Wednesday, June 5, 2013

PCG's Ron Fraser Mocks DSM-5 Because The PCG Is An Authority On Mental Illness



Philadelphia Church of God's Ron Fraser has written an article on mental illness.  Of course, as any COG leader is fit to do, he mocks and ridicules those that attempt to work with people.

So it was eventually, following a brief flirtation with “things,” that I settled for a career in what has since become known as the human resources field.

Entry into this field as a professional demanded at least some study in psychology. Little did I know what I was in for. But it did not take long to find out. The whole field of human behaviorists was infected by an anti-God, evolutionary rationale.

What about the anti-god abusive tripe that Gerald Flurry dumps on his members?  What about the broken marriages and families?  What about the deaths and suicides caused by Gerald's lies?  What about the grandparents who ignore their children and grandchildren all because a lying pig told them to not talk to them?

Next he mocks the DSM that defines who mental illness is and its many symptoms.  Because much of what it describes is a byproduct of Flurryism and Armstrongism, I can understand why Fraser is upset with it.

Ungodly and evolutionary to the core, the pseudo-science of psychology—following a century and more of foisting its trickery off on to a gullible public seeking basic answers to the most fundamental of human questions—stands largely revealed as a fraud. The latest evidence of this is the recent publicity given to the unreliability of the psychologist’s bible, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (dsm). As the Economist recently headlined, it “remains a flawed attempt to categorize mental illness” (May 18).

Fraser has to resort to negative reviews of the book to substantiate his article.  He does not quote the positive reviews and ignores them completely.

The authors are 'chalatans':

Perhaps this would not be much of a problem if the book was placed in the category reserved for charlatan authors.

Then he dishes brain surgery:

But what faith can you place in this tome when the psychiatrist who led the team that produced its fifth edition, Allen Frances, declares in his own blog, “The publication of dsm-5 is a sad moment for psychiatry and a risky one for patients. My recommendation for clinicians is simple. Don’t use dsm-5—there is nothing official about it, nothing especially helpful in it .…”

This is the same individual who declared that “The human brain is the most impossibly complex thing in the universe. It does not yield its secrets easily.”

Nevertheless we continue to slice people’s craniums open to determine, for instance, how the operation of the left side of the brain varies from that of the right, and to experiment with brain surgery in hugely risky operations in which man was never designed to be engaged.

ADHD is a sign of poor parenting and not a chemical imbalance or other issues:

Of course adhd has been an identifiable childhood “illness” for decades. When I was a child, the school teacher quite correctly identified such behavior as resulting from poor parenting. Children who had been taught to sit down on command, sit still and listen to their parent at home, enacted the same habit at school. Ill-disciplined children remained ill-disciplined at home and school, with the result that they suffered from an entire lack of focus on the teacher. They thus failed to receive the knowledge he or she was imparting, yielding a poor degree of learning, which inevitably resulted in poor grades. 
 Of course there is a secret plot behind all of this.  Its those nasty Germans again!  Apparently this is the first wave of the German invasion to take the Israelites captive.

Almost 40 years ago, when I began studying psychology as a student, I could not help but note that the main names attached to the establishment and growth of this field of study were Germanic.

Never fear though, the Bible is the only authoritative book that deals specifically with mental illness:

We have at our disposal the plain and simple truth about man, why man is, what his destiny is, and how to achieve success in life, contained in one book of about 1,400 pages, called the Word of God. In fact, it is our Maker’s textbook on human behavior. Yet our so-called “experts” on human behavior would rather rely on an admittedly false text, prescribing false “cures” (don’t read the drug companies’ disclaimers whatever you do, they will scare you out of your wits), which often just engender secondary illnesses, some of which can become life-threatening. 

Don't you mind feel freer just reading this?  Of course you must first become a legalistic law keeper worshipping at the feet of Herbert Armstrong's prayer rock in Edmond, OK.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

How would you like Ron Fraser to council you or your family? I find that possibility a very scary proposition.

Redfox712 said...

Also sad to note are the sycophantic comments claiming this article is so profound and meaningful.

Including one comment by a person who says he/she last week received "timely counseling" from a minister and decided to quit his or her job in the mental health care profession. (The commenter is vague.)

DennisCDiehl said...

The human mind and brain is probably the most awesome receiver of waves outside our skulls one can imagine... A few lbs of colesteral woven into an electrical template upon which all experiences of the outside world get into our skulls and turned into experience and memory.

I'd say church leaders need to leave the study of how it works and what can screw it up to others who dedicate their lives to such things, and have the intellect to understand it or speculate about it.

The brain fools us into thinking we directly experience the world outside but in reality EVERTHING we experience is only inside the head.

If a tree falls in the forrest and there is no ear there to hear it, does it make a sound? No it does not. Falling trees make waves in the air and all sound is ONLY sound AFTER the wave reaches the ear, is turned into an electrical signal which is turned into a sound inside the head. The world outside our head is stone cold silent full of waves and frequencies.

Color is only in our heads and it is possible that light itself only illuminates inside the head after the photon passes through the eye and is turned into a picture the size of a credit card inside and on the back of our brain. Whoa!!

Mental disorders are many and religion plays its part in both causing it and perhaps helping one cope with it. The brain is also in the blood as it secretes the appropriate chemicals that lead to our emotions . Emotions are the body's reaction to the chemistry produced by the brain.

Religion can cause many emotions both good and in the case of PKG, PCG, RCG etc, really intense ones stirred up by memories and experiences with them.

Personally my hope is it's all a hologram and reality is not quite what we think it is being much much more and for amazing reasons we are yet to clearly discover.

DennisCDiehl said...

On balance, I went through a time where anti depressants seemed to be the route. Depression, in my view and experience is rooted in anger that one A. Feels they have no right to express or B. Has a price attached to it that is too high to pay. As a result, we pack it in and it produces the chemistry of depression.

Meds can repress those receptors but do leave one rather ambivilent about most things which is not facing the issues in reality and moving on. The doc said I'd be on them "the rest of your life." I recall thinking.."umm....wrong.."

Anxiety, mostly caused by churches...lol, is fear of the future. I think if one could combine Ativan with Snickers it would be the perfect food LOL. Unfortunately, Ativan is a class C narcotic and addicting. But is certainly relieves the anxiety that can be quite damaging to the body. Again, the solution is to address the issue that causes the anxiety or learn the art of letting go, none clinging and grasping at things that are not real or go away just like everything else on this planet and in life.

With regard to PCG and other one man religious shows...Med's may help one to stay or leave but leaving and thinking for oneself is the cure.

Anonymous said...

Charlatans? Charlatans? Really?

Your qualifications, sir?

Oh, I see -- you are a disciple of a dead false prophet.

The DSM-5 is well positioned for the pharmaceutical companies, so go to a qualified psychiatrist and he can fix you right up with the appropriate meds.

And your leader... let's see... Gerald Flurry... yes, yes... has a DUI. Well, sir, he needs to be checked in to rehab to insure his status -- to see if he is an alcoholic. It's inherited, so if his mother is an alcoholic, it's certain he is.

And the DSM-5 certainly describes the PCG rather well in the section of "Cluster B" personality disorders. We like the part about narcissists (Mikey has his own copy of the DSM-5 and will likely comment on it in association with cults this weekend).

Best though, we call in Dr. Paul Babiak and Dr. Robert Hare and check out the PCG leadership with the PCL (Psychopath Check List). We'd like to be excruciatingly accurate in our assessments of sociopathy over there in the PCG, particularly in the leadership, especially with your founder who has delusions of grandeur as "That Prophet", claiming as it were that he is Jesus Christ in full living color (well, Flurry is looking a bit pale these days), in the flesh. That is undoubtedly covered in the DSM-5, but my cat hasn't checked out the specifics yet.

Oh, all right -- you'd rather we resort to Scripture then. Fine. 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.


We also like Matthew 7:15-23:

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.


We don't have to tell you how much trouble you're in, but since you are atheists, it makes no difference to you, does it?

Unknown said...

DSM-5...

Wasnt that one of the series in the "Star Trek" franchise?

Joe Moeller
Cody, WY

PS- Set your "FRASERS" on stun!

Head Usher said...

"the pseudo-science of psychology—following a century and more of foisting its trickery off on to a gullible public seeking basic answers to the most fundamental of human questions—stands largely revealed as a fraud."
Wait, is he talking about the COGs, or something else here? Sounds like he's talking about the COGs to me...

The funny thing is, then he turns his own hand to psychologizing, as if he knew wtf he was talking about:
"When I was a child, the school teacher quite correctly identified such behavior as resulting from poor parenting. Children who had been taught to sit down on command, sit still and listen to their parent at home, enacted the same habit at school. Ill-disciplined children remained ill-disciplined at home and school, with the result that they suffered from an entire lack of focus on the teacher."
So, according to his theory of psychology, people are like dogs or robots. You program them, or train them, and if they aren't perfect little automatons, that means you didn't program them correctly. What a shit-for-brains.

Then he follows it all up with the tired old, "we have the book with all the plain truth you'll ever need blah blah blah..." Those aren't answers, they're bronze age superstition that aren't true and don't work.

Byker Bob said...

Any strength, practiced to extreme, becomes a weakness or liability. The people who are philosophically aligned with the teachings of HWA, in their zeal for purity, actually elliminate and sideline all too many of the things which could elevate the quality of their members' lives.

The basic problem is, as anyone who ever read the last paragraph of a Plain Truth article knows, these organizations teach that there is no solution to virtually anything until the return of Jesus Christ. They deliberately reject solutions which could partially diminish bad impacts. For them, it's floorboard the accelerator pedal, or floor the brake pedal. The perpetuation of their numbers is based on keeping members on edge. They simply don't want anyone finding the many beneficial solutions which come from outside of their pathetic orgs. You gotta drink their Kool Aid daily, buying totally into them and their infinite wisdom or, they being the gatekeepers, will relegate you to Laodecean status, which makes you the worst pariah.

BB

Anonymous said...

Yep!
Whether it's the RCG franchise of armstrongism, the UCG franchise of armstrongism, the PCG franchise of armstrongism, the LCG franchise of armstrongism, or many other armstrongist franchises, they're all teaching bronze age superstition and pretending it's modern, more scientific and more advanced than it really is.

No wonder these "churches" overwhelmingly have elderly adherents who cannot shake the indoctrination they got from Herbie, and these "churches" are steadily dying in numbers.

(Some are dying more quickly, such as the UCG suddenly and recently losing one third of it's members and half of it's ministers!)

Anonymous said...

Ron Fraser said
"—following a century and more of foisting its trickery off on to a gullible public seeking basic answers to the most fundamental of human questions—stands largely revealed as a fraud."
Hmmm, that sounds familiar.
Psychology and psychiatry has flaws too, but at least they have many more categories to catalog dysfunction with several possible ways to treat those inflicted. Armstrongism seems to only have 'it's a government problem', 'demon posession' and prayer.

another seekeroftruth

Unknown said...

Another case where the COG tries to act like an expert in fields that they have no history in, experience, or even practical knowledge.

The Bible is not an encyclopedia reference book. It is a philosophical and religious book. God left the other areas of knowledge open for our exploration and discovery.

Some few ministers have actually had true education and degrees in the field of psychology,... these include Dave Antion and Bill Jacobs.

The UCG has made progress in realizing their own shortcoming in regards to counsel. They appear to openly suggest specific field medical advice, personal counseling , financial planning, and outside educational and vocational pursuit.

There is still some small amount of old school element there in those regards, but it appears to be rapidly fading.

Ministers are not gurus, shamans, or keepers of the "urim and thummim". Learn to self treat, and seek good advice from specific experts .

Joe Moeller
Cody, WY

Byker Bob said...

I knew someone who had been raised in old school WCG. (this is not autobiographical, in case anyone is wondering. Upon arrival at AC, my friend took the standard battery of aptitude and personality tests which were administered by the faculty. He was actually shocked by the sheer level of abberance and warpedness which these tests uncovered, and spent years (unknown to the ministry or faculty) working to systematically correct them.

Here's the take-away from his experience: Psychiatry, psychology, and the field of behavioral science in general will expose the personality disorders and mental illnesses directly caused by Armstrongism. What can the cult leaders possibly say about this other than these fields are of man, or of Satan? Their reaction to this is perfectly predictable!

BB

Anonymous said...

"Ministers are not gurus, shamans, or keepers of the "urim and thummim"."

What are they, then?
There are so many armstrongist groups! But, let's take the example of the armstrongist "ministers" of the United Church of God as an example:

They lied and cheated covertly, plotting their break from the WCG while they disfellowshipped people for believing exactly what they believed, just so they could ensure their retirement monies and positions of power over dumb sheep would remain intact.