Week 3 Presentation - Miguel Flores

View full write up here
View group presentation here

Week 3 Presentation Outline

Mental Health Industrial Complex and Clash of Self
by Miguel Flores

• Introduction
• Mental health is deeply stigmatized in our society. Many are afraid to be labeled as mentally unstable or insane so they try to normalize themselves by adhering to the prescribed treatment stated in the DSM - a manual of mental disorders agreed upon by a group of "experts." These decisions are often motivated and influenced by big pharma companies!
• Western medicine is becoming a lucrative market and many big pharma companies are raking in profit by justifying the uses of their drugs.
• In this presentation, we will discuss three things
• The justification of science and its role in diagnosing uncertain mental disorders
• Big Pharma Companies: Disease mongering for the sake of $$$
• Indian Psychology and Western Psychology 
• Normal vs Abnormal
• The justification of mental disorder and instability as the symbol of birth and gift for spiritual healing 
• What a Shaman sees in a mental hospital?
• Big Pharma Companies
• A huge multiplex of industries that conditions society that there's such a thing as a wide spectrum of mental disorders (disorders decided and made up by "experts")
• It is all about the money 
• Formulation of drugs for mental illness – clinical trials run by the pharma companies themselves
• Finding loopholes in FDA regulations
• Creating false facts: There is no such thing as Chemical Imbalances
• Propaganda ran by greedy pharma companies to get us to think that what we are experiencing is not normal 
• Creating a controlled political economy – everything in the name of money 
• Tight relationships between:
•  Insurance companies
• Doctors/Psychiatrists
• Drug Manufacturers
• Drug Companies 
• Responsible for disease mongering 
• Scaring consumers by developing mental health issues that are made up or don’t exist
• To prescribe drugs
• More prescription = more money 
• Misdiagnosis of certain mental “disorders”
• No scientific basis
• Skewed studies manipulated to create fear among people
• Creating a diagnosis book not backed by science but agreed upon by psychiatrists with close connections to big pharmaceutical companies
• Collaboration between Indian and Western Psychology
• Science and Spiritual Diversity – developing more certain psychological explanations
• Making connections and relations between spiritual and western psychology 
• Indian Psychology 
• Reclaims traditional beliefs while refining modern psychology 
• 3 modes of knowing 
• Cumulative 
• Intellectual/Theoretical 
• Religious/Spiritual
• Collaborative research on the psychology of spirituality/ religion, and for integrating theoretical, empirical, and experiential/realization-based modes of knowing
• There are still terms and conditions need to be defined
• More research on the uncertainties 
• Conduct studies on a large sample of the population 
• Empirical work vs Experience and Realization 
• A combination of strengths to manage challenges in the diversity of cultures, beliefs, and experiences
• Spiritual belief systems, practices, and rituals 
• Shamans being ‘born” in mental wards 
• Different energies trying to dwell in an individual 
• The birth of a healer 
• In Western culture, such disorder is labeled as mentally insane
• Episodes as taking control of foreign energies 
• Learning how to realign it 
• The western world longs for a spiritual connection, that is why they miss the signs of a person becoming a healer
• Normal vs Abnormal by Shana Bulhan Haydock 
• A cookie cutter mental diagnosis, trying to streamline the human experience
• Social engineering 
• We should act a certain way
• Guidelines for being “normal”
• If you are not normal in the eyes of the people, you can be seen as abnormal – someone who has mental health issues
• "Abnormal" in today’s terms:
• You need fixing 
• You need medication 
• You need therapy 
• You are a distraction, a burden, you are broken...etc.
• We are partaking in consumerism/experiment where human experience is standardized and we're conditioned to think a certain way 
• Profitability of the health care industry
• Western psychology relying on collective decisions of psychiatrists
• Neurodivergence/Neuroatypical - challenging the norms and universalization of human experience and behavior
• Being too divergent is a threat to society 
• Not normal according to social politics 
• People who deal with the negativity of social perception often turns to other things as a coping mechanism to have temporary relief and escape from the harsh reality of our society
• People turn to alternative ways of healing to reassure themselves, to find validation, and to have positivity in their lives. 
• Tarot cards, for example, helps people reflect back on themselves
• Tarot Cards
• A book of wisdom disguised as cards
• 78 cards in a deck and it is separated into two 
• Major and Minor Arcana (secrets)
• History 
• An oracle that could tell things about yourself 
• To reflect on your life 
• Not for fortune telling 
• To be used on your own personal process and advancements 
• What should you know about yourself? 
• How to know your self? How to know your best self?
• First appeared in Italy during the Renaissance
• The Invention of the printing press
• To synthesize all our knowledge about the mystery of life
• A combination of different philosophies 
• It was designed as a playing card, but followers of the occult saw the symbols on the cards could be interpreted to have meaning behind it
• Later on, they used the card as a divination tool 
• Other histories:
• The sole surviving book of life from ancient Egypt 
• The hieroglyphical keys to life 
• Today there are many versions of tarot cards, but regardless of the versions of cards, they all serve the same purpose: to reflect back in our lives and to know about ourselves.
• Emergency Box Tarot Cards for Asian Americans: Examining Mental Health
• In Asian American communities, mental health dealt with self-isolation and masked within a person. The issue is heavily stigmatized in our communities and it is hard to approach when our upbringing taught us to ignore it or deal with in our own. This often leads to severe repercussions and long term mental issues. 
• The cards and tools in the emergency box serve as tools to help people in the community to cope and validate themselves that they are not alone. 
• The following cards below speaks volumes on how we can heal through words of wisdom, assurance, and validations.
• The Prisoner
• The eighteenth card in major arcana 
• A minority, an outsider, but very powerful
• The fight for the racialized injustices throughout the prison industrial complex
• Signal to dismantle oppression and to start a social revolution   
• The Patient
• The 6th card in major arcana
• Not a patient
• Death and mortality 
• Middle finger: a journey through life full of anger and fear
• We're just borrowing our bodies and soon we will be in our death beds as patients 
• The Survivor
• The 14th card in major arcana
• Someone who has been through much 
• A body that is tired
• The card reminds us of our ancestors and who we are today 
• The power of vulnerability 
• Fortune telling cards: The thriving communities of fortune tellers in a predominantly Catholic country 
• In Manila Philippines, you can have your palm read or opt for a fortune telling session with a teller
• Fortune tellers lined up on the perimeter of Quiapo Church, fees ranging from $1.00 to $5.00 per session depending on how long or how elaborate you want your readings to be
• Tellers making ends meet to provide for their family, it's their only source of income
• Often condemned by the church, but many believe in these tellers
• Practices and rituals are a mix of traditional and western methods 
• Conclusion 
• Western medicine has been branded as a manipulative industrial complex that's engineering the way we act and think. 
• The industry's corrupt political economy gets to decide whatever they want and sees consumers as cash cows that are easily gullible into believing that certain mental issues are not normal and in need of medicating it.
• Despite big pharma's manipulative agendas and marketing strategies, we still defy the odds, we defy the uncertain by turning to alternative forms of healing. 
• We start to embrace mental health issue and destigmatize it by accepting it for what it is
• Despite epistemic challenges, we see a slow movement and collaboration between Eastern and Western psychology. 
• We see developments in healing the mind, body, and soul - a whole new treatment on its own

View full write up here
View group presentation here