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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I'm sure that the people who posted before me, all probably fans of Pat O'Brien and Kato, his little blonde gay troll on "The Insider," are still tittering and giggling over the fate of these celebrities. The real point has passed them at Mach 2 over their tiny little heads.
Which is that psychiatry and rehabilitation are pretentious, phony institutions that allow the guilty - at least the wealthy guilty - to get off scot free. Now, psychiatry CAN help if the person wants to reform, and so can rehab under the same circumstances. But the entire process must take place within the person, and that person must admit that he or she has a problem they want to correct.
The only problem these folks admit is that they got caught. I can't imagine a man as powerful as Gibson, who can get all the free sex he wants with a bat of his eye, ever feeling real regret for his contemptuous behavior towards women. And Isaiah Washington's prejudice against gays is far too common, even in "sophisticated" Hollywood, for anyone except gays to complain about. The people protesting him are probably just as homophobic, but they had the common sense not to speak their prejudices in public.
These celebrities killed the albatross, and they hired expensive, babble-talking help to try to cover up the dead bird around their necks with some bling, and maybe a sensitivity slogan t-shirt. And I'm not even angry at them for this. I'm angry that, to people who DO need help and might possibly afford to get it, this will make all psychiatric help seem like a lie to them.
If the American Psychiatric Association was truly moral, they'd decry this business. But then, they're the ones who are making the big bucks off these phony consultations, aren't they?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
