Legal Fraud

“We should know and not believe.” – Bob Marley Ride Natty Ride

Introduction

As citizen professionals, we do not need more or better laws. What we need are professional organizations and professionals to ethically follow the unspoken moral ones. Our work is now exploring how perfectionism, altruism, and ambition addictions (O’Brien, 2023a) hide in professional relationships (O’Brien, 2024b), power dynamics (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2024c), and psychological/historical/religious contexts (HERE). Because systems organize and create what they need to survive in predictable ways (behavioral pathology), what threatens people’s livelihood and forces them to choose financial stability over common sense, is our society’s interdependence (or is codependence) upon one another to exist. For example, 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck (HERE) and getting involved in a legal matter is dangerous because the potential impact on profit, health, and family are significant. So the people remain compliant to the spirit of the law, trusting that what it says it stands for will prevail (e.g., justice). This double standard is the legal way of creating an implicit means of coercive control and betrayal trauma (HERE (our response to this is in the works…)).

Any relational dynamic has the potential to create a power dynamic. When it comes to mental health where undiagnosable addictions have not been identified, we have to explore how the law impacts client care, public policy, and culture. As the Wounded Healers Institute is an independent recovery advocacy research collective, we have to check to see if this relationship dynamic is abusive and not addictive (as if there was a difference). For if citizens are left with the choice of financial survival or breaking the law, they will choose survival every time, unless there is a good enough reason to break the law, which is when we see a huge degree of hypocrisy (e.g., in their stance on drug policy with keeping psychedelics illegal because they are not following common sense or the common science). But what if the law is no longer able to maintain what they created and is instead enabling illegal laws that go against both science (O’Brien, 2023b) and common sense (O’Brien, 2024c)?

Psychological Review

A legal issue can be psychologically devastating (unless a pardon is available), but our observation is that if there was a good enough example to show how this double standard plays out in real time, would the law be able to change in real time? Would they do the moral right thing? Well, we have seen this time and time again with something as simple as Daylight Savings and psychedelics, but maybe there is something else going on that rational-only minds cannot see or are unwilling to accept (O’Brien, 2024c). Maybe they dissociate and do not know it (O’Brien, 2023a).

From what we have seen historically, this is not what happens in law. Psychedelic science has been established to have medical value for over 30 years. Established by an FDA approved study in 1994 (HERE). The fact that psychedelics have had psychological value for centuries demonstrates their level of resolve on this matter and their level of ability to apply what they know to be true. If those who claim to know but do not do, they clearly do not understand because their use of language is hollow. Here again, we see psychology’s inability to affect policy and law (HERE).

So what is going on with the law? Why can it not keep up with the times? Has the law been traumatized? We would argue, yes, because modern law apparently stems from Judea, where desperate humans created what they needed to survive at a time where ethics were verbal and not written down. Therefore, the problem becomes what is written down, the reader’s interpretation of it, and the professional liability of not following the law while it is changing. The American legal sysm is one of common law, innate in its application is that the written law must be changed by way of precedent. Intrinsically this means that one must first break the law to create the precedent that brings about that change. Again, we come back to psychedelics, where the scientific evidence of their value is clear, yet the laws remain.

Dependence is the best word to capture what addiction is, but the characteristics of addiction (expression of emotional risks) is what results when dependence is taken away or replaced with something more sustainable (e.g., an attachment replacement like a drug or money). However, since addiction has not had an operational definition (O’Brien, 2023a), psychology has failed to capture what society needs to mature and morally develop. And as we have pointed out, the law is operating at a 7-year-old level of development, according to well established psychological research on childhood development (O’Brien, 2024b). What this means is professions that regulate and benefit from maintaining more and more regulation(s) may themselves have an addiction and not know it, after all psychology has not been able to capture the spirit of what addiction is, which we are stating is dissociation.

What lawyers are often called is self-preserving (HERE), but that is their job, to maintain order at all costs. Like a 7-year-old using words but not knowing their meaning, they claim justice, honor, integrity, ethics, morality, and tradition but the opposite is what they are known for qualitatively. Their use of extreme definitive language, what is known as “black and white”, or “all or nothing thinking” is a concrete stage of development and is a sure clinical sign of traumatization when being expressed by an adult. The next stage of development would be abstract thinking, where adolescence begins and the psychologically and morally developed mind is able to mature into its full-brained capacity, at the age of 25 (where other professions are required by law to operate at HERE).

If the law were fully mature, psychedelics would not be illegal. However, we can hear the law now saying, “well, the people are not acting mature so we have to put all of these measures, rules, and laws into place so people do not make any more mistakes (with what they see as mistakes) and make more work for the rest of society”. Well, that is all good-and-plenty, but what if that is what is creating the resistance to authority and societal mistrust, particularly when the law has publicly shown double standards and has an official two tiered system, where those who know the game are able to maintain their power and position in an American Caste system. How this system is maintained is through the double standards that is often is reflected in parenting styles, attitudes, and beliefs. The issue that we see is that we are not their children. We are not in alignment with their parenting style, philosophy, or its application. Because of its double standard it has been abusive for a very long time and we have to psychologically explain what is going on to those who think they do, but are morally are depleted of the human characteristics that we all hold so dear (O’Brien, 2024c) and they espouse but do not do.

Orientation

We have to find another example where the law could tangibly see the errors in their ways and means. Since 1973, the law has sent over 200 innocent U.S. citizens to death, made psychedelics illegal without providing evidence, and has not been able to keep up with the times. Even so, the legal process offers a wonderful way to explore the developmental age and psychological processes of the legal profession, because they are often blamed for a lot of societal issues. Even the cultures who dominate and regulate their professional field get this projection, we have to be able to see through what is reportedly not there (but is). Well, we have (O’Brien, 2024c).

Government, as an authority, often gets the parental deflection from the citizenry, but the citizenry also looks to the governing bodies to provide what was not promised. The pursuit of happiness is all this grand American experiment, with common agreement that governments are installed to maintain this goal (e.g., Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence). We therefore have to ask, how can the law be what is holding up morality when morality is born out of ethics, and both are later stages of development? The law gave birth to ethics and rational logic, but psychology has challenged that to its extreme (O’Brien, 2024c) and uses more emotional logic to win an argument that the law does not want to hear. Yet psychology is still the laws’ bitch. The reason why this is true is because the medical model is psychology’s husband, and she is in an abusive marriage and does not know that she is living dissociated from herself, her values, and her qualitative science (O’Brien, 2024c). This awakening is starting to allow the necessary changes to be made (HERE) and psychology does offer legitimate solutions.

Background to the Problem

The law claims to be made out of common sense and mutual respect, but is that really the case? They have terms, conditions, oaths, and pledges, all to provide a show of authority. But where do they derive their authority from? What we know is the people set up this government with laws to protect future generations, but what has happened is that the law has become traumatized by this responsibility and needed more clout to be able to remain relevant throughout the ages. Basically, people will do what they have to do to keep their jobs because that psychologically is them, or at least that is what they believe (as thoughts and beliefs can be irrational, we note then that they are emotional (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2024c)). When we look at the different profession’s way of handling money, we see obvious psychological patterns of distrust and notable behaviors that warrants analysis through our emerging addiction and dissociative lens because something is not right professionally and we know what it is (O’Brien, 2023a).

Reorientation

What psychology has not been able to do is show where there is professional dysfunction and offer solutions to see if the law would take the opportunity to address their shortcomings. Therefore, we put to challenge “the law” to follow the science on psychedelics, psychology, and qualitative analysis (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2023b O’Brien, 2024c) before their “rational” conclusion that these things are not to be trusted, because that implies a lot. And here is the psychological rub, qualitative science is the science of implicit meaning and word play, in the form of perspective changes. For example, psychedelics were made illegal because they had no “medical value”, but psychological value is pretty obvious, so we can only conclude that they do not value psychology or know about it. OR psychology sucks as explaining itself to the rational mind. For example, our model of care requires unconscious informed consent (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2024a; O’Brien, 2024c) and defines the psychological unconscious as the physical body (O’Brien, 2024c). We will just put that there and let it settle for those more rational readers…

Data

People have seen enough “Law and Order” to know that a retainer is required to obtain services for a lawyer and that if the case runs over the deposit, then the amount keeps compiling. When the amount went over the retainer, did the lawyer inform you? Say the bill was the same amount as the retainer, would you expect that this would be communicated? Say this was not communicated, would you have legal action against it?

What does this remind those in practicing psychology? … 2022 around this time of year … (Obvious hint: Good Faith Estimate (GFE)).

Also, the word “Faith” is a wonderful word for the law to use, just like moral character clause and diagnostic privilege.

As a point of discussion, making psychedelics illegal without having to provide scientific evidence that they are dangerous goes against common sense. Quoting that they do not have “medical value” when they fully have psychological value, means that we have to agree to disagree. So, we have to ask, who is in charge of the science of psychology? When will the science of daylight savings win out?

Discussion

Why would the law (or any other profession) be able to require any other professions to do what they do not do themselves, but know they should? Isn’t this what we have ethics for? Then why do we have morality? Should ethics or morality be equated to law? If it was, is that right? Well it has, it is, and will remain because this is how they maintain professional compliance and obedience (O’Brien, 2024b). This moral logic is the same reasoning as to why we have the second amendment (e.g., to protect the first). And if professionals are okay with how these professions (and their placating professional associations handled COVID, the Opiate Epidemic, and mental health and addiction law), then maybe moral character is what we need more of in the professional field. Luckily, this standard is what the state is holding all licensed professionals to and are legally requiring of “its’” citizens. To boot, the education department recently released that they have a ”protocol that reduces implicit bias in decision making” and if the law holds us to moral standards, shouldn’t and couldn’t they apply it to their logic?

If you do not know what GFE is, because enough in the field of psychology still do not, the federal government decided that the field of psychology also had to follow the ever changing medical laws and comply with not overcharging customers with surprise billing. This requirement is because psychology is wedded to the medical profession through legal and political arrangements, requirements, and common agreement (O’Brien, 2024b), but this is not a two-way street. For example, medical professionals can prescribe psych meds, (which is causing a lot of issues for someone who is treating citizens and sees the obvious errors in their thinking (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2023b; O’Brien 2024c)). As we have pointed out, this double standard is immoral, and when the law requires citizens to be legally moral, we have to call foul on this powerplay. We will forever caution against this marriage (e.g., the law say that corporations and professional associations are people) because it is not needed if morals are established, was not a consensual relationship of all parties (O’Brien, 2024c), has become abusive (HERE), and is in an addicted state of living dissociated from their claimed values and traditions (O’Brien, 2023a; O’Brien, 2024b; HERE).

Implications

If psychology is the law’s wife, then maybe the husband should listen more to who breads his butter instead of his friends who want him to ally with their sinking ships. The prenup (e.g., Constitution) has been severed with not declaring war in congress since WWII and “We the People” are back to our common sense argument (Thomas Paine), looking to the Declaration of Independence (Jefferson) and Bill of Rights to give direction as to how to go against the same source of ignorance that “We the People” were revolting against just 250 years ago (HERE) (e.g., taxation without equal representation). But as our education system is more of a training program for compliance and obedience, instead of an education, we must see how addictions and dependence on ignorance plays into national and professional pathology (O’Brien, 2024c; HERE). As many of us have been on a long legal journey before, or have watched clients go through them, we will (and already have (O’Brien, 2024c)) demonstrate where the same logic that killed Socrates and Jesus (and the everlasting epic battle between defining what is good and evil) is still physically, psychologically, sexually, spiritually, and morally killing us generations later (O’Brien, 2024c).

The law is dependent on problems, and if psychology keeps reinforcing that normal responses to normal events are “disordered” or “diagnosable”, then that is what the citizenry will believe. We have had clients like this, which is why we are able to see what is needed. This ignorance is dependent on keeping people in the dark, but the reality is that the law, medicine, and business were set up prior to the Internet. With the internet, a lawyer’s powers are minimized (just like a doctor). With AI, they may become obsolete (just like psychology). Remaining ignorant is a dependence issue, otherwise known as addiction that psychology has not even gotten right until our work (O’Brien, 2023a). Therefore, we see the hypocrisy in still needing laws to enforce the citizenry to comply with what is out of date, and often illegal, to begin with. When the psychological conceptualizations presented to the law are flawed, then psychology has to do a better job at explaining themselves. We are not the only ones who see this (HERE).

Conclusions

When we talk about the law we are seeing the need for them to control transactions of money and maintain healthy relationships. If they are not able to do this, then maybe they need to have a Moral Character Clause in their own professional development. Actually, they already do (HERE). Because altruism is realizing that psychology is picking up after the medical and law’s models of logic and systems of power and control, that all relate to money, the image of a wife washing the dishes alone, staring out the window waiting for her husband to come home is what comes to mind. The law is about quantitatively protecting rights and property, but psychology is about qualitatively dealing with intangibles.

As we bring attention to the male/female dynamics of these professions and observe that if feminism was accurately defined and utilized, then, as a nation of professionals, we would not be investing in industrial chemicals, business, and war. We would be investing in our children’s moral, spiritual and ethical development. But when ethics are just words on a page and morals are defined by action, what we see is professionals who are doing one thing while upholding the opposite. The fact that psychology is paid less than their more male counterparts (e.g., the law, medical, and business) and are more educated (because our development grows educationally instead of being trained citizens who are asked to just do what they are told). We laugh at the idea that the patriarchy are the only ones addicted to not revolting against bureaucratic rhetoric, because fawning and placating are just as addicting, especially so long as wifey is also getting what she wants and needs.

There was one class of society we were revolting against: the people who made the laws that said taxation without representation made common sense and that they were for the people, by the people, and with the people. Now, generationally, the meek shall inherit nothing because previous generations (who were educated to believe that you need someone else who knows the game to do it) could not psychologically figure out what was going on to be able to address and heal societal wounds. The fact is, you do. They should not be telling you what to do because they do not know either. That psychology and law is labeling others is extremely dangerous for they have been historically wrong (O’Brien, 2024a). People are not dumb, stupid, sick, ill, crazy, diseased, disordered, or diagnosable… and if we continue to believe so, then shame on us. But shame is really the name of the game that we have to get out of, and we have learned enough to not follow in their footprints anymore. In the case of GFE, the law should implement (experiment) what they require of others first. But as this is their mainstream of revenue we are doubtful because we know what it takes to actually be living a life of recovery.

Future Directions

What should be in our challenge to the law is that they should take the opportunity to grow up and to do the right professional thing. Change is coming anyway, we might as well go with the flow and the voters’ choice of changing direction away from the bureaucratic nightmare that America has become (HERE). But the apple doesn’t fall from the tree that George Washington never cut down. In fact, he warned against entanglements in slaying foreign dragons in never-neverlands because he knew that altruism and ambition would drain our national resources, common decency, and America’s spirit. What he was not expecting is that perfectionism would dominate the professional landscape in the form of insurance models.

Psychology, it is time to be reborn with psychedelics, but she will not be able to do so because she is wedded to a dependent addicted medical and legal system that is living dissociated from their ways and means. The saddest thing is that the bill will fall upon the next generation and that is “We the People”. We, therefore, suggest that intergenerational legal (class action lawsuit) be taken. We would address the opiate epidemic with non-addictive opiates, stating that mental health is due to a chemical imbalance, use of neurotoxins in food and water supplies, and safe vaccines. We would also suggest that if people have been overcharged by a lawyer, that they have the right to let their congressperson know or call the state board of education about the moral character of their lawyer and their billing procedures. People should be able to charge the lawyers if the outcome of the case goes against their own “protocol to reduce implicit bias in decision-making” (e.g., drug laws).

“We the People” require that the law address their dependence issues on not following the laws they prescribe for others (e.g., GFE) and legalize all “classical” psychedelics (e.g., cannabis, LSD, peyote, ayahuasca, psilocybin, ibogaine, and DMT). Psychologically, we know enough to be able to manage them ourselves (O’Brien, 2023b). We require the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, even though we should not have to ask because if one needs a protocol for that decision, we have bigger issues than who did not get their money. And believe us, we do have bigger issues than money because money is just the metaphor for energy, resources, power, control, privilege, and entitlement. But the fact that psychology does not even have an understanding of this, we offer our re-educational and healing services for all at woundedhealersinstitute.org

Hope to see you there…

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/