Kermit Cole, MFT, founding editor of Mad in America, works in Santa Fe, New Mexico as a couples and family therapist. Inspired by Open Dialogue, he works as part of a team and consults with couples and families that have members identified as patients. His work in residential treatment — largely with severely traumatized and/or "psychotic" clients — led to an appreciation of the power and beauty of systemic philosophy and practice, as the alternative to the prevailing focus on individual pathology. A former film-maker, he has undergraduate and master's degrees in psychology from Harvard University, as well as an MFT degree from the Council for Relationships in Philadelphia. He is a doctoral candidate with the Taos Institute and the Free University of Brussels. You can reach him at
[email protected].
Between the months of September and December 19, 1974, I was a prisoner in five different psychiatric hospitals by my own side in Greece, Italy, Germany and the United States while in the U.S. Army.
It did not take long for me to recognize Psychiatry as more of an assault weapon than a science.
I went into the United States Army about a year and an half before the end of the Vietnam War for us. So I was not in Vietnam; nor did I go into combat.
Trained in Basic Combat Training at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, I then went for Advanced Individual Training for Field Artillery at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.
Upon graduation, the Army sent me to Snow Hall, also at Ft. Sill, after passing the requirements for a security clearance, for instructions in Special Weapons (Nuclear Weapons) and training to survive a CBR environment in a combat scenario. CBR means “Chemical, Biological and Radiological Warfare” or “Weapons of Mass Destruction.”
To get that far, I needed a completely clear record with no history of criminal activity or psychiatric issues.
Yet, when I left the Army, there was a comprehensive “history” of psychiatric disorder in my medical records to certify I was a Schizophrenic personality of the paranoid type.
It was put there to conceal criminal activity on my Base in Elefsis, Greece.
Within a few months I challenged the truthfulness of these records but got nowhere, even when I went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. For it did not take long for me to realize there was always a collusion between the courts and the Attorney General’s office leaving me with no level playing field.
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I’m glad I saw your comment. 8 months after this video was posted. Thank you for your story. It is very interesting.
https://www.madinamerica.com/2013/05/schizophrenia-subtypes-disappearing-from-the-literature/#more-30040
Just in recent days there was a report of the decline in psychiatry slapping the “paranoid” subtype of the so called “schizophrenia” label on people. Fashions in quackery change I guess.
Veterans have always suffered at the hands of government psychiatry. I think the important thing to understand is that the believers in psychiatry are more often incompetent and indoctrinated than truly malevolent. This quasi religious belief that certain thoughts and speech is a “brain disease” has the world in its grip, and for a couple of very long months you had this forced on you. I am assuming you were able to not fall into psychiatry’s way of thinking for the last 40 years, if so that’s great.
Your story is a testament to how being forced into psychiatry stays with a person for life. I am very happy and glad you were searching around the internet and found this great video and this great site. Please feel welcome to stick around and join the conversation and share more of your story sir. This Supreme Court action seems fascinating I’d love to know more.
To have experience in no less than FOUR nations and their psychiatric facilities is a wealth of experience we could all learn from. I can only imagine the horror of being detained in places where the staffers didn’t speak your language.
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I spent years trying to resolve this problem and, particularly, to expose it through our national and international news media. Every single time, without an exception, I was ignored. Even my political representatives ignored me.
Interestingly, I found a clear and precise pattern of people in the Veterans Administration interpreting my behavior within the framework of what they thought they knew about psychiatry. Almost every staff member, with the exception of psychiatrists, accepted everything in my medical records on face value.
I even had to fight the problem of VA staff members falsifying my medical records. That did not stop until I took five members of the VA to District Court, including the Director of the VA facility, with an Application for a Criminal Complaint in a Show and Cause Hearing; for criminal fraud. Then that took two years for the Clerk’s office to process the application. They did not want to handle it.
Again, I ran into a collusion between the Clerk/Magistrate and an Assistant AG. I have learnt that, when I file complaints against federal employees for criminal behavior, the defense attorneys always argue nonsensically. They would stand up in court for 30 to 90 seconds to deny all allegations, responsibility, liability or probable cause a crime had occurred. They are that irresponsible. Not once, in all of these years, did any of these defense attorneys submit any form of evidence to support their arguments.
Nevertheless, although the case was dismissed immediately after a 90 minute “probable Cause Hearing”, every member was required to resign, including the Chief of Psychiatry,the Director and a Nurse Practitioner (who,in spite of her advance education, wrote extensive and highly pretentious interpretations of everything I said within the framework of the false psychiatric material in my medical records).
She even prescribed psychotropic medication on the basis of the material she read in my files within first taking the time to conduct an independent diagnosis. In every instance, I refused to take this medication. In my view, some of it was very dangerous.
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“every member was required to resign, including the Chief of Psychiatry,the Director and a Nurse Practitioner”
Glad to see you were able to take a few of them out.
I admire your steadfastness in litigating it all. There needs to be more of that. It doesn’t surprise me that the media and politicians ignored you. They have been ignoring the horrors of psychiatry’s meddling in people’s lives and bodies against their will for a long long time. Once you’ve had a psychiatric label slapped on you you’re a second class citizen in every respect. Sadly the world has been indoctrinated by the sadly misguided quacks in psychiatry that we are not human.
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Yes, I have been fighting this problem for 39 years and, to be completely truthful, I still do not know the reason behind such a vast conspiracy to destroy me. Although there are several credible theories, I have found little or no evidence to substantiate any of them.
Within six months after leaving the U.S. Army, I wrote out an affidavit describing my experience in exacting detail but got nowhere with it.
Last year, I wrote a 7,000-word manuscript entitled, “The Abuse of Psychiatry.” I am still looking for a publisher. As usual with most editors, when I submitted a query to “Psychology Today”, I did not even receive the decency of a response from the editor. This is a very common reaction from editors when I get over their heads. They are not as well educated as you might thing! Most of them are full of preconceptions, prejudices, biases and “hangups” all over the spectrum of human thought and behavior.
Several years ago, I sent an e-mail message to the Desk Editor of my local newspaper asking him to assign a reporter to me. I explained the reason.
Immediately, he responded with this statement, “We don’t have the ‘horsepower’ to handle this kind of controversy.” Well, at least, he responded. Most editors would completely ignored me.
As far as I can determine, this abuse of psychiatry in our Armed Forces started just before our entry into the Second World War.
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Oops! I slipped up. When I said, “They are not as well educated as you might thing!”, I should have said, “They are not as well educated as you might think!
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Egghead,
Don’t sweat the typo.
They’re pretty common on this site.
Thank you letting us know about your story.
And thank you for your service.
I hope you’re able to find some answers to all of this and some peace as well.
Best,
Duane
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Dear Duane:
If you learn of any editor or publisher willing to handle my 7,000-word manuscript dealing with my experiences with the abuse of psychiatry in the United States Army and our judiciary system, please let me know.
Thanks for your kind response.
Egghead
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Egghead,
I’ve not had anything published, but hopefully some other readers may have some suggestions.
Anyone?
If I learn of an editor or publisher, I will certainly pass it on.
I’ve enjoyed your comments, Egghead.
Thank you for being part of our group.
Duane
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Maybe you should put it on the internet. Submit it to this website maybe?
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I can easily do that … my manuscript is written in Microsoft Word 2007 and located on my Hard Drive and a backup drive. It is a simple matter of downloading it on a web site.
Can someone provide the proper instructions for me? I also have text and graphic conversion capability, if necessary.
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Hi Egghead,
PsychRights.Org or psychiatrized.org would consider posting it, depending on the content. You can e-mail me at [email protected]
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That’s a great offer Egghead. You could even put it on both websites.
Good to hear you keep backups.
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https://www.madinamerica.com/contact/
I suggest sending an email to the staff with a sample of it first.
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I carried out your suggestion, Anonymous. The first few pages of my manuscript was sent to the Publisher for his review.
Since my identity will become available shortly, there is no longer any valid reason for me to identify myself as Egghead.
My name is Alvah Buckmore and I give you permission to examine part of my profile in Facebook. With at least 15 notes written on a variety of subjects, you should get a reasonable insight into my personality; hopefully, it will also be a favorable impression.
I have been a published author since November of 1972 when I wrote and published “First Steps to Satellite Communications” in Ham Radio magazine.
My last published article was “The Little Visitor from another World” in Open Mind magazine of their April/May 2012 edition.
Presently, I am reviewing a contract to write a book entitled, “The Power of Human Sexual Fantasy.” No! It’s not pornography. It is a scientific dissertation on the way we use sexual fantasy and its effect on human development, culture, crime and relationships.
I have been researching this subject since I was in high school.
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Oh, I am sending the entire manuscript to Jim Gottstein.
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Egghead,
Great.
Look forward to reading it.
Duane
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