In Defense of Self-Knowledge in Essays

This post is a criticism of the recent interview of Kelly Brogan, MD as printed in the Wise Traditions Summer 2022 Journal. This article may be found at WestonAPrice.org under Journal Articles tab, in the Summer 2022 heading.
My criticism will be largely based around the admittedly subjective assertions that Brogan makes with no reference to scientific rigor in the field of Psychology or any other field of work or study. In full disclosure, the reason that I feel compelled to write this criticism is that every statement which claims to be valid and true should be subjected to the reason and evidence that supports it being true. As we will explore in this article, Brogan makes statements and claims that are best described as personal preferences while relying only on authority and the relative credibility of the field of Psychology, thereby diluting that precious resource.

Brogan starts out by referring to her tagline “Maybe I’m the ‘own it’ queen.” which she associates with the pursuit of one’s “experience of freedom, vitality, joy that we deeply know is our birthright”. The concept of self-ownership is older perhaps than Socrates who infamously said “Know Thyself”. Self-ownership is the idea that through Self-Knowledge, it is possible to attain a life of meaning, happiness, value, and virtue. The first step is to humble oneself to knowing nothing, so that discovery is possible. Therefore, after Honesty, the first true quality a person needs to gain Self-Knowledge and it’s treasures, is Curiosity.
Ironically, Brogan references Curiosity later in the interview as essential to Self-Knowledge. Yet, in the very next paragraph, displays a colossal lack of curiosity with this statement; “I prefer to live in a world where I have God-creative power.” In contrast to the certainty expressed here, curiosity about one’s own experience in the spirit of humbling oneself to continual discovery might look like this admission; “I feel the temptation to believe I have God-creative power, and I don’t know why.”
And, the next lines are dedicated to a description of a fabricated choice to exist. There is no choice in existence; likewise there is no choice in experiencing primary sense data. When we open our eyes, we can not choose whether we see or not. We cannot choose whether we have the sense of tangible touch. We cannot choose whether we exist or not. There is a choice in ending existence, but it is fundamentally only a rejection of the existence that we did not choose.
The purpose of the idea that we as children or even adults chose existence is to remove responsibility from those who are morally responsible, ie, to avoid Justice. Again, Brogan comes within inches of acknowledging parental moral responsibility for the existence of their children, but instead chooses to obfuscate this reality with emotional appeals to her hardship. Brogan said,
“My eldest daughter… [told me], “I remember that before we moved to Miami, there was a lot of conflict in the family.” This includes my family of origin. She had very unsavory memories of my role. My story about what happened was that I was the victim, but she has a story where I am the villain. I read this while not in her presence, and I was hysterically crying. My children do not typically trigger me. This caught me off guard. I recognized I was secretly attached to my children. It’s called “narcissistic extension.” My children are experiencing all of the psychospiritual work that I have done as 100 percent positive. If my children see me as something other than I would like to see myself, I can’t handle it and I feel like I have failed. “I have failed in my one mission in this life,” which is to end these cycles of abuse and trauma in my family line.
In my despair, I recognized this little voice saying “No, Kelly. This is the moment where you end the cycle.” When I sat down with [my daughter], I recognized that my story is irrelevant. I did not say one word about my version of the story. I simply crossed the bridge to explore her experience. That one day evolved our relationship like a quantum leap. Not that it was problematic to begin with, but I noticed within days she was more affectionate with me. I felt so proud of myself that I could do that.
I had to hold myself. My inner girl was terrified that I had been called “bad” and “wrong.” My inner girl was having crazy freak-out inside me, saying, “We are about to die. Mobilize the defenses.” I had gotten to a point where finally I could barely hold the container and say, “No, I’m here now. I’m an adult woman. It’s okay. I can handle this. We can handle this. I’m driving the car. I hear you. I see you, little girl inside. It’s okay if somebody thinks these things.” And, isn’t that everything?”

There is a lot that could be said about this story. Acknowledging a problem is not an admission of responsibility for that problem. Brogan explicitly tells us that she experiences herself as a victim of her family of origin while simultaneously denying her own child’s experience as a victim of her family of origin. This basic hypocrisy is ignored and the story continues with descriptions of internal conflict, provocation, defensiveness, a ‘freak-out’, and appeal to sentimentality. At the most basic level of interpretation, this is not the experience of an integrated personality, and neither is it a shining example for would-be Self-Knowledge seekers. Brogan seems proud to cite the plethora of needs that she failed to attend to in herself as the very excuse to neglect those same needs in her child.
This type of unprocessed emotional reactivity publicized serves only to provoke reactivity in unsuspecting and vulnerable readers. Anyone with an inclination toward self discovery or Self-Knowledge (ie, any sensitive person) who is not in possession of philosophically and empirically grounded principles is likely to find a strong emotional resonance with their own emotionally reactive and traumatized parts. This is predatory.

There is so much more to delve into with this article! If you liked what you’ve read so far, please leave a comment or send an email, and I will do more content like this.

Self-Knowledge is a rigorous, empirical, and virtuous pursuit. Knowledge is the recognition of what is real, true, and valid. Self-Knowledge is no different; and truth abhors inconsistency.
I recommend reading Nathaniel Branden, Alice Miller, Lloyd deMausse, Richard Schwartz, and Stefan Molyneux for resources about Self-Knowledge, self ownership, and philosophy.

Last updated August 01, 2022