Amos,

Thanks and if I offended, apologies back. I'll admit my initial take on ceretain parts of your post was personal. Fortunately, I didn't post my first draft and I got most of that flavor out of what I did post. For what I didn't, I take it all back. (Subject to counter retraction should evidence warrant, of course)

I'd agrue that a lot of therapy, of any flavor is a lot more than flawed. IMHO 'degenerates" somehow fails to capture the full flavor. I like the Piet Hein Grok which goes (I think I remember it right)

My Faith in doctors is immense, Only one thing spoils it. There pretense Of authorized omniscience.

Substitute "therapists" for doctors, mix in degenerates and it captures the flavor.

I've always viewed psychopharmacology as step one. The next step is to develop new behavior patterns that work. Then to find a world view, find meaning, that works. (Highly unsatisfactory wording but the best I can come up with). But all those lovely pills offer instant karma. Highly attractive.

Sadly, it was Freud who claimed that his theories were firmly routed in science. At least so several books that have come out over the past couple of years claim and seem to document fairly well.

I hope you don't have anything against plastic lawn flamingos. Somehow they seem to sort of sum up a lot of society.

Loved the quote on the Organ of Corti. Clearly the triumph of style over substance. Or maybe the substitution of style for substance. And I agree with what you seem to be saying. That kind of thing has as much relation to meaning as a blueprint does to living in the actual house. To hear, we have to have the Organ of Corti (among other physical structures). How we interpret what we hear is vital.

On the other hand, having discovered the functionality of the Organ of Corti, if I claimed that we hear because of, say, an interplay of some undetectable energy fields, what would be the response?

As a general questions, while there is a basic need to develop meaning in life, why does that need seem to express itself in the need to create extraordinary means?

Regards John