Rorschach inkblots

I recently came across a video mocking online Leftist positions. Many of them were funny, such as "Can we not yell at the outdoor demo, it may lead to sensory overload" or "theory is ableist." Yet there was one I was shocked to hear: "Therapists are included in ACAB." Again, this was mockery, so of course, OP meant he disagreed with that statement. The top comment was "But, therapists are included in ACAB?" and subsequent replies disagreed with or mocked the commenter. One comment said, "No, but psychiatrists are def in ACAB" and explained how all the therapists they knew were progressive and anti-capitalist. Ignoring that many anti-capitalist, progressive people can be Coppish as fuck, I want to explore this issue a bit.

I do believe therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists fall into ACAB. The fact that therapists and similar professionals are posited as "alternatives" (ie, stand-ins) for police show how little difference there can truly be, if such calls can come from politicians. Therapists too, if they identify behaviors they see as "dangerous" they can force your institutionalization, by police mandate, if necessary. 

Did we suddenly forget the role of racism, sexism, eugenics, and psychological manipulation in our society, manifested in the fields of psychology and psychiatry? Because some therapists are woke and possibly friendly, this redeems their profession?  I am reminded of the idea of Drapetomania: The mental illness ascribed to runaway slaves: Their lives were so good compared to perceived alternatives, why would they run away?? Or Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, a White Civil Rights activist, who, after an arrest, was assumed mentally ill. "Why would a White woman fight for Black folks' rights?!" asked her fellow Southern women peers. 

Further, the role of these professions is to bring you into a social, emotional, and mental paradigm suitable for schooling, working, and consuming. As a certain postal system enthusiast said, 

“Mental health” programs, “intervention” techniques, psychotherapy and so forth are ostensibly designed to benefit individuals, but in practice they usually serve as methods for inducing individuals to think and behave as the system requires. (There is no contradiction here; an individual whose attitudes or behavior bring him into conflict with the system is up against a force that is too powerful for him to conquer or escape from, hence he is likely to suffer from stress, frustration, defeat. His path will be much easier if he thinks and behaves as the system requires. In that sense the system is acting for the benefit of the individual when it brainwashes him into conformity.)

I would argue then, that to not exhibit strong negative reactions in your social-emotional health is a sign of oddness, not the opposite. We live in an exploitative, disrupted, and rapidly changing world. These are of course going to produce what we call mental illness. A well-adjusted slave is the true freak, not the one who cannot sleep or the one who strikes out at her master.

  1. How could therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists engage in non-coppish, non-abusive, non-assimilative work, if at all?
  2. How might community care replace therapists, etc in our society?
  3. What are some arguments that therapists, etc are not cop-like?
  4. Do the benefits of therapists, etc outweigh the negatives?
  5. Are there other positions in society who would fall into ACAB? (Ie, teachers)
     

Comments

EmmaAintDead Sun, 04/05/2026 - 07:04

Therapists and psychiatrists are included in acab when the context is Baker Act/5150. That's essentially the "defund the police" position - invols on poor people who arent pedos or a wife beaters, immediate execution for those who are, and regular policing for the wealthy and well-connected. Forcing medication to alter one's brain chemistry to bring one in line with the proper social way of being, absolutely cop shit.

The big difference between cops and shrinks is that there isn't a massive market for voluntary self-admittance to police custody, there are no apps where you can pay for the privilege of having a probation officer to check in with every two weeks, and concerned friends will never recommend their favorite sheriff's deputy when you're feeling down. The bulk of interactions with therapists are entirely voluntary and can be terminated at any time by the person who initiated that contact. Their job may still be to train the cop in your head to get buff as hell, but if you walked into their office and paid them your money to do that then that's more on you than them. 

If its not clear, I dont believe the benefits outweigh the negatives when it comes to therapists because their benefit is the promise of social normalcy. An environment where abnormality doesn't mean rotting in the streets is preferable. Until thats a serious option, fuck it, take Zoloft if you wanna. I dont give a fuck. 

Teachers are acab until the point one can drop out of school without legal ramifications. 

anonymous (not verified) Sun, 04/05/2026 - 08:23

In reply to by EmmaAintDead

fantastic start  to the responses here, emmaAD. i will add a minor detail that some people are court ordered to therapy or support groups that they cannot just leave without negative consequences (and, oddly, i've read that the results can be positive--as in the abuser is less likely to abuse again--but all of that must be taken with a few dozen grains of salt, of course).

there are options within therapy, as there are options within policing. all therapists should work with you to determine what --your-- goals are for the sessions, though many don't probably, some therapees don't know how to ask for or demand that, and some therapists are not good at it even when or if they try. 

best case scenario a therapist is a skilled friend you pay to talk to. jus tlike with robots that attend to isolated older people, it sucks that sometimes those are the best options this technocratic capitalist system provides. 

anonymous (not verified) Sun, 04/05/2026 - 11:33

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

some of the existential comics are fantastic, but that one is just stupid. i'm sorry.

GO3 Mon, 04/06/2026 - 08:54

In reply to by EmmaAintDead

Funny that you mentioned that. My dad was in the hospital a couple of months ago and started talking about harakiri and seppuku to some doctors and they started evaluating him for Baker act. I found out about it because I read their notes on Mychart app. I told him they have a jail in here for bad old people it's called the psych ward so be careful.

anonymous (not verified) Sun, 04/05/2026 - 10:06

Massive side-eye at quoting that reactionary fuck just because he has a point here. But anyway.

> How could therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists engage in non-coppish, non-abusive, non-assimilative work, if at all?

By being actual allies/accomplices. A lot of them don't actually appreciate the power hierarchy between them and their clients and actively work to reduce it. For example they can just not put stuff in your notes, speak in your favor in court, etc. Obviously this is insufficient to eliminate the problem but it's not like shrink is the only job where someone sincerely helpful has unjust authority. I don't think anyone would call a medical doctor a cop even though they have the same power to detain you, have unjust authority over access to medication, etc, and are often power tripping fucks.

Some of them are just straight up mind cops. And we should never forget abusive practices like involuntary psychiatric detention or stop working to abolish them. But not everything bad is a cop, and in my experience shrinks are the least harmful part of the mental health establishment.

Also, psychiatrists are definitely more like cops than therapists. That's spot on. They see "mental illness" as a defect to be cured.

R.D Laing (not verified) Sun, 04/05/2026 - 12:39

Since he's quoted, a counterpoint: "I think most U.S. anarchists bunch of neurotics. Some Brit anarchists maybe better." Why stop at teachers and psychologists, add your parents, supermarket workers that require you to pay for sustenance, Flaubert said inside every revolutionary is a cop so yourself even? Then God. And then his God. And then his shrink.

anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/07/2026 - 08:08

So, I suppose the anews commentators now decide all the "correct" takes to have these days based on their increasingly heavy-handed decisions on which comments to post and not (many more lately). You can no longer even have an "incorrect" snarky take on acab (one of many not posted as of late) or perpetual arrested development syndrome (aka the anarchist condition). It has been said before and rings truer each year, A! would be embarrassed.

anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/07/2026 - 18:29

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

why attribute to malice (and a particular kind of malice at that) what could be attributed to a) thinking the unposted comment was not relevant/meaningful/funny/whatever, but the complaint is fair>? or 
b) different mods having different standards or ideas about what should be posted? 

or c, both of the above.

as for whether a! would be disappointed or not, that is a cheap comment more about old-timer signalling (valid or not), since you have not the slightest clue how a! would've responded to the changing and changed world. 

also claiming someone dead would've done something or felt something that just happens to be what you think or do is lame and manipulative as hell. 

unless it's funny. which your comment is not.

anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/08/2026 - 08:26

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Oh, a nerve has been struck. Well, it is my opinion about A!'s opinion (obviously) after many conversations about this project in particular and why it was started and the goals he had for it, so I do actually have a clue as to what A! may have thought about certain aspects of some things. Can I be sure, certainly not, but who can about anything. So now to give thoughts on what someone we knew might have thought because it might overlap with our opinion is "lame and manipulative as hell"??? So, I suppose we might now never talk about what any dead person might have thought??? That is just absurd. That could be viewed as "manipulative".

anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/08/2026 - 11:03

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

omeone reacted to me: "a nerve has been struck"
no one responded to me: "you're too scared to respond"
everyone knows these internet tactics now, you're going to have to up your game.

a! was different from a lot of other big names because he changed in a changing world. his goals for the site might or might not have changed, but that would never keep him from changing the tactics he had for attaining those goals.

anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/08/2026 - 11:22

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Of course he changed in a changing world, duh. Most do. That dosen't mean he would not be disappointed with the current anarchist scene or ANEWS. Your statement is a non sequitur.

anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/08/2026 - 08:44

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Oh, and I am actually quite happy, by the way, plus, I don't identify as little or a man, so there, but thanks for trying to define me with you so provocative insults. Have a nice day aboard the sinking ship of fools.

William Gillis (not verified) Tue, 04/07/2026 - 12:11

Understand the concept of the acronym, you do not?
Every authoritarian thing you dislike, ACAB does not have to be.
What you are looking for, ATAB (or APAB) is.
A galaxy of acronyms, we can utilize.

Everybody knows this.

~William Gillis
First Generation Anarchist,
Master Therapist of the Jedi Order

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