The Lunatic is in the Hall

No doubt when I write what I know I get more interest. In conversations about my Health Care Bedlam from last week, I have been challenged to think more about the analogy.  The political events since last week have fed the illustration also.

One of my co-workers wants to know who the narcissists are. My immediate response is that narcissists rarely end up in the mental health unit because they are so internally motivated and self-vision minded that they don't meet the decompensation traits that require intense treatment. I've seen them visit the unit when their daughters are there with anorexia, or their colleagues are there with suicidal ideation, but they are rarely the patients. However, after a few days thought, I did come up with a group that fits the pattern of narcissist. It is hard to put this out there, because more than any other group, I belong to this group, or I should say of the groups I have belonged to in health care, this is the one where I feel most at home. Secondly, the narcissism of this group is not dysfunctional to the group - but then, that is the goal of narcissism, to watch out for ones self. And even more, the narcissism is not even necessarily a personal choice. There are aspects of this narcissism that are legally binding and demand that this group stay to itself and not interfere or get involved with the issues of the other health care craziness.

The narcissists in the current health care crisis are the religious or private organizations that are running health care systems as a part of their reason to be. These are the church organizations, or the social club networks, or the religious structures that have a vast membership of likeminded folks who are driven by similar principles and as a part of that disciplined and directed life style have been able to expand on their social power to provide health services for themselves and others. To call the good Samaritans the narcissists for my illustration sounds like the height of ingratitude, but I am not painting the picture from the perspective of God and the final judgment, I am painting the picture from the perspective of social welfare under the current government of the United States of America. There is a vast denial among private institutions that what the government does is going to affect them because they are private and often religious, so they are standing oblivious to others and focusing on their First Amendment rights. They have an old fashioned trust in the barrier between profit and non-profit that they feel will guard them from being controlled by whatever it is that is going on in that asylum up the hill. They also have a legal obligation, as long as they are non-profit and taking government money for Medicaid, etc. to avoid any political overtures on policy. Although the most satisfying healing has historically been in the private, religious setting, the current debate on health care cannot include what really works because it must keep a separation between "church" and state. Unfortunately for these head in the sand policies, the lunatics are already loose in their halls, and the political insanity is spreading its tentacles through the wall of private institutions, attaching to the stones and rooting out the foundation from the bottom line. Narcissus died in sorrow gazing at his own reflection. As a member of a church who knows how great some of our parachurch educational and health care systems were, I see us sitting at the river wondering why we are a mere reflection of what we used to be, and not understanding before we are destroyed.

But back to Bedlam.

Last week, in spite of trying to open my eyes to the dynamics of what was happening, I totally overlooked a group of players. There have been times in the past when the whole health care debate was framed as "health insurance reform" and I did not say anything about where the health insurance companies fit in the picture. What is quite obvious is that health insurance is the magic pill that the political doctors are trying to use to cure the crazy health care patients.  If everyone has health insurance (if everyone takes their medicine) then all will be fine. Health insurance will bolster the weary hospitals, health insurance will cover the costs of medicine for the drug company, health insurance will satisfy the needs of the medical equipment companies, health insurance will give the doctors what they need, health insurance will make it so the States don't have to cut on themselves anymore. The inexperienced psychiatrist who has read all about wonderful medicines that can cure things that used to cause problems tends to look for the right pill, and not look for the cause and effect dynamics to gain insight in solving problems. Obama is prescribing health insurance for the health care problems, and expects that now everything will be fine, because everybody knows that the ones with health insurance are taken care of, so if everyone has health insurance then everything will be fine. Although I haven't analyzed every possible news source, I think the health insurance companies are not exactly cheering at the thought of being the big fix. Why should they? Health insurance is a carefully crafted statistical gamble. It  functions fine in a vacuum tube with tightly limited parameters, but burst that controlled setting, and suddenly they have no bases upon which to gamble, and their advantage is gone. With no advantage, they have no motivation.

The other nurses with whom I share an office have brought to my attention that the entire past weekend was an exercises in "crazymaking." Apparently this word grew up in the social psychology world to describe the confusion that occurs when people use language to demand things that are in direct contradiction to the language being used. As a linguist, I am not surprised I never noticed this term, because I believe that meaning exists before words, not as a result of them, and "crazymaking" requires words to have stand alone meanings that are only defined by the user and can be changed at the users whim. This does explain why Obama is totally ignoring the Tea Party movement. In his mind, they are "crazymaking", and do not see or understand how good things will be. Of course, to them, Obama and friends are "crazymaking" and do not see or understand how bad things will be. The crux of "crazymaking" is to divert from real issues. For example, in Hogan's Heroes, every time the guys wanted to make a diversion work so that they could control something, LeBeau would run around yelling: "Panic, everybody, panic."  It doesn't matter if you want to divert from the lack of resources, the lack of equality, or the lack of choice, to behave as though ones own reality is the thing that is best for everyone else is in DIRECT contradiction to the principles of freedom. Such diversion is actually for the purpose of control, and control is not the function of our government. The function of our government is balance of power.

A comment on what makes people turn to "crazy making" indicated they were experiencing the deprivation of their right to know, right to feel, right to impact their own decisions and right of space. I've said before that time and space are the two biggest factors in recovering from crisis. The patients need time to know what is going on, time to feel what is true to themselves, time to make their decisions, and space to feel safe. If the Tea Parties look crazy, maybe it is because the policy is being handed down in a "crazymaking" manner.

Since the U.S.A. has no foundational creed or code of principles to call on for times of crisis, and each person or group must stand for his or her own principles , it is hard to cope in crisis. Ancient peoples pray in crisis, or appoint a Czar, or find some way to do things more efficiently than the processes of problem solving require. And as much as people want to claim that the Constitution is that foundational creed, it really isn't, because it guarantees individual creed, and individual right to thought, so it cannot support one primary thought that the people can all rally to in time of crisis: Except for the ultimate goal of balancing powers, which is to do the right thing, the right way.

If  there is any over arching principle to drive us as citizens together, it should be that the Constitution gives us a guide in doing the right thing the right way. Sorting, pinpointing imbalance, analyzing capacities, all of the time and effort functions that slowly evolve into a new path as people pursue proper channels is the answer to our problems. Health care needs some old fashioned psychoanalysis and a reality check. The dreams have been a little too out there which we are in denial of, and the responsibilities have been vastly overlooked, but we don't want to work on it, we just want the magic pill.

Well, there is a character who always takes charge when you just want the pill to make everything better. Her name is Nurse Ratched, and once she gets in power, the pill becomes the only answer whether you like it or not.

Beware of what you have asked for. You may get it, and you may never know what happened.