
The original letter is at The Library of Congress, The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651-1827, and their digital copy of the original is at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj1&fileName=mtj1page049.db&recNum=641 (Digital Images 641 and 642: see the second page—image 642—for the quote.)

Whitewash?

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four,¹ which, in the contortions and déjà vus of history, may bring us to Henry Kissinger and his latest book, published September 2014. Kissinger’s name, presiding over the bold and simple title, World Order, presents upon a pristine, white cover.

This year also marks the 225th year since the U.S. Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation (1789; first session, First Congress).

So what, you may ask, is the connection between these facts?

It’s hard to know for sure, but let’s consider:  “We the People” and World Order.

Millions believe that the United States Constitution was and (still) is the best hope and promise of preserving freedom and opportunity in the world.² If they are right, (and even if they’re not), the U.S. has always advertized itself as the beacon of democratic values; so perhaps we should carefully read Mr. Kissinger’s World Order and ask at every page: What does this book mean for the hope and promise of the U.S. Constitution?

But first, let us acknowledge that Mr. Kissinger undoubtedly reveals some insightful and important things in his World Order for there are huge global problems that only seem to be getting worse. However, in reading World Order, let us also be aware of the grand illusion / delusion that manifests in the very first pages of his book.

Without any apparent cognitive dissonance, he writes:

“… an American consensus—an inexorably expanding cooperative order of states observing common rules and norms, embracing liberal economic systems, forswearing territorial conquest, respecting national sovereignty, and adopting participatory and democratic systems of governance. American presidents of both parties have continued to urge other governments, often with great vehemence and eloquence, to embrace the preservation and enhancement of human rights.” (pp. 1-2)

“In the American view of world order, peace and balance would occur naturally, and ancient enmities would be set aside—once other nations were given the same principled say in their own governance that Americans had in theirs. The task of foreign policy was thus not so much the pursuit of a specifically American interest as the cultivation of shared principles. In time, the United States would become the indispensable defender of the order Europe designed. Yet even as the United States lent its weight to the effort, an ambivalence endured—for the American vision rested not on an embrace of the European balance-of-power system but on the achievement of peace through the spread of democratic principles.” (p. 6)

“The United States has alternated between defending the Westphalian system and castigating its premises of balance of power and noninterference in domestic affairs as immoral and outmoded, and sometimes both at once. It continues to assert the universal relevance of its values in building a peaceful world order and reserves the right to support them globally.” (p. 8)

These head-spinning words are so un-tethered to the real (forgotten / ignored / hidden) history of U.S. involvement in other nations, it staggers credulity. Not to mention what the U.S. government, its corporate bosses and banks, and other hidden handlers are presently foisting upon U.S. citizens. When one reads the many voices of warning and exposés, it becomes apparent that Kissinger’s book may just be the latest whitewash in a long laundry list of offenses against the Constitution and the subsequent Bill of Rights.

When one considers:

▪ his words: “Our age is insistently, at times almost desperately, in pursuit of a concept of world order.” (p. 2)

▪ his awareness that “The modern era announced itself when enterprising societies sought glory and wealth by exploring the oceans and whatever lay beyond them.” (pp. 17-18)

▪ his observation that “A man of the cloth steeped in court intrigue, Richelieu was well adapted to a period of religious upheaval and crumbling established structures.” (p. 21)

▪ his view that Machiavelli’s, The Prince is “a work on statesmanship” and that it “systematically analyzed the requirements of power and survival”³;

shouldn’t these give us pause—if not paranoia?

Is this book just one more trial balloon to further normalize the “idea” of (One) World Order? Though perhaps, it will never get below two or even three because, as we all know from experience and history—war and the threat of war can go a long way to achieving ways, ends, and mean$.

What would George Orwell say about this latest World Order? Perhaps he would lament: “Lucky—but unlucky you. My timing was only slightly off.”

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1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
2. Many believe it; particularly those of faith, and especially Mormons, referencing their scripture: Doctrine and Covenants | Section 101:77-80 ~ According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles; That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment. Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood. Doctrine and Covenants | Section 98:4-10 ~ And now, verily I say unto you concerning the laws of the land, it is my will that my people should observe to do all things whatsoever I command them. And that law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me. Therefore, I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land; And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil. I, the Lord God, make you free, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free. Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn. Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil.
3. http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Ideas/ID/2416333338/ (being the words of Mr. Kissinger at min. 1:10-1:27 of the CBC “Ideas” (Paul Kennedy) program entitled, “Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox,” broadcast 6 November 2013 in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the writing of The Prince. See also: http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/02/niccolo-mockiavelli.html

Blinding Paradigms?

At some future day, say even 100 years hence, will observers look back upon the age of baby-boomers and their offspring as a bizarre time of dizzying technology AND stupefying intransigence? Will someone begin to quote Charles Dickens,¹ lamenting:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of [staggering stupidity hubris]”?

And will someone observe that great crimes were orchestrated by “tight-lipped authorities” who believed that their “superlative truisms” governed the cosmos and all therein and thereout?

▪ Will we even be here in 100 years (yea, even 50) if geoengineering² and HAARP³ (et ilk) continue their secret combinations (chemical and otherwise)?

▪ Will corporate capitalism⁴ have lost its gloss in the wake of cause, effect, consequence and destruction; and will it finally be observed that the “capital system” damned more creativity and innovation than it ever encouraged?

▪ Will the nuclear energy industry have finally drowned in its own indestructible, toxic waste?

▪ Will militant scientists atheists finally be recognized for what they are: dogma-driven tyrants—as déjà vu the Inquisition as every other militant bully of past and present?

▪ Will the lies of GMO and industry-sponsored “studies” finally be acknowledged as profit-driven frauds?⁵

▪ Will the Big Business of fast-food & health chronic sickness finally admit that what is ingested makes a difference?

▪ Will the medical and psychiatric professions have finally accepted evidence-based  (i.e., mostly non-profit and non-pharmaceutical) solutions to the recurring / enduring pain epidemics?⁶

▪ Will the Electric Universe⁷ (and other theories that challenge the standard model) have been given a fair and open hearing?

▪ Will “cultural superiority” have given way to the observation that ancient civilizations knew and achieved things we haven’t begun to match?⁸ that progress has not been linear and gradual? that civilizations, equal or superior, have fallen into dust in obsessive pursuit of excess, disparity, power, and gain? (Oh, déjà vu—again!)

▪ Will the predilection to conspiracy by those pursuing power and gain (and their desperation to deny it) finally be openly acknowledged as a ubiquitous, historical déjà vu?

▪ Will citizens of the “great superpower” ever admit the pivotal role their nation played in the destruction of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, worldwide?⁹

▪ Will the CAO’s of geoengineering and HAARP be tried and condemned for acts of supreme conceit and criminality (before it’s too late)?

The list could go on and on.

And for those who think that God (plus all the above) is just another blinding paradigm, I suppose we shall all know, sooner or later.

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1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities
2. http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/ ; See also YouTube on geoengineering: e.g., David Lim, March 2013.at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h57c3WtSiM8 (1:23:55 min.) ; Dane Wigington at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ-tph5s_GM (48:05 min.), etc.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Frequency_Active_Auroral_Research_Program ; see also http://www.earthpulse.com/src/category.asp?catid=1 ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74b-gA9qq3o ; Book: Angels Don't Play This HAARP by Nick Begich and Jeane Manning; Word-Picture; http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/09/p-con-002-not-to-worry.html
4. http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/Corporatism
5. GMO, etc.: http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2012/10/some-choice.html
6. The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain by John E. Sarno, M.D.; Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker; podcast: Robert Whitaker on Psychiatric Drugs at http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/features/2014/06/08/robert-whitaker-on-psychiatric-drugs/
7. Electric Universe: https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/ ; http://www.holoscience.com/wp/
8. This is not to say that modern scientific and mechanistic man has not achieved incredible things (a current example being the Rosetta mission: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft)), but it is to say: It is highly unlikely that our mechanical and energy systems are the only or even most efficient systems possible in making great discoveries or advancements. Much has been lost from the past, even as our advancements will be lost in time if we do not learn the philosophic and moral lessons of history.
9. Whether one agrees with their politics or not, there is much to learn from the facts and warning voices of Chris Hedges, Chalmers Johnson, Jeremy Scahill, Naomi Klein, Stephen Kinzer, Noam Chomsky, etc., etc., etc. Take time to read their books or "YouTube" them. It’s time! Perhaps past time.

“Public Enemy #1”?

Quotes from the BBC documentary, Psychopath¹:

▪ “There are few more emotive words in the English language than psychopath—a clinical word for a condition that has only recently begun to be properly defined.”
▪ “[There are] tens of thousands of other people out there who are psychopaths but are not serial killers.”
▪ “And by far the vast majority are neither criminal nor in prison. But the kind of harm that psychopaths can cause at home and in the workplace is deeply damaging and costly in every sense.”
▪ “There is something missing. [The psychopath] has no compunctions.”
▪ “They are dangerous, without a conscience, and all around us.”
▪ “In the workplace, they often disrupt and destroy the good working of the business or an operation …”
▪  “[They are] “Public Enemy #1.”

So:
If one in every one-hundred people² manifests psychopathy in our present world;

If this one percent causes highly disproportionate injury relative to their numbers;

If most of us equate psychopaths with acts of violence, horror, and criminality;

If, in fact, most psychopaths inflict their harm and chaos in more inconspicuous, subtle ways³ through:

◦ pathological lying;
◦ cunning, conning, and manipulation;
◦ charm, sincerity, earnestness (when it suits their purpose);
◦ remorseless, callous behaviors;
◦ seeding contention and confusion;
◦ denial, maligning, blaming others, refusing responsibility;
◦ living without conscience; without empathy.

If such behaviors are becoming more of an issue in communities, business, and government;

If we are reluctant to name “mid-grade” psychopaths for what they are because they don’t manifest in shocking headlines, and because the term “psychopath” is such an emotionally-charged word;

THEN maybe we should affix some prefix to the term “psychopath” to get past our hesitation to name what has become a devastating problem with increasing numbers of victims.

Of course, there is concern about labeling people,⁴ but how many family members, employers / employees, and others endure endless confusion and mental / spiritual abuse because they do not know how to recognize or name behavior patterns that are “mid-grade” psychopathic?

So, what should we call a person who will not maim or kill the body, but who is obsessed with maiming and destroying the psyche (and often, the reputation) of others through remorseless, pathological lying, conning, manipulation, etc.?

What should we call people (including corporate faux-persons) who twist everything into a self-serving, destructive distortion?

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1.BBC documentary, Psychopath:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LE-UlvzmoM
2. In Britain, the ratio is estimated to be one in every two-hundred, while one in one-hundred is an American statistic; see the BBC documentary at the beginning and at 16:15 min.
3. Some of this list comes from Prof. Robert Hare’s Checklist and some from other observations. Hare’s Checklist for the full psychopathy spectrum can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_Checklist . See also a prior Déjà Vu post concerning this subject at http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/05/a-plague-of-psychopaths.html
4. TEDx talk: “How to Spot a Psychopath” by Jon Ronson (14:24 min.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaBTbMW3vbc . Anyone who has suffered at the hands of a psychopath (mid-grade or otherwise), may find JR’s presentation quite flippant. His concern about labeling however is worthy of consideration, but without Prof. Hare’s work, we might still be in the state of confusion and turmoil that allows psychopaths to wreak their havoc without being counted or accountable. Nonetheless, we should proceed with caution, taking Prof. Hare’s advice that a few checklist characteristics do not make a psychopath: “What you have got to do is have a cluster or combination of characteristics that hangs together.”

Free for All Some

If you were a writer and wanted to hype your income (and had the means), a sure-fire way to do it would be to buy tons of your own books and store them in some warehouse. Then after a short period of time, you could put them back on the market—with a price increase, of course, because sales had been so phenomenal. (Supply! Interest! Demand! you know!) Then after a time, you could buy your unsold books back again. The cycle could repeat itself several times before things began to wear thin (like the cover perhaps; or the disparity between income and cost).

So far, this buyback strategy seems to be working for many of our HyPEs (Highly Paid Employees) in the corporate world. For them, it works to have the corp buy back its shares. The share price goes up; the bright HyPE looks great; s/he collects the contracted "performance" bonus; and thereafter spends more time at work trying to figure out how to make it happen again; and where to spend or invest the income bump.

 Buyback is becoming a super duper¹ profitable strategy (at least for some).

Here is the take by financial writer Don Pittis²:

If someone handed you a bundle of free cash, would you stop working?

Perhaps that's what has happened to our economy. As governments create more and more free money ^[3]— in the form of no-interest loans — and inject it into the financial system, companies have stopped investing in the future.

Instead, as Edward Luce noted the other day in the Financial Times, companies are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into share buybacks that produce nothing. Except higher share prices, and therefore higher executive bonuses.

"If you need an explanation for why the top 0.1 per cent is doing so well," says Luce,^[4] that is where to look. Luce's solution is to change the rules so that executive earnings are based on something other than short-term share prices.

The proposed solutions may need a second look, but here again, we see (déjà vu!) one more case of the “Growth Fund” syndrome.⁵

How long do we keep duping ourselves?

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1. http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/11/confession-of-dupe-dealer.html or http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/Dupers
2. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/free-money-for-all-could-jumpstart-the-economy-don-pittis-1.2775647?cmp=rss  (cbcnews Business: Don Pittis, Sep 24, 2014)
3. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/desperately-seeking-economic-health-in-the-era-of-free-money-don-pittis-1.2756004 (cbcnews Business: Don Pittis, Sep 05, 2014)
4. The article in the Financial Times, dated September 21, 2014, and written by Edward Luce is titled: “The short-sighted US buyback boom.” It can be found, if you have an FT subscription, at: http://www.ft.com/home/us
5. http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/04/growth-funds.html ; http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vast-fund-of-stupidity-recycling.html

TransAlta Culpa (Again) ?

A bottomless pit of contrivance?
(from office.microsoft.com)

A few days ago in Alberta, a heat spike was forecast. The power-generating giant TransAlta seems to have anticipated its own spike as two of its large coal-fired electricity generating plants were shut down for “unscheduled maintenance” creating a classic supply and demand divergence—huge demand with limited supply, with the resultant classic free-market spike.

Are we surprised? Why shouldn’t this be the rational, transnational strategy for all corporations that “live and breathe” the bottom line? Makes perfect cents (by the trillions).

Oh, and yes! We have seen this before. As recently as February of this year at:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/transalta-accused-of-manipulating-energy-prices-in-alberta-1.2554508?cmp=rss (*) Quote:

“Alberta's power-generating giant TransAlta has been accused of market manipulation again.
“The power company is in trouble with the province's electricity watchdog — the Market Surveillance Administrator (MSA).
“It says the company shut down some of its power plants on four occasions during peak periods in 2010 and 2011, driving up prices.
“TransAlta rejects the allegations, but the case is already prompting calls for tougher regulation of the electricity market. …
“… this isn't the first time TransAlta has faced allegations like this.
“The company was fined $370,000 in 2012 for market manipulation.”

So what does free market really mean? Free to manipulate supply and demand for profit? Free to get off almost scot-free when caught? Free to repeat in endless déjà vu?

And what power-generating corporation has not clued into this “spike and spin-dry” strategy? When weighing gains and losses, who can resist?

So, in years to come, will our current free-marketeer defenders be judged as blind and deaf to “realities” (as passionately unobserving) as those we have judged from the so-called “dark ages”?

Is dummkoph-ish the word that springs to mind for our day (and for all of us who sit back and let this happen time and again)?

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* See also: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/transalta-admits-to-manipulating-electricity-prices-1.976969

High-Frequency Déjà Vu

If you are a believer in “free-markets” and laissez-faire, perhaps an excursion beyond Milton Friedman (& company) might prove useful.

Here is one suggestion:

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis © 2014

In trying to unravel a Wall Street mystery, several people, hired and headed by Brad Katsuyama of RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), pursued the threads of evidence and history. One of those pursuers was John Schwall who went “digging around the Staten Island library” looking at other Wall Street scandals. Here is how Lewis describes it:

Several days later [John Schwall had] worked his way back to the late 1800s. The entire history of Wall Street was the story of scandals, it now seemed to him, linked together tail to trunk like circus elephants. Every systemic market injustice arose from some loophole in a regulation created to correct some prior injustice. “No matter what the regulators did, some other intermediary found a way to react, so there would be another form of front-running,”^[1] he said. … He’d learned several important things, he told his colleagues. First, there was nothing new about the behavior they were at war with. The U.S. financial markets had always been either corrupt or about to be corrupted. Second, there was zero chance that the problem would be solved by financial regulators; or, rather, the regulators might solve the narrow problem of front-running in the stock market by high-frequency traders, but whatever they did to solve the problem would create yet another opportunity for financial intermediaries to make money at the expense of investors. ... (p. 103)

So, here is a suggestion for those who “worship at the altar of the free-market”² (like conservative Gerry Nicholls²). Please: open your eyes and ears to the high-frequency déjà vu of the faux-free, faux-efficiency, faux-self-correction, faux-hype, etc., etc., surrounding corporate capitalism.

from office.microsoft.com

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1. “Front running is the illegal practice of a stockbroker [or high-frequency trader, et al.] executing orders on a security [or buying/selling] for its own account while taking advantage of advance knowledge of pending orders from its customers [or other investors, buyers, sellers, or brokers.]. …” quoted from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_running
2. Quote from conservative Gerry Nicholls at minute 9:50 on CBC “The Current”: episode titled, “What is the Future of Public Broadcasting in Canada?” broadcast May 14, 2014.) http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/current_20140514_13102.mp3