Cognitive Religions

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.” Jack Kerouac

Introduction

Off the cuff what does the term “implicit bias” suggest to the reader right here and now? What first comes to mind? … is it positive or negative? Was neutral an option?

In our experience, the term “implicit bias” has a negatively connotation because that is what side of the fence one is on when in a conversation with someone who may have opposing views (O’Brien, 2023a; HERE; HERE; HERE; HERE). However, we would contend that unless they have the same lived experience that informs their worldview, then they are on different sides of the same conversation. So they are a part of the same process but implicitly coming at their answers from different intelligences (e.g., cognitive or emotional).

This dynamic of words and word play is like what we explored in our doctoral work where seemingly different phenomena are labeled as different points of the same process (O’Brien, 2023a). What has been a growing trend in the field of psychology is that professionals (HERE) and professional organizations like the APA are producing cognitive science and expecting us all to follow it like it was a new religion. At this point, we are questioning how evidence-based they really are (O’Brien, 2023b; O’Brien, 2024c; HERE), how much they pretend to be (O’Brien, 2023b), and why our math does not add up to them (O’Brien, 2024c; HERE). Now, with an operational definition of addiction, any requirements, protocols, and laws limiting emotion logic (O’Brien, 2023a) would have to answer to qualitative analysis (HERE; HERE; HERE). Because if what is presenting does not make sense from a human rights perspective (HERE), then these regulatory agents and requirements are extensions of addictive traits that have gone undiagnosed up until now. To have to follow the science is to have to follow all sciences (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2024c; HERE). To have to follow archaic laws like daily light savings, not being able to practice telehealth over state lines, removal of religious exemptions, and psychedelics having medical and psychological value so they could have been legalized 30 years ago and researched is something the citizenry should consider bring to an intergenerational Constitutional Convention in the future.

From our dissociation and recovery-informed perspective (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2024a), what has happened societally and culturally is that objectivity has lost its’ subjective human nature because unconceptualized aspects of addiction have not been identified by quantitative science and psychology (O’Brien, 2023a); therefore, qualitative “soft” research is not honored societally and culturally the same way that quantitative “hard” evidence or science is. This male/female, rational/emotional, and good/bad conflict is as old as religions (HERE), but we desire a different outcome from their next Armageddon (HERE).

Background to the Problem

Any advice, guidance, or suggestion depends on the unconscious power position and dynamic of the person expressing their statement or opinion and the person receiving an opinion or fact. While one can empathize with another, if someone has not “been there”, then they haven’t “been there”. Identifying with someone is different than comparing, but how to know which one is which, which science to follow, or which scientist or doctor to listen to? With examples like “weapons of mass destruction”, “nonaddictive opiate”, psychedelics having “no medical value”, “safe cigarettes”, “basic four food groups”, “gain of functioning research”, experimental vaccine for children after science cause a global pandemic, and removal of religious exemption in a country where there is supposed to be a “separation of church and state” seeing the obvious trends is not difficult. When “absolute power corrupts absolutely” and an operational definition to addiction is not defined by the professions who are supposed to (O’Brien, 2023a), then professions rationally addicted to their emotional dissociation. Requiring others to follow cognitive logic only and to have the next generation to pick up the tab is a crime against humanity (HERE) because there are recovery and healing solutions (O’Brien, 2024a).

Historically, we see how someone’s vantage point is used to uphold social control, expectations, and values (HERE). This also supports irrational beliefs that enables irrational behavior (HERE; HERE). We see how our vantage point is through the lens of clients, victims, and believers in psychology, but if wounded healers are anything, they are the ones who know because they have been there and have been forced into psychological “treatment” for a medical condition. They are also the ones who have come to believe that there is something greater out there and that they can rely on that instead of government sanctioned treatments that need to be evidence based so someone else can pay. We are concerned that these have become nascent religions in the fields of psychology, medical science, and political affiliations. If it seems or feels like we have been here before, well we have, but are not sure you have yet (HERE).

Since we have successfully demonstrated that one plus one can also equal three in the real world (O’Brien, 2024c) and codified that addiction is dissociation and transdiagnostic (O’Brien, 2023a), our readers will have to come to terms with the fact that they think that permanent is not eternal, irrational is emotional, and that what is cognitive is the fruit of their own tree (e.g., the body is the unconscious). We will discuss what our metacognitive analysis of our doctoral work means to law, regulatory authorities (education departments), and systems of governance. We will use our work to highlight how implicit bias is really emotional reasoning, represents a worldview, and uses implicit logic that is based in lived experiences and historical context (e.g., the bigger picture); therefore, if what is a matter of circumstance defines one’s reality, then let their reality become their religion and they can let our reasoning become our own. What everyone reading this will have to remember or come to know again is which one is which, who is who, and why.

Orientation

Researchers and scientists are demonstrating their professional dependence issues, unresolved attachment traumas, and developmental delays in their spiritual and moral development (HERE; HERE; HERE). They are also showing their loyalty to a system of ignorance and abuse (HERE). We will also provide qualitative explanations for their list of defense mechanisms they use to “defuse an opponent” when arguing that taking vaccines is reasonable, common sensical, and prescribing the actions people should be taking or not. While the law has taken away religious exemptions, psychology and the law has stayed virtually silent as if they did not know that the body is the unconscious (HERE), power corrupts absolutely (HERE; HERE), and addiction is dissociation (O’Brien, 2023a).

Our work highlights how drug experiences can produce traumatic memory, which we see as expressions of responsive or reactive dissociation. As a result, we will show that refusing medical care is not done out of malice but is the byproduct of coming to terms psychologically and rationally with trust of a system that sells us things we don’t need, taxes for things they shouldn’t, and implicitly mandates poor science. What we have qualitatively come to terms with are the bigger questions in life and death.

As we are all coming to terms with the reality that the physical body is the psychological unconscious, we have to start to see what is what and who is who in the political and industrialized professions of psychology (O’Brien, 2024c). By using qualitative reason and logic, we will show how dissociation and addiction impact cognitive reasoning and mental health outcomes. As they are labeling everything as the problem and we are saying that what they are labeling everything as exposes their implicit biases, unconscious intentions, and hidden motivations, then maybe they could start to see it too. Eventually, they would have to see that logic is abusive because it is inhumane. Therefore, we can also easily demonstrate that there are reasonable adaptive dissociative answers to their biases.

As it is well known to not just point out the issue or problem; we also offer a solution. They (“the powers that be”) could apply their own “protocol to reduce implicit biases in decision making” (HERE) to their logic and then maybe they could apply it to their legal reasoning for making more potent drugs like a stronger fentanyl, taking away religious freedoms from citizens, and refusing to follow the science of psychedelics (O’Brien, 2023b). Or maybe they could use it to address their statements like, “good faith estimate”, “moral character clause”, and “morally unfit” in governmental documentation in a country that prides itself on having separated “church and state” (HERE; HERE; HERE)? Or calling out professionals for practicing “pseudoscience” and they have not done their research on what is evidence based practices (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2023b; HERE). Or systems that educate people to assess, screen, evaluate, diagnose, and treatment plan but do not allow them to do it (O’Brien, 2024b; HERE). Or maybe this state funded and legally approved “protocol to reduce implicit bias in decision making” can be used in drug laws, tax codes, insurance policies, legal practices (HERE). Or maybe the “moral character clause” that governmental officials impose and require for their professions could be applied to their own professions and decisions before releasing it to the public (HERE; HERE). Maybe the government has to pass an audit before they audit or arrest citizens.

Qualitative Research

            In qualitative research there are three concepts that would be helpful to include here: transferability, generalizability, and bracketing (O’Brien, 2023a). As a process, these speak to how qualitative processes work. Transferability involves exploring how experiences or things are related to each other and whether they are alike. Generalizability is whether or not what was learned can be transferred to general populations or concepts. Bracketing is dissociating from the context and value in which the words, concepts, and phrasings operate. We have developed our enhanced bracketing techniques (O’Brien, 2024a) to help with our meta-cognitive analysis.

Data

            Our reframed answers to their work are in italics, under the heading of “reframe”.

Figure 1. HERE from HERE

Meta-Cognitive Analysis

In reviewing our responses to their list of cognitive biases, we have to ask: “How rare is rare?”, “How sensitive are people?”, and who are their norm they are comparing to? These questions need to be answered prior to evaluating the transferability of the authors’ implicit-biases, but also there are a lot of assumptions, cognitive distortions, and innuendos in their definitions and examples. We have to define the observer and their instruments of measurement (e.g., their statistical norm) if we can qualitatively understand what they are implying in their presentation or our reframes.

Their statistical norm is based on their definitions of terms and the calculations they chose; but they did not operationally define key psychological terms (O’Brien, 2023a) and their math not adding up (O’Brien, 2024c). We find their labels as qualitatively immature (O’Brien, 2024a) from a philosophical standpoint (O’Brien, 2023a). How sensitive are professionals to admitting that they are not sensitive (what are the implications of that and how does that reveal how dissociated they must be (O’Brien, 2024c)). The authors’ stated observation depends on the outcome they sell and is based on what society is promoting instead of the individual’s right and freedom to choose (O’Brien, 2024c).

This is why we see that McKay & Coreil’s (O’Brien, 2024c; HERE) identifying that a population of masters-level psychological professionals are not qualified to understand the nuances of quantitative science exposes their implicit-biases about those they educate, govern, or train. Their work suggests that they believe that those who have advanced degrees or higher are so far more superior in their knowledge of a given subject than the common person, who apparently cannot make their own decisions without their approval, input, or deferred liability. We would argue that those who do not have their level of education but instead have a more lived experience are also important because our educational institutions are really job-training organizations funded by alumni, who have created a buddy-buddy corporate system like a college to corporation pipeline. It is not difficult for the common people to see this because they are sold things they do not need all the time. The common person is also paid to sell their soul (time and energy) to be a part of a political system that calls out the other side for being “wrong”, “ignorant”, or “deplorables” – but forgets the daily sacrifice of the everyday man and woman (HERE; HERE).

In qualitative terms, we have taken to the possibly that their logic may be as confusing as ours. Our dissociative presentation (O’Brien, 2023a) answers the questions of: who is writing, who is editing, who is in control of the psyche, and who benefits? What motives or intentions surface prior to giving birth to the ideas, concepts, labels, and definitions we use? The researchers’ implicit-biases and the psychological terms that they used seems to actually be defense mechanisms instead of clear ideas, thoughts, or reasonings (O’Brien, 2023a). We would contend that they unconsciously chose the terms to define in order to support their pre-determined conclusions that validates their outcomes and advertising campaign investment. While they may think they are objective in their thinking, the absence of heart, soul, and awareness is abundantly clear. As dissociation is the disease of addiction and addiction is dissociation’s release.

Since humans are multi-layered and exist in the temporal reality of others, we can see who is detached and who is attached; and to what or whom. While all this necessary paperwork and permanent record stuff appears to be busy work, our concern is that in creating a “protocol to help reduce implicit bias”, and guidelines for what constitutes valid science, they are systematically and psychologically matrixing human behavior so they can eradicate (e.g., similar logic to the goal of exterminating another race) or ironically kill what they fear the most: death. In the end, it is the love that we share that kills us.

What they fear will ultimately vary, but what “it” all comes down to is love. We could also make the argument that the authors are defending their rights to implement systems of cognitive oppression within the school systems by labeling aspects of an individual’s psychology as disorders when they are not (O’Brien, 2023a). What is being oppressed in the realm of cognitive reality? And how would they define who is suppressing whom?

Discussion

            In the mind of the traumatized, reasoning can look different than what the normed dominant society would think of as normal. But if the society is traumatized, as the Adverse Childhood Experience study (ACES) showed in 1996, then we must have a different conversation about dissociation and addiction. This is what people could call irrational. We have argued that rational mind is labeling the emotional mind as irrational (HERE). Client’s report feeling confused because traumatizing situations are confusing and they (or memory of) are still stuck there. This is the reasoning for their continued confusion, particularly around relearning (HERE; HERE). The relational imprint or dynamic between attachment figure and those aspects of self who did not make sense of the situation and their caregivers did not notice their unconscious cues are often the major underlying issues that clients do not know needs to be addressed. Furthermore, the DSM does not account for these diagnoses so we must (O’Brien, 2023a). Often times psychological parts are stuck at the developmental age that the traumas occurred. Or another way of saying this is that there are parts of them still stuck in yesterday that they are accessing today (e.g., like getting a library book or movie). When we reframe what they have cognitive presented as facts, we see the unconscious emotional symptoms of anxiety, fear, doubt, and shame. We also see abusive behaviors (HERE; HERE). We see lack of scientific objectivity (HERE) and dependence on power and control (HERE). We see addiction to power and control because they do not want to have to work.

With the emotional work being considered as feminine, emotional, or  “woman’s work”, it is devalued by masculine reasoning and the logic of men. We call this intellectualization. When clients realize that maybe the abusers are “living in my head” they can start to find their way back to the heart. If one cannot find their way back to the heart, then cognitive religions have already taken over with the belief that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the gold standard of healing (HERE) or that any therapy that has to be evidence based to be valid (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2023b). In the absence of heart, one would not know the difference.

Lastly, not only is the APA and governmental power structures not addressing these issues, they are pretending like they do not exist or have ever heard them before because they did not speak out against them, let alone advocate for them to not be allowed. At what point does the wife leave the abusive relationship or murder everyone involved? To blame her is to not see or know her (HERE).

Implications

            If the APA is seriously considering continuing its assault on emotional “illnesses” and “pseudosciences” (O’Brien, 2024c) by calling normal “disordered” and therapies that are really meditation based (O’Brien, 2023b), then it has to add perfectionism, altruism, and ambition addictions to the DSM. Another option is that they could remove drug addiction (or significantly reduce the criteria amount) and dissociation as “disorders” since they do not fit the definition of “disorders” “illness” or “disease” when they are conditional (e.g., drug use is considered traumatic in its own right (O’Brien, 2023a), according to its own standards and criteria (HERE; HERE)). By increasing the criteria so it is not so low, people would not mistakenly thrown in prison for life over a weed, mushroom, mold, toad, cactus, or root. Additionally, because psychology has named trauma a “disorder”, not identified dissociation’s and addiction’s role in traumatization, and called addiction a disease and it’s not (O’Brien, 2023a), the logic of law needs to back off the citizen’s free will and freedom of choice (HERE). They can also start applying what their profession does to others to theirs first (HERE).

As implied, professions need to add a moral character clause (e.g., Moral-Ethics (O’Brien, 2024d) into their Code of Ethics. Moral-Ethics would make it their moral responsibility to influence politics, legal proceedings, and common discourse when governmental policies and laws go against common moral sense, moral practice, established research, and moral knowledge. This is because the client-citizen expects professionals to be moral before ethical (O’Brien, 2024d) and they know that laws will change. But what is a reasonable amount of time in our modern age? There could be professional courts where citizens hold professionals accountable or cognitive courts to ensure that people are not being too cognitive or underemotional. Psychedelic care could be legally mandated under the threat of doing prison time if they don’t. If citizens are to follow their logic, then they have to follow ours (HERE; HERE).

Conclusions

Cognitive rationalities are upon us and are being used to create systems of control. All professionals may have to advocate against unfair, unjust (e.g., exponential profits), and illegal application of their professions on other professions. When emotions come into cognitive reality and are labeled as “The Other”, we must contend that the labelers needs to grow developmentally and spiritually grow to the level of morality that our government requires (HERE) and do their own recovery process before telling other professional citizens what to do (HERE), impact the rights to raise their own children, or tell them how to live their personal lives; all the while legally selling poisons as food so more of their solutions and care is needed. From our healing and recovery perspective, repair takes on many forms and psychology should not have to continue to apologize for the medical model’s shortcomings, mislabeling, or propaganda or have to follow the same dissociated reasoning, logic, or immoral laws that they require (HERE; HERE; HERE; HERE).

Future Directions

The year 2025 is going to be interesting with America getting healthy again, but first she is going to have to detox (HERE).

References

O’Brien, A. (2023a). Addiction as Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Phenomenological Investigation of the Addictive State. International University of Graduate Studies. (Dissertation). Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2023b). Memory Reconsolidation in Psychedelics Therapy. In Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2023c). Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2024a). Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2024b). Diagnostic Privilege: Meta-Critical Analysis. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and the healing profession as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Appendix 2. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2024c).  Meta-Critical Analysis: The “Science” of Pseudoscience. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and the healing profession as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Appendix 3. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2024d). Moral-Ethics. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer andhealing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Chapter 14. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2024e). Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers: Perfectionism, Altruism, and Ambition Addictions; Re-education and training manual for Abusers, Activists, Batterers, Bullies, Enablers, Killers, Narcissists, Offenders, Parents, Perpetrators, and Warriors. Re-Education and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2025). American Made Addiction Recovery: a healer’s journey through professional recovery. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/