The Sacred Cow

In The Sacred Cow, Elvira Reiner, warns about harmful effects of the psychological services which have become pervasive in our society. Psychological testing and screening were developed and employed during WW II, in some cases used as a weapon of war. The war has long been over, but the testing is still around. The demand for such psychological services has persisted and grown tremendously in civilian society. But, testing to see if minds are vulnerable makes no more sense than testing fine china to see if it is breakable; we know it is. Psychological test stimuli act on the psyche engendering destructive impulses. Unconscious phenomena, present in everyone, can be surfaced with testing. when excessive stimuli are introduced into the domain of mental life. Disturbances that psychologists claim to have found through testing could be describing conditions left there by the testing. The unwitting test subjects must then contend with the resulting symptoms for much longer than if or when those symptoms might have surfaced on their own in later life. Injury done to the mind cannot be seen, but harmful effects show up in the thinking and activities of the harmed individuals - e.g. psychologically over-stimulated children who later turn to drug abuse. Of particular concern is that psychologists experiment on the minds of children in the name of studying child development and other mental health services. But, experimenting on children is like a sporting event between two unequal partners. There is a law against child abuse, but the child knows no better than the parents, teachers, judges, or others that it is being abused. To whom could the child complain even if the abuse were recognized. And how could the child's complaint stand up to the explanations of the psychologists?