Really good interview. I particularly appreciate the way Justin characterizes psychiatry’s use of the term “biopsychosocial” as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”. I see this as lip service, a way of fooling people into thinking psychiatry has evolved when it clearly has not.
It’s almost comical how psy-professionals keep trying to prove that “psychotherapy” is better than psychiatric drugs when in reality it’s just the other side of the same dirty coin; its talky-talk spiel is just as gimmicky as psychiatry’s drugs.
Thank you for this article. The Power Threat Meaning Framework is a breath of fresh air that blows away the cobwebs of psychiatry’s hopelessly limiting “diagnostic” framework.
CLARIFICATION: Alan, what you say is a bit confusing to me because on one hand you seem to be saying that all someone needs are supportive relationships. This is true to a certain extent, but totally relying on others, friends or therapists, has the potential of leaving people in a precarious position if they don’t like therapy, can’t afford therapy, or have no close family or friends. Good relationships are important, but being your own best friend is more important, and in my experience, relying too much on others, therapeutically or otherwise can prevent that from happening.
Alan, I looked up Gabor Mate’s definition for trauma and this is what I found: “an inner injury, a lasting rupture or split with the self due to difficult or hurtful events”. I think this encompasses being hurt relationally, past or present.
I agree with you that medicalizing emotional distress is not a good thing. But unfortunately, most therapists are taught that emotional distress is a “disorder”, a “disease”, and that therapy is the only way to deal with it, which imo is limited view that harms those who don’t benefit from therapy.
But what you say is bit confusing to me because on one hand you seem to be saying all someone needs is supportive people, (which I agree with) while on the other hand you seem to be recommending therapy, which imo doesn’t make much sense since most therapists use the DSM and believe psychodynamics are critical, which is something I firmly disagree with.
But I agree that finding supportive people can be extremely helpful. However, I also think that relational problems are destined to repeat unless people get to know their own emotional history and triggers. Otherwise, people can find themselves in the same dysfunctional relationships.
It’s really important to learn to be your own best friend, and therapy isn’t necessary for that.
Learning how others affect you (“trauma”) is very important, but trauma has become a commodity; it need not be a medicalized, money-making opportunity for someone else (i.e., “therapy”).
“If one feels safe in another’s company and trusts someone completely, traumatic memories will most likely become available, and can be dealt with at that time. Otherwise, you don’t need to try to heal from trauma. More importantly, people who have been traumatized don’t need to “heal” from trauma in order to love oneself and life. They only require connection, support, solidarity and relationships with loving people who treat them well.”
YES!!! Medicalized relationships are a needless pain in the ass.
This is what’s wrong with the “mental health system”: it’s made by therapists for therapists where “patients” are seen as defective objects to be fixed with “success” measured by the therapist’s agenda. Totally arbitrary and totally nauseating.
Psychodynamic: this can be re-traumatizing.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: this can shut down people who need to be listened to.
Maybe all someone needs are people who help them feel safe to do what feels right TO THEM, instead of pressured to “do the work” just to please some agenda-possessed “therapist”.
I like this article. I think there’s a big difference between blaming parents and wanting them to understand and care about the harm they’ve done. And parents who genuinely regret the harm they’ve done deserve a second chance like anyone else. We are all human, and I don’t think holding grudges helps anyone.
Looks like psychiatry doesn’t know what the rest of us do: that more made-up “diagnoses” means more lifelong “patients”. So, forget the revolving door. It’s actually a merry-go-round that no one gets off, which (seems to me!) just the way psychiatry likes it.
Dear Essy,
I know how you feel. Pills didn’t help me either.
But self-therapy did help me. I found it by chance on YouTube from someone named Daniel Mackler. I think his approach can be very useful for people not getting what they need from our current mental health system. He’s a former therapist who’s very empathic because he’s aware of how ineffective its pills can be as well as how invalidating it is, especially for sensitive people.
Take good care, Essy. I hope you feel better soon,
Birdsong
IMHO, the problem with psy disciplines is that (most) of the people who work in them seem to think they know all the answers and that the fate of the world is in their hands alone. They need to examine their own motives more than anything else.
Lina, I appreciate your keenly perceptive analysis. I think so-called “victims” can damn well speak for themselves without “assistance” from chronic pathologizers.
Overprescribing is a problem in general medicine. Physicians too quickly write prescriptions for conditions that are not immediately life-threatening rather than suggest lifestyle changes.
“Some say if the DSM acknowledged Complex PTSD (usually from Developmental Trauma), it would be a thin volume.”
I think trauma experienced at any age can lead to significant problems.
“Many trauma experts recommend both top down (cognitive) and bottom-up (somatic) modalities. Unfortunately, few healthcare providers can offer the latter. It seems even fewer can be in their own bodies and emotions well enough to prevent them from thwarting their clients’ processes.'”
Somatic therapies helped me a great deal, but finding an affordable practitioner wasn’t easy. Talk therapy was re-traumatizing. Not only that, most of the talk therapists I knew were egotistical, which I think you have to be to want to be a therapist in the first place.
I grew up in an extremely stressful household where contempt and cruelty were the norm. There were also repeated instances of life-threatening violence as far back as I can remember, happening at a time before things of this nature were acknowledged, publicly or privately. My siblings and I never talked to each other about this nor (as far as I know) mention it to outsiders.
My nervous system is still in the process of calming down from this, and the psychiatric medications only added to my inability to relax. On top of all this, the main offender had the habit of playing loud rock music all day and late into the evening. Between that and the tv on almost constantly, I could never completely relax. My mind and body are still in the process of settling down from the horror of it all.
I think one of the main reasons a lot of people jump on the genetics bandwagon regarding “schizophrenia” and other so-called psychiatric diseases is because they are afraid of looking critically at their own lives and feelings. It’s too much for them. Their irrational fear explains why they react like the devil themselves and feel justified punishing people who make them uncomfortable.
Psychiatry is ââŠ.a presumed medical specialty that has no reputable theory about the alleged internal dysfunction that causes mental illness, that has no biomarkers with which to diagnose those illnesses, yet that has a long history of coercing people to act, think, and feel in accordance with an ill-defined and ever-changing set of moral standards.â
Psychiatry is nothing more than a medicalized game of Blind Manâs Bluff. And itâs guilty of Willful Blindness until it changes.
Psychiatry has become the polite term for drug dealing, because instead of advocating for healthier mindsets, behaviors, and lifestyles, they create drug addicts.
So why wouldnât they want their âpatientsâ addicted to their âtreatmentsâ when thatâs their business? Very paternalistic, i.e. âBig Daddy Knows Bestâ.
Generally, I like what Gabor Mate says. However, I always had the strange sense that heâs missing something, which always left me wondering: Does he not appreciate the way most people are forced to live?
I could never decide if he was being cowardly, or if it just never occurred to him how much deferential treatment he receives because he has âDr.â in front of his name.
I read your essay yesterday and Iâm in awe of it and you. Your insights and intelligence are AMAZING. I see it as a blueprint for the future.
And thank you, thank you, thank you Lisa, for being you, above all else.
I just took a look at âThe Illusion of Psychotherapyâ on Amazon and it sounds well worth reading as Epstein addresses the many social-relational causes of psychic distress.
I look forward to getting a copy once I find one less pricey.
True.
Often people with money and/or advanced education (the so-called âelitesâ) either donât know or have forgotten what itâs like to be low man on the totem pole and the consequences that real people can face if they dare call out the powers that be.
âTo see what âScienceâ is made of, we need only observe what happens when it collides with power, pounds, payola, politics or promotional prospects, perhaps?â
âPeople need to ask about all those patients who as teenagers became patients in the late 1980âs with Prozac and have been compliant and ask simply where are they today? Homeless? Jobless? Severely ill or dead?â
Psychiatry would hide that âdataâ if they had itâor try to give it a âpositiveâ spin.
Correction: Whether psychiatry does this deliberately or not is of NO CONSEQUENCE, because the results are THE SAME: iatrogenic illness, disability and death, which makes psychiatryâs claims of bearing no responsibility completely invalid.
Aftab can soft-soap about psychiatry all he wants, but it doesnât change the fact that psychiatry is a dishonest, exploitative organization whose long history of misinforming the public has allowed it to misuse its power against the most vulnerable people with virtually NO consequences and continues to do so TO THIS DAY.
And this has happened because until now the public has lacked access to information that tells them THE TRUTH behind psychiatryâs many FALSE CLAIMS:
1. That psychiatric diagnoses are physically rooted
2. That psychiatric drugs correct âchemical imbalancesâ or other physical processes
3. That these drugs pose little risk to peopleâs physical and/or psychological health
And whether not psychiatry does or has done this deliberately is of NO CONSEQUENCE, because the results are THE SAME: iatrogenic illness, disability or even death.
And no amount of charm or savvy on the part of any slickly packaged internet shill can change this AWFUL TRUTH.
Correction: Any non-drug therapies psychiatry lays claim to are already being done by people and organizations that have no connections to the drug world, legal or illegal. And as a result, people are experiencing better outcomes than psychiatryâs depraved world of âmedicationâ side effects and any ensuing drug withdrawal.
Aftab is the face of something that has morphed into a world-wide, legalized drug ring. And no amount of philosophizing can change that.
Any other âtherapiesâ it lays claim to are already being done by other people or organizations with no connections to the drug world which just happen to be showing âbetter outcomesâ. And what are âbetter outcomesâ? No drug-induced side effects or withdrawal effects.
No one is safe from psychiatryâs clutches. It strategically targets the entire globe through its trademark insidious fashion: Direct To Consumer Advertising â
âThe DSM mindset is now so thoroughly embedded within the culture itâs massively eroding the ability of people in describe their uniqueness and shifting emotional reactions and states in anything other than psychiatric language.â
Itâs become the biggest source of cultural pollution.
âRecently, he [Aftab] has written a curious blog about the Power Threat Meaning Framework, in which he claims that a) no one has ever heard of it b) everyone thinks it is rubbish c) everyone needs to be warned against itâŠ.. and attributes the authorsâ motivations to âactive hostilityâŠ.against diagnosisâ. Which doesnât really stand up as an evidence-based refutation.â
He says that stuff because the PTMF rattles his cage. And donât be surprised if sooner or later he tries to hijack the idea with his own distorted version. But heâd be much better off if heâd a) own his own âactive hostilityâ, b) quit his twitter habit, and c) stop dabbling in philosophy that only makes him sound more ridiculous.
And as for him claiming that no one has ever heard of the Power Threat Meaning Framework: itâs my understanding that people at the World Health Organization have heard of it.
Iâve learned one thing dealing with psychiatry: itâs best not to engage with it at all, because itâs full of people like Aftab who will defend their dubious âdiagnosesâ till their dying day.
Thank you for the extraordinary work you do. Youâve created a template based on honesty, respect, trust, personal agency and mutual growth, which are the only things that make any sense, and things I found sorely lacking both in psychiatry and psychotherapy. Listening deeply with an open heart and open mind is whatâs most important in life.
Youâve given me a lot to think about.
And thank you for your links.
Birdsong
Psychiatric drugs are radioactive imo and consequently should be treated as such.
Report comment
Psychiatric handbooks aren’t handbooks, they’re playbooks.
Report comment
Really good interview. I particularly appreciate the way Justin characterizes psychiatry’s use of the term “biopsychosocial” as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”. I see this as lip service, a way of fooling people into thinking psychiatry has evolved when it clearly has not.
Report comment
It’s almost comical how psy-professionals keep trying to prove that “psychotherapy” is better than psychiatric drugs when in reality it’s just the other side of the same dirty coin; its talky-talk spiel is just as gimmicky as psychiatry’s drugs.
Report comment
I agree with Yeah-i-survived. The talking profession is systemized gaslighting.
Report comment
The current mental health system isn’t about helping people, it’s about exerting power over emotionally vulnerable people.
Report comment
I can understand that.
Report comment
I couldnât agree more.
Report comment
Thank you for this article. The Power Threat Meaning Framework is a breath of fresh air that blows away the cobwebs of psychiatry’s hopelessly limiting “diagnostic” framework.
Report comment
I’ll never understand people’s worship of “science”. It has no place in situations having to do with peoples’ subjective, (“nuanced”) experience.
Report comment
CLARIFICATION: Alan, what you say is a bit confusing to me because on one hand you seem to be saying that all someone needs are supportive relationships. This is true to a certain extent, but totally relying on others, friends or therapists, has the potential of leaving people in a precarious position if they don’t like therapy, can’t afford therapy, or have no close family or friends. Good relationships are important, but being your own best friend is more important, and in my experience, relying too much on others, therapeutically or otherwise can prevent that from happening.
Report comment
Alan, I looked up Gabor Mate’s definition for trauma and this is what I found: “an inner injury, a lasting rupture or split with the self due to difficult or hurtful events”. I think this encompasses being hurt relationally, past or present.
I agree with you that medicalizing emotional distress is not a good thing. But unfortunately, most therapists are taught that emotional distress is a “disorder”, a “disease”, and that therapy is the only way to deal with it, which imo is limited view that harms those who don’t benefit from therapy.
But what you say is bit confusing to me because on one hand you seem to be saying all someone needs is supportive people, (which I agree with) while on the other hand you seem to be recommending therapy, which imo doesn’t make much sense since most therapists use the DSM and believe psychodynamics are critical, which is something I firmly disagree with.
But I agree that finding supportive people can be extremely helpful. However, I also think that relational problems are destined to repeat unless people get to know their own emotional history and triggers. Otherwise, people can find themselves in the same dysfunctional relationships.
It’s really important to learn to be your own best friend, and therapy isn’t necessary for that.
Report comment
Donât forget ânuanceâ; itâs the professional obfuscatorsâ favorite word.
Report comment
Research like this makes me wonder about the researchers….
Report comment
I’m having a hard time understanding Alan’s dislike of Gabor Mate, who I think is on the right track…
Report comment
I disagree. There’s nothing sophisticated or complex about mistreating people, however subtle. It’s just plain rotten, in anyone’s language.
Report comment
âșïž
Report comment
Learning how others affect you (“trauma”) is very important, but trauma has become a commodity; it need not be a medicalized, money-making opportunity for someone else (i.e., “therapy”).
Report comment
“If one feels safe in another’s company and trusts someone completely, traumatic memories will most likely become available, and can be dealt with at that time. Otherwise, you don’t need to try to heal from trauma. More importantly, people who have been traumatized don’t need to “heal” from trauma in order to love oneself and life. They only require connection, support, solidarity and relationships with loving people who treat them well.”
YES!!! Medicalized relationships are a needless pain in the ass.
Report comment
“In my opinion, to suggest that people can and should heal from trauma will end up doing more harm than good.”
It already has, imo.
The word “trauma” is now used to tell people how to live. It’s become a way to condemn people who don’t live up to your expectations.
Bad feelings need not be pathologized. It makes me feel bad about feeling bad.
Report comment
Thank you, Deepali, for sharing your moving story.
Girls and women are often pathologized for voicing their needs, even in so-called “progressive” cultures.
I’m delighted you found encouraging people that helped you find ways to live
that are meaningful to you.
“The power of women’s anger | Soroya Chemaly”, courtesy TED
Report comment
“…this is just from therapist perspective…”.
This is what’s wrong with the “mental health system”: it’s made by therapists for therapists where “patients” are seen as defective objects to be fixed with “success” measured by the therapist’s agenda. Totally arbitrary and totally nauseating.
Psychodynamic: this can be re-traumatizing.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: this can shut down people who need to be listened to.
Maybe all someone needs are people who help them feel safe to do what feels right TO THEM, instead of pressured to “do the work” just to please some agenda-possessed “therapist”.
Report comment
…although I strongly believe in holding psychiatry accountable for despicable harm it’s done and continues to do. It should never be let off the hook.
Report comment
And Essy, more than anything, please try not to get too discouraged, even though feeling better can be a long haul.
Report comment
I like this article. I think there’s a big difference between blaming parents and wanting them to understand and care about the harm they’ve done. And parents who genuinely regret the harm they’ve done deserve a second chance like anyone else. We are all human, and I don’t think holding grudges helps anyone.
Report comment
Looks like psychiatry doesn’t know what the rest of us do: that more made-up “diagnoses” means more lifelong “patients”. So, forget the revolving door. It’s actually a merry-go-round that no one gets off, which (seems to me!) just the way psychiatry likes it.
Report comment
Dear Essy,
I know how you feel. Pills didn’t help me either.
But self-therapy did help me. I found it by chance on YouTube from someone named Daniel Mackler. I think his approach can be very useful for people not getting what they need from our current mental health system. He’s a former therapist who’s very empathic because he’s aware of how ineffective its pills can be as well as how invalidating it is, especially for sensitive people.
Take good care, Essy. I hope you feel better soon,
Birdsong
Report comment
Lina is right.
IMHO, the problem with psy disciplines is that (most) of the people who work in them seem to think they know all the answers and that the fate of the world is in their hands alone. They need to examine their own motives more than anything else.
Report comment
Lina, I appreciate your keenly perceptive analysis. I think so-called “victims” can damn well speak for themselves without “assistance” from chronic pathologizers.
Report comment
Overprescribing is a problem in general medicine. Physicians too quickly write prescriptions for conditions that are not immediately life-threatening rather than suggest lifestyle changes.
Report comment
No need to apologize for the fact that a lot of what you write goes right over my head.
Here’s my take on the situation: the chump intentionally acted like a simon-pure asshole. End of story.
Report comment
Clarification: “JNANI: The Silent Sage of Arunachala – Ramana Maharshi”
Report comment
Agree 100%.
Report comment
CORRECTION: Universities teach a lot of things, but NOT what is truly important, WHICH MAKES THEM A WASTE OF MONEY.
Report comment
CORRECTION: Blasphemy is the word that best describes the DSM.
Report comment
They certainly aren’t merely the stuff of anyone’s imagination.
Report comment
Maybe TA needs to hear about this…
Report comment
John, science is great, but it’s no excuse for putting the cart before the horse.
Report comment
Prove it.
Report comment
The sooner the better, if you ask me.
Report comment
đ
Report comment
A Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis is code for “I can’t stand this person so don’t take their concerns seriously”.
Report comment
Universities teach lots of things, except what is truly important.
On YouTube: “6 Ways To Be In Flow With Your Life – Lao Tsu(Taoism)”, courtesy Philosophies for Life
Report comment
I’m still waiting for your response.
Report comment
That doesn’t mean they aren’t also stupid.
Report comment
“Some say if the DSM acknowledged Complex PTSD (usually from Developmental Trauma), it would be a thin volume.”
I think trauma experienced at any age can lead to significant problems.
“Many trauma experts recommend both top down (cognitive) and bottom-up (somatic) modalities. Unfortunately, few healthcare providers can offer the latter. It seems even fewer can be in their own bodies and emotions well enough to prevent them from thwarting their clients’ processes.'”
Somatic therapies helped me a great deal, but finding an affordable practitioner wasn’t easy. Talk therapy was re-traumatizing. Not only that, most of the talk therapists I knew were egotistical, which I think you have to be to want to be a therapist in the first place.
Report comment
I relate to this comment.
I grew up in an extremely stressful household where contempt and cruelty were the norm. There were also repeated instances of life-threatening violence as far back as I can remember, happening at a time before things of this nature were acknowledged, publicly or privately. My siblings and I never talked to each other about this nor (as far as I know) mention it to outsiders.
My nervous system is still in the process of calming down from this, and the psychiatric medications only added to my inability to relax. On top of all this, the main offender had the habit of playing loud rock music all day and late into the evening. Between that and the tv on almost constantly, I could never completely relax. My mind and body are still in the process of settling down from the horror of it all.
Report comment
Clarification: How do you change a paradigm/culture that subtly encourages people to feel superior to the person next to them?
Report comment
Clarification: genes play a role in everything, but not a direct one in psychological distress.
Report comment
I liken psychiatric drugs to pesticides used in gardens or factory farms.
Report comment
I think one of the main reasons a lot of people jump on the genetics bandwagon regarding “schizophrenia” and other so-called psychiatric diseases is because they are afraid of looking critically at their own lives and feelings. It’s too much for them. Their irrational fear explains why they react like the devil themselves and feel justified punishing people who make them uncomfortable.
Report comment
Nothing’s more calming and spiritually restorative than the beauty and quiet of nature. It’s my favorite companion, day or night.
Report comment
Why not call it Psychiatric Projective Disorder, or âPPDâ?
Report comment
On YouTube: “Sri Ramana Maharshi — JNANI” courtesy Cinefx Productions
Report comment
Definition for Blind Manâs Bluff:
TAKING A CHANCE ON A SOMETHING WITHOUT RHYME OR REASON TO YOUR POSITION
Definition for Willful Blindness: intentionally keeping unaware of facts that would render liability or implication
Report comment
Psychiatry is ââŠ.a presumed medical specialty that has no reputable theory about the alleged internal dysfunction that causes mental illness, that has no biomarkers with which to diagnose those illnesses, yet that has a long history of coercing people to act, think, and feel in accordance with an ill-defined and ever-changing set of moral standards.â
Psychiatry is nothing more than a medicalized game of Blind Manâs Bluff. And itâs guilty of Willful Blindness until it changes.
Report comment
And hereâs where the âcureâ lies:
âDigging In the Dirtâ, by Peter Gabriel
Report comment
Psychiatry has become the polite term for drug dealing, because instead of advocating for healthier mindsets, behaviors, and lifestyles, they create drug addicts.
So why wouldnât they want their âpatientsâ addicted to their âtreatmentsâ when thatâs their business? Very paternalistic, i.e. âBig Daddy Knows Bestâ.
Itâs the new white collar crime.
Report comment
And hereâs a song that should be on everyoneâs playlist:
âTwistedâ, sung by Joni Mitchell
Report comment
Iâm dizzy with cognitive dissonance at the insanity of it allâŠ
Report comment
Definitely one of Class and privilege.
Generally, I like what Gabor Mate says. However, I always had the strange sense that heâs missing something, which always left me wondering: Does he not appreciate the way most people are forced to live?
I could never decide if he was being cowardly, or if it just never occurred to him how much deferential treatment he receives because he has âDr.â in front of his name.
Report comment
Your most welcome, Lisa.
Report comment
I read your essay yesterday and Iâm in awe of it and you. Your insights and intelligence are AMAZING. I see it as a blueprint for the future.
And thank you, thank you, thank you Lisa, for being you, above all else.
Report comment
Fascinating.
Brought to mind this classic music video from once upon a timeâŠ.
âShock The Monkeyâ, by Peter Gabriel
Report comment
What speaks to people is entirely personal, and often canât be anticipated. And Iâve no idea what âright-brain malenessâ means.
Report comment
Absolutely. But Iâm more committed to honoring the human being from which all art springs.
Report comment
Topher,
I just took a look at âThe Illusion of Psychotherapyâ on Amazon and it sounds well worth reading as Epstein addresses the many social-relational causes of psychic distress.
I look forward to getting a copy once I find one less pricey.
Report comment
And hereâs something NO ONE should miss:
âMay Cause Side Effectsâ, by Brooke Siem
Report comment
COMPLETELY INVALID!!!
Report comment
True.
Often people with money and/or advanced education (the so-called âelitesâ) either donât know or have forgotten what itâs like to be low man on the totem pole and the consequences that real people can face if they dare call out the powers that be.
Report comment
âTo see what âScienceâ is made of, we need only observe what happens when it collides with power, pounds, payola, politics or promotional prospects, perhaps?â
Welcome to the 21st century.
Report comment
âMy Story Is Full of Liesâ, by Pata Suyemoto
Moving. Haunting. AND FULL OF TRUTH.
Report comment
I feel the need to hurl every time I hear the term âcharacter defectâ.
Report comment
Big Pharma and Big Psychiatry are always planning ahead. Itâs what Big Business does.
Report comment
âPeople need to ask about all those patients who as teenagers became patients in the late 1980âs with Prozac and have been compliant and ask simply where are they today? Homeless? Jobless? Severely ill or dead?â
Psychiatry would hide that âdataâ if they had itâor try to give it a âpositiveâ spin.
Report comment
Removed for moderation.
Report comment
Agree 100%. All talk, no substance.
Report comment
And psychiatry DOESNâT GIVE A DAMN about the people it harms; it only sees âpatientsâ as COLLATERAL DAMAGE â
Report comment
ââŠideology over reality..â
Thatâs the perfect definition for psychiatry.
Report comment
Correction: Whether psychiatry does this deliberately or not is of NO CONSEQUENCE, because the results are THE SAME: iatrogenic illness, disability and death, which makes psychiatryâs claims of bearing no responsibility completely invalid.
Report comment
Removed for moderation.
Report comment
Aftab can soft-soap about psychiatry all he wants, but it doesnât change the fact that psychiatry is a dishonest, exploitative organization whose long history of misinforming the public has allowed it to misuse its power against the most vulnerable people with virtually NO consequences and continues to do so TO THIS DAY.
And this has happened because until now the public has lacked access to information that tells them THE TRUTH behind psychiatryâs many FALSE CLAIMS:
1. That psychiatric diagnoses are physically rooted
2. That psychiatric drugs correct âchemical imbalancesâ or other physical processes
3. That these drugs pose little risk to peopleâs physical and/or psychological health
And whether not psychiatry does or has done this deliberately is of NO CONSEQUENCE, because the results are THE SAME: iatrogenic illness, disability or even death.
And no amount of charm or savvy on the part of any slickly packaged internet shill can change this AWFUL TRUTH.
Report comment
Removed for moderation.
Report comment
Correction: Any non-drug therapies psychiatry lays claim to are already being done by people and organizations that have no connections to the drug world, legal or illegal. And as a result, people are experiencing better outcomes than psychiatryâs depraved world of âmedicationâ side effects and any ensuing drug withdrawal.
Report comment
Aftab is the face of something that has morphed into a world-wide, legalized drug ring. And no amount of philosophizing can change that.
Any other âtherapiesâ it lays claim to are already being done by other people or organizations with no connections to the drug world which just happen to be showing âbetter outcomesâ. And what are âbetter outcomesâ? No drug-induced side effects or withdrawal effects.
Report comment
But maybe heâd be able to catch the beat by cranking up the hurdy gurdy to this snappy tune: âOne Thing Leads To Anotherâ, by The Fixx
But I doubt he could handle the lyrics.
Report comment
No one is safe from psychiatryâs clutches. It strategically targets the entire globe through its trademark insidious fashion: Direct To Consumer Advertising â
Report comment
Correction: Psychiatryâs a profession of Power, HUGE egos, and deliberate MISREPRESENTATION.
Report comment
Or maybe itâs groupthink. Or even gaslightingâŠ.
Report comment
And dispensing an endless supply of cognitive dissonance.
Report comment
And VERY thirsty for validation.
Report comment
Heâs tripping over himself trying to dance the Ad Hominem Shuffle.
Report comment
Hereâs Aftabâs idea of progress:
1. More diagnoses
2. More drugs
3. Less dissenting opinion
Report comment
âThe DSM mindset is now so thoroughly embedded within the culture itâs massively eroding the ability of people in describe their uniqueness and shifting emotional reactions and states in anything other than psychiatric language.â
Itâs become the biggest source of cultural pollution.
Report comment
Aftabâs keeping busy, alright. He just posted a response to Mr. Whitakerâs essay, which, unsurprisingly, is quite condescending.
All I can say is Aftab seems like one touchy guy.
Report comment
lcjohnstone says:
âRecently, he [Aftab] has written a curious blog about the Power Threat Meaning Framework, in which he claims that a) no one has ever heard of it b) everyone thinks it is rubbish c) everyone needs to be warned against itâŠ.. and attributes the authorsâ motivations to âactive hostilityâŠ.against diagnosisâ. Which doesnât really stand up as an evidence-based refutation.â
He says that stuff because the PTMF rattles his cage. And donât be surprised if sooner or later he tries to hijack the idea with his own distorted version. But heâd be much better off if heâd a) own his own âactive hostilityâ, b) quit his twitter habit, and c) stop dabbling in philosophy that only makes him sound more ridiculous.
And as for him claiming that no one has ever heard of the Power Threat Meaning Framework: itâs my understanding that people at the World Health Organization have heard of it.
Iâve learned one thing dealing with psychiatry: itâs best not to engage with it at all, because itâs full of people like Aftab who will defend their dubious âdiagnosesâ till their dying day.
Report comment
Removed for moderation.
Report comment
Dear Lauren,
Thank you for the extraordinary work you do. Youâve created a template based on honesty, respect, trust, personal agency and mutual growth, which are the only things that make any sense, and things I found sorely lacking both in psychiatry and psychotherapy. Listening deeply with an open heart and open mind is whatâs most important in life.
Youâve given me a lot to think about.
And thank you for your links.
Birdsong
Report comment
âBPDâ is a wastebasket diagnosisâŠâ.
So is every other âpsychiatric diagnosisâ.
Report comment
Correction: BPD is the medicalized TERM for âbitchâ.
Report comment