Texts in English

1.Sickness in wage work, in privacy and in the medical system

2.Definition of sickness and how to practically apply that concept

3.Social oppression, sexuality and free love

 

Text 1(has been slightly altered) and text 2 originally published on: http://truetopi.ning.com/

 

1. Every sickness (mental and physical) is an expression of the sick conditions of society. Physcial symptoms of all kinds are a direct result of the socio – psychological, emotional, mental and environmental problems in our society, which are a result of the way our economy is organized (profit - for few - and ownership and so on).

We all are sick and we are patients in a (medical) system that segregates between the sick and the - supposed - healthy: to be healthy means to be able to do wage work, to function in favor of accumulation and profit... of value and possession, to exploit oneself and others* (capitalism: production = destruction...every human is productive, all action is productive) or in other words to be inhibited. The sick don't quite fit into this concept. The problem is, that noone wants to be sick and everyone wants to be healthy and we compete with each other to fullfill this ideal. Part of that ideal is to be useful for the general public while doing wage work. There is a big contradiction in the capitalist production/ exploitation process. The workers, the people that are necessary for the production have to be sick to be able and willing to work under these conditions and they wear out when working. Thus capitalism destroys the people, the very source it needs for its functioning. Production equals destruction. The nature of the work is alienated, the employee has no relation to his work and its products, which are organized produced according to criteria of profit, of exchange value and not according to the employees needs, not according to practical value. The employee gets payed only a very small part of the value she created, the rest she has to pay for with sickness. These interrelations also can be observed on the social level outside the working environment:

 

We all have an antagony inside of us, our thoughts, feelings and needs are very contradictionary, because whatever happens - including relationships - is dictated by the priority of trade-value and not by our true needs. So it's no wonder why some people lose their minds and feel helpless, we all do in one way or the other. They feel afraid of being influenced and attacked by vague and powerful forces. It's the truth, we're being programmed and manipulated to suppress our true will and being pressed into a life of indirectness, of little intensity and of littel joy and we are reminded of this - and we remind each other - every day, by our friends, by the nuclear family, by education, by the mass media, by wage work and a million more institutions and manifestations of so called civilized society (wars are being fought every moment for profit and predominance between armed forces and on the personal level).

There is a problem when someone has past experiences, a personal history - a reflection of the culture we live in - which result in an extremely distorted view of interrelationships and in a distorted protest against society. Then she projects those experiences on others, who are confused, too, like everyone is.

We all are that someone, we are potential saviours for each other and also a potential threads. We try to manipulate each other into acting according to our needs, which makes things even more difficult. I think a minimum of three people is necessary to work on conflicts like that. A group of people who are deeply and compassionately (be it sexual or not) involved with each other can take care of everyone, no matter how big the trouble might be. All this only works when we are really open, honest, loving, respectful and responsible. As soon as people start to hide something, when there is ignorance, neglect, or when some weaker person is not paid attention to, all are affected by it. Those competetive, deceiving and harmful patterns of society we should transcend.

Another factor, that makes everything much more difficult is, that people are lured to medical doctors and into general hospitals and mental hospital. Almost all doctors believe, that we are nothing more than biological machines, that all our symptoms are just individual problems and that we should adopt to what is called normal – but, what is called normal is destructive in reality and it is the cause of our sickness. They repress our expression, including the progressive side of our protest. We have a very sensitive perception of the environment, which is good for us and which can show us the true core of our conspiracy concoctions on the so called private or personal level. We got to save people from those agents of control, which mainly work with harmful, mind and body restricting chemicals, that lead to further confusion and complications. We also got to protect people from their friends and families, who approve of these medical methods, because they don't know any better and because it gives them power and control over their pals, that are rebelling by showing symptoms of sickness.

Wilhelm Reich* *did a lot of work concerning the things I have mentioned here, but he didn't question the medical system as such. The socialist patients collective/patients' front for more then forty years now is a proof, that all mental and physical sickness in a collective setting can be helped, and that a life without symptoms that need treatment and without medical doctors (except socialized doctors) is possible. We are'nt free, our relationships aren't free, love and sexuality aren't free, as mankind isn't free (if it would be, all the talk and the working on relationships wouldn't be necessary). However, taking this into account, we can have better relationships and we can be open to alternatives to the mainstream models.

 

*Sickness according to the medical establishment: to be healthy means to be able to do wage work, to function in favor of accumulation and profit of a few (of about 3% of the population who own the means of production). A capitalist, e.g. an owner of a factory also is called sick, when she can't work, when she can't manage her company any more e.g. But since she doesn't have to sell her manpower for her livelihood, she can afford to be sick/ unable to work. She can pay someone else to do her job. The rich can hide the common sickness as individual attributes in money, in objects of value - created by exploitation - and in so called higher culture and education, the other side are those who are poor and starving, here the general sickness is obvious. No wonder why the first world people and the higher society in particular are more isolated, then the ones who live in extreme poverty.

**Wilhelm Reich about the emotional plague: http://anarchy.org.au/?page_id=9

 

2.

 

We're pro sickness and we talk about it, so we become aware of our roles as guinea pigs and pure resource for a system that grew above our heads and only then we can go different ways. We are all sick of these conditions and we are all patients, since health in a sick, poluted, abusive, exploitive world is an abstract, unreachable ideal; nevertheless, most people strive for it in competition with each other, it's about keeping capitalism running in exchance for everyones life energy. And even in the society of our dreams, health would be no good, as it still would be an ideal of some absolute truth, some general aim that is supposed to apply to everyone in the same way. We have to detect, to fight and destroy together those categories of health, of ownership and control – today capitalism – that reside within and without. Only then we have the chance to invent and to create new processes that are beneficial for society. Life is change and problems are alright, if we work on solving them instead of hoping to get in a state of being, where we are above everything and untouched of life and it's flow. Life is constantly changing and never takes place in a predictable, perfect and definable sphere. Life consists of the relation of many different components and processes, for human beings, it means that it is strongly influenced by the way we relate with each other and our environment. We are the protagonists of our lifes or rather we could be the protagonists, if we choose to. Yet alone, it is pretty difficult to change much, because we are social beings and if we don't get any support, we run against walls of social heritage and conditioning. We won't cause more than a little disruption. Already two people, but much more a group of people or a tribe can do a lot, if everyone has the ability for introspection and for sharing what she sees with everyone. If we all do this, we'll see patterns arise, that show, that our insights are part of a greater whole, that is true for everyone. First, we'll find out, that it is very sad, how we behave, how we think and how we treat ourselves and others. We are the reflection of a world of competition, power struggle, violence, fear, deceit, seperation and lack, to name only some of the problems we have to face everyday. As we face this anyhow every single day, we might as well unite and realize, that those hazards are a common ground and that we have common aims which are love, caring, solidarity, openess, honesty, sharing, intimacy and much more. We are all patients as medical doctors define that it is healthy and normal - and that's the way it really is - to live within sick surroundings and to compete with each other and suceed in putting others down and being better than others; to be called healthy at least we must be strong enough to take part in abusive, alienated and exploitive wage work. Anyone who doesn't fullfill these categories is sick. To be healthy means to trick others, to lie, to be selfish, to betray, to be closed minded and to take advantage of people who are less clever and more altruistic than us. These are exactly the aptitudes that are necessary to succeed in work life and social life everywhere. But the victory is a phyric one, you always have to struggle and to fight to keep your position, you can't rest, you must always be afraid, that someone else will take away from you, what you have gained. You might lose for one reason or other your job, your material wealth and other appearances of social status. Threats are, that others might surpass your social skills, your work skills or your body appearance. Guess how the reaction usually is, when I tell friends about all this? Usually attention is attracted immediatly, because everyone is concerned with illness. An eye to eye, face to face conversation develops, because of the topic and because I always say, that I'm not any better and that I'm part of the whole circus, that I just try to describe, to objectify, what is going on: We all behave, like directed by a remote control. It's like a huge prison, where invisible prison directors pull the strings, but they need us to be able to do this and even though they might be at the other side, they still depend on the strings, even more than we do. One of the major means of control, of the strings, we might call it the motor, is money. We depend on it, and if we don't own the buttons - means of production – we must sell ourselves, our minds and bodies for it, we must be slaves for money. Yet not only in work we are treated like objects, the agenda of exchange value has long ago unfolded in our minds and hearts and it is inside us all the time. We treat each other like objects, every thought and every action is directed towards the goal to please me, to be beneficial to me, to fullfill my needs. I want you to think that I'm special, want to impress you, to be of value and to gain value. Who admits being week, helpless and desperate? This doesn't happen very often, despite the fact that everyone feels this way. No one wants to know. May be if you or I really are down and don't know what to do, don't know how to comprehend it, how to distract ourselves from it, we might tell. Often people rather commit suicide, because they don't dare to talk when noone listens anyway or people only listen a little bit to avoid making a bad impression and their attention is superficial. What use is it, to waste time for a loser in an undesirable condition? It's one against the other, that is how we were raised, that's how we learned it, that is what we are used to, it is so deep inside each of us that we don't notice. It seems natural and this is what science tells us. Man is a selfish, competetive greedy creature that has to be regulated by rules and laws. They forget to say:"by rules and laws that that mainly are designed or backed up by doctors and that protect the rich and powerful" - those who fullfill the ideal to the greatest extend. Their fortunes are protected and everything is done by everyone to raise the belongings of rich and powerful people and everyone hopes to get at least a little piece of the cake as a reward. They lovingly give it to us, but as little as possible. As long as we don't rebell or collectively resist, they can do whatever they want to. They have the weapons to protect their loot and keep us down and often they use their weapons, be it the family, be it the educational system, be it the medical system, be it the jurisdictional system, be it the scientific establishement, be it the mass media or be it the police, be it the army or be it other thugs and the best weapon is you and me arguing who deserves to get how much. In mental hospitals, there is a solidarity between the patients that derives from the fact that here everyone definitely is labeled sick. In the outside, the same people will very likely try to act as everyone else, particularily, when they don't know that they are labeled different than the majority. True is, that the majority is different, they just don't see it and so they don't freak out so much, they keep it under control, in the hospitals and outside (be it physical or mental illness). Individual unconscious protest is a threat for control but it is treatable. Only when we unite, talk about what is going on and develop new ways and do it, we change the world.

 

3.

 

Here is a summary about a patients movement (Socialist Patients collective) that started around 1970 when some doctors and patients in a psychiatry began to cooperate on an equal level. Among many other topics, they emcourage people to live a free sexuality – if they feel like it- and at the same time support each other and care for each other..

 

I started to study the teachings of the socialist patients collective, partly based on Wilhelm Reich. The idea is that illness is caused by the conditions of society. Our whole life is ruled by value (value-form and its reification: money ) and the power (imposed by family, state, religion, health care, military, education corrupted science) that makes us stay in line. The power/ force, an expression of the value thought system, can't unmask, because then the fraught would become obvious. When power unmasks it becomes physical - violence - and it results in illness. In illness the mutually exclusive matters value and violence are combined. Illness is the appearance of value and violence together, only in a changed form which is illness they can unite. Any kind of Illness is caused by the violence of our value/ money ruled society. On the money we pay with, there sticks the blood of those, who got ill, while making the product. Exchanging goods for money is an irrational, mind twisting act, because in reality, two objects can never have the same value/ quality; and in time, the condition of matter changes, but the price stays the same. 

When we talk of sexuality, we reside within the frame of beaurocracy and the relationship of goods rather than human beings, the human species is still to evolve. Sexuality can only take place withing the boundaries that the economic, political, social and cultural environment of a society sets. Different forms of love or sexual relationships haven't necessarily anything to do with lust or sexual activity. Exclusively by making love and by having sex in a fullfilling way, a surplus of lust can be created. It is the only desire that is productive and not destructive when it is satisfied.

There would be nothing wrong or dangerous about boundless sexuality. The limitation of genital fullfillment, cleared of all restrictions of society, is set by the sexual activity itself respectively by its objectification. While making love possibly a subject – object (of desire) relationship turns into a subject – subject relationship. On both sides subjectivity becomes objective when the object of desire is internalized. The object no longer is (only) object of desire, but it becomes part of the subject. In all other cases (drives), the fulfillment of the need don't lead to a union, we still suffer from subjectivity respectively the flaw that goes with it. The objectification of the other fails, it has only the function to be incorporated into a formal subjectivity. For example, when we eat, the sensation of hunger, a reluctance or unpleasure, is gone for the moment, but there is no additional lust created, no union, no real-ization comes up, only the need to eat will come up again.

Because of the division between subject and object talk and activities that are related to sexuality can be intensely influenced by the rules of the capitalist programming (see above). To a large extent life is organized according to mind control. Second hand needs are created and exploited, as we suppressed our real needs and forgot about about them. An example:

Before we get sexually involved, we feel a kind of tension, narrowness, sexual back pressure and increased heart beat. While experiencing lust the pressure is released. If we are denied our sexual or other needs like movement – this starts in early childhood – we develop a disposition for reacting with fear. Precisely it's a disposition for drawing our energy from the peripheral parts of the body to the centre, which causes the feeling of pressure and narrowness, and at the same time fear comes up. This is an inward movement (unproductive) while lust is an outward movement (productive). A sexually crippled society can only by the enjoyment of fear have sensations that are similar to pre - sexual experiences (tension.) In extraordinary times like war our desire for fear can turn into a state permitted collective mass psychosis and sado-maso violence that is satisfied by genocide or the hunting of minorities. In peaceful times the demand for angst is met by profitable industries/ products like horror movies, horror news or criminal literature among others.

 

The precondition for this inhumane status quo is something like a double bind: For the inidividual there is a compulsion to intergrate into a power structure directed against its own demand for a fulfilled life, because the same power structure also offers needs and satisfactions which the individual dependents upon existentially.

 

Starting at early childhood we can see how those fear breeding structures work and what devices they use: For example religion and morals are compensations for the original fear that is created by parental prohibition of sexual expression and of movement; the ban is sexualized. Despite their cruelty the child wants - and needs - his parents to remain objects of love. Therefor it suppress the memory of the parents as the cause of frustration and instead admires the holy family or adopts morals. Thus religion and morals are results of suppressed sexuality.

 

We have unfulfilled sexual/ love relationship because we want our partners – in a way our parents did before- to love and benefit us, we long for artificial needs of social acceptance (by meeting morals)/ status/ self importance, we want to feel valuable, we want to own certain goods that might make us feel better, we compare each other, we want to be successful, we wish to be sexually attractive and to be desired, we use an abstract irrational system of thought and judgement (for example religion, morals or bureaucracy) the same way money defines in an abstract and unreal way how much things (labor and products ) are worth.

If we deal only with new forms of love/ sexual relationships (sexual reformation movements), we won't change change anything substantial. It has nothing to do with sexuality itself. On the other hand accomplishing (complete) sexual fullfillment or ecstasy always is directed against the repression of authorities. All aspects connected with these activities are political and revolutionary. People that from childhood on had learned to recogize their needs for self-production = all their sexual needs in the broader sense... would be immune to manipulations of the system. A society without sexual repression would be a free society. If we want to change our lives against the system of control, try out different forms of behaviour and successfully protest against the repression within and without, we should adress all the circumstances that have an influence on the way we relate with each other. Where lie the wrong assumptions that create a society of egocentric "individuals" with a subjectivity that stands for a disrupted life, a distorted perception of the world. How is the market and how are abstract values $€ represented in our minds? We all live under these conditions and that connects us. While reflecting the sickening foundations of society, we can find out what divides us and objectify what is going on. What divides us is that, which we have in common. From there we can go on and change for the better.