Tea at Trianon: The Culture of Pretend

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The Culture of Pretend

The failure of psychotherapy. (Via Joshua Snyder) Share

2 comments:

R J said...: There are those who still imagine that the average mental health doctor (anti-Christian though he is to the marrow of his bones) can be trusted. Why they still imagine this, I have not the faintest idea.

One would have thought that such phenomena as Communists using pysch wards to suppress dissent - not to mention America's own pre-Hitler campaigns of taxpayer-funded sterilization for "mental hygiene", and the American Psychiatric Association's subsequent decision to legitimize buggery by a majority vote (science decided by a majority vote, hello?) - might have given them pause. One would be wrong.

To such folk as continue to trust shrinks qua shrinks, I can now say only two terrifying words: "Fort Hood".; November 17, 2009 at 6:40:00 AM EST
Julygirl said...: I read the whole article and I do not see where she made her point. One could also say that diets don't work. They work as far as one wants to go with the diet and how hard one works at it, and some are scams. Or, "I went to the dermatologist and I still itch". Delving into and trying to understand what motivates one's behavior takes time and commitment. Some therapists are more skilled than others in guiding one through self discovery, and for many it has helped them approach life with a healthier happier attitude. Don't 'throw out the baby with the bath water'. As for me personally, I found more answers through reading and meditation on the writings of, for example, St. Francis de Salle, or St. Alphonsus Ligouri, Dom Francisco Scupoli, The Bible, etc.; November 17, 2009 at 3:44:00 PM EST