Thank you Sam and the many others for your oh-so-needed support. Those who will continue to ignore us, then falsely try to invalidate us, have things pretty much their way. That’s money and historical tradition will do, but we have justice, the evidence, and a people who only need half a chance with good information, on our side.
So, let’s go on, no stopping, but we do need to to vastly enhance our power. Right we have essentially none, and that is what we need to focus on. HOW WE CAN BEGIN TO GENERATE CONNECTIONS, FIND FUNDING, TRAIN MORE PEOPLE, INSPIRE MORE DEMONSTRATIONS, PASS MORE LEGISLATION, ELEVATE THE GENERAL PUBLIC’S UNDERSTANDING, ETC.
I will be speaking next year at NARPA/MIND FREEDOM, AND JOINING THE BOARD. Please come to that.
For those who haven’t seen it, please take a look at my more detailed illustration of the what those from both Technology and psychiatry are up to, the truly artificial intelligence that is rattling around in their brains. It’s called “Technology in Pychiatry: An Example of Artificial Intelligence” and is available at website coleman.nyghtfalcon.com and also cited as reference by our very own James Moore in his regular podcast series.
Thanks Jonah for an excellent summary. We’re gonna need to tell this story over an over….
Thanks for all the supportive comments from everyone, but especially for Don: Oh, how I agree with you about survivors, so please do me a favor and listen again: I give my dear brother James Moore equal credit and credibility specifically because he is a survivor and therefore has expertise that NO ONE BUT A SURVIVOR CAN HAVE, i.e. he has been through the degradation, etc. Likewise, I did what I always do, point out that survivor Laura Delano is my #1 hero in a big bunch of heroes, like Whitaker and Gotzsche for example, because she blends surviving terrible abuse (see her magnificent “youtube -the power of psychiatric diagnosis,”) with the intelligence, emotion, fierce commitment that we are all going to need to get anywhere. So please listen again, and most important, ask, no urge, no INSIST that everyone you know join us.
Finally, I don’t know the term “intersegmental groups” but from your description, it is obvious that social relationships are what every competent person trying to help, and every competent society trying to help, will investigate first, and then offer to , to people in pain. All that excludes, sadly, today’s corrupted “mental health system.’
I agree with every single word! This tells me you two very critical things about you: You are a deep, critical thinker, like me, and you have a lot of emotion attached to these issues, like me, and want to show rather than shun those feelings.
Those are exactly the two qualities needed most if we are to have any chance of changing the holocaust that is coming from psychiatry, now armed and loaded by the richest companies in the world in league with the most corrupt governments.
HOWEVER, IN ORDER TO BE SOMEONE I AM INTERESTED IN HAVING REGULAR CONTACT WITH, TALKING BY PHONE, ETC. YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE SOMEONE WHO IS ABLE TO BE TRULY POLITICAL AND EFFECTIVE.
There are tons of people who understand what we do, and tons of people who have strong feelings about it, but almost nobody who can do both. Examples are Ron Bassman, Jim Gottstein, Laura Delano (give her three stars). If you want to pursue things, please send me something that I can see on my computer, writing, interview,link to something, etc. You have my word I will check it out.
If not, thank you again, and keep on doing what your heart tells you, and all the best.
lee
ps if you want to post any of this to MIA or anywhere else, none of it is private.
I just had an idea. I think these comments to my latest podcast with James would make a fantastic article, printed just as they are, with all of us being co-authors. What a perfect example of a collaboration of authors with their own experiences and backgrounds, all concluding that psychiatry is a noxious influence on our society and that in the struggle for change, all who see the light are welcome.
We could spread it around the web, with just a little intro, so various audiences having nothing to do with MIA would understand the context. The more the article was seen, the more people would learn about MIA and its activities, etc.
Thank you Julie and Fiachra for emphasizing two important points. There are so many absurdities of both “diagnosis” and predictions, it’s hard to include them all in the list. Here are couple more: The predictions have been shown to enhance the safety of the predictor, since no one (except the person being stigmatized) will complain about overestimation but will definitely complain later if the person is deemed “safe”and later does something wrong. So, play it safe by declaring they are unsafe.
For “diagnosis” in psychiatry, it can never be “proven” to be wrong since it is a declaration having nothing to do with science. Besides, if the “therapist” becomes dissatisfied with what’s going on, it’s time to “discover” that the original diagnosis is wrong and a new one will justify a different “treatment plan”. In other words, in real medicine, diagnosis is a finding, but in psychiatry diagnosis is a strategy, designed to rationalize whatever the psychiatrist happens to favor. Then, he or she can always proudly proclaim that this is a case of “dual diagnosis.”
On and on it goes because of their unwillingness to confront the truth, that psychiatry is not and never has been a science. When if does anything worthwhile, very rare indeed, it is despite its place within the medical family, certainly not because of it.
Hi Survived and thanks for the comment. In Szasz’ time and the early part of my experience, using so called “mental illness” or a claim of “insanity,” might have be a smart ploy by the accused and an attractive choice for a defense attorney, the idea being that lock up on a mental ward might mean easier conditions. Even then, all those phony evaluations, and having to ‘walk the walk and talk the talk’ hoping to get on the right side of the psych techs, psych staff, etc was a bitch for the prisoners’ self-esteem and dignity. I always told the prisoners I talked to who had made that choice and found NGI that they had made a bargain with the devil.
Now, anyone thinking that is a reasonable strategy, (forget about the issue of bogus nature of the claims), just doesn’t realize that they are trading the hope of fewer years lockup,(not at all something you can count on), for virtually certain brain damage, other bodily injuries from the drugs, much shorter life, and life long stigma from the disabilities produced when they do get out.
If you know anyone in such a situation, please try to help them realize that it’s a bad choice and try to make sure the attorney, usually an overworked public defender, doesn’t sell them down the river just to get rid of the case.
You’ve come a long way since the 2014 blog, so imagine what more you will contribute in the future. No need to remind YOU what I sometimes say, for your fire burns too brightly. Oh well, I’ll say it anyway, to everyone:
Dr. Moncrieff’s focus is on the evidence, something that seems hard to question, but I prefer two other things that I believe are more important and more truly get to the heart of things. First, “evidence” is a scientific subject and sometimes legal and moral issues should take precedence. All bodily interventions used by psychiatrists are legally and morally bankrupt if they are given under conditions of direct or indirect force and not preceded by truthful information about potential risks and benefits. Bodily intrusions under such conditions is not the practice of medicine but the crimes off assault and battery, a type of rape. So from a legal and moral point of view, it is indefensible regardless of the so-called “evidence.”
Next, rather than waiting for data to alert us to bodily harm from psychoactive drugs, it should be our PRESUMPTION. These drugs are specifically designed to enter the central nervous system, but none of them can target a specific abnormality since there are no abnormalities demonstrated for any emotional type of problem. It should be presumed that a substance put into the brain for no demonstrable abnormality has no reasonable chance of improving anything and every reasonable likelihood of doing damage. If the people who call themselves “neuroscientists” cannot recognize this, it just shows that despite being intelligent people they are simply more interested in defending their past behavior than really helping people.
Dr. Moncrieff, surely one of the most important friends we have, writes, ” We should have been able to anticipate that SSRIs and other new drugs for depression and anxiety would produce withdrawal syndromes, although once again we were taken unawares.” I say “yes, we should have, and would have if we PRESUMED such things will happen, and not just with these drugs, but all psychoactive drugs given under force or duress, without genuine consent, and in the absence of any medical disorder..” This attitude will protect those who have a right to protection, and that means everybody, regardless of whether in some type of crisis or not. No evaluation necessary, thank you very much. Everybody is everybody.
Responding to Alex on March 23
Just finished reviewing all the comments and Alex, I owe you an apology and am offering it now. My referring you to my YouTube was completely inappropriate because those videos are intended for people with essentially no background and need the most basic education. I would of course be delighted to meet with you as you suggest to compare ideas, strategies, etc.
And thank you again for all the supportive comments which came my way until my misguided recommendation regarding the YouTube. I’m confident that we can get past that one! The issues are too important for any other solution.
I’m sure you’re tech-savvy and I’m not, so let me know the best way to connect privately.
Hospitals have medical patients who are there because they want to be there, being treated for genuine medical disorders. That is what I was referring to.
Everything you say below is exactly what I believe and have spoken and written since the 1970s.
Here is what I sent to an ISEPP questioner about the topic of psychosis, a subject of much confusion, especially if it is not recognized that some are medically caused and some are not. It is critically important for genuine help that each situation is evaluated properly.
“…. while psychosis is most often not caused by any known biological abnormality and therefore is in my opinion best thought of as an emotional and behavioral response to painful and challenging aspects of one’s life— ie not a medical but a personal, one might say spiritual, problem.
That leaves, however, some instances of psychosis that ARE secondary to medical, biological causes. Examples are reaction to drugs, such as so called “antipsychotics” which in fact can cause the very thing Psychiatry is teaching is being “treated.” How’s that for the Big Lie.
But many other medical things can also cause psychosis. Tumors, whether primary from the brain or metastatic from somewhere else but now residing in the brain, metabolic disorders that alter the environment of the brain, side effects of medications legitimately used to treat various medical conditions, environmental toxins, fevers from many medical causes, intoxications from legal or illegal drugs.
Psychiatry claims all psychosis, in fact all serious mental problems, are signs of illness but we know that is a self serving lie. This should not blind us from understanding that it is critically important to properly evaluate whether a biological, medical cause is or is not present in any particular case.
I stress this because some persons properly outraged at Psychiatry’s lies see no need, no place for physicians in a system of care for persons in the midst of psychosis, but having many times myself assisted other physicians to properly tell the difference between a genuinely medically based psychosis and one that is not properly helped by any medical intervention but will respond to interpersonal support, never thru force or fraud— I can tell you that we are going to need physicians to help other physicians, and
those who ignore these realities need to think a little more carefully.”
“So it appears both “sides” are stuck with one another for the foreseeable future, and we should learn how to pool our energies into some mutually beneficial efforts without trying to force or fake unity where it doesn’t exist, or requiring people to give up their principles.”
I agree with you, so if you agree with me that my preference NOT to be labeled “anti-psychiatry,” should make no difference to my credibility, then I’ll be glad for that.
I wrote a response to someone on the ISEPP listserve that amplifies on why our movement is going to need medical doctors who know about drugs and the brain, and know how to help non-psychiatrist physicians help their genuine (voluntary) patients, and I hope you and others take a look. I will be posting it here, today.
Thank you Rosalee. I look forward, as you obviously do, to following the advice of legendary jazz trumpeter Clark Terry when he said, “keep on keepin’ on…”
Psychiatry as it now functions is a menace and should disappear. There is a need for medical doctors with special additional training regarding mental and behavioral problems, psychoactive drugs, medical diseases presenting with psychological and behavioral symptoms, etc to work with other professionals and non-professionals but should never be anything but equal members of a team.
How would I know what you mean by “anti-psychiatry,” so I’m not going to waste my time with meaningless labels like that. If you can’t make up you mind about my work until you have a label, that’s your problem. And I will not respond again to this.
Hi Alex, and thank you for listening and I hope you stay tuned. Let me make a suggestion regarding your idea. I’m just beginning to gather some momentum re:yourtube, podcasting, etc and I’m not an old pro with the tech stuff so I must conserve my time and energy, but if you were to find, say, 8 or 10 people who had the interest to really study my You Tube videos on Psychiatry and Society, I mean really LEARN it like you mean it, and that group can demonstrate to me that you have done so, I would then be willing to “sit down” (SKYP or ZOOM) to see how we might plan some meaningful activity.
That’s a big undertaking, but I must be wise with my time, as I am sure you will appreciate.
I wish you all the best, and for sure BE PROUD of what you have already done.
Annie
Great work getting free from the drugs; be proud! I will differ with you on the term “Western medical treatments,” since medicine is either scientific or not, and there is some pseudoscience in western medicine, some in eastern, etc. No science in Psychiatry at all, of course, but I sure ain’t giving up scientific medicine. If it weren’t for my doctors from Kaiser, I’d be long gone.
Anyway, if you drop me a line at The Lee Coleman Collection, the webmaster will forward it to me , Thanks for your support and good luck on your book. I’ll be glad to give you some input.
Alex, you are “smack dab in the middle” and “right on point” when you say “Shift in attitude could come first.” The best attorney I have run into who shares your approach and mine is Jim Gottstein in Anchorage, Alaska who founded PsychRights. He lists a lot of resources, including Involuntary Commitment and Forced Psychiatric Drugging in the Trial Courts: Rights Violations as a Matter of Course, by James B. (Jim) Gottstein, 25 Alaska L. Rev. 51 (2008).
I invite you to keep listening and watching here and my YouTube Psychiatry and Society, and website Lee Coleman Collection. Invite some insightful friends and lets start a network a growin’
Thank you Retired: Such an excellent question:
First, the physician trying to identify and quantify injuries from neurotoxicity of psychotropics must, of course, already understand that such injuries are much more common than generally understood. Most physicians, whether psychiatrists or not, simply find the idea heretical. Next, this physician needs to be truly knowledgeable about various cognitive and emotional sequelae, possible degenerative changes, etc and just how long and difficult the withdrawal process can be. Dr. Peter Breggin’s 2007 “Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry is recommended. The person should be encouraged to connect with various kinds of non-medical support while at the same time addressing any long-term medical consequences that might be identified. I especially recommend Laura Delano and the Inner Compass Initiative for information and direction to the growing network of non-medical support to buttress whatever medical help is needed.
Thank you very much Steve and I will definitely look into the Vimeo suggestion. I didn’t realize when I recorded all those videos, 50 or so over three different occasions, how important brevity is brevity. I mean severe brevity, is in today’s world. Because true understanding, deep diving as they say, is what I am trying to encourage in my audience, it is particularly difficult for me to shut up. All the more reason for editing, exactly as you say.
By all means stay in touch and keep up the good work.
I received your info today. Your analysis and mine are identical and as I explain in my YouTube discussions, symptoms are not only unhelpful in understanding emotional/bahavioral problems and mental pain, the are positively a hindrance in working toward an UNDERSTANDING of what is going on and working towards improvement. The symptoms are no indicator as to causes and that is why the medical approach is, as you and I and more and more others are recognizing, the very worst approach to help for non-medical problems.
Thank you so much KindRegards
For all of us who think and feel as we do, it’s not easy to be both credible in our opinions and true to ourselves in our emotions, all the while doing what we must to PERSEVERE. In my career I have testified hundreds of times in front of juries about these issues and never been willing (some will say able) to remain calm in the face of shallow attacks.
Keep up the good work because I have no intention of pausing, and please look as well for a new podcast series James Moore and I are starting for MIA.
Just “keep on keepin’ on”…., as jazz trumpeter Clark Terry liked to say.
When you write that
“I think saying it was distasteful but necessary acknowledges the discomfort many feel about the subject while continuing to stand up for justice.”
I understand what you are saying, but what really needs emphasizing,in my opinion, is the many cases where the children are being abused by those who are questioning them, whether parent or parents, therapists, cps interviewers, D.A.. interviews, , all of which I have experienced first hand for thirty years by studying the audio and video tapes of the interviews. Because those materials are not available to anyone except those directly in the case, few people understand that many times what are claimed to be the child’s accusations are what the child is being trained to say, often now coming to believe it.”
As for people who are ready to physically attack someone accused, or even talk about doing such a thing, they need educating rather than stroking or soothing. Those people end up on juries and convict innocent persons, and demonstrate that they understand nothing about how the legal system is actually operating.
Anyway, thanks for your support in many ways, and I would welcome your reaction to my McMartin tapes and to ‘Has A Child Been Molested?” Not much point going further until then….
This is responding to Kindred Spirit, but of course any one else welcome. Kindred, I just wondered if, considering that you have at least noticed that “Has A Child Been Molested” is now available to read on http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com/home/documents/books & articles, The Lee Coleman Collection, why you feel ” I find his work to lend his expert testimony in defense of accused child molesters both distasteful and as completely necessary as the defense attorney himself. if you actually understand my testimony in every single one of these cases, my testimony is about the biased, pseudoscientific work of interviewers, medical examiners, or investigators, or “syndrome pushers.” I never agree to testify about these things unless I have studied the entire case and actually see such methods. The very things you seem to have experienced in your own life. For you to find such work “distasteful,” especially in light of your understanding of child protective services behavior in so many cases, I just wonder if you truly have studied what I actually do. If you care to talk further, just drop me a note back.
Obviously, anyone else who wants to do that, I will respond, but not to argue or even take your comments seriously unless I can see that you are interested enough to first familiarize yourself with my work. If I allow that I will only drain myself out, and it is not fair to me to ask me start explaining things that I have already published and are available. Prove to me that you are a student and you will find me easy to talk to.
Amen to that, Brother, it really is a mess right now, as I will explain shortly when James Moore interviews me for the MIA podcast.
http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com is the website called The Lee Coleman Collection. It is things I have collected and things I have made, partly to sustain myself in the face of isolation and constant attacks that come from being critical of Psychiatry for my entire career. Check out the letter from Barbara Cay White, MD on the home page. Then, for those like yourself, already steeped in the issues, the path to my writing is home/documents/books and articles.
Reign of Error and Has A Child Been Molested? are available for reading and soon for download. Articles are being posted, some already there.
Regarding the YouTube Psychiatry and Society, go to Playlists and you can see a grouping by subject. You can also look to the right top to “most popular” and start browsing that way.
And, there is a contact button on the Lee Coleman Collection. Drop me a line that way any time you wish.
All this of course also for y’all. If you like what you hear and read, send me viewers and readers ’cause it ain’t about me. We all need an audience of the uninitiated! Choir practice just won’t cut it.
For Sam and Kindred Spirit and anyone else interested
Sam, let’s see whether you are really serious about what I stand for, what I think, and what I have done for the past 45 years. It’ all on my 50 YouTube videos Psychiatry and Society. And also in home/documents/books and articles of http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com The Lee Coleman Collection. Why don’t you try reading “The Reign of Error”, cover to cover, as well as ‘Has A Child Been Molested?”, both now posted as above. Study every video on the McMartin case, every one, and open your mind.
Until you have truly studied these materials, what right do you have to expect me to spend my time arguing with someone who apparently prefers to accuse before studying. And by the way, if you think the 70s, 80s and 90s are not relevant, you are only displaying how far you have to go.
Now, finally, if had given up on you, I wouldn’t be troubling to write this, but this is the last shot. Either you demonstrate enough grit to study what I have produced, or you will not.
Kindred Spirit, thank you for the support.
To everyone else who shares any of Sam’s hasty opinions of me, please find out who I am, as demonstrated by what I have done for decades rather than jumping to hasty conclusions. I happen to think that if you are truly serious enough to do this, our common view about the bankruptcy of Psychiatry might just be advanced. Frankly, as I see it now, there is a lot of behavior in the critical psychiatry movement that is playing into their grubby little hands.
Hi Steve and thanks for the thumbs up and for the points you raise. Yes, I do think there are situations where an MD will be helpful, but never one of the team leaders, and as far as I’m concerned, that MD shouldn’t be a psychiatrist. They have really disqualified themselves with all the lies and self-serving arrogance. I’m in pretty good company in this opinion, with people like Bob Whitaker and Peter Gotzsche holding the same opinion.
The other point I would make is that the debate is much broader than the question of whether “mental illness” is a meaningful concept (of course it’s not) or something else. I believe it is Psychiatry’s link to the power of the State that is at the heart of it all, and that if nothing involuntary could ever be done to those seeking help, those looking for help would by their choices wipe away the vast majority of what is wrong with our current arrangement.
It’s too big for real discussion in this kind of format, but I try to talk about these very questions in the 50 videos that make up YouTube Psychiatry and Society.
Hi again Someone Else Just looked over your thoughts again, and noticed your statement ” it’s rather sad psychiatrists only speak out against their coworkers crimes against humanity, after they retire. But it’s better late than never.”
If you care to read my “Reign of Error: Psychiatry, Authority, and Law,” published in 1984 when I was still young, you will see that your description hardly fits me. The book and more is available at http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com The Lee Coleman Collection under documents/books and essays. Articles starting from the 1970s are being posted there as we speak.
Hello Sam and kindred spirit, and anyone else interested. Sam, we have chatted just once I believe, and then I didn’t want to continue with the rather spirited differences of opinion that ensued a few weeks ago. But I guess I’m being asked to respond and so I will.
Sam, your dedication to your wife is admirable but when you are engaging in online discussions, ones that interact with other peoples struggles, I think you have to be prepared for whatever comes your way. What I offer is sincerely meant only to let my opinion be known, once asked.
When you are so strongly dedicated to the label “D.I.D”., you must know that this is only a refurbished “Multiple Personality Disorder.” Indeed, kindred spirit I don’t think much of the “trauma experts,” but it is worse than that. They are hurting countless thousands of people with their claims of “dissociation”, etc.
Where do you think the holocaust that has come to thousands of persons falsely accused and not infrequently convicted of child sexual abuse got its start– from the kind of thing I discuss in my YouTube discussions of the McMartin case or on my website http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com The Lee Coleman Collection/home/documents/books You can read Has A Child Been Molested. I am in the process of posting more articles, some on these same topics- on such outrages as “The Courage to Heal” or “Secret Survivors.” Don’t be fooled into thinking that psychiatrists are the only ones full of BS. Tons of other “mental health professionals.”
So Sam, I hope you might ponder this? How can your love of and dedication to your wife require you to hold on to the inventions of certain “professionals” who make claims that are empty and dangerous?
My sincere best wishes to you both and to everyone
No doubt about it–anything that gets into the legal arena, those of us raising questions about psychiatric pronouncement have a difficult job because the judge, members of a jury, etc. are all enthralled by the assumed expertise of all “mental health professionals.” My approach has for decades been one that keeps going back to an exposure of the lack of any scientific, reliable methodology behind the opinions being offered. I have done a lot of work training attorneys to adopt this approach when they cross-examine experts, and when I testify myself it is always to talk about what Psychiatry can’t do, never to opine on the issues Psychiatry loves to claim it can do.
I have talked about a lot of these legal issues in my YouTube channel Psychiatry and Society. Just look for the ones about Psychiatry and Law. Doesn’t matter so much whether the subject is something like Insanity Defense or determinations of whether a child has been molested, etc. You might find them helpful because they all talk about why the Courts are being contaminated by phony expertise from Psychiatry.
Thank you so much for your kind words about the blog and for telling everyone your background. Your story reminds me of Laura Delano’s brilliant YouTube discussions, especially the one I referenced in the blog—“The Power of Psychiatric Diagnosis”– such insight, emotion- truly a powerful combination. So you are in good company and keep up the great work.
By the way, I have experienced myself something like your ” two mental health professionals accused me of being mentally ill.” If you check out my http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com (The Lee Coleman Collection) you can read on the home page a letter from Barbara Cay White, MD way back in 1985. I know you and others will enjoy it!
Thank you so much Rosalee. There is a growing community of persons trying to bring good information and non-medical alternatives to a wider and wider audience, as well as change the laws that permit the kinds of things you speak of. I personally welcome you to that community!
Hi Richard
re:your comment where do all these so-called symptoms (extreme human psychological distress) that gets labeled as “mental illness” originate from?” I think I did touch on your point, at least let me remind everyone of these paragraphs:
” Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, the non-medical members of the therapeutic community, psychologists, social workers, family counselors, were gaining in confidence, and gaining clinical licenses. There was only one thing to do: Psychiatry would just have to find some mental “illness,” some brain diseases, that required the MD degree.
“So, they created a new “diagnostic manual,” DSM III, one that had no genuine diagnoses, only symptom patterns. But hey, no problem. If they were listed in a “Diagnostic Manual,” what else would they be but “diagnoses”? It also followed that whatever a psychiatrist decided upon became a “treatment,” despite there being no genuine medical disorder found.
“Next, psychiatry linked up with drug-company profits, tax dollars funneled through the National Institutes of Mental Health, and easy access to mainstream media, so that by now what is believed by our people to be neuroscience (I call it “Neuro-Sales”) is assumed to have triumphed over every other way of helping mentally disturbed people.
I know all of you know all this, but I’m aiming for potential allies, not those already knowledgeable and committed. What I’m really looking for is helpers in the effort to educate the millions who have their heads and heart in the right place but just don’t yet understand….
Hi Someone else
You write, quoting me: “The beautiful thing about psychiatry’s pronouncements is that no one can ever prove them wrong.” I beg to differ
I was apparently not very clear. I was trying to point to the absurdity of psychiatry’s announcements, which virtually by definition can of course never be proven to be wrong because they can never be proven to right. This is the difference between genuine science and psychiatry. I guess my attempt at a little irony didn’t quite work.
[email protected] If you’re looking for info on kids caught up in a SRA case, I would look up journalist Debbie Nathan, El Paso Texas or Mike Snedeker, attorney somewhere in Oregon.
Hi
Yes, I was one of the experts hired by one of the defense attorneys: 7 defendants, each with their own court-appointed expert. So, I was able to study all the documents, taped interviews, medical records, everything, in preparation for testimony in the trial. Then the charges were dropped on 5 of the 7 defendants, so I didn’t testify in the criminal trial. But one of those on whom the charges were dropped sued to get her job back as a public school teacher, and sued to get her back pay. I testified in that trial on the same issues of the criminal case, that the methods used in interviewing the children were so egregiously leading and suggestive that it was absolutely essential that the judge consider whether the children’s statements were based on memory, or on learned ideas taken from the interviewers behavior. I have written all this up, and IPT published it, so you can get more details in my article. I am in the process of getting articles on this topic on the web; two are up so far on http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com (Lee Coleman Collection), go to home page, then documents, then books and essays, then two articles on sexual abuse allegations.
Yo, Oldhead, I don’t mean “followers” in that sense, that I lead and they follow. I don’t feel the need to try to convince you of that and I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to try. I have demonstrated it in my work, and I’m confident you will agree if you just keep check that out.
I was talking about those people who have, happily,not been victimized by the “mental health system,” but who understand that something is wrong, want to know more, and maybe even want to help. As someone trained in the profession that is doing so much harm, I have an easier time gaining credibility with the very people you want to educate as much as I do. That DOES NOT mean that I know more about the most important elements in our struggle, which are ethical and legal questions, not scientific questions.
So, I don’t see any group, not even the “survivors,” as being the leaders, but I see all of them collaborating, using their respective skills and experiences to get the message out there.
To finish for now, here are the three people who for me shine the brightest in my pantheon, on this topic– Laura Delano, a “survivor,” Bob Whitaker, a journalist, and Peter Gotzsche, a MD but not a psychiatrist.
Yes, Daniel Amen, MD, psychiatrist, said to be “the most popular psychiatrist in America,” most popular TED talk, can you imagine such a thing?
Well, if you know the fabrications that Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, psychiatrist, past president of APA, is capable of (I’m writing about him right now for MIA), imagine a situation where Lieberman is debunking Amen in Lieberman’s book “Shrinks.” “…Amen’s currently fame rests entirely on spurious practices unproven by scientific research and rejected by mainstream medicine….” Amen boasts of his “83,000 Spect scans” by which he tells parents that he has found the abnormality in the brain producing the son or daughter’s unacceptable behavior. He thrills his audiences by pointing that “Psychiatry is the only branch of medicine that is not looking ‘directly at the brain.’ ” And here is the worst part— Amen and PBS Television are snuggled up nice and warm, with the $ flowing to him and his following, in turn, bringing money to PBS. A truly ugly example of just what we are up against.
So, it’s easy to find out what Amen is all about, just google him, watch the TED talk, but not so easy to stop it, given the $ and therefore political clout behind it.
I intend to focus on Lieberman, Amen, and Thomas Insel as examples of the corruption that IS today’s psychiatry, so whatever following I can develop through critical movements, through my youtube, and any other ways you can think of, are intended to build a political movement based on EDUCATION OF THE MASSES, ordinary folks like you and me.
Hi Rachel, and thanks for connecting. Yes, I’ve been around since the early ’70s, quite active publicly until the middle 80’s, then preoccupied with a new development– child protective services, “mental health” and law enforcement responding to a real problem– sexual abuse of children- with a system that locks up innocent persons regularly while creating a new form of child abuse. (check out my discussion of McMartin pre-school case).
Love to have you and your friends check me out at youtube Psychiatry and Society, as well as website http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com (Lee Coleman Collection)
Just today “The Reign of Error”: Psychiatry, Authority, & Law was posted on the website. The book is old, 1984, but sadly nowhere out of date, given the growing army of liars like Jeffrey Lieberman, Thomas Insel, Daniel Amen, etc.
again, thanks for connecting, and keep on keeping’ on….
By way of agreeing with your uncompromising stance on NAMI, how could it be ethically sound or politically wise to do anything less than expose NAMI, and certainly not cozy up to them, when the VERY NAME of the organization includes the words “mentally ill.” Words have far more power than is generally recognized, and when the opponents of a powerful enemy (that’s us) accept the very words being used against people we want to support with genuine understanding and services based on understanding rather than fraudulent, so-called “diagnosis”, —when that happens we might as well say, “we have met the enemy, and it’s us.”
lee
(by way of introduction to all the good folks reading this, it is also Lee Coleman, MD, Psychiatry, but don’t hold it against me! Come visit me at YouTube Psychiatry and Society)
Thank you Sam and the many others for your oh-so-needed support. Those who will continue to ignore us, then falsely try to invalidate us, have things pretty much their way. That’s money and historical tradition will do, but we have justice, the evidence, and a people who only need half a chance with good information, on our side.
So, let’s go on, no stopping, but we do need to to vastly enhance our power. Right we have essentially none, and that is what we need to focus on. HOW WE CAN BEGIN TO GENERATE CONNECTIONS, FIND FUNDING, TRAIN MORE PEOPLE, INSPIRE MORE DEMONSTRATIONS, PASS MORE LEGISLATION, ELEVATE THE GENERAL PUBLIC’S UNDERSTANDING, ETC.
I will be speaking next year at NARPA/MIND FREEDOM, AND JOINING THE BOARD. Please come to that.
Also, starting a podcast soon, so stay tuned.
lee
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For those who haven’t seen it, please take a look at my more detailed illustration of the what those from both Technology and psychiatry are up to, the truly artificial intelligence that is rattling around in their brains. It’s called “Technology in Pychiatry: An Example of Artificial Intelligence” and is available at website coleman.nyghtfalcon.com and also cited as reference by our very own James Moore in his regular podcast series.
Thanks Jonah for an excellent summary. We’re gonna need to tell this story over an over….
lee
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Thanks for all the supportive comments from everyone, but especially for Don: Oh, how I agree with you about survivors, so please do me a favor and listen again: I give my dear brother James Moore equal credit and credibility specifically because he is a survivor and therefore has expertise that NO ONE BUT A SURVIVOR CAN HAVE, i.e. he has been through the degradation, etc. Likewise, I did what I always do, point out that survivor Laura Delano is my #1 hero in a big bunch of heroes, like Whitaker and Gotzsche for example, because she blends surviving terrible abuse (see her magnificent “youtube -the power of psychiatric diagnosis,”) with the intelligence, emotion, fierce commitment that we are all going to need to get anywhere. So please listen again, and most important, ask, no urge, no INSIST that everyone you know join us.
Finally, I don’t know the term “intersegmental groups” but from your description, it is obvious that social relationships are what every competent person trying to help, and every competent society trying to help, will investigate first, and then offer to , to people in pain. All that excludes, sadly, today’s corrupted “mental health system.’
Yours in solidarity…..
lee
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Hi Bradford and thanks for getting in touch
I agree with every single word! This tells me you two very critical things about you: You are a deep, critical thinker, like me, and you have a lot of emotion attached to these issues, like me, and want to show rather than shun those feelings.
Those are exactly the two qualities needed most if we are to have any chance of changing the holocaust that is coming from psychiatry, now armed and loaded by the richest companies in the world in league with the most corrupt governments.
HOWEVER, IN ORDER TO BE SOMEONE I AM INTERESTED IN HAVING REGULAR CONTACT WITH, TALKING BY PHONE, ETC. YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE SOMEONE WHO IS ABLE TO BE TRULY POLITICAL AND EFFECTIVE.
There are tons of people who understand what we do, and tons of people who have strong feelings about it, but almost nobody who can do both. Examples are Ron Bassman, Jim Gottstein, Laura Delano (give her three stars). If you want to pursue things, please send me something that I can see on my computer, writing, interview,link to something, etc. You have my word I will check it out.
If not, thank you again, and keep on doing what your heart tells you, and all the best.
lee
ps if you want to post any of this to MIA or anywhere else, none of it is private.
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Morning
I just had an idea. I think these comments to my latest podcast with James would make a fantastic article, printed just as they are, with all of us being co-authors. What a perfect example of a collaboration of authors with their own experiences and backgrounds, all concluding that psychiatry is a noxious influence on our society and that in the struggle for change, all who see the light are welcome.
We could spread it around the web, with just a little intro, so various audiences having nothing to do with MIA would understand the context. The more the article was seen, the more people would learn about MIA and its activities, etc.
lee
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Thank you Julie and Fiachra for emphasizing two important points. There are so many absurdities of both “diagnosis” and predictions, it’s hard to include them all in the list. Here are couple more: The predictions have been shown to enhance the safety of the predictor, since no one (except the person being stigmatized) will complain about overestimation but will definitely complain later if the person is deemed “safe”and later does something wrong. So, play it safe by declaring they are unsafe.
For “diagnosis” in psychiatry, it can never be “proven” to be wrong since it is a declaration having nothing to do with science. Besides, if the “therapist” becomes dissatisfied with what’s going on, it’s time to “discover” that the original diagnosis is wrong and a new one will justify a different “treatment plan”. In other words, in real medicine, diagnosis is a finding, but in psychiatry diagnosis is a strategy, designed to rationalize whatever the psychiatrist happens to favor. Then, he or she can always proudly proclaim that this is a case of “dual diagnosis.”
On and on it goes because of their unwillingness to confront the truth, that psychiatry is not and never has been a science. When if does anything worthwhile, very rare indeed, it is despite its place within the medical family, certainly not because of it.
Best to you
lee
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Hi Survived and thanks for the comment. In Szasz’ time and the early part of my experience, using so called “mental illness” or a claim of “insanity,” might have be a smart ploy by the accused and an attractive choice for a defense attorney, the idea being that lock up on a mental ward might mean easier conditions. Even then, all those phony evaluations, and having to ‘walk the walk and talk the talk’ hoping to get on the right side of the psych techs, psych staff, etc was a bitch for the prisoners’ self-esteem and dignity. I always told the prisoners I talked to who had made that choice and found NGI that they had made a bargain with the devil.
Now, anyone thinking that is a reasonable strategy, (forget about the issue of bogus nature of the claims), just doesn’t realize that they are trading the hope of fewer years lockup,(not at all something you can count on), for virtually certain brain damage, other bodily injuries from the drugs, much shorter life, and life long stigma from the disabilities produced when they do get out.
If you know anyone in such a situation, please try to help them realize that it’s a bad choice and try to make sure the attorney, usually an overworked public defender, doesn’t sell them down the river just to get rid of the case.
thanks again
lee
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You’ve come a long way since the 2014 blog, so imagine what more you will contribute in the future. No need to remind YOU what I sometimes say, for your fire burns too brightly. Oh well, I’ll say it anyway, to everyone:
Keep on keepin’ on…..
lee
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Dr. Moncrieff’s focus is on the evidence, something that seems hard to question, but I prefer two other things that I believe are more important and more truly get to the heart of things. First, “evidence” is a scientific subject and sometimes legal and moral issues should take precedence. All bodily interventions used by psychiatrists are legally and morally bankrupt if they are given under conditions of direct or indirect force and not preceded by truthful information about potential risks and benefits. Bodily intrusions under such conditions is not the practice of medicine but the crimes off assault and battery, a type of rape. So from a legal and moral point of view, it is indefensible regardless of the so-called “evidence.”
Next, rather than waiting for data to alert us to bodily harm from psychoactive drugs, it should be our PRESUMPTION. These drugs are specifically designed to enter the central nervous system, but none of them can target a specific abnormality since there are no abnormalities demonstrated for any emotional type of problem. It should be presumed that a substance put into the brain for no demonstrable abnormality has no reasonable chance of improving anything and every reasonable likelihood of doing damage. If the people who call themselves “neuroscientists” cannot recognize this, it just shows that despite being intelligent people they are simply more interested in defending their past behavior than really helping people.
Dr. Moncrieff, surely one of the most important friends we have, writes, ” We should have been able to anticipate that SSRIs and other new drugs for depression and anxiety would produce withdrawal syndromes, although once again we were taken unawares.” I say “yes, we should have, and would have if we PRESUMED such things will happen, and not just with these drugs, but all psychoactive drugs given under force or duress, without genuine consent, and in the absence of any medical disorder..” This attitude will protect those who have a right to protection, and that means everybody, regardless of whether in some type of crisis or not. No evaluation necessary, thank you very much. Everybody is everybody.
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Responding to Alex on March 23
Just finished reviewing all the comments and Alex, I owe you an apology and am offering it now. My referring you to my YouTube was completely inappropriate because those videos are intended for people with essentially no background and need the most basic education. I would of course be delighted to meet with you as you suggest to compare ideas, strategies, etc.
And thank you again for all the supportive comments which came my way until my misguided recommendation regarding the YouTube. I’m confident that we can get past that one! The issues are too important for any other solution.
I’m sure you’re tech-savvy and I’m not, so let me know the best way to connect privately.
lee
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To JanCarol’s comment above:
Hello JanCarol
Hospitals have medical patients who are there because they want to be there, being treated for genuine medical disorders. That is what I was referring to.
Everything you say below is exactly what I believe and have spoken and written since the 1970s.
lee
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Here is what I sent to an ISEPP questioner about the topic of psychosis, a subject of much confusion, especially if it is not recognized that some are medically caused and some are not. It is critically important for genuine help that each situation is evaluated properly.
“…. while psychosis is most often not caused by any known biological abnormality and therefore is in my opinion best thought of as an emotional and behavioral response to painful and challenging aspects of one’s life— ie not a medical but a personal, one might say spiritual, problem.
That leaves, however, some instances of psychosis that ARE secondary to medical, biological causes. Examples are reaction to drugs, such as so called “antipsychotics” which in fact can cause the very thing Psychiatry is teaching is being “treated.” How’s that for the Big Lie.
But many other medical things can also cause psychosis. Tumors, whether primary from the brain or metastatic from somewhere else but now residing in the brain, metabolic disorders that alter the environment of the brain, side effects of medications legitimately used to treat various medical conditions, environmental toxins, fevers from many medical causes, intoxications from legal or illegal drugs.
Psychiatry claims all psychosis, in fact all serious mental problems, are signs of illness but we know that is a self serving lie. This should not blind us from understanding that it is critically important to properly evaluate whether a biological, medical cause is or is not present in any particular case.
I stress this because some persons properly outraged at Psychiatry’s lies see no need, no place for physicians in a system of care for persons in the midst of psychosis, but having many times myself assisted other physicians to properly tell the difference between a genuinely medically based psychosis and one that is not properly helped by any medical intervention but will respond to interpersonal support, never thru force or fraud— I can tell you that we are going to need physicians to help other physicians, and
those who ignore these realities need to think a little more carefully.”
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“So it appears both “sides” are stuck with one another for the foreseeable future, and we should learn how to pool our energies into some mutually beneficial efforts without trying to force or fake unity where it doesn’t exist, or requiring people to give up their principles.”
I agree with you, so if you agree with me that my preference NOT to be labeled “anti-psychiatry,” should make no difference to my credibility, then I’ll be glad for that.
I wrote a response to someone on the ISEPP listserve that amplifies on why our movement is going to need medical doctors who know about drugs and the brain, and know how to help non-psychiatrist physicians help their genuine (voluntary) patients, and I hope you and others take a look. I will be posting it here, today.
lee
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Thank you Rosalee. I look forward, as you obviously do, to following the advice of legendary jazz trumpeter Clark Terry when he said, “keep on keepin’ on…”
lee
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Psychiatry as it now functions is a menace and should disappear. There is a need for medical doctors with special additional training regarding mental and behavioral problems, psychoactive drugs, medical diseases presenting with psychological and behavioral symptoms, etc to work with other professionals and non-professionals but should never be anything but equal members of a team.
How would I know what you mean by “anti-psychiatry,” so I’m not going to waste my time with meaningless labels like that. If you can’t make up you mind about my work until you have a label, that’s your problem. And I will not respond again to this.
lee
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Hi Alex, and thank you for listening and I hope you stay tuned. Let me make a suggestion regarding your idea. I’m just beginning to gather some momentum re:yourtube, podcasting, etc and I’m not an old pro with the tech stuff so I must conserve my time and energy, but if you were to find, say, 8 or 10 people who had the interest to really study my You Tube videos on Psychiatry and Society, I mean really LEARN it like you mean it, and that group can demonstrate to me that you have done so, I would then be willing to “sit down” (SKYP or ZOOM) to see how we might plan some meaningful activity.
That’s a big undertaking, but I must be wise with my time, as I am sure you will appreciate.
I wish you all the best, and for sure BE PROUD of what you have already done.
lee
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Thanks Steve!
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Annie
Great work getting free from the drugs; be proud! I will differ with you on the term “Western medical treatments,” since medicine is either scientific or not, and there is some pseudoscience in western medicine, some in eastern, etc. No science in Psychiatry at all, of course, but I sure ain’t giving up scientific medicine. If it weren’t for my doctors from Kaiser, I’d be long gone.
Anyway, if you drop me a line at The Lee Coleman Collection, the webmaster will forward it to me , Thanks for your support and good luck on your book. I’ll be glad to give you some input.
lee
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Alex, you are “smack dab in the middle” and “right on point” when you say “Shift in attitude could come first.” The best attorney I have run into who shares your approach and mine is Jim Gottstein in Anchorage, Alaska who founded PsychRights. He lists a lot of resources, including Involuntary Commitment and Forced Psychiatric Drugging in the Trial Courts: Rights Violations as a Matter of Course, by James B. (Jim) Gottstein, 25 Alaska L. Rev. 51 (2008).
I invite you to keep listening and watching here and my YouTube Psychiatry and Society, and website Lee Coleman Collection. Invite some insightful friends and lets start a network a growin’
lee
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Thank you Retired: Such an excellent question:
First, the physician trying to identify and quantify injuries from neurotoxicity of psychotropics must, of course, already understand that such injuries are much more common than generally understood. Most physicians, whether psychiatrists or not, simply find the idea heretical. Next, this physician needs to be truly knowledgeable about various cognitive and emotional sequelae, possible degenerative changes, etc and just how long and difficult the withdrawal process can be. Dr. Peter Breggin’s 2007 “Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry is recommended. The person should be encouraged to connect with various kinds of non-medical support while at the same time addressing any long-term medical consequences that might be identified. I especially recommend Laura Delano and the Inner Compass Initiative for information and direction to the growing network of non-medical support to buttress whatever medical help is needed.
My very best wishes to you
lee
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Thank you very much Steve and I will definitely look into the Vimeo suggestion. I didn’t realize when I recorded all those videos, 50 or so over three different occasions, how important brevity is brevity. I mean severe brevity, is in today’s world. Because true understanding, deep diving as they say, is what I am trying to encourage in my audience, it is particularly difficult for me to shut up. All the more reason for editing, exactly as you say.
By all means stay in touch and keep up the good work.
lee
ps Here is the best link to The Reign of Error: http://coleman.nyghtfalcon.com/documents/books-and-essays/reign-of-error/
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My opinions on this are on YouTube Psychiatry and Society.
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Hi Steve
I received your info today. Your analysis and mine are identical and as I explain in my YouTube discussions, symptoms are not only unhelpful in understanding emotional/bahavioral problems and mental pain, the are positively a hindrance in working toward an UNDERSTANDING of what is going on and working towards improvement. The symptoms are no indicator as to causes and that is why the medical approach is, as you and I and more and more others are recognizing, the very worst approach to help for non-medical problems.
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Thank you so much KindRegards
For all of us who think and feel as we do, it’s not easy to be both credible in our opinions and true to ourselves in our emotions, all the while doing what we must to PERSEVERE. In my career I have testified hundreds of times in front of juries about these issues and never been willing (some will say able) to remain calm in the face of shallow attacks.
Keep up the good work because I have no intention of pausing, and please look as well for a new podcast series James Moore and I are starting for MIA.
Just “keep on keepin’ on”…., as jazz trumpeter Clark Terry liked to say.
lee
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Hi again:
thanks for the answer.
When you write that
“I think saying it was distasteful but necessary acknowledges the discomfort many feel about the subject while continuing to stand up for justice.”
I understand what you are saying, but what really needs emphasizing,in my opinion, is the many cases where the children are being abused by those who are questioning them, whether parent or parents, therapists, cps interviewers, D.A.. interviews, , all of which I have experienced first hand for thirty years by studying the audio and video tapes of the interviews. Because those materials are not available to anyone except those directly in the case, few people understand that many times what are claimed to be the child’s accusations are what the child is being trained to say, often now coming to believe it.”
As for people who are ready to physically attack someone accused, or even talk about doing such a thing, they need educating rather than stroking or soothing. Those people end up on juries and convict innocent persons, and demonstrate that they understand nothing about how the legal system is actually operating.
Anyway, thanks for your support in many ways, and I would welcome your reaction to my McMartin tapes and to ‘Has A Child Been Molested?” Not much point going further until then….
All the best.
lee
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This is responding to Kindred Spirit, but of course any one else welcome. Kindred, I just wondered if, considering that you have at least noticed that “Has A Child Been Molested” is now available to read on http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com/home/documents/books & articles, The Lee Coleman Collection, why you feel ” I find his work to lend his expert testimony in defense of accused child molesters both distasteful and as completely necessary as the defense attorney himself. if you actually understand my testimony in every single one of these cases, my testimony is about the biased, pseudoscientific work of interviewers, medical examiners, or investigators, or “syndrome pushers.” I never agree to testify about these things unless I have studied the entire case and actually see such methods. The very things you seem to have experienced in your own life. For you to find such work “distasteful,” especially in light of your understanding of child protective services behavior in so many cases, I just wonder if you truly have studied what I actually do. If you care to talk further, just drop me a note back.
Obviously, anyone else who wants to do that, I will respond, but not to argue or even take your comments seriously unless I can see that you are interested enough to first familiarize yourself with my work. If I allow that I will only drain myself out, and it is not fair to me to ask me start explaining things that I have already published and are available. Prove to me that you are a student and you will find me easy to talk to.
lee
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Yes, I left some info
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ok
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Amen to that, Brother, it really is a mess right now, as I will explain shortly when James Moore interviews me for the MIA podcast.
http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com is the website called The Lee Coleman Collection. It is things I have collected and things I have made, partly to sustain myself in the face of isolation and constant attacks that come from being critical of Psychiatry for my entire career. Check out the letter from Barbara Cay White, MD on the home page. Then, for those like yourself, already steeped in the issues, the path to my writing is home/documents/books and articles.
Reign of Error and Has A Child Been Molested? are available for reading and soon for download. Articles are being posted, some already there.
Regarding the YouTube Psychiatry and Society, go to Playlists and you can see a grouping by subject. You can also look to the right top to “most popular” and start browsing that way.
And, there is a contact button on the Lee Coleman Collection. Drop me a line that way any time you wish.
All this of course also for y’all. If you like what you hear and read, send me viewers and readers ’cause it ain’t about me. We all need an audience of the uninitiated! Choir practice just won’t cut it.
keep on keeping’ on
lee
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For Sam and Kindred Spirit and anyone else interested
Sam, let’s see whether you are really serious about what I stand for, what I think, and what I have done for the past 45 years. It’ all on my 50 YouTube videos Psychiatry and Society. And also in home/documents/books and articles of http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com The Lee Coleman Collection. Why don’t you try reading “The Reign of Error”, cover to cover, as well as ‘Has A Child Been Molested?”, both now posted as above. Study every video on the McMartin case, every one, and open your mind.
Until you have truly studied these materials, what right do you have to expect me to spend my time arguing with someone who apparently prefers to accuse before studying. And by the way, if you think the 70s, 80s and 90s are not relevant, you are only displaying how far you have to go.
Now, finally, if had given up on you, I wouldn’t be troubling to write this, but this is the last shot. Either you demonstrate enough grit to study what I have produced, or you will not.
Kindred Spirit, thank you for the support.
To everyone else who shares any of Sam’s hasty opinions of me, please find out who I am, as demonstrated by what I have done for decades rather than jumping to hasty conclusions. I happen to think that if you are truly serious enough to do this, our common view about the bankruptcy of Psychiatry might just be advanced. Frankly, as I see it now, there is a lot of behavior in the critical psychiatry movement that is playing into their grubby little hands.
lee
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Hi Steve and thanks for the thumbs up and for the points you raise. Yes, I do think there are situations where an MD will be helpful, but never one of the team leaders, and as far as I’m concerned, that MD shouldn’t be a psychiatrist. They have really disqualified themselves with all the lies and self-serving arrogance. I’m in pretty good company in this opinion, with people like Bob Whitaker and Peter Gotzsche holding the same opinion.
The other point I would make is that the debate is much broader than the question of whether “mental illness” is a meaningful concept (of course it’s not) or something else. I believe it is Psychiatry’s link to the power of the State that is at the heart of it all, and that if nothing involuntary could ever be done to those seeking help, those looking for help would by their choices wipe away the vast majority of what is wrong with our current arrangement.
It’s too big for real discussion in this kind of format, but I try to talk about these very questions in the 50 videos that make up YouTube Psychiatry and Society.
All the best,
lee
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Hi again Someone Else Just looked over your thoughts again, and noticed your statement ” it’s rather sad psychiatrists only speak out against their coworkers crimes against humanity, after they retire. But it’s better late than never.”
If you care to read my “Reign of Error: Psychiatry, Authority, and Law,” published in 1984 when I was still young, you will see that your description hardly fits me. The book and more is available at http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com The Lee Coleman Collection under documents/books and essays. Articles starting from the 1970s are being posted there as we speak.
Thanks again for the comments.
lee
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Hello Sam and kindred spirit, and anyone else interested. Sam, we have chatted just once I believe, and then I didn’t want to continue with the rather spirited differences of opinion that ensued a few weeks ago. But I guess I’m being asked to respond and so I will.
Sam, your dedication to your wife is admirable but when you are engaging in online discussions, ones that interact with other peoples struggles, I think you have to be prepared for whatever comes your way. What I offer is sincerely meant only to let my opinion be known, once asked.
When you are so strongly dedicated to the label “D.I.D”., you must know that this is only a refurbished “Multiple Personality Disorder.” Indeed, kindred spirit I don’t think much of the “trauma experts,” but it is worse than that. They are hurting countless thousands of people with their claims of “dissociation”, etc.
Where do you think the holocaust that has come to thousands of persons falsely accused and not infrequently convicted of child sexual abuse got its start– from the kind of thing I discuss in my YouTube discussions of the McMartin case or on my website http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com The Lee Coleman Collection/home/documents/books You can read Has A Child Been Molested. I am in the process of posting more articles, some on these same topics- on such outrages as “The Courage to Heal” or “Secret Survivors.” Don’t be fooled into thinking that psychiatrists are the only ones full of BS. Tons of other “mental health professionals.”
So Sam, I hope you might ponder this? How can your love of and dedication to your wife require you to hold on to the inventions of certain “professionals” who make claims that are empty and dangerous?
My sincere best wishes to you both and to everyone
lee
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Hi Julie
No doubt about it–anything that gets into the legal arena, those of us raising questions about psychiatric pronouncement have a difficult job because the judge, members of a jury, etc. are all enthralled by the assumed expertise of all “mental health professionals.” My approach has for decades been one that keeps going back to an exposure of the lack of any scientific, reliable methodology behind the opinions being offered. I have done a lot of work training attorneys to adopt this approach when they cross-examine experts, and when I testify myself it is always to talk about what Psychiatry can’t do, never to opine on the issues Psychiatry loves to claim it can do.
I have talked about a lot of these legal issues in my YouTube channel Psychiatry and Society. Just look for the ones about Psychiatry and Law. Doesn’t matter so much whether the subject is something like Insanity Defense or determinations of whether a child has been molested, etc. You might find them helpful because they all talk about why the Courts are being contaminated by phony expertise from Psychiatry.
Thanks for getting in touch.
lee
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Dear Annette
Thank you so much for your kind words about the blog and for telling everyone your background. Your story reminds me of Laura Delano’s brilliant YouTube discussions, especially the one I referenced in the blog—“The Power of Psychiatric Diagnosis”– such insight, emotion- truly a powerful combination. So you are in good company and keep up the great work.
By the way, I have experienced myself something like your ” two mental health professionals accused me of being mentally ill.” If you check out my http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com (The Lee Coleman Collection) you can read on the home page a letter from Barbara Cay White, MD way back in 1985. I know you and others will enjoy it!
All the best
lee
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Thank you so much Rosalee. There is a growing community of persons trying to bring good information and non-medical alternatives to a wider and wider audience, as well as change the laws that permit the kinds of things you speak of. I personally welcome you to that community!
lee
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Hi Richard
re:your comment where do all these so-called symptoms (extreme human psychological distress) that gets labeled as “mental illness” originate from?” I think I did touch on your point, at least let me remind everyone of these paragraphs:
” Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, the non-medical members of the therapeutic community, psychologists, social workers, family counselors, were gaining in confidence, and gaining clinical licenses. There was only one thing to do: Psychiatry would just have to find some mental “illness,” some brain diseases, that required the MD degree.
“So, they created a new “diagnostic manual,” DSM III, one that had no genuine diagnoses, only symptom patterns. But hey, no problem. If they were listed in a “Diagnostic Manual,” what else would they be but “diagnoses”? It also followed that whatever a psychiatrist decided upon became a “treatment,” despite there being no genuine medical disorder found.
“Next, psychiatry linked up with drug-company profits, tax dollars funneled through the National Institutes of Mental Health, and easy access to mainstream media, so that by now what is believed by our people to be neuroscience (I call it “Neuro-Sales”) is assumed to have triumphed over every other way of helping mentally disturbed people.
I know all of you know all this, but I’m aiming for potential allies, not those already knowledgeable and committed. What I’m really looking for is helpers in the effort to educate the millions who have their heads and heart in the right place but just don’t yet understand….
Thank you Richard
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Hi Someone else
You write, quoting me: “The beautiful thing about psychiatry’s pronouncements is that no one can ever prove them wrong.” I beg to differ
I was apparently not very clear. I was trying to point to the absurdity of psychiatry’s announcements, which virtually by definition can of course never be proven to be wrong because they can never be proven to right. This is the difference between genuine science and psychiatry. I guess my attempt at a little irony didn’t quite work.
Thanks for the response.
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[email protected] If you’re looking for info on kids caught up in a SRA case, I would look up journalist Debbie Nathan, El Paso Texas or Mike Snedeker, attorney somewhere in Oregon.
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Hi
Yes, I was one of the experts hired by one of the defense attorneys: 7 defendants, each with their own court-appointed expert. So, I was able to study all the documents, taped interviews, medical records, everything, in preparation for testimony in the trial. Then the charges were dropped on 5 of the 7 defendants, so I didn’t testify in the criminal trial. But one of those on whom the charges were dropped sued to get her job back as a public school teacher, and sued to get her back pay. I testified in that trial on the same issues of the criminal case, that the methods used in interviewing the children were so egregiously leading and suggestive that it was absolutely essential that the judge consider whether the children’s statements were based on memory, or on learned ideas taken from the interviewers behavior. I have written all this up, and IPT published it, so you can get more details in my article. I am in the process of getting articles on this topic on the web; two are up so far on http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com (Lee Coleman Collection), go to home page, then documents, then books and essays, then two articles on sexual abuse allegations.
thanks for the inquiry
lee
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Yo, Oldhead, I don’t mean “followers” in that sense, that I lead and they follow. I don’t feel the need to try to convince you of that and I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to try. I have demonstrated it in my work, and I’m confident you will agree if you just keep check that out.
I was talking about those people who have, happily,not been victimized by the “mental health system,” but who understand that something is wrong, want to know more, and maybe even want to help. As someone trained in the profession that is doing so much harm, I have an easier time gaining credibility with the very people you want to educate as much as I do. That DOES NOT mean that I know more about the most important elements in our struggle, which are ethical and legal questions, not scientific questions.
So, I don’t see any group, not even the “survivors,” as being the leaders, but I see all of them collaborating, using their respective skills and experiences to get the message out there.
To finish for now, here are the three people who for me shine the brightest in my pantheon, on this topic– Laura Delano, a “survivor,” Bob Whitaker, a journalist, and Peter Gotzsche, a MD but not a psychiatrist.
Good chatting with you
lee
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Yes, Daniel Amen, MD, psychiatrist, said to be “the most popular psychiatrist in America,” most popular TED talk, can you imagine such a thing?
Well, if you know the fabrications that Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, psychiatrist, past president of APA, is capable of (I’m writing about him right now for MIA), imagine a situation where Lieberman is debunking Amen in Lieberman’s book “Shrinks.” “…Amen’s currently fame rests entirely on spurious practices unproven by scientific research and rejected by mainstream medicine….” Amen boasts of his “83,000 Spect scans” by which he tells parents that he has found the abnormality in the brain producing the son or daughter’s unacceptable behavior. He thrills his audiences by pointing that “Psychiatry is the only branch of medicine that is not looking ‘directly at the brain.’ ” And here is the worst part— Amen and PBS Television are snuggled up nice and warm, with the $ flowing to him and his following, in turn, bringing money to PBS. A truly ugly example of just what we are up against.
So, it’s easy to find out what Amen is all about, just google him, watch the TED talk, but not so easy to stop it, given the $ and therefore political clout behind it.
I intend to focus on Lieberman, Amen, and Thomas Insel as examples of the corruption that IS today’s psychiatry, so whatever following I can develop through critical movements, through my youtube, and any other ways you can think of, are intended to build a political movement based on EDUCATION OF THE MASSES, ordinary folks like you and me.
lee
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All is copacetic
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Hi Rachel, and thanks for connecting. Yes, I’ve been around since the early ’70s, quite active publicly until the middle 80’s, then preoccupied with a new development– child protective services, “mental health” and law enforcement responding to a real problem– sexual abuse of children- with a system that locks up innocent persons regularly while creating a new form of child abuse. (check out my discussion of McMartin pre-school case).
Love to have you and your friends check me out at youtube Psychiatry and Society, as well as website http://www.coleman.nyghtfalcon.com (Lee Coleman Collection)
Just today “The Reign of Error”: Psychiatry, Authority, & Law was posted on the website. The book is old, 1984, but sadly nowhere out of date, given the growing army of liars like Jeffrey Lieberman, Thomas Insel, Daniel Amen, etc.
again, thanks for connecting, and keep on keeping’ on….
lee
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Hi Sera and everybody
By way of agreeing with your uncompromising stance on NAMI, how could it be ethically sound or politically wise to do anything less than expose NAMI, and certainly not cozy up to them, when the VERY NAME of the organization includes the words “mentally ill.” Words have far more power than is generally recognized, and when the opponents of a powerful enemy (that’s us) accept the very words being used against people we want to support with genuine understanding and services based on understanding rather than fraudulent, so-called “diagnosis”, —when that happens we might as well say, “we have met the enemy, and it’s us.”
lee
(by way of introduction to all the good folks reading this, it is also Lee Coleman, MD, Psychiatry, but don’t hold it against me! Come visit me at YouTube Psychiatry and Society)
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