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274 Gyn/Ecology

wrought by gynecology is on display in medical j o u ~ a rMoreover so is the fact that it assumes the shape of c o n l 1 n ~ing p r o c e ~ s i o n s . Thus the plight of DES daughters, itselfmanifestation of iatrogenic disease, is an invitation to furthe.gynecological molestation. There is evidence that r a d i a t i ~ ~directed at the vagina for treatment of adenosis can ~ a u ~uterine cancer.·' Moreover, local progesterone therapy Isre;

ported to have exacerbated growth of tumors. The p r o c e s s i 0 9 ~of necrophilic medicine are endless.

The Multiplying of Mind-Menders

The tendency to spread is of course inherent also in m i ~gynecology. I t is clear that the ritual of p s y c h o t h e r a p y . ~followed the pattern of diffusion from an "elite" group<;)victims to a wider circle, and that this sado-ritual s p r e ~in the manner of iatrogenic dis-ease. The proliferation"schools" and types of therapy has fostered its spread in

of these senses.I shall first look at the spread of psychotherapy fromW

to-do women to a wider segment of the female populati§

The progenitor of modern therapr was, of , c o ~ r s e : F r e u d . ; ~fact that Freudian psychoanalysIs as an mstltutlon hasp.been relegated to a minor role in actual therapeutic practis,does not alter the fact of his mystical "mother" role in r e l a t i ~to aU of them. As psychiatrist Joel Kovel acknowledges:

Itisstriking

to see workafter

work, new methodafter

new m e t ~define itself by reference to Freud, usually as an alleged b r ~ ,through past his limits. Through the years, a thousand comme.9tors, mostly long forgotten, have labeled Freud p a ~ s . e . Buried c ~ ~less times, just as perpetually resurrected, the spmt of F r e u d ; 0 ~ ntinues to brood over contemporary therapy,·2

Like the holy ghost, Freud multiplies himself, continuinbreed-and espeeiaUy-to brood over his progeny, w h ~ "semble him even in their reactions "against" him. For i n , ~ ~re-actions they move, yo-yo-Iike, back and forth on his aprstrings, eternaUy fixated upon his Word. The source oUp

American Gynecology: Gynocide by Holy Ghosts of Medicine 275

?vementl"life" is his breath, for he is their spirit, their basic-source, whom theymust constantly re-search, re-vise, re-fute,

:cover, and resurrect.freud focused upon females who "belonged" to the well:?O classes, a ~ d so did the seeminglyvery divergent therapistspo followed him, such as Jung, Adler, Rank, Reich, Fromm,?Perls. Gradually, the proliferation of clinics and the develInent of various forms of group therapy has made Mental

~ l p .and Healing available to Everywoman. The sheer vol. e·.of therapy has multiplied approximately fivefold since60.· H ~ g s should note that the increase in volume has beeno m p a m e ~ by multiplication of forms. The following partialInay a s s , ~ s t !he haggard imagination to glimpse the dimen

¥ ~ o f the Tnumph of the Therapeutic":

h ~ y ! o r a l - d i r e c t i v e therapy mysticotranscendent therapya r l O ~ therapy primal therapy

~ ~ ~ c l 1 o n a l t h e r a p ypsychoanalytic therapypunter t h e r a ~ y . . rational-emotive therapy

,Si:!rh.ard S e m l ~ a r s Trammg) reality therapy~ 1 e n h a l analySIS script therapyIIy therapy sensitivity training

, ~ therapy sex therapyt ~ l t therapY' somatic therapynotherapy transactional analysis·'

his proliferation of therapies, which are like shadows, dis.ed r e ~ e c t i o n s and resurrections of each other, has the effect

. I ~ . ~ , l ~ , d ~ n g everyone not only as patient but as mini-therapist.~ s : v t r l ~ a l l r

everyone who is touched by psychoanalysisn , ~ f i e s With It and soon wants to become a therapist him." The result is that therapy has spread not only from"ehte," selected for "the best" psychoanalytic treatment,

Obviously ~ o m e males also go to therapists, whereas gynecology~ e t e d spe::lfically at women. However, the point to keep in focusJ ~ t h a t m l ~ d . g y n e c o l ~ g y has women as its essential targets, even"Olen 8fe In the patient role, since therapy generally reinforcestyped gender roles and fosters woman hating, Thus a rapist whot to a ~ h e r ~ p i s l is frequently "helped to see" that "his problem"

With hiS mother.



276 Gyn/Ecology

to the poor who are offered "hudget" or g o v e r n m e n t - d i s p e ~ stherapies, but even to those who do not go to therapy SesSI

but who are friends or even casual acquaintances of those Vi

do. Thus the contemporary religion of therapy has produced;!

own "priesthood of believers."I tis easy to recognize here an ominous resemblance

t o " \ ~proliferation of christian churches and sects, and to t h e c ? ~sequent witnessing by the "born-again" laity. After the d e ~ t "of Jesus, the holy ghost started inspiring more a n d ~ ~ r e"converts," These eventually formed different and seemmglopposed churches, and this doctrinal. and s t r u c t u r ~ 1 v a r i ~ "functioned to seduce more and more mto membership. [I'hin turn profoundly affected the environment of nonmemJ:le

The diffusion of therapy, then, like that of r e l i g i o n . ~been downward and outward, affecting all women. Howeyethe contagion of mind-gynecology cannot be u n d e r s t o o ~ t lsocioeconomic or numerical terms only. Just as lJ. bdgynecologists spread iatrogenic disease, so also do t h e r a ~ icreate a market for their "healing." A woman seduced ) ~ ttreatment is "inspired" with dis-ease she had never b e f o r e ~ v f f l ,suspected. As she becomes more fixated upon her s u r f a c l ~"problems" she becomes more in need of Help. The m)f\

plicity of therapies feeds into this dis-ease, for they constltl!\fflan arsenal for the manufacture of many forms of seman,\!bullets used to bombard the minds of women struggling;\survive in the therapeutically polluted environment. T ? e b ~lets of "psychobabble" invade the ears of ~ v e r y w o m a n , mfoing her in a thousand tongues of her Sickness and N ~ e d , f "Help. This invasion continues unchecked because .Itfilfwomen's attention in the wrong direction, fragmentmgaprivatizing perception of problems, which can be t r a n s c e n ~only if understood in the context of the sexual caste system;

IV

The medical employment of women as token torturers is';dent in the use of nurses, physiotherapists, and token womdoctors. In the field of body-gynecology, the nurse, trainto be totally obedient to the Olympian Doctor, functions

American Gynecology: Gynocide by Holy Gbosts of Medicine 277

§!proximate and visible agent of painful and destructivee ~ , t m e n t . Nurses shave women about to give birth and give

' '' lIlas to women in labor. It is they who give injections and! ; ; l ~ t h e y who withhold pain medication begged for by thea\lent. Programmed not to answer women's questions, they1!1etimes magniry suffering by unreasonable silence and de~ d i n g nonanswers. Hags should note that most unpleasanto c ~ d u r e s which nurses perform (for example, changing ofessmgs after surgery) are done while the woman is awake~ ; a w a r e of being hurt, whereas the deepest wounding-cut

gin s u ~ g e r y - w h i c h is performed by doctors, is done under~ ~ e s t h e s J a . Thus, as Peggy Holland has noted, within the hos,iW,situation most procedures experienced as painful are doneJj ",;women, whereas the doctors' actions-prescribing drugs,Ifh often have harmful effects, issuing orders from on highfare often not directly perceived.·' The nurse, then, functionstoken torturer in the primary sense of the term token, that

.'asan outward indication or expression. She is both weapon~ \ s h i e l d . for the d i v ~ n e doctor in his warfare against Then,e1!1y, Disease, to which the woman as patient is susceptible,her nature [sic]. Likewise, physiotherapists (most of whom

, ~ J f , e m a l e ) assume the token role, often forcing women to doc F u c ~ a t i n g exercise after surgery, for example, after mastomles.'J.'here are, of course, some women gynecologists, many of

9 ~ m are far more sensitive to women's needs than their maleJlfflagues, and some of whom (like some nurses) act in ay)finel.y.healing manner despite the obstacles presented by

i , ~ I F t r a m m gand by the institutional set-up in which they parI ~ J R ~ t e . However, they have gone through the same indoctrina

' o n ; ~ s male doctors (the same texts, instructors, internship),the same medical journals, and continue to be subjected

pressures to conform. Paraphrasing a discussion with Dr.~ r y Howell, Gena Corea summarizes the situation: "Female, ~ t o r s who are 'honorary white males' don't defend femaleti,ents against harmful obstetrical practices, unnecessary sur

; unsafe contraceptives, and forced sterilizations." ••seen that in the other sado-rituals mothers are

to function as token torlurersof daughters. Clearly,



178 OynlEcology

this aspect is perpetuated in gynecology, in w a y ~ that are. n o , ~only more refined but also more complex. The cooperatIOnof the DES mothers in the mutilation of their daughters waselicited from them in a state of ignorance. Also to be countedamong well-intentioned victimizers are thosemothers who urg

and even command their daughters to go for frequent, unnecessary gynecological check-ups and treatments. Such womenare educated to be unaware that "any idea, seriously entertained, tends to bring about the realization of itself." D7 Itis

ironic that these mothers, whose insights have been b l u n t ~ dby fear and heavy bombardments of medical propaganda,dls

playa less accurate awareness of the sources o,f danger t h a ~ ,Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of The Crack In the C?smr.c

Egg, who writes of the cancer epidemic among females mbls}

family: .

Few people understood my fury w ~ e n the ~ e d i c a l center. that at

tended my wife requested that I brmg my Just-then-buddmg teenage daughter for regular six-monthly check-ups for ever thereafter.since they had found-and thoroughly a d v e ~ t i s e d - - : - t h a t mammarmalignancies in a mother tended to be duphcated m the d a u g h t ~many hundred percent above the average. And s u ~ e l y s ~ c h t r ~ g lduplications do occur, in a clear example of the clrcularl.ty o f e ~pectancy verification, the mirroring by reality of a passIonate.?

basic fear.DD

The mothers who are pre-possessed and pre-occupiedb.instilled iatrogenic fears have a difficult time saying no to.th)circularity, precisely because they are themselves m . e s m ~ n z ~both as victims and as token torturers. They funclton m t

victimizer role ignorantly and often ambivalently by sociali.ing daughters to be "popular"/sexy on male-identified termthus setting them up to become Pill-users, teenage mothers,

abortion candidates.'

• Obviously, 1 am by no means advocating the position that a b 0 r 1 i ~is "morally wrong." Indeed. it is preferable to the agony of u n ~ a ~ t ~ :pregnancy and childbirth. This does not lessen the fact that tL l ~degrading and painful procedure which no woman should havet

endure.


Likewise, from the very inception of mind-gynecology,

? m ~ n as token t o r ~ u r e r s have had an important role. Out~ n d m g more-freudlan-than-Freud women analysts includedelene Deutsch and Marie Bonaparte. Deutsch, whose morbidtpourings are continually reprinted and are often sold in the

!}\'omen's .Studies" s ~ c t i o n s of bookstores (right next to~ B e a u v O l r ) was tramed by Freud, having worked under)m for years. f" haggard Searcher will not expend too muchnergy unsnarhng Deutsch's opinions. The following sampleould suffice as a re-minder of the methods of her re-search:

e.the.ory that I have long supported-according to which fem-Olty IS l a r g e l ~ associated with passivity and masochism-hasn confirmed m the course of years by clinical observation.DD

Certainly. And blackness has long been "associated" with

;esame qualities in ra.cist so.cieties. The point is brought up,

-hashed and re-fut.ed m S?clology 101 at Everycollege everyar. The problem IS not Simply that the argument is impec

b l ~ fallacio,us but tha t it came from a woman. Deutschslams her cIrcularity t? the bitter end of her work, The Psy_

~ % g y of Women. Wntmg of the "climacterium" she faith~ n y c o p i e s the tradit ion of the Malleus M a / e f i c ~ r u m , whenresays:

... ~ s ~ g g e s t i b i l i t y . o f women in this life period increases markedly,l j ~ l r Judgment fads, and they readily fall victim to evil counsel, ( J r ~ ~ l O O

.n t ~ e Age of Gynecological Holy Ghosts, however, the sittlon IS more complex than it was in the days of Pope Innot and h!s Dear Sons, Kramer and Sprenger. For the rankstruly evtl counselors have been expanded to include such~ r Daughters as: Deutsch. Since the witches were Wiser.nen/Healers, it is particularly appropriate that the androTtIcusurpers who erased them should later replace them'litman-made w o m ~ n , legitimated as "counselors" and therasis. Nor n e e ~ these adopted daughters of pathological patrihs be as bhnd as Helene Deutsch or Marie Bonaparte.

'•'



280 Gynl Ecology

There have been female adlerians, rankians, reichians, fromfmians, and-ad nauseam-jungians. Particularly s e d u c t i v e ( ~the illusion of equality projected through Jung's androcrat19animus-anima balancing act, since women are trained t o ~grateful for "complementarity" and token inclusion. Token,

ism is embedded in the very fabric of Jung'sideology-in

cotrast to the more obvious misogynism of Freud's fallaciouphallocentrism. Thus it is possible for women to promote Jung'garbled gospel without awareness of betraying their o w n s e ~and even in the belief that they are furthering the feminiscause.

Moreover, since the Age of the Holy Ghosts is a timeioDionysian boundary violation, it is predictable that the m a n ~of male motherhood will be shifted to the shoulders of morand more women deemed worthy byDionysian men. The saID

incongruities that are inherent in the role of females who w o ~ l ~be christian priests and ministers are ingrained in the f u n c t i o ~ ~of the newly ordained female priests of therapy. M o r e o v e r , t h ~downward spread of therapy itself inevitably renders it m o r ~accessible as a respectable occupation for upwardly mORH,:

women in male-monitored society. Thus the lower rankll(!etoken victimizersmultiplY'i?Nor is this all. For it is also inevitable that the m o n o d i l l l ~

sional Great Sponge Society will soak up into its i n t e r s t i c ~women with a genuine desire and IJative ability to heal. T h ~ ~the Thoroughly Therapeutic Society must not only c a s t r ~ Jpotential witches as v i c t i m s / p . a t i e n t ~ . It must craftily con.samof its stronger potential deVIants mto the role of unwltt1g!token victimizers, in the name of Feminist Therapy.

I am not saying that genuinely woman-identified c o u n s e . ¥ ~cannot and does not take place, nor am I denying t h a t , g l Y ~the state of alienating structures in which we live, there i ~ >urgent need for drop-in centers and other places for w O I I I ~to go in crisis situations. My criticism concerns t h e r a p y ~way of life, as an i n s t i t u t i o n a l ~ z e d system.of ~ r ~ a t i n g a n d ! ~ ,petuating false needs, of maskmg and mamtammg d ~ p r e s s lof focusing/draining women's energy through f i x a l 1 o n ~ pperiodic psychological "fixes." My criticism concerns the e


onal, economic, and intellectual hooking of women into a

~ r p ~ t u a l procession of cyclic re-turning, which provides false(lCunty and prevents independent risking/questing. I t con.ems the woman-crippling triumph of the therapeutic overanscendence.•

T h e r ~are ma.ny

~ g u m e n t . sthat can bemade for and against~ e . ~ a n e t y of SItuatIOns whIch generally are listed under the

e a d ~ n ~ of "feminist therapy." Those who argue in favor offemmlst .therapy" m a i ~ t . a i n that it departs entirely from the! ~ f r e u d l a n presupposItIOns. I suggest that this assumption~ ? c l o s e l y . examined by A-mazing Amazons, for behind the~ r e obVIOusly misogynistic presuppositions of patriarchaly c h ~ t h e r a p y (e.g., "penis envy" and blaming the mother)e ~ e IS a more subtle agenda, which is difficult to uproot and

~ ~ c h seems to be endemic to the therapeutic situation in itsnous forms.

'iI'his a g ~ n d a contains, as a basic element, dependency upon

endas-m other words, addiction. The term therapeutic ism the ~ r e e k therapeuein, meaning "to attend, worship or

! ~ a t m e d l c a l l y . " Just as roman catholics feel obliged to at.

~ ~ d . mass r e g ~ l a r l y and to worship the god of the church,~ ~ ! u s t as pallents are regularly treated medically, the thera~ u l 1 z e d re-turn. I s.uggest that the god of therapy is therapy

. ~ ~ l f . Moreover, as 10 the case of all religions, there is a fixa-~ ~ ! u p o n the act of worship itself, which tends to functiona shelter against anomie, against meaninglessness. For this

as?n, any criticism of therapy threatens/terrorizes the therat!Zed.

. I \ . c ~ u e to the ! a ~ t that this ~ d d i c t i v e quality is present in

.1000ISt therapy IS the reactIon of some readers/listenersho!fixate defensively upon "feminist therapy" rather thananding their vision to comprehend a long and complex

; r ~ l h e Name of Feminisl Therapy, and of Radical Feminist Ther· a ~ d of Wholly Lesbian Therapy, Women's Cenlers originally theucts of c r e a ~ v e / w i l d woman-identified energy, are ;ometimcs con.

Taming C ~ n t e r s , where independent gynergetic be-ina: isa source of dIsease.



282 Gyn/Ecology

analysis of androcratic atrocities and tactics. This l i m i t a t i ~ .of focus is itself symptomatic of the fetisrnzation and fragmFrttation inflicted by mind-gynecology. It suggests that the veconcept of "feminist therapy" is inherently a contradiction!hasten to add that gynergizing, en-couraging, healing cOlli

munication among Hags/Crones is not a contradiction. Ther.efore, when this is taking place it should not be caUed "therapy;'Moreover, I suggest that Hags dispense with the trappingstherapy.Among these trappings/ traps is stale therapeutic j a r g o ~ ,

which arrests thinking, neatly labeling/limiting every impulstoward re-considering Original Movement. For example,'o'{care told to "dealwith" the issue of "feminist therapy." One whstrives for Gyn/Ecological vision may be accused of "not dea.ing with" therapeutic problems (just as L e s b i a n s / F e m i ~ i s .generally are accused of "not dealing with" men). Yet t o s . ~isfY the accusers' often insatiable need to "deal with" t h i s i s s ~would require falling into the very therapeutic trappings/trawhich Oyn/Ecology transcends. It would mean settlingfo,settling down in one blind aUey of the Masters' Maze, p u t t i ~on the blinders of tunnel vision. While there are sometimneeds for tunnels on our Journey, Journeying itself is notttineling. Since Oyn/Ecological Journeying is not "feminist theapy," but rather is itself an entirely OtherWay, RevoltingHagrefuse the therapeutic society. We re-fuse our gynergetic Se1veRefusing the triumph of the therapeutic is essential for

affirmation of transcendence. It will be objected that "femin'therapy" can be a means to transcendence. Without a doubt

it does functionat

some times and in some cases to remOobstacles and to provide clues to transcendence. Yet the sacan be said for the catholic church. Although Hags might wato evaluate these institutions in different ways, the fact isthboth have the agenda of dis-couraging women into thesta

of dependency. While the symbol system and institutional;itent of the catholic church is overtly oppressive, "feminist tilapy" as an institution is covertly d i s - cou r ag i ng . : i jThe point is that Hags should not have to resort tOtakl.

back from such institutions as religion and therapy the powand tactics which were rightfully our own to begin with,

American Gynecology: Gynocide by Holy Gh05ts of Medicine 283

ich have b ~ n warped and watered down after having beenlen by patnarchy. The situation is paral1el to that of aman. who begs a robber to return her stolen and damagedsesslOns--except that women who turn to religion and theryusuaUy do not realize that they are attemping to reclaiml ~ n

goods from thieves.I t ~ i l ! be objected that "feminist therapy" is a step toward;clalmmg women's own healIng powers. This is partially. ~ e , b u t I suggest that there are serious inherent difficultiesFo,mparable to the difficulties inherent in the idea of "fem! ~ t r e l i g i o n " ) . For therapy, including the institution of "fem

, 1 S t t h e ~ a p y , " ~ e s i s t s being relegated to the role of a "step."Ike.re.hglon, It tends to replace transcendence, assuming/

E 9 ~ s ~ m l ~ g all. p r o c e ~ s , draining creative energy, eliminating.. pgmahty, mlslabehng leaps of imagination, shielding the

~ l f i a g a i n s t Self-strengthening Aloneness. The Self becomesecta!or of h ~ r own frozen, caricatured history. She is filed

~ y , mis-filed, In file-cabinets fil1ed with inaccurate categories.s filed, she joins the Processions of those who choose downdmobility ofmind and imagination.

ymptomatic of such pseudo-feminist downward mObility is.SOap Opera Syndrome, whose one basic Program can betIed, " H o ~ to Deal with Relationships." Like the heroines

~ f f i 1 , 9 4 0 s radIO soap operas and 1970s television soap operas~ t h e r a p e u t ~ e d actress deals with her programmed p r o b l e m ~!o,re an audience of dealers. Like the radio and televisiono,ines, she r e ~ e a r s e s but d ~ s not create the script. Sheytry out for d l f f e r c : ~ t ro!es, since everything can be cooptedt ~ e ~ a p ~ . ! h u ~ wntlng IS .therapeutic, swimming is thera~ c , painting IS therapeutiC, demonstrating is therapeutic.

F S c ~ l p t - f o l 1 ~ w . e r f ? r g e t ~ t ~ a t writing is writing, swimming is. ~ m m g , painting IS pamtlng, demonstrating is demonstratInstead of creating, she deals and deals, struggles andggles, re!ates a n ~ re-!ates. She finds that her problems areIFss,havlng the Infimty of a closed circle. Everything be~ a problem. The situation of being Feminist and/or Les-

a d ~ s to the problems but does not break the circle. Onlymeymg . b r ~ a k s the circle. In Journeying/process, therapyl)t the pnonty.

daly gynecology p274-283

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