Lucy Johnstone Calls Me Anti-Semitic for Talking about the Soup Nazi and Holocaust Survivors Respond
A sock puppet with Lucy Johnstone's email address attacks me as an antisemitic for mentioning Seinfeld's Soup Nazi. Holocaust survivors come to my defense.
Reich Law Gazette on 25 July 1933: Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring can be found on Wikipedia. I found it on Peter Kinderman’s Psychology Today blog, Me, My Brain and Baked Beans. Kinderman’s article upset some senior psychiatrist friends who were Holocaust survivors, and a bit of a spat broke out in the comment thread of my blog post.
This story is an attempt to make sense of a bizarre but well-documented story that former BPS President Peter Kinderman and his followers got worked up about Kinderman’s worries that the Nazis would have castrated him if they had won World War II. I may laugh at the absurdity of what was done, but not for long.
Kinderman and his supporters have weaponized this story and effectively and persistently used it to depict me as a boogeyman who should be banned from polite society and cast out, disgraced, humiliated, and penniless. Yet, as we will see, some prominent psychiatrists who happen to be some of the last surviving Holocaust survivors shared my upset with Kinderman. They denounced him.
Fast forward to 2024. Most of the persons who fled the Holocaust are dead and they cannot speak in my defense. Why should I need their support? Because Peter Kinderman and vicious anti-social trolls insist that my family feel the pain for disagreeing with Peter Kinderman’s contestable ideas, such as psychiatric diagnosis should be dropped, evidence-based treatments are ineffective poisons, and anyone who advocates them is evil. All, as we will see, according to a group that once called themselves Psychologists Against the Nazis. It hunted “Nazis” among the disproportionately Jewish psychiatrists in the UK who advocated evidence-based mental health treatment in the late 2000s and 21st Century.
Kinderman and Lucy Johnstone would claim that my persisting in protesting how I am being treated in 2024 is further evidence that I am a dangerous boogyman. I am not the accomplished psychologist I claim to be. I have no right to criticize what I falsely claim to be harmful applications of bad science. Kinderman never said the things I quote, nor did he and his followers orchestrate punishment for those who challenged them.
Neither I nor anyone else can contest this verdict
Given this appalling history of misrepresentation, harassment, abuse and criminal behaviour, we advise people to be extremely cautious in their interactions with Professor Coyne and very sceptical about the accuracy of any blogs, articles or claims by him, either personal or academic.
For now, I ask if Peter Kinderman and his group are trustworthy, credible sources. Does it matter that they railed against me as somehow implicated in Peter Kinderman’s worries that if the far right comes to power, he will be castrated because his brother is a “schizophrenic”? Does Kinderman or I deserve anyone’s sympathy and support against any harm from this dispute?
BPS President Peter Kinderman expressed concerns that if the Nazis had won World War II, he would have been castrated.
If the Nazis had won World War II, I would have been castrated as a first-degree relative of a "schizophrenic." - Psychologist Peter Kinderman
I criticized Peter Kinderman for trivializing the Holocaust in his Psychology Today blog, Me, Baked Beans. The blog post displayed the Reich Law Gazette on July 25, 1933: Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring and Adolf Hitler’s order for the Aktion T4 program.
Kinderman praised his tangential thinking as an unusual strength but acknowledged:
But jumping to conclusions, tangential connectivity, and abstract, "clang" associations all have very interesting connotations in the field of mental health.
Then, he started talking about the Holocaust and his fears about the rise of right-wing parties in Europe.
If the Nazis had won World War II, I would have been castrated as a first-degree relative of a "schizophrenic." Disease-model, eugenic thinking is a direct threat to me personally, especially given the recent rise of UKIP and other far-right parties in Europe.
I could not resist poking fun at Kinderman’s strange thinking. I published the earlier version of this article on Mind the Brain, which became a Substack article:
My original Story in Mind the Brain drew lots of nasty comments, including a raving sock puppet that turned out to be from Lucy Johnstone’s email account (Lucyjohnstone16@blueyonder.co.uk) Lucy has often been accused of dirty tricks, but we usually have only circumstantial evidence. This time, Holocaust survivor psychiatrist John “Mickey Nardo” checked and found the comment was from Lucy Johnstone. Mickey Nardo was good at this kind of detective work and had caught flak from the antisemitic anti-psychs like Peter Kinderman and Lucy. This time he let me take the heat.
A wild thread of comments on my original “The Holocaust intruded…” on Mind the Brain Blog.
The blog post elicited over 50 comments, some supportive and others abusive.
Alex Grant posted several incoherent and accusatory comments. I was familiar with his anti-psychiatry vehemence. He called for me to be kicked in the balls in threads on my other blog posts and on Twitter. I removed repetitive accusations from the blog site but included his postmodern diatribe here.
Samuel P had already been quietly outed by Mickey Nado as Lucy. I was armed and waiting to embarrass Mr. Samuel P.
The other people in this thread are Mickey, Barney Carroll, me, and the mysterious Leslie, whom I have never been able to identify. She (He?) comes well-armed with a devastating background on the activities of the antipsychs in their everyday lives.
As Mickey had taught me, I snagged Leslie’s email. It was genuine, but I received no response.
Sometimes, when I am overwhelmed and not getting speaking gigs because of the constant demonizing of me by the trolls, I email Leslie, but I still get no response.
So I will dedicate this story, “To Leslie, wherever I may find you,” {with apologies to Paul Simon, whose instrumental version of “To Emily…” inspired me.
Selections from the comments
Alex Grant
Professor Coyne,
If someone could be bothered to do it, emotionally-driven voyeuristic and forensic scrutiny (posing as rational critique) of your blog and related twitter writing would further reveal the following:
-that your writing, like all writing, displays its own contradictions, inconsistencies and factual inaccuracies.
– that you engage in self-righteous, confirmation-biased readings of the DCP/BPS profession position statements and related texts and people; in short, of all those whose work threatens you, your associates, and the assumed power base you exert so much effort in defending.
-that your own intentions to ascribe and impose motives to, and on, the work of those threatening others are, in broadly psychoanalytic terms, over-determined.
-that you construct your othering case in an arbitrary and selective way.
-that, in jumping between blog and twitter, you employ ridicule and other unscholarly tactics to malign, discredit and bring to book those targeted.
– that you display transparent cultural, paradigmatic, corporate and professional allegiances towards the hegemony of (increasingly discredited) biomedical understandings of human misery, and related interests.
-that you – Ironic, given all of the above – unreflexively employ a rhetorical strategy of responsible stewardship in the service of hard headed, clear and critical thinking.
Given the radical authoritarian, fascistic style and tone of your writing, what would your response be if asked to apologise to all those you have maligned personally, professionally and paradigmatically? And, of course, to countless survivors of the institutional mental health system whose lived experiences of, and writing on, oppressive institutional psychiatric practice you have discredited by implication?
Alec Grant
Samuel P.
“Here is a tweet in which Professor Coyne illustrates Godwin’s law by referring to people who are worried about fast food outlets as ‘UK Food Nazis.’
Starbucks Bananas & Crème Frappuccino Blended Crème – whip (Nonfat Milk) Is 700 cals. UK food Nazis please note.http://t.co/XuMd8uwjRd
— James C.Coyne (@CoyneoftheRealm) March 30, 2014
In the interests of ‘protecting the memory of the Holocaust from such desecration’, I suggest he follows his own advice, apologises to the international community, gives back his license, and retires from further discussion.” Aug 29, 2015
James Coyne PhD
First, Samuel P, I point out that your email address reveals you to be Lucy Johnstone and your IP address reveals you to have previously attempted to troll this blog post under the names John B and Dave. Real tacky, but that is your consistent style.
Your visit to Google University is quite insufficient to give you a grasp of the issues. For instance, I suggest that you check Rabbi Jason Miller’s excellent article Where is Holocaust Humor Acceptable
Most readers will recognize my “food Nazis” as a reference to the Seinfeld episodes about soup Nazis and I doubt many will take offense.
On the other hand, you are an author, promoter, regular basher and trasher of critics of Understanding Psychosis. I think if you are unwilling to apologize for Kinderman’s insensitive and horrific invoking of Nazis and the Holocaust in a very different context, you are banned from further discussion. Aug 29, 2015
Leslie:
“Dr Johnstone,
Perhaps now that you are here, you can do a content analysis of Prof Kinderman’s blog for us. I arrived at the same conclusion as Prof Coyne. Please take the time to show us how this conclusion is wrong.
1) In the UK, concerns about right-wing thinking and both psychology and psychiatry arose through the service-user movement. A group called Psychology Politics Resistance formed Psychologists Against the Nazis (these later dissolved into Asylum, I believe). This .doc shows that individuals in these groups did have had a fair grasp of history.
Psychology Politics Resistance formed Psychologists Against the Nazis
2) Several divisions within the phenomenological sphere of human research (psychology, traditional psychiatry, mental health nursing-) concern themselves with the potential impact of right wing thinking on the perception of, and experience of, mental health difficulties, and mental health service provision e.g. see the link below. Papers like these show that there are researchers and professionals out there who care about the impact of changes in the social climate on mental health service users, and service provision.
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/44595241_Mental_health_care_and_resistance_to_fascism
3) Prof Kinderman has been called out before on whether he is truly committed to working together with service users on improving services. In the discussion below, he cites his high-profile links to Whitehall, and his frequent visits.
http://studymore.org.uk/mpup.htm
In his blog:
1) Prof Kinderman presents an altered account of history which is specifically targeted at arousing anger in US service-users, and concerned others, that he skilfully channels towards psychiatry. This is cognitive and emotional manipulation.
2) Prof Kinderman cites his links to Mersey Care NHS Trust, the University of Liverpool, and now he has the BPS, he shares a vast amount of personal detail- a powerful man who is abusing his power in manipulating service users.
3) Compounded by the above, he tells us that he’s a practitioner clinical psychologist- Just because Prof Kinderman regulates his message to fit his audience, and this particular blog was aimed at service users far far away- it does not release him from the strict ethical codes of the HCPC. Prof Kinderman has committed a serious breach of trust, and he should be called out on it.
Question-
Why did the DClin branch of the BPS choose Prof Kinderman? Was it because of his tried and tested Whitehall and BBC connections?” Aug 29, 2015
RB:
Even though I think Dr. Kinderman’s bit about eugenics was more of a reaction to the recent vote in the UK than psychiatry, it would be a miss on my part if I failed to notice the audience he was speaking to. They often tie psychiatry, and specifically the history of psychiatry to the Nazis.
I was saddened to read what he wrote about a threat to him personally and what would have happened to him had the Germans won the war. It diminishes the experiences of those who went through it, and if the Axis powers had won the war, I don’t think that being sterilized is the worst he would have faced.” Aug 30, 2015
A prominent Holocaust survivor who is a senior psychiatrist responds:
Bernard Carroll:
“The Holocaust comparison must have been one of Professor Peter Kinderman’s self-acknowledged tangential connections. Like most such pathologies of thought, it is facile, non-linear, and trite. I agree with you that after this misstep he cannot be regarded as a serious public intellectual or clinical scientist. Let him go play pat-a-cake with the other BPS ninnies in their insular sandbox.
Kinderman introduced the Nazis to execute a classic smear: those who consider psychiatric diagnoses valid are one step away from becoming eugenics monsters as soon as the social and political conditions are favorable. His highlighting of the Nazi memorabilia in this context was outré. Kinderman erected this nonsequitur on a foundation of solipsistic personal anecdata, laced with narcissistic self-preoccupation. In the end, he comes across as a self-absorbed flake. Move along now – there is nothing of substance to debate in Kinderman’s MIA essay.” Aug 27, 2015
Another senior psychiatrist / Holocaust survivor compliments me on not being intimidated by Kinderman; ‘s bluster:
Mickey Nardo:
“I appreciate your taking the time to parse Kinderman’s piece. One of the things that bothers me the most about his line of thinking is that a central argument of the BPS Report is that diagnosis is an inappropriate labeling, stigmatizing, and simplifying – that it strips the patient’s humanity by including him/her in a diagnostic grouping by subjective criteria. And yet he argues that we [psychiatrists] are all cut from the same cloth and proceeds to label and diagnose us as “Nazis.” Independant of his various charges., he does the same thing he’s just gotten through decrying, and apparently doesn’t notice the discrepency…” Aug 26, 2015
Afterwards
If reading this inspires you to look up more Soup Nazis, here is the original Soup Nazi explaining what the classic Seinfeld episode was about.
Actor Larry Thomas auditioned to play the Soup Nazi in a military uniform adlibbed Saddam Hussein. This is a brilliant commentary on his experience playing the role and then people on the street shouting, “Hey, Soup Nazi!”
Playing the Soup Nazi was such a life-changing experience that Larry Thomas wrote a book about it.
Please subscribe to my Substack article to be alerted to the next installment to this story and more. Make it a paid subscription if you find this narrative particularly interesting or if you realize that my writing this stuff gets harassed and canceled, suggesting that I might need the money.
James you must write a book. This material should be essential reading in order to understand the dirty history of psychology and how to this day people can become powerful based on uncritical acceptance of their nonsense propositions and studies, and end up hobbling progress and harming those they should be serving.