Scanian_Libertarian

Thank you! I'm very happy to have found this place.

I actually currently am reading through Nathaniel Branden's book "Breaking Free" that I found as free audio book on Complete Liberty podcast: http://completeliberty.com/magazine/read/episode-165---breaking-free-part-one_244.html Is there any particular titles by Nathaniel Branden that you can recommend?

Although I am 39 years old , I never thought of that I had no normal childhood , until now. Thanks in part to that I started listening to Stefan Molyneux's podcasts, but also because my current living situation has forced me to think about how I ended up where I ended up . There are three things I believe fatally steered my way of thinking , my life choices and interests: I grew up completely isolated , at a very remote place in the countryside . And inside an evangelical Christian cult . And when two nearly the same age siblings are growing up together, I guess it is not very uncommon , that fights occur between them ? But how common is it that one is wrong every single time, and is spanked? My sister was only petted by our parents, while I was spanked all the time. I realized that I probably need therapy, and someone I can discuss these things with . But to my surprise , the therapists were completely indifferent and disinterested. They barely even listened to what I had to say, and constantly tried to just lead over the discussion to the present and the future instead. It was not unlike the dialogue in the humorous anecdote " Good afternoon, sir - Ax handle ": http://spokendialogue.dk/GoodAfternoon/GoodAfternoon.html I soon discovered that this was due to that our dear leaders and central planners in Sweden decided that the only thing that will be offered in the country, is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy which only focuses on the present and future. Anyone wishing Psychodynamic therapy that goes more in depth, requires personal contacts and plenty of money . I have neither. The Swedish Radio have an article about this: " In our neighboring Nordic countries and in Germany and France these methods are regarded as two schools that complement each other . In Sweden , they have been set against each other by the authorities and politicians . The result has been a more one-sided selection of therapy for people with mental illness. The investigation done by "Kaliber" also shows that the government's billions in subsidies to CBT treatments may conflict with EU competition rules . " http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=1316&artikel=5104224 When I pointed out to the last therapist I met that it is psychodynamic therapy I need, he just sat and grinned and used the ruler technique . He even claimed that psychodynamic therapy and to discuss things in the past is completely unscientific , because the State's Science Council have decided so. It is evident that psychiatry is not paid by me as a patient , but by the politruks, and that their only job is to prescribe drugs and get the tax cattle back into the workforce as soon as possible. Above all, they get paid whether they help their patients or not. My current living situation is, that I went into the wall in my last job where I worked for five years. It was unsustainable in the long run , to get up at 04 and come home about 18-20 , plus work Saturdays. I have neither a career , social life or any real interest anymore. My living consists basically just to work out several hours each day at the gym . My current life would basically fit in a shoebox . I am now trying to create a new life for myself, and choice of occupation or studies relate to some extent, with the interest you have , or at least what feels fairly stimulating. I have come to the realization that the very black and white thinking in the evangelical Christian cult that was imprinted in me from a very small age , and maybe even the brutal contrast between how my sister and I were treated by our parents , have strongly steered my interests and decisions as an adult. When I left the religious cult at age 19 , I was drawn to political cults instead , because it was the only thing I knew. Then that became my whole life. But now nothing feels interesting or stimulating anymore. If you build up a mental picture of my "child-self" and my "adult-self", and think about what I should say and what advice I as an adult would want to give to my "child-self", I feel honestly bewildered . But I think the key to building myself a new life, is to become a better "parent" to oneself and try to give my "child-self" some of the things I never had as a kid. But what do you do when therapy is not an option ?

Started listening to FDR about 2010 and it has affected me greatly. I think I will write a separate thread under "Self knowledge" about my new insights and ask some questions there about some things I've thought about, but there is no doubt that my views have been shaped strongly by my history and where I come from. When I was born in the 1970's, Sweden took a turn from bad to worse. The whole society was recast. Sweden got a new constitution. Central and local government was extended. The utopia would become a reality. The village where I grew up in rural southern Sweden once had its own school, but during my childhood me and my sister were the only children left there. I grew up in a veritable rust-belt, a depopulated area in disrepair. The town I went to school in, once had numerous shops, banks, cinemas, a library, a sports ground, a soccer team, train and bus connections etc, but when I went to school there it was essentially reduced to a ghost town with only the school and a retirement home left, and no public transports. If I wanted to go anywhere at all, my parents had to drive me there. Right or wrong, when I grew up I identified all these ills and my dull and lonely childhood with the large-scale and central planning that was the spirit of the time. Where everybody else saw effective planning and service, I saw impoverished social environments. In the rural area where I grew up, it had long been both a necessity and a genuine will, to be able to solve problems on ones own or with others, without dictation from politicians and beaureaucrats. Plus I grew up in a pretty dysfunctional family that belonged to a small, self-contained and even inbred (everyone was related to everyone except my family who were expatriates) evangelical Christian sect, in an area where hardly any were religious.Listening to FDR have made ​​me think of things I never thought about before, and see things in a new light.For that, I can only say thank you so much!