The oppressive power of Doxa lies in the co-opted entitlement to construct and control the very terms of discourse and created meanings - in this case, so that sexual intimacy that may be experienced by someone like Ms. Clark-Flory as vital, rewarding, pleasurable, comforting, integrative, non-controlling, actualizing, creative of social relatedness and support, etc. is framed purposefully and negatively as “casual”, i.e. without seriousness, not having important roles or value. The very (constructed, shame-serving) idea that these relational connections would need a “defense” is the power of Matrix to deny what we experience as real.

Sex, on the other hand, that serves development-arresting and behavior-controlling social structures like marriage, blood ties, family honor and loyalty, legacy, biological lineage and entitlement - and their pathological correlates of shame, enmeshment, failed differentiation, mood and other disorders, aggression, etc. - is constructed as normative and sanctioned. Everything’s a little upside down, as the poet said. As with any issue of import, language and meaning, itself constructed to enforce and maintain the maladaptive, symptom-producing and sanctioned forms of intimacy, largely fails. But art and its evocation of felt archetypes, as usual, provide some guidance, as in the recent film “The Other Boleyn Girl” and more powerfully yet, “Never Forever”.

Ms. Clark-Flory seems torn between authentically and bravely asserting her intimacies as positive, integrative experiences and yet ultimately framing her narrative within sanctioned orthodoxy, reconstructing her partners with labels lowering their value, framing them as means to the sanctioned end of commitment and possessed, contractual intimacy, lessons for ultimately becoming a good girl.

but is about a culture, a collective conscious, that could astoundingly construct an over-achieving, fibbing, church-going boy and a cognitively impaired, criminally disordered adolescent male as “candidates” or potential “leader”, then distract itself from that pathology by arguing over which of them engaged first in name-calling.

“His growing organization has 3,500 members so far, and its glittering honorary committee includes such celebrities . . .”

The author seems, quite unselfconsciously, to tip us immediately to the type of audience the article is intended for, and the type of audience that might be stimulated by a charismatic political candidate.

than My Country’s Flag waving, with a handsome man urging me to defeat the enemy to protect our freedoms, freedoms that bring markets and prosperity. The blinding intelligence behind a plan that will solve terrorism and the drug pandemic once we “rout” the terrorists and the traffickers makes me tremble. I demand to know why this hasn’t been tried before now!

There’s not much that could stir me more.

Well , OK . . . . unless that man’s in a flight suit, and he’s telling me “Mission Accomplished”.

than My Country’s Flag waving, with a handsome man urging me to defeat the enemy to protect our freedoms, freedoms that bring markets and prosperity. The blinding intelligence behind a plan that will solve terrorism and the drug pandemic once we actually “rout” the terrorists and the traffickers makes me tremble. I demand to know why this hasn’t been tried before now!

There’s not much that could stir me more.

Well , OK . . . . unless that man’s in a flight suit, and he’s telling me “Mission Accomplished”.

including some recipes?

One of Us, in ways that will be vitally comforting in our serious striving ahead to kill the enemies, to pay the price, as our God guides us. A leader who is so like us, validating us, protecting against inner dissonance, soothing, like a little wine, a hymn, a victory, some euphoria, like a little dementia.

in the vacuum of inauthenticity, where caricature can trigger fear and a poser, childlike devotion, while a burning flag is cause for concern, not celebration.

Thanks for your important and, as usual, freakishly well-written insights on social malevolence, in this case “The Cleaner”.

The 75 percent relapse rate for traditional treatment is nonsense – it is much closer to 85 to 95 percent, consistent with the real likelihood that incidence of relapse is higher in that subculture than for individuals who somehow escape (by not being court mandated or kidnapped) this form of “treatment” altogether. There is no (none) research evidence to suggest that traditional interventions (AA/NA, 12-Step) are in any sense effective forms of treatment for chemical dependency. The principles embodied in these approaches are in fact known to be countertherapeutic.

Even that picture ignores these transparent yet well-disguised outcomes:

1. Individuals in these traditional programs (AA/NA, 12-Step) are encouraged to, and do, substitute addictive use of alternative harmful substances, primarily nicotine and food, for alcohol or the illicit drug they are in the process of relapsing to. Their addictive use is encouraged, normalized and ritualized within the NA/AA subcultures.

2. The addictive use of food, resulting obesity, and comorbid conditions may kill the addict about as quickly as their drug of choice would have. Obviously more so for nicotine, one of the most addictive, harmful, socially costly substances we know, which is also established to be a gateway drug (i.e. is known to lead back to use of alcohol and street drugs). In affected families, children learn that what “clean and sober” actually means is normalized addiction to the gateway drug nicotine. That will influence their choices later in life.

The compulsive story-telling in these subcultures of addiction is actually integral to their purpose: avoidance of therapeutic here-and-now processing of inner material provides escape from the discomfort of real change and escape from fear of addressing the underlying issues driving addiction.

If I were a writer attempting to put some type of positive cover on all of this damage, I imagine I might resort to some childhood version of religiosity as well.

For a depressing look at how the medical industry, traditional treatment industry, and parents help trap kids in this subculture of addiction and cycle of relapse: “Beautiful Boy”, by David Sheff.