The Subversive Therapist

Twentieth-century European fascism boasted of a strong State run by a right-wing Fuher or demagogue, i.e., dictator. Both in Italy and Nazi Germany, the nuclear family was central to the enthusiasm for patriotic nationalism and militarism. The fascist parties ran on anti-democratic and anti-capitalist platforms; this was their con. The parties were pro-corporatism or in other words demanded a “cor...

On the surface, the War game version of Kick Me is two-handed. During World War II, 120,000 Japanese were in American detention camps after the Pearl Harbor attack. The U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan as retaliation for the attack despite World War II being effectively over. This was an act of “asserting America’s military supremacy.” Therefore, arrogance and supremacy drive these fanatical...

The set up to Mass Shooter is “I will destroy the world and then kill myself.”  In simple terms, the War game version of Now I’ve Got You, You SOB! is the climax of Mass Shooter. Both games involve the Othering of a certain person, group, or ethnicity, which creates an obstruction between oneself and the Other. The same can be said for competing nation-states. This Othering justifies violent retal...

This episode includes a discussion of the history of the swastika as well as a discussion of War (e.g., assassination of al-Zawari) and Media games (Ain’t It Awful). The U.S. war machine influences the mainstream media to manufacture consent for war. In the book, “The Gulf War Did Not Take Place,” Jean Baudrillard describes how totalizing media coverage of an event, e.g., war, is an invitation int...

The psychotherapy patient is trained to walk into the therapy room to sit or lie down on the couch. Immediately they begin to describe their life by speaking in longform. This is a pastime: a semi-ritualistic and socially programmed activity of updating the therapist with their status as a self. When the patient sits down, they launch their Status Update: the patient assists the therapist in helpi...

In the book, “The Recovery of the True Self,” psychiatrist Robert Phillips states that “all of the animals other than the human animal have an uncomplicated family-life. “Child-rearing” among those animals looks rather simple and straightforward. The offspring are born, they are faithfully fed and fiercely protected for a while, then they are sent out into the world, apparently without sentiment o...

In his book, The Sexual Revolution, Wilhelm Reich, MD writes that the transition from matriarchy (sex-affirming) to patriarchy (sex-suppressing) changed the individual from a free clan member to a subjugated member of the family (p. 165). Reich argues that a cultural and economic revolution requires a “sexual revolution.” Reich writes, “The goal of a cultural revolution is to create human characte...

The psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, MD understood that a specific form of human socialization has created the fascist character via “armoring.” In his book The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Reich writes that the “mechanistic-mystical character of modern man” has produced “fascist parties, and not vice versa.” The character structure of modern human beings is the universal cause of fascism: “… “fascism”...

In the book, The Anatomy of Fascism, Robert Paxton argues that “Fascists need a demonized enemy against which to mobilize followers, but of course the enemy does not have to be Jewish. Each culture specifies the national enemy.” (p. 37) The system is moving more and more to the Right with rage directed at liberalism and individualism. The Gender Identity game places transgender individuals as the...

The Media game version of Gender Identity presents itself as a dialogic process. The interview–which is actually a debate–starts with the question, “What is a woman?” or “How many genders are there?” This game has similar dynamics as Climate Change because both are derivatives of the Ain’t It Awful (AIA) game: “Ain’t It Awful the oceans are aci...

The Psychiatry game is introduced on the individual or psychotherapy level as well as how Psychiatry is promoted for the maintenance of the status quo. The Psychiatry game reinforces social hierarchies as reality (e.g., “mentally ill” versus not). Far ahead of his time, Eric Berne, MD understood the concept of “mental health” as a game or pastime. In his words, it is “based on th...

The supremacist aim of the Protest game is to moralistically denigrate the motives and tactics of the specific social movement, e.g., Just Stop Oil in the UK or Black Lives Matter in the U.S. Adult ego state functioning is rarely utilized if not avoided in the game, e.g., global temperatures in the 21st century, solutions such as nuclear energy and birth control for women, or discussions of over-p...

Don and Andrew discuss the concept of symbiosis (not two not one), Eric Berne’s book Games People Play, including the concept of psychological “hunger.” This means we are hungry for stimulation, social recognition, and structured time. Games are played in an attempt to get those psychological hungers met despite the negative payoffs. The game If It Weren’t For You is introduced as a bridge to disc...

Don and Andrew describe the Drama Triangle and game theory as it is applied in psychotherapy. The conversation weaves into specific games as well as topics such as Ego consciousness, zen mind, culture, The Little Fascist, Social Darwinism, hyper-individualism. Recorded on 5/18/2023 Visit MankatoTherapist.com for more information and to contact Andrew Archer .

This episode was recorded on April 27th, 2023 just following the conclusion to Series 3. Series 4 is the evolution of the concept “games fascists play.” Andrew and Don’s dialogues were recorded over the course of one year. Through this relational brainstorm, Andrew began to write a manuscript titled Games Fascists Play: The Psychology of Supremacy. The book is meant as a tribute and sequel to Eric...

This is a wrap-up to Series 3: reflections on, analysis of, and summary on the origin and progression of the StayAtHomeDay movement. To build a social movement requires courage. One must first insert themselves into an institution. After forming a relational position within an organization or institution, the requirement is to subvert (undermine) authority. This is accomplished by speaking one’s T...

Big Tech steals our attention with the con of convenience, personalization, and persuasive tech design. F*#k that. Big Tech wants us to incorporate, brand, and market the self. The user is compelled to continuously offer status updates of themselves. The imperative of the virtual world is to exhibit and broadcast ourselves for monetization. This creates a paradigm of voluntary self-exploitation th...

One definition of “education” is the process of systematic instruction such as at a school. Another definition for education is “ an enlightening experience ”. Here, enlightening means to have or show a rational, modern, and well-informed outlook. Zen has a unique position on enlightening experience. The unique position of Zen is declared in four statements. The first is that there is something ap...

There was a New York Times article from April 2 nd , 2023, titled “It’s Not ‘Deaths of Despair.’ It’s Deaths of Children.” In the richest country in the world—the U.S.—1 out of every 25 Kindergarteners will die before they reach 40 (four times higher than other wealthy nations). The rate increase is largely due to suicide and gun-related-deaths (Covid was minimal). The tough medicine to swallow is...

I free associate about StayAtHomeDay, the school’s resistance to it, social movements, raising consciousness, nihilistic nihilism, becoming burnt out with podcasting, and I refer to a recent lecture in Minneapolis (S3, Part 7, Becoming a Real Person) as well as Series 4 ideas (i.e., Games Fascists Play). The climate activist and co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam, is mentioned as wel...

Prior to this recording, I had never been to a school board meeting. I walked in and sat down for a few minutes and listed some bullet points on a notecard in the few minutes prior to speaking. I had thought very little in terms of what I would say. The feeling in my body was shakiness and fear, which was driven by a moralistic and antiquated sense that I was “doing something wrong.” Speaking trut...

The online user is in a symbiotic relationship with the virtual world , which is optimal for dependency and cultural scripting. Big Tech is our Momma who bounces us on her knee and tells us how to live. The user is Mindless (passive) and Joyless (split from the body): a state of simple consciousness (i.e., Infant). This dependency contract (Mother-Infant) and the technological form holds us in pla...

For my psychotherapy patients, the structural analysis begins with an abstract example to get them thinking differently about themselves. The Politician is I’m OK, You’re Not OK . I explain this construct to the patient by using President Donald Trump as an example. The former President does not appear to have any relationships that are not based on his own egocentric self-promotion. The media’s p...

YouTube’s slogan is, “Broadcast Yourself,” and that is what we do online. We produce and express ourselves as a brand to be procured and optimized for online achievement: Me Inc. We sell this brand to Big Tech (Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) like a contestant on the television show  Shark Tank . The show promotes the neoliberal myth of self-determination: only hard workers who pus...

Martian is direct experience (simple consciousness), while humans have been trained to identify themselves as separate. This sense of separation provides the capacity for reflection, i.e., ego-consciousness. For example, “I am me.” In a nutshell, humans are conditioned through socialization to believe they are separate entities, i.e., the sense of a permanent, autonomous, and constant “I”. The fai...