Rav Avigdor Miller on Psychiatrists
Q:
You say that we should avoid speaking to fools because their words make foolish impressions on our minds. Does this mean that a psychiatrist should not be a psychiatrist because he’s going to constantly hear these crazy things from people?

A:
You have too much faith in psychiatrists. Look, when the patient is lying on the couch, let’s say, or sitting in the chair, and the psychiatrist, he’s sitting next to him, listening. What is he thinking about? He’s thinking, “How much should I charge this man?” Now, excuse me for being so crude, but that’s what he’s thinking. Or he’s thinking, “What should I have for supper tonight?”

Once in a while, he listens. And he has clichés. He knows what to say; he has his clichés. He has certain clichés with which to answer. He hears a few words and right away, he’s going to tell him that he has a certain holdover, a juvenile holdover. These are things that he says over and over again to his patients.

You shouldn’t have such faith in them that they’re going to analyze you down to your roots. They have to say something that’s going to impress you.

Now, you have to forgive me, but I’m a very big apikoress of psychology and psychiatry, except for the medicines that they administer. So I don’t think that he’s impressed at all by the people talking to him. To the contrary – he sees how sick they are or how they silly they are. They come to him and spend good money relating their ailments, so I don’t think he’s impressed by it. I think on the contrary, he’s repelled by it when he sees the results of such mentalities.

However, like I said before, no one has to accept anything I say here. Anything that I say is just put out for your option.