The social sciences suck. I was watching Democracy Now this morning and saw a news blurb that the American Psychological Association has been linked in some way to U.S. torture practices. Some leaked memos implicate the American Psychological Association in collusion with waterboarding an forms of torture. I guess if we see the social sciences– psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and so on –as benevolent paradigms of study and practice, sciences designed to help people and cure them of mental illness, then I suppose we’d all be shocked and bewildered that prestigious institutions of those sciences are dabbling in torture.

But the social sciences are NOT benevolent paradigms designed to help people. Consider: when cops and courts impose social norms on you, you’re a criminal. When priests and rabbis impose social norms on you, they call you a sinner. When SHRINKS impose social norms on you, they call you “mentally ill.” The shrinkhood is a tool of the established order, and a powerful one. When cops put a label on you, you can still get past that because you’ve done your time and people change. When priests and rabbis label you that’s just some superstitious hokum. But when the thought-police shrinkhood labels you, you’re NUTS. The social sciences have the illusion of being “scientific” and “objective” when they brand you for life. But their criteria for branding you is far from scientific. Continue reading →