Psychiatrists are simply legalized drug dealers, offering dangerous quick fixes to complex problems. Many major university professors are just in it for the cushy jobs. The combination of these two are not good for our health:

A congressional investigation has revealed that a group of Harvard psychiatrists, instrumental in pushing the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and its off-label treatment with antipsychotics, concealed from university officials the millions of dollars they earned in consulting fees for the companies that make those drugs… Biederman and Wilens had received at least $1.6 million from the pharmaceutical industry between 2000 and 2007, while Spencer had received at least $1 million. [Natural News]

In Selling Sickness, investigators explore how pharmaceutical corporations work to actually create new “disorders” that can only be “cured” with their drugs. Forget going to the root of the problem, treating the symptoms is the key they say. Negative or sad? You are depressed. Moody? You are bipolar. Shy? You actually have social anxiety disorder. So stressed out, alienated, and malnourished you can’t make love? You have erectile-dysfunction. Many of these drugs have dangerous side-effects, interactions, and are physically addicting so patients literally can’t stop taking them once they start.

And academia is complicit in this. When I first got into graduate school, I was surprised when I discovered how easy it was to “work your way up” in academia and how much these professors were making. They get upwards of six figures just to write a paper or two a year, which often repeats what we already know in a different way or just intellectually justifies the status-quo. Serious intelletucal inquiry is very much discouraged, since it might reveal all the crazy stuff that is going on in the world and/or undermine the ivory tower of the professors. Most academic effort unfortunately goes towards “professional development” and “finding a market niche” for one’s research in order to milk the cow. If there is actual research being done, it’s often for the benefit of the military or corporations, like the above example.