While I am no fan of Freudian psychology, also commonly known as bullshit, I also recognize that while mental health studies such as psychiatry and psychology remain flawed, they provided us with many benefits as well. Psychiatrists, while demonized on a daily basis by "natural healers", also known as pseudo scientists, do in fact prevent some people from committing dangerous acts such as suicide, self harm and violent crime. Psychiatrists are, unlike psychologists, whether you like it or not, medical doctors, which is why they are able to prescribe medications. Psychologists, on the other hand, can only prescribe medications in a few states and cannot perform medical procedures. Psychiatrists have had great success treating disorders such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and many, many more. But the same supplement pushers and alternative healers that bombard you with articles and documentaries about the "dangers of psychiatry" would have you believe that the entire field is compromised all because of mistakes that were made in the field's infancy. Well, I hate to break it to you, but making mistakes are a part of scientific discovery. You test your hypothesis, and if a mistake is made, you go back to the drawing board and start again. So of course the early days of psychiatry were not perfect, but we have made great leaps and bounds since then. I personally have seen the rapid and miraculously impressive effects that the field of psychiatry has had on people in my own life. I have known people who were prone to eating disorders, self-mutilation and suicidal thoughts make complete recoveries all because of the field of psychiatry. But psychology has also made great leaps and bounds since it's Freudian nonsense period. Psychologists are excellent at philosophical observation and at providing people with alternative perspectives that they otherwise may never have known. I continue to be particularly impressed by child psychologists, who really do have a knack for understanding the very difficult and turbulent lives that children lead. These psychologists play an important part in our schools, providing students from low income or religious fundamentalists families with services they may not have had access to outside of their school such as: helping students who are bullied, helping those who face struggles like poor academic performance, assisting with problems at home, and identifying mental health issues, as well as helping students who have disabilities. Another little known duty of school psychologists is to conduct threat assessments, a complex process of deciphering whether or not a child will commit violent acts. But now the conservatives of America want to ban mental health programs of all kinds from our schools, arguing that same old ridiculous idea that "parents know what's best for the kids". Do they? Do they really? Because if that is the case then kindly explain to me why Jennifer and James Crumbley purchased a weapon for their child, who would later use that weapon to execute innocent people in cold blood. Explain to me why, when instructed by school staff that their son should go home the day of that killing, that those idiot parents instead demanded that their son go back to class, which enabled him to commit his deadly deed. Explain that to me and while you're at it, explain to me how a conservative movement, that so frequently uses the term "pro-life" as its political banner would argue that talking about bullying, a common cause of violent tendencies in teens and young children alike, with a trained professional is a bad idea. Though people continue to argue that psychology and psychiatry are unneeded in schools, the evidence argues nothing of the sort. Mental health issues are real and, if you ignore them long enough, if you encourage prayer over real medicine, you will continue to see mass violence in schools. Conservatives don't care about that, perhaps they desire it.