The Minds of Men: A Stunning New Film About Covert Mind Control

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The importance of a remarkable new film, The Minds of Men, was underscored by otherwise inexplicable recent events surrounding government support and sponsorship of electroconvulsive treatment (ECT). The Minds of Men is among the most important and informative documentaries we have ever seen.

With film footage and FOIA materials that represent truth rather than “conspiracy theories,” The Minds of Men tells the story of the government’s secret efforts to support mind control research. From ECT and psychosurgery to drugs like LSD, it goes further to expose other psychosis-inducing experiments on unwitting volunteers by highly respected doctors taking covert federal dollars.

The recent events surrounding ECT began with good news. A product liability case brought by attorney David Karen was settled against the shock manufacturer Somatics, Inc., the manufacturer of the Thymatron shock machine. The settlement followed a California judge’s decision that there was sufficient evidence for brain damage from ECT to submit the question to a jury. Somatics Inc. settled rather than let a jury decide against them. The scientific basis for the judge’s opinion was contained in my affidavit report to the court and the many studies on my free ECT Resource Center.

Modern electroshock (ECT) delivers up to ten times the amount of electricity needed to cause a seizure, leading to a very severe convulsion, unconsciousness, coma, flat lining of the brain waves, and aftereffects identical to a severe concussion with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Older ECT machines could cause a convulsion with as little as 80-120 milliamps while the newer ones like Thymatron and MECTA deliver a fixed current between 800 and 900 milliamps. As a result of the fixed and far greater doses of traumatic electrical current and energy, modern ECT is far more damaging than the older versions.

Soon after the judge’s opinion and the settlement, the FDA leaped to the defense of the shock industry. Without any testing at all, effective December 26, the FDA has approved ECT for infliction upon people with “treatment-resistant depression.” 

The FDA’s decision was made covertly without the opportunity for the usually required delay for a public response. It was undoubtedly published during the holidays to avoid news coverage. This is an agency that’s supposed to protect the public? No, it too often works to deceive the public on behalf of powerful interest groups.

Since the drugs often do more harm than good, many if not most “depressed” people end up feeling or being labeled “treatment-resistant.”1 The FDA’s decision has made ECT suitable for almost anyone who gets depressed, that is, anyone experiencing grief, hopelessness, despair, or even the “blahs,” depending on the doctor or prescriber’s personal definition of “depression.”

The definition of “treatment-resistant” will also be left up to any healthcare provider’s subjective definition. Is failing to respond to one therapist a proof of being treatment resistant? Or does it require the failure to respond to an antidepressant or two—when the latest research shows these drugs do not even work? (For research on the ineffectiveness and harmful of antidepressants, see my free Antidepressant Resource Center.)

Doctors who routinely make patients worse with their drugs will now be able to make them worse than ever imagined with ECT. And as it always seems to happen, the patient’s “mental illness” will be blamed for everything, including memory loss and brain damage from ECT.

Why would the federal government take such a tragic and horrendous action as to approve the rampant use of a brain-damaging “treatment”?

The new film The Minds of Men may have the answer. The Minds of Men is the creation of two incredible young filmmakers, Aaron and Melissa Dykes, who interviewed me extensively—even promoting the film as featuring me—and then stunned me and my wife Ginger with a film filled with previously unknown information about the history of covert and often shameful research on mind control.

December 26 is a day that may live in infamy—the beginning of a potentially permanent open season for shock doctors against nearly everyone trapped and already harmed by psychiatry. Watch The Minds of Men. It helps to explain how this can happen in America. It’s already been seen by more than one-third of a million people. Do your best to get it over the million mark and beyond. You will strike a blow for human freedom in the battle against governmental tyranny, including the abusive authority of the FDA.

Show 1 footnote

  1. See my books, P. Breggin (2008), Medication Madness (New York: St. Martin’s Press) and Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal (New York: Springer). ↩

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35 COMMENTS

  1. Some people say that back-in-the-day doctors gave “sick” women orgasms.https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/all-about-sex/201303/hysteria-and-the-strange-history-vibrators

    A pro ECT article and other articles on electroshock mention the toes curling.
    “When we have taken their shoes and socks off, we would look at their feet and normally what you would see is their toes might twitch or curl up rhythmically,” from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/17/what-is-ect-and-how-does-it-work

    and in the movies how do they show people had sex?”Give Her A Toe-Curling Climax In 15 Minutes”

    “We know orgasms can make your toes curl, ” http://www.nbcnews.com/id/31213362/ns/health-sexual_health/t/ah-ah-ah-choo-orgasms-make-her-nose-stuffy

    To bypass the touching of the genitals, they go directly to the brain , and “stimulate” the brain.

    Are the people getting ECT/electroshocked having pleasurable sex? Should that problem not be treated first?

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    • With brain damage “I emerge from my three-week-long ECT treatment to discover that I am not only this Princess Leia creature but also several-sized dolls, various T-shirts and posters, some cleansing items, and a bunch of other merchandise. It turns out I was even a kind of pin-up—a fantasy that geeky teenage boys across the globe jerked off to me with some frequency. How’s that for a newborn-how-do-you-do damsel in very little cinematic distress?”
      To wit, one afternoon in Berkeley I found myself walking into a shop that sold rocks and gems.

      “Oh my God, aren’t you…the salesman behind the counter exclaimed.

      And before he could go any further, I modestly said,

      “Yes, I am.”

      “Oh my God! I thought about you every day from when I was twelve to when I was twenty-two.”

      And instead of asking what happened at twenty-two, I said, “Every day?”

      He shrugged and said, “Well, four times a day.”

      Welcome to the land of too much information.

      http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/carrie-fisher-wishful-drinking-excerpt/

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  2. Based on the evidence, patient testimonies of harm, the outcome of the recent court case, and Somatics admission their “device” causes permanent amnesia and brain damage, the ethical/sane thing to do would have been for the FDA to ban electroshock completely.
    FDA completely corrupt and dangerous.
    Gottlieb worried about innocuous CBD oil in foods but fine with frying people’s brain, ppl as young as 13.

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  3. A few things. (It would help if Dr. Breggin would occasionally interact with commenters btw, though I’m sure he’s busy.)

    First, yes, they always release stuff on weekends and holidays when they don’t want it noticed. That’s how they got “Murphy” ramrodded through Congress during July 4th & Thanksgiving. The only glimmer of optimism here is that they at least understand that what they’re doing is wrong and unpopular, which we may be able to exploit somehow.

    The reason “why” they would do this is simple — they count on no one doing anything to oppose them except complaining and making “reasonable” arguments, which they know from experience can be be safely ignored. The only way to break the paradigm any time soon is for those who consider ECT “their” issue is to somehow creatively up the ante. Gay liberation had ACT UP. Mental Patients’ Liberation Front once had a newspaper called “ACTING OUT.” The possibilities are endless.

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    • The Murphy bill had enough pushback that it would have not have passed in that form if it hadn’t been snuck into the must-pass 21st Century Cures Act. It was a last hurrah in a lame duck session just before Tinyhands took office. And the reasoning I remember from Big D oriented liberals at the time was that there was so much good in the bill (there is! Especially for lyme research!) that it makes the bad (Murphy is really bad!) merely distasteful rather than criminal. I think they call this compromise but to me it just feels like no matter what gets passed, some group gets shoved under the bus.

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      • Actually Murphy had almost zero pushback, and before being consolidated with “Cures” was approved during the July 4 distraction by Congress, with only 2 or 3 dissenting votes, all Republicans. Fortunately a lot of “Cures” was tied into Obamacare for funding, so it’s demise is not THAT big a tragedy.

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        • Murphy did not pass the Senate. It was tucked into Cures before it had a chance to become its own law. It was promoted heavily by anti gun groups and many mental health advocates were aware of how horrific it was. And that’s what I was referring to. There was a ramp up in opposition during the fall of 2016, and had it been made to pass the Senate and then go through the process of reconciliation between the two chambers of Congress, it would not have passed in the grotesque form it did. But as you’ve said, much of it’s funding is tied to Obamacare, which is one of the worst healthcare laws ever devised, and Medicare Part D has previously taken the cake on that one.

          If the destruction of Obamacare is the only good thing Trump does, well it won’t have been worth all the other nonsense but at least there will be a silver lining to the chaos.

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          • The destruction of Obamacare means going back to the old system. There is no ‘new plan’ except to continue to let the insurance companies suck us dry. Obamacare, as flawed as it is (and I am NOT a fan, trust me!), was an effort to solve the problem. If we “destroy Obamacare,” what is the solution?

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          • I love the chaos!!! It’s much more honest than neoliberal imperialism, and less deadly.

            Notice how the peace-loving democrats are apoplectic about Trump withdrawing US forces from their illegal occupation of Syria?

            I think the Senate would have approved Murphy in any case. Remember Democrat Chris Murphy had his own version (the Democrat version heavily emphasized “early intervention” for toddlers, as opposed to AOT).

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          • I have also noticed that the criticism of the troop withdrawal never gets into talking about how they got there in the first place and how they contributed to the current mess and the mass migration and other consequences of our own stupidity.

            When has our intervention in another country to alter their government ever led to anything but disaster? And yet we never seem to learn or even talk about it.

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          • Steve I’m afraid to see doctors now. At least if I’m uninsured shrinks have no financial benefit for locking me up or AOT. I suggest all who bear psych labels get rid of insurance, pay the fine, and go to the ER only for a broken leg or something. And pick a mental illness center nearby to brag about your awesome doc who gives you meds that work perfectly.

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  4. Psychiatrists are supposedly doctors not judges. Shrinks who come here defending their right to serve as the judge/jury/witnesses in cases where they can not be held accountable should be asked why they demand the powers of government officials that real doctors don’t have. Likewise the FDA is not the executive, judicial, nor legislative branch but a petty bureaucratic office.

    They abuse these unlawful powers to punish people for UNHAPPINESS! They’re treating unhappy folks worse than convicted murderers or pedophiles.

    Depression is a soft diagnosis too so this should scare us all. If you’re unhappy stay as far away from shrinks as possible for they have the legal right to perform unlimited acts of brain damage on you to the point of death–if they see fit. Judge/jury/torturer/executioner rolled into one. A menace to freedom.

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    • Yes Rachel777! What powerful and true comments! Psychiatrists act like they are judges. And not just a judge but as you put it….”Judge/jury/torturer/executioner rolled into one”.
      And…. “They’re treating unhappy folks worse than convicted murderers or pedophiles” How true! And how totally messed up and corrupt is that.

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    • I saw the movie not long ago, and thought it was quite good. I didn’t remember the part about ETC being covertly approved for all those who don’t respond well to the neurotoxic antidepressants. I guess it likely wasn’t in the movie since the movie came out prior to Christmas? But wow, that’s appalling news.

      I agree, Rachel, the psychiatrists do enjoy functioning as “Judge/jury/torturer/executioner” all “rolled into one.” And they definitely are “A menace to freedom.” I don’t think America can achieve a return to the rule of law and justice for all, without taking away the psychiatrists undeserved power to torture and murder at will.

      But instead of our government ending today’s American psychiatric holocaust. Our government is giving the psychiatrists even more power to cover up their crimes against humanity. Upside down and backwards, America … still. Our government is repeating the worst of history.

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  5. People recoil in horror at the Medical Killings of Jewish People, Gay People, ‘Others’ and ‘Schizophrenics’ in parts of Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.

    But somewhere along the line it’s become acceptable for present day ‘Doctors’ to mutilate and kill ‘Schizophrenics’ in far greater numbers than in the 1930s and 1940s.

    Todays medical treatments for the “so called mentally ill” can even cause extreme violence in the mentally well.

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    • You have to remember the influence of that arcane branch of psychology and psychiatry that says illnesses effecting mental functioning (I can’t stand the term “mental illness”) don’t exist, except as an excuse for irresponsible behavior. Therefore psych patients should be punished into the sanity they’re willfully trying to deny.

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  6. “Now we are called defensive or resistant to the therapeutic process where once we might have been blamed for closing ourselves against God’s grace or turning from His will.”

    James Hillman

    “treatment resistant depression” – ideological terrorism in medical disguise.

    To give diagnosis of depression to someone in a world in which happiness is a duty.
    Well….Let’s think for a while, what will happen with these people?
    What could happen with psychological people in the apollonian ego era? In which only apollonian ego is a human identity and the rest is meaningless.

    We must know the differences between apollonian ego FUNDAMENTALISM and the rest of the psychological reality, or we will remain psychologically blind. The language is a weapon.

    http://www.terrapsych.com/hillman.html

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  7. I read the FDA’s statement. They ignored all statements written by individual survivors. All. They threw them out stating that it was “anecdotal evidence” and discredited us. Every story sent in about a person whose life was wrecked or who ended up with something other than what they were promised…..all these stories were tossed out. The only survivor comments they kept were those that quoted “studies.” So now, what are we? We aren’t human beings with real stories. We are numbers, statistics only, to be crunched, stacked, compared, and then what?

    Statistics and studies are dangerous because anyone can find a valid study to back what they are saying. The earth is flat? There’s a study that shows that, I’m sure. Trees can talk? I’m sure a real scientific study you can find in the literature backing your claim to make you look credible. I could, if I wished, stick a bunch of references into my writing but doing so would add unnecessary clutter. Memoir is an art form and because the main source of information is ones memory (or saved diaries), footnotes are rarely needed or desirable. In memoir, the writer is generally trusted as a reliable source, but at the same time it’s a given that ALL human memory is imperfect. So if I tell my readers that 20 years ago I was talking to a doctor whose hair was “disheveled,” it’s a given that this is what I happen to recall. Does it really matter what his hair looked like (I mean, how disheveled is disheveled?) or does it matter what he said, what he proclaimed, what he did, and those words that damaged most deeply? The reader WILL trust the memoirist to write honestly, which is what matters.

    There were a lot of things I noticed in the FDA statement, a lot of excuse-making and reasons not to hear us, to throw us under the bus, to pretend we do not exist.

    ECT is now approved not only for tx-resistant depression but for BPD, so watch out, folks. More and more will be diagnosed (based on what?) and fast-tracked. It’ll be such an easy way to get rid of women and elders….THINK ABOUT IT!

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    • Yes, the monsters who administer brn dmging electroshock and “hospitals” like Mayo and McLean’s and others wil be dancing in the streets. More ppl to disable and destroy, including unfortunate teens as young as 13.
      The lies and excuses and misinformation just bleed across this malevolent, evil document crafted by the most soulless and ignorant batch of uneducated, blind, ignorant and dangerous bureaucrats to blacken an obviously corrupt “agency” better known for its blunders and fails than anything else. Think Vioxx, think vaginal mesh..,
      Silence aside from their initial release of the document. No time given to public discussion of the ruling and report.
      I encourage individuals to to make their feelings known on Twitter by tweeting Scott Gottleib and the FDA. I have suggested to Gottleib that he resign and questioned the kind of stupidity that allows for this kind of ruling after Somatics admits its torture device causes brain damage.

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  11. Covert mind control is evil, and psychiatry is implicated in this evil. However, the evil of psychiatry extends even further. Why? Because in addition to covert mind control, psychiatry has managed to market overt mind control in the guise of “medicine” and “mental health.” In other words, the tyranny of psychiatry is at least two-fold. It is a masculine tyranny that dominates by force, compulsion and coercion. It is also a feminine tyranny that exerts its despotic power gently and almost imperceptibly.

    I hope that those who read this article and this thread are at least somewhat familiar with the history of electroshock torture, euphemistically called therapy. Does the name Ugo Cerletti ring a bell? How does a person transform the butchering of pigs into a “medical” technique? Those who wish to discover the truth about psychiatry might first consider the origins of psychiatric practices. In many instances, investigating the sources of the practices reveals the shocking (pun intended) truth about psychiatry.

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    • Dragon Slayer, I have studied brainwashing. It is most effectively done not by cruelty, but by kindness, or shall I say under the guise of kindness. You are right that they deliver a double-punch. People are enticed into psych not due to cruelty, which is of course a turnoff, but by the appearance of kindness and air of expertise. This brainwashing technique has been used by many, usually with underlying evil intent. I am not certain all psychiatrists are fully aware of what they are really doing, though. You would think they could see the long-term effects of putting people on drugs and incarceration, and of coerced unemployment….They cannot see it though! They can’t even fathom that they’ve created a horrible mess. Either that or, unable to face the truth, they bury themselves in denial.

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  12. Sad news I noticed today, the makers of this movie have been censored by youtube. This is what you see when you try to view this movie on youtube now.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPFmQHjf_ww

    But the makers of the film do have big news.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7flHPFL97c

    If you’re in the Austin, TX area on July 2nd, it’d be great if you could try to attend their Theatre Premier. I hope Peter Breggin will be at the Premier. I would imagine he may be? And maybe this Premier will result in a rollout in theaters countrywide?

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