The Wounded Healers System: Are Our Professions “Addicted” to Power and Control?
Unpacking the System: Are Legal, Psychological, and Medical Professions Stuck in Harmful Patterns?
Introduction: Generally, people rely on legal, psychological, and medical professionals to guide and help us, but what does it mean to heal with and for us? What if these very systems are, themselves, exhibiting patterns of dysfunction like a family system? Dr. Adam O’Brien’s ‘Legalized Psychological Experts’ offers a startling diagnosis: these professions are “addicted” to power and control, perpetuating harm through outdated definitions, restrictive policies, and professional hierarchies. As someone becomes aware of the level of abuse they are experiencing, the privilege had already deemed necessary by someone else.
A Critical Diagnosis: O’Brien applies his “addiction as dissociation” framework not just to individuals, but to entire professions (because corporations have the rights of people now). He argues (because psychology is a science) that the legal system operates from an “immature” stage of cognitive development, are morally underdeveloped (based on their reasoning, actions, and tactics), and are “addicted to power and control” and do not know it because psychology has not defined or operationalized a clinical term for addiction. Stating that addiction is a disease does not define it. As addiction is no longer a disease (O’Brien, 2023a), the level of development of the professions become observable. Psychology, he claims, is “complicit, enabling, and dependent (e.g., addicted)” by not challenging the medical model of addiction, allowing it to be called a disease, and failing to define key concepts accurately (e.g., dissociation, consciousness, and unconscious). The medical system is critiqued for its authority over psychological issues and its promotion of theories like: “chemical imbalance”, “non-addictive”, and psychedelics having “no medical value”.
The “Abusive Relationship”: O’Brien describes psychology being in an “abusive relationship” with law and medicine, “living dissociated” and “addicted to not knowing because she fears pain and death.” This powerful metaphor suggests a codependency that prevents genuine progress and perpetuates a cycle of harm, but since those are not diagnoses, they do not exist in the legal realm of reality. The critique extends to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), which he labels “the law’s legal bible to the indirectly imprisonment of ‘their citizen’ population.”
Professional Inequality as Systemic Sickness: A prime example of this systemic dysfunction, according to O’Brien, is the “diagnostic privilege fiasco” between Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHCs) and Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) in New York State. He questions why a new profession (LMHC) was created if it wasn’t to be equal, highlighting the power imbalance where LCSWs can supervise LMHCs but not vice versa. This “separate but unequal” dynamic, he argues, is a micro-example of how psychology has failed the law and how the “law being in power and control will defuse democracy.” Furthermore, seeing professions as separate and equal would help negate the power and control differential between the professions and the sciences they unconsciously choose to follow.
The Call for a New Path: This critique suggests that structural change requires a form of “institutional therapy” or “recovery.” O’Brien believes that until these “dissociated parts” of the professional landscape are integrated and made “equal,” true interdisciplinary collaboration and effective societal healing will remain impossible.
Key Takeaway: O’Brien’s analysis forces us to look beyond individual failings and examine the systemic “sickness” within our most trusted institutions. It’s a challenging perspective, but one that opens the door to a deeper understanding of how our systems might be perpetuating the very problems they claim to solve.
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. (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/
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