If you've ever left a professional support session feeling more isolated than when you arrived, it’s worth asking if the focus was on your "healing" or your "adjustment." In Part 2 of this series, The Loneliness Industry explores the sociological concept of the Scapegoat Mechanism—a group dynamic often used to manage individuals who struggle to fit into modern societal structures.Using the work of René Girard, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Michel Foucault, we examine why reflective and empathetic individuals are often the ones who carry the collective weight of societal tension. This episode is an analysis of the process that can internalize systemic friction as personal failure.Inside the Episode:- The Krishnamurti Pivot: Why struggling to adapt can be a sign of systemic awareness.- The 4-Point Audit: A perspective-shift to help you re-evaluate your self-perception.- The Selection Process: How groups identify individuals to carry collective responsibility.- Mimetic Desire: Using René Girard to explain the "common enemy" dynamic in social cohesion.00:00 Introduction01:56 The Krishnamurti Story: Truth Is a Pathless Land02:45 Visuals – Theosophists Graphic04:34 Why Failing to Adjust Can Be a Sign of Health08:46 Quiz – The 4-Point Decent Person Test12:06 The Scapegoat Selection Process21:33 What Is Scapegoating?26:36 Girard on Societal Scapegoating28:43 The DSM & the Codification of Scapegoating30:18 Girard and Mimetic Desire34:48 What Unifies Human Societies38:25 Problems Chihuahuas Have Unearthed Regarding Mimetic Desire41:39 Scapegoating as a Tool for Social Order44:51 The DSM as Institutionalised ScapegoatingIf you scored 4/4 on the Decent Person test, it would be a pleasure to meet you! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. The Works Referenced: • Gabor Maté – The Myth of Normal • René Girard – The Scapegoat & Violence and the Sacred • Jiddu Krishnamurti – The First and Last Freedom • Michel Foucault – Madness and Civilization • Christopher Lasch – The Culture of Narcissism • Sara Ahmed – The Cultural Politics of Emotion • Thomas Szasz – The Myth of Mental IllnessDon’t Miss Episodes – Even Though The Algorithm Wants You To:Join the mailing list at https://thelonelinessindustry.net#TheLonelinessIndustry #ReneGirard #Philosophy #Sociology #Krishnamurti #TheMythOfNormal

What if therapy isn't healing you — but training you to comply?This episode of the Loneliness Industry dismantles the hidden power structures operating inside modern therapy, showing how supposedly neutral mental health practices can mirror narcissism and even narcissistic abuse. Instead of validating your lived experience, therapy often reframes structural suffering as personal pathology — turning perfectly sane reactions into signs of disorder.Drawing on thinkers like Michel Foucault, Christopher Lasch, and René Girard, public philosopher Jordan Reyne exposes how psychological institutions use gaslighting tactics to invalidate reality, demand compliance, and ultimately produce self-doubt. You’ll learn how CBT operates as a behaviour correction tool within capitalism, how the DSM functions as a cultural scapegoat machine, and why your distress may be a rational response to a sick society — not evidence that you are broken.By the end, you’ll have a diagnostic toolkit for spotting when therapy becomes compliance training, and three questions that prove you're fundamentally OK — no institutional fixing required.If you’ve ever walked out of therapy feeling like YOU are the problem for noticing the problem, this episode shows why: it was never about healing — it was about conformity.CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS 00:00 What If Therapy Is Making You Feel Worse?00:30 A Case Study: Therapeutic Gaslighting05:53 Section I – The Therapy-Speak Travel Guide (and What It Really Means)11:01 Manufacturing Compliance: How Therapy Trains You to Self-Correct16:00 Weaponised Boundaries: When Mental Health Language Protects Abuse18:35 Marking the Scapegoat: Turning Sane Reactions Into “Pathology”21:03 How Therapy Became Compliance Training22:48 What Real Healing Actually Requires (According to Research)23:28 Why Society Can’t Support the Conditions Necessary for Healing25:34 How Western Capitalism Outsources Blame to the Individual27:08 The Hero Narrative: The Seductive Social Control Mechanism33:02 The Narcissistic Cycle: How the Hero Becomes the Scapegoat35:57 How Therapy Became a Mechanism of Social and Psychological Control41:16 Why CBT Is the Gold Standard of Compliance Training45:11 How Therapy Creates Power Imbalances and Authority Over Your Reality48:44 Power’s Recruitment Process: Who Gets to Define “Healthy”Theme music "The Annihilation Sequence" by Jordan ReyneAvailable on Bandcamp at http://jordanreyne.bandcamp.com