Hack Forums
[Mental] Psychiatry vs Ancient Wisdom: THE GREAT HEALING DIVIDE - Printable Version

+- Hack Forums (https://hackforums.net)
+-- Forum: General Topics (https://hackforums.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=7)
+--- Forum: Personal Life (https://hackforums.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=259)
+---- Forum: Health Wise (https://hackforums.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=262)
+---- Thread: [Mental] Psychiatry vs Ancient Wisdom: THE GREAT HEALING DIVIDE (/showthread.php?tid=6306283)

Psychiatry vs Ancient Wisdom: THE GREAT HEALING DIVIDE - Rsynced - Aug 20, 2025

šŸ§™ā€ā™‚ļøāš”ļøšŸ›ļø THE GREAT HEALING DIVIDE āš”ļøšŸ›ļøšŸ§™ā€ā™‚ļø
Psychiatry vs Ancient Wisdom: Who Really Invented Mental Health Care?
[Image: eSYJhM7.jpeg]
A deep dive into the clash between traditional shamanic healing and modern psychiatric institutions


šŸ”„ CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT šŸ”„
Quote:"Psychiatry was invented by the wealthy, shaman would heal native tribes and real medicine has existed beyond history records"

This explosive statement cuts to the heart of one of the most important debates in human history: Who gets to define "mental health" and how should we heal the mind?

šŸ“– THREAD CONTENTS šŸ“–
Click to expand table of contents (Click to View)


šŸ§™ā€ā™‚ļø PART 1: THE ANCIENT WAY - SHAMANIC HEALING TRADITIONS

[Image: dZ8818q.jpeg]

For tens of thousands of years, Indigenous cultures worldwide understood "madness" in ways that would shock modern psychiatrists:

Code
šŸŒ Traditional View           | šŸ„ Modern View
----------------------------|-----------------------
āœØ Spiritual Crisis/Calling  | šŸ”¬ Chemical Imbalance
šŸ˜ļø Community Integration     | šŸ¢ Individual Treatment
šŸŒæ Natural Remedies & Ritual | šŸ’Š Pharmaceutical Intervention
šŸ‘„ Healer + Community        | šŸ‘Øā€āš•ļø Doctor + Patient

šŸŒŸ THE SHAMANIC APPROACH:
  • āœØ Spiritual Framework: "Madness" = spiritual awakening, vision, or divine calling
  • šŸŒæ Holistic Healing: Herbs, drumming, fasting, vision quests, energy work
  • šŸ˜ļø Community Role: "Crazy" people often became healers, seers, or spiritual guides
  • šŸ”„ Interconnected Healing: Person + family + community + spirits = whole system

šŸ’” MIND-BLOWING FACT: Many Indigenous cultures had NO WORD for "mental illness" because they saw altered states as spiritual gifts, not diseases!


šŸ›ļø PART 2: THE PSYCHIATRIC REVOLUTION - HOW THE WEALTHY TOOK OVER

[Image: BWeJJBR.jpeg]

āš ļø THE DARK TRUTH āš ļø

Modern psychiatry didn't emerge from medical discovery. It emerged from social control.

Code
šŸ“… Timeline       | šŸ›ļø What Happened                 | šŸ’° Who Funded It
-----------------|---------------------------------|-------------------
1700s-1800s      | Rise of Asylums                 | Wealthy Elites
Industrial Rev.  | "Madhouses" for Unproductive    | Factory Owners
1800s-1900s      | Medical Authority Over Mind     | Government + Private Money

šŸŽ­ THE REAL PURPOSE:
Quote:Psychiatry wasn't created to heal people. It was created to manage people who couldn't fit into the new industrial work system.
  • šŸ„ Medicalization: Took "madness" away from families/communities ā†’ gave it to doctors/institutions
  • āš–ļø Power Grab: Wealthy elites decided who was "normal" and who needed to be locked up
  • šŸŽ­ Social Control: Anyone who couldn't work in factories = "mentally defective"


šŸ’” PART 3: THE GENOCIDE OF HEALING - HOW THEY DESTROYED ANCIENT WISDOM

[Image: NZXTkvC.jpeg]

šŸ“ā€ā˜ ļø COLONIAL DESTRUCTION:

The replacement of shamanic healing with psychiatry wasn't an accident. It was systematic cultural genocide.

The Brutal Timeline of Healing Suppression (Click to View)

šŸ’€ THE RESULT: Thousands of years of healing wisdom nearly wiped out in just 200-300 years.


šŸ’Š PART 4: WHAT IS "REAL" MEDICINE? - THE EVIDENCE

šŸ¤” LET'S GET REAL ABOUT RESULTS šŸ¤”

Code
šŸŒæ Traditional Healing         | šŸ“Š Track Record       | šŸ„ Modern Psychiatry         | šŸ“Š Track Record
----------------------------|---------------------|----------------------------|-----------------
Used for 50,000+ years       | āœ… Survived millennia | Used for 200 years          | ā“ Still experimental
Plant medicines             | āœ… Now proven by science | Synthetic drugs             | āš ļø Side effects
Community integration       | āœ… Lower suicide rates  | Individual treatment        | āš ļø Rising suicide rates
Holistic approach           | āœ… Treats root causes   | Symptom management          | āš ļø Chronic patients

šŸŒ± TRADITIONAL WINS:
  • Meditation, breathwork, herbal medicine now backed by modern research
  • Psychedelic therapy (psilocybin, MDMA) showing incredible results
  • Community-based healing reduces relapse rates
  • Indigenous suicide rates were historically much lower than modern rates

šŸ„ PSYCHIATRIC CONTRIBUTIONS:
  • Crisis intervention can save lives
  • Some medications help severe conditions (bipolar, schizophrenia)
  • Research into brain chemistry provides insights


āš–ļø PART 5: THE POWER GAME - WHO CONTROLS MENTAL HEALTH?

šŸ’° FOLLOW THE MONEY šŸ’°

Quote:"He who controls the definition of sanity controls society."

The Mental Health Industrial Complex (Click to View)

šŸŽÆ THE KEY DIFFERENCE:
  • šŸŒ Traditional Systems: Served the community and spirit
  • šŸ¢ Modern Psychiatry: Serves institutions and markets


āœ… PART 6: THE VERDICT - WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

šŸŽÆ THE BOTTOM LINE šŸŽÆ

The evidence is clear: Modern psychiatry WAS invented by wealthy elites to manage populations that didn't fit industrial society. It systematically destroyed older, often more effective healing systems through colonialism and cultural suppression.

šŸ¤ BUT HERE'S THE NUANCED TRUTH:
  • Not everything in psychiatry is evil or useless
  • Not everything in traditional healing is perfect
  • The best path forward might be integration, not elimination

šŸ”„ DISCUSSION STARTERS šŸ”„

šŸ—£ļø WHAT DO YOU THINK?
  • Have you experienced both traditional and modern mental health treatment? How did they compare?

  • Do you think the "mental health crisis" is actually a spiritual crisis?

  • Should psychedelic medicines be legalized for healing?

  • How can we reclaim healing from corporate control?

  • What would mental healthcare look like if Indigenous wisdom led the way?


āš” YOUR TURN TO SPEAK āš”

šŸ’¬ Share your thoughts & experiences below! šŸ’¬

Let's have a real conversation about the future of healing...

Here is a curated list of reputable sources with URLs covering the main topics and information in my thread:

Origins and History of Psychiatry
The Emergence of Psychiatry: 1650-1850 (PubMed)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35331024/

History of Psychiatry (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychiatry

A Brief History of Psychiatry by Steven Reidbord, MD
https://www.stevenreidbordmd.com/history-of-psychiatry

Psychiatry Overview (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatry

The Troubled History of Psychiatry (The New Yorker)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/27/the-troubled-history-of-psychiatry

Indigenous Shamanic Healing Traditions
Indigenous Shamanism Peru: Sacred Healing Traditions
https://www.peru-explorer.com/indigenous-shamanism-peru-sacred-healing-traditions.htm

Indigenous Women, Healing, and Colonial Violence (CWiS)
https://cwis.org/2025/04/indigenous-women-traditional-medicine-and-resistance/

Colonial Suppression of Traditional Medicine
Uncovering Traditional Medicine's Colonial Past (Number Analytics)
https://www.numberanalytics.com/blog/traditional-medicine-colonialism-legacy

Indigenous Women, Healing, and the Violence of Colonialism (CWiS)
https://cwis.org/2025/04/indigenous-women-traditional-medicine-and-resistance/

Traditional Medicine vs Modern Psychiatry
Traditional vs. Modern Approaches to Psychiatric Services
https://conventionspc.com/traditional-vs-modern-approaches-to-psychiatric-services/

The Role of Global Traditional and Complementary Systems of Medicine (PMC)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4456435/

Psychiatric Institutionalization and Deinstitutionalization
Deinstitutionalization Overview (PBS)
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/special/excerpt.html

Deinstitutionalisation (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinstitutionalisation

Psychedelic Therapy Research
Hallucinogens in Mental Health: Preclinical and Clinical Studies (PMC)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7880300/

Exploring Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (McLean Hospital)
https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/psychedelics

Influence of Pharmaceutical Companies on Psychiatry
The Influence of Pharmaceutical Companies in Psychiatry (PMC)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7451317/

How Drug Companies Helped Shape a Shifting Biological View of Mental Illness (NPR)
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/02/718744068/how-drug-companies-helped-shape-a-shifting-biological-view-of-mental-illness

This list covers the historical development of psychiatry, shamanic healing traditions, colonial impacts on traditional medicine, psychiatric institutionalization, modern psychedelic research, and Big Pharma's role.

RE: Psychiatry vs Ancient Wisdom: THE GREAT HEALING DIVIDE - mrclay - Oct 9, 2025

Why Iā€™m not seeing any replies on such beautiful thread.

RE: Psychiatry vs Ancient Wisdom: THE GREAT HEALING DIVIDE - Rsynced - Oct 10, 2025

(Oct 9, 2025 09:15 PM)mrclay Wrote:  Why Iā€™m not seeing any replies on such beautiful thread.

Thanks, maybe a bit over the top for most. šŸ¤ÆšŸ’ÆšŸ‘

RE: Psychiatry vs Ancient Wisdom: THE GREAT HEALING DIVIDE - RangoWorld - Oct 11, 2025

Really good thread.

In my own experience if I have to add here. There was a lot of wisdom in old philosophy indeed.

RE: Psychiatry vs Ancient Wisdom: THE GREAT HEALING DIVIDE - Rsynced - Oct 11, 2025

(Oct 11, 2025 07:06 AM)RangoWorld Wrote:  Really good thread.

In my own experience if I have to add here. There was a lot of wisdom in old philosophy indeed.

Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed my research. šŸ•µļøāœŒšŸ’ÆšŸ‘