These posts explore the themes developed in my monograph, Narcisso-Fascism, which is itself a real-world test of the central concepts of the Biocognitive Model of Mind for psychiatry.
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Where do we start? After the Trump regime kidnapped the head of state of Venezuela, I said that if he gets away with it, he’ll try something bigger. I was right. He and his mate Netanyahu just murdered the spiritual head of some 250million Shia Muslims.
It’s tempting to say something like “Madness is engulfing the world,” except it’s not madness. There isn’t the slightest hint of insanity in the action of the US-Israel axis in attacking Iran. In clear consciousness, they have planned this for months, fully aware that in launching an aggressive war, they are committing the “supreme international crime,” illegal both in international law and under US law. They know precisely what they’re doing. With great precision, they positioned troops and weapons of fearsome power exactly where they wanted them in order to produce maximum damage to civil and military sites in Iran. Moreover, every member of ther armed forces knows exactly that in engaging in an unprovoked attack, they are committing a major crime.
Once again, the US pretended to engage in negotiations with Iran and then attacked without warning, this time in the holy month of Ramadan after the meals to break the fast when everybody goes to bed early as they have to be up early. Within a few hours, they had blown up a girls’ primary school, killing at least 175 people, mostly children, and injuring many more. Since then and following Israel’s plan in Gaza, they have selectively bombed at least ten hospitals as well as important civil infrastructure, which is itself a war crime. Even as the news of those crimes was being broadcast, Australia’s prime minister was first to issue a statement supporting what are, in law, criminal acts:
Australia stands with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against oppression. For decades, the Iranian regime has been a destabilising force, through its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, support for armed proxies, and brutal acts of violence and intimidation.
Iran directed at least two attacks on Australian soil in 2024. These appalling acts targeting Australia’s Jewish community were intended to create fear, divide our society and challenge our sovereignty. In response, Australia took the unprecedented steps of expelling Iran’s Ambassador, suspending operations at our embassy in Tehran, and listing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a state sponsor of terrorism. Our Government has sanctioned more than 200 Iranian-linked individuals, including more than 100 linked to the IRGC.
With international partners, including the United States and the G7, we have called for the Iranian regime to uphold the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Iran’s citizens. These calls have gone unheeded. Instead, the regime has instigated a brutal crackdown on its own people leaving thousands of Iranian civilians dead. A regime that relies on the repression and murder of its own people to retain power is without legitimacy.
It has long been recognised that Iran’s nuclear program is a threat to global peace and security. The international community has been clear that the Iranian regime can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. The United Nations Security Council has reimposed sanctions on Iran for failing to comply with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the International Atomic Energy Agency Board has formally declared Iran in non-compliance with its non-proliferation safeguards obligations.
We support the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran continuing to threaten international peace and security.
This bit of drivel is stuffed full of the most blatant and hypocritical lies imaginable. The oppression suffered by Iranians started in 1953, when the US CIA and Britain’s MI6 engineered a coup to overthrow the mildly socialist and secular, elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh. Because he wanted the profits for Iranians, Mossadegh nationalised the oil industry which Britain had been plundering for decades without paying royalties. Enraged, the whities threw him out and installed the protofascist regime of the so-called Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi who was addicted to grandiose pseudo-military uniforms. He allowed the US and Britain to take what they wanted while he ruled with his singularly brutal secret police, Savak. In due course, Pahlavi was overthrown by the Islamist revolution and the West declared economic war on Iran. A few years later, they pushed their then good friend, Saddam Hussein, to attack Iran on the promise he could have their coastal oil fields. Iran would have smashed Saddam in a few months but with the most active assistance from the US and UK, including espionage, money and weapons, the war dragged on for eight years.
Throughout that terrible war and since, driven by the US, Western countries have imposed the most severe economic blockade on Iran, devastating the economy and producing unrest among the 90million Iranians. It used to be the case that an economic blockade was casus belli, a formal ground for war but today, the rule is Macht hat Recht: the powerful do what they want and the poor suffer what they must. In 2003, the Ayatollah Khameini declared that nuclear weapons are haram, forbidden under Islamic law, and cancelled Iran’s small nuclear weapons program, leaving only a civil program in place. Constantly prodded by Israel, the US and other NATO countries have insisted that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program, that it is a week away from having The Bomb, leading to ever-more restrictive sanctions, and constant sabotage and assassinations by Israel. Eventually, during Obama’s time, the JCPOA was signed, allow intrusive inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities by the IAEA. By all accounts, this treaty was doing its job but, in 2018 in one of his regular anti-Obama tantrums, Trump tore it up. Iran continued to comply with it but that wasn’t good enough so last year, the US and Israel bombed their facilities.
For over seventy years, Iranians have been oppressed by the West. Naturally enough, their government has reacted in much the same way the Australian and British and US and German and other governments have acted over the past few years, by restricting civil rights, building intrusive domestic spying agencies, penalising dissent, etc. And all the time, the Iranian economy has been sinking lower and lower. If the West hadn’t overthrown the Mossadegh government all those years ago, the Iranian economy would now be about twice the size of Italy’s, with an equivalent standard of living. Iran would be a major industrial power, more so even than Germany, with a huge research and development program, far bigger than Britain has ever had. And that’s what it’s all about. The West can’t stand competition. They want to dominate. End of story. In particular, they want to dominate anybody and everybody who is not of white western European ancestry. They will stop at absolutely nothing in their mania to strangle all competition, especially as they have now lost the struggle to dominate China. And, despite their best efforts, Russia is still there, it hasn’t broken up as they confidently forecast, so they turn to Iran.
But let’s continue with Albanese’s slop: “For decades, the Iranian regime has been a destabilising force…” Fomenting coups and wars, invading sovereign nations, economic strangulation, that hasn’t been destabilising, has it? No, of course not, that’s just normal neoliberal business practice for dealing with wogs. “…and nuclear programs.” The one that ended in 2003, you mean? The same one the IAEA says doesn’t exist, the one you obliterated in June 2025? This is the old Iraqi WMD lie recycled. There were no WMD in Iraq and there was no nuclear weapons program in Iran. Netanyahu has been predicting for 30 years that Iran is a week away from having nuclear weapons but he lies easier than he breathes. Israel, let’s not forget, has up to 200 nuclear warheads and the bombers to deliver them but is not a member of any international treaties to restrict them. “…brutal acts of violence and intimidation…” Like the 1,800+ acts of terror and hundreds of murders committed by Zionist “settlers” against the Palestinians of the West bank last year, you mean?
“Iran directed at least two attacks on Australian soil in 2024.” The information that led to that conclusion came from Mossad. There is no evidence that Iran gives a shit about Australia. “… intended to create fear, divide our society” even though the overwhelming majority of Australians are opposed to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and other places. “…and challenge our sovereignty.” 47 years of economic sanctions and blockade, assassinations, sabotage and bombings is not a challenge to Iran’s sovereignty? “In response, Australia took the unprecedented steps of expelling Iran’s Ambassador…” but it hasn’t uttered so much as a whimper against Israel’s monstrous genocide in Gaza, supplying weapons and allowing US bases in Australia to function as a vital part of the espionage and control of bombers. “Our Government has sanctioned more than 200 Iranian-linked individuals…” It has sanctioned precisely zero Israelis, including those charged with genocide by the ICC, and even allowed one of its main architects to come here a few weeks ago. “…we have called for the Iranian regime to uphold the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Iran’s citizens.” They have said not one word about upholding the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Gaza’s sorely tormented surviving citizens.
“…the regime has instigated a brutal crackdown on its own people.” There is ample evidence from people on site at the time that the recent violence was instigated and carried out by people acting on instructions from the CIA and Mossad. Prior to the violence, at least 10,000 Starlink terminals and automatic weapons were smuggled into Iran and distributed to groups opposed to the government. These were used to coordinate the violence. The Iranian intelligence services worked out how to jam them, and the violence stopped immediately. “A regime that relies on the repression and murder of its own people to retain power is without legitimacy.” A bit like the Saudis killing Jamal Khashoggi, you could say. Like the US ICE killing people on the streets? Like the spreading chain of prisons run by ICE in the US? “Iran’s nuclear program is a threat to global peace and security.” Bullshit. It doesn’t exist because it was stopped in 2003 and was “obliterated” a few months ago. “…the Iranian regime can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.” Well, after all this, they’ll probably be looking at North Korea and wondering how they have survived for so long against such hostility. Something to do with their nuclear weapons, maybe?
“… Iran for failing to comply with the JCPOA..” That treaty ceased to exist when Trump tore it up but Iran largely complied with it. The IAEA report says: “…inspectors have been unable to determine whether Iran’s nuclear programme was ‘exclusively peaceful.’” That was because they no longer had the right to unrestricted access to any and all sites after Trump trashed the JCPOA. The suggestion that Iran had stockpiled 400kg of highly enriched uranium was not based on any evidence that came from within Iran. Mossad, the Israeli spy and sabotage agency, are unrivalled in their ability to spin and spread lies, that’s their stock in trade.
Finally, “We support the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran continuing to threaten international peace and security.” He forgot to mention Israel’s nuclear bombs, of course, he is always fastidiously careful not to upset the Zionist lobby, and that Israel had just killed the person who issued the fatwa against Iran developing nuclear weapons. As for threats to international peace and security, since 1945, the US has bombed 29 sovereign countries, including no less than ten since the “president of peace” wormed his way back into the White House not 14 months ago. Iran has not attacked another country for over 300 years.
Lies, lies, lies. His whole statement is a tissue of lies resting on a foundation of hypocrisy that makes my skin crawl. The Prime Minister of Australia is either a shameless liar or a nauseating hypocrite and spineless coward who repeats lies without daring to check their veracity. He is unfit for office. His proper station in life is as branch secretary of the cleaners’ and sanitary workers’ union in a small country town but it also seems these people are competing to see who can be the most disgusting. Tomorrow morning at 6.00am in Adelaide, Australian foreign minister Sen. Penny Wong will host a breakfast for International Women’s Day. I wonder if they’ll hold a minute’s silence for the 165 little girls murdered in their school in Minab on Saturday?
The most appalling part is that all this death and destruction is because Trump is flailing around creating distractions so he doesn’t have to face the Epstein stuff but nobody in the US has the courage to call him out. Not even the generals who know full well they are committing crimes, but nemesis is coming, that much is inevitable. He will lose the mid-term elections and the last 3million files will be released. Assuming he is still compos mentis, he will then go to prison. Netanyahu has a prison cell with his name on it waiting for the day he can’t plead “national security” to avoid his corruption trials but he’s having a great time just now. He has been trying to destroy Iran for, as he says, 40 years (at 6.55). Same in Britain. The egregiously dishonest Starmer, former chief Crown Prosecutor, is a dead man walking mainly because of his supine loyalty to the Zionist lobby.
None of this is madness. This is wickedness simpliciter. We have handed our governments to the Epstein Coalition.
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Why is hypocrisy so infuriating? Somebody says to you: “Come back, you mustn’t walk on the grass.” “Oh dear,” you reply, “I’ll have to go the long way around instead.” Somewhat peeved and a little humiliated for not knowing the rules, you set off but before you get to your goal, you see the same person walking across the grass. Why is that so annoying? I see it as a matter of dominance: you allowed that person to dominate you. In the interests of civility and doing the right thing, you gave in, only to see it was by deceit, not by honest competition. That’s humiliating, you know the other person is looking down on you and we don’t like that at all: “I allowed you to dominate me, you think you’re so smart and I don’t forgive that.” We may not spend all our time fighting to be top dog, but we don’t like being fooled into being the poodle. Going up the hierarchy is joyous but going down stings. We remember stings long after we have forgotten the fun bits.
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My critical works are best approached in this order:
The case against mainstream psychiatry:
McLaren N (2024). Theories in Psychiatry: building a post-positivist psychiatry. Ann Arbor, MI: Future Psychiatry Press. Amazon (this also covers a range of modern philosophers, showing that their work cannot be extended to account for mental disorder).
Development and justification of the biocognitive model:
McLaren N (2021): Natural Dualism and Mental Disorder: The biocognitive model for psychiatry. London, Routledge. At Amazon.
Clinical application of the biocognitive model:
McLaren N (2018). Anxiety: The Inside Story. Ann Arbor, MI: Future Psychiatry Press. At Amazon.
Testing the biocognitive model in an unrelated field:
McLaren N (2023): Narcisso-Fascism: The psychopathology of right wing extremism. Ann Arbor, MI: Future Psychiatry Press. At Amazon.
The whole of this work is copyright but may be copied or retransmitted provided the author is acknowledged.