substances that alter brain chemistry — drugs, specifically psychoactive drugs — all “work,” from someone’s perspective. lots of people swear various opioids “work” because of euphoria, reduced pain, reduced anxiety and agitation. Others say those are “bad drugs” because they are “addictive” and/or “dangerous.” Powerful people have decided that those “bad drugs” don’t “work” in ways they find appropriate (or profitable, etc. etc. etc.).
Szasz writes (somewhere…) about an early test of Thorazine. Because Thorazine was first used in pre-operative sedation mixes (a use that continues, apparently), extensive trials were undertaken to find the dosages that would really “work.” Question is: “work” for whom? In one early test, a drug user was injected with Thorazine. He was then asked what he thought of it, and he said something to the effect that “that junk will never sell!,” and in a very real sense he was (and is) correct. Thorazine and most other “antipsychotic” drugs have minimal street value, and I don’t think any are controlled substances. And yet…
Thorazine was a blockbuster! Several of the -zines that followed did quite well, both on their own and in combo with other drugs (sedatives, uppers, antidepressants). Even in the 21st century, various “atypical” neuroleptics have generated billion$ for their patent holders. These drugs do “work!” Right? Yeah…
Those drugs don’t “correct chemical imbalances” anymore than “antidepressants” do, and they tend to have more severe adverse effects. Psychiatrists knew from -day 1- that the neuroleptics could lead to serious brain damage. TD cases started showing up in the literature in the late 50s. Some psychiatrists spoke of a “tranquilizer psychosis,” a condition caused -by- the neuroleptics marked by apathy, indifference, tremor, varying degrees of sedation and emotional blunting…
and the “tranquilizer psychosis” is -how- the drugs “work.”
So…the “chemical imbalance” fraud/lie is maybe, perhaps (?) losing traction. So, what? States all over the US have passed legislation giving shrinks the right to pump drugs into people even if (often -especially- if…) the people involved would rather -not- have the drugs (or…those drugs, at least).
My take on it? The “chemical imbalance” lie was just a means to an end. We’ve gone from those animated SSRI commercials of the 00s, with soothing voices assuring us that this new drug “works” by “correcting imbalances…”
to just telling people that such and such is “medication for (dsm-code HERE),” and sometimes not even that, just “it helps.”
I don’t think most doctors ever really “believed” in the “chemical imbalance” theory. For a time, it made sense…they could pretend that the person/”patient” was “correcting imbalances,” and that psychiatry was a valid branch of medicine…
-shrug- now? drugs.into.people! that’s all “treatment” for poor people ever involved, anyway, and it’s increasingly the treatment most people — from all strata — get, even when they want to talk about life and such. none of that! 🙁
blah. Another concept from Szasz I find relevant today, right now: Pharmacracy. People/”patients” get the pills they/we “deserve,” based on any number of variables. Haldol and cogentin for the low castes, all the way up to “the good stuff” for the affluent classes.
“severe mental illness” means…
at best, an object of “cruel compassion” (Szasz). “oh, he’s -schizophrenic- ” or perhaps “too bad; she’s got -severe bipolar- …” on and on. the faux compassion only makes the cruelty worse…colder, more merciless.
I don’t know the people who work in the psych guilds, but I do think that diagnosis is a political decision is a concept worth revisiting. To say: “this individual is a sick person with “Schizophrenia” and needs treatment…” vs “this pathetic weakling needs to get over it, toughen up…personality disorder if I’ve ever seen it!” and every dsm-label in between speaks volumes to the dynamics of the situation, the people in power and their objectives, and the larger social backdrop. and so…
I do think some in the psych guilds are well-intentioned or at least…start out that way. I knew one who seemed to be sticking with it just because he had to bring home the bacon, somehow, and…with a family and a graduate degree in psych stuff, what else was he to do? At some point, he came to his senses and realized: the problem wasn’t a couple of bad apples here and there. it was the guild, itself. but…what to -do- about it?
using stigma, combined with coercion+force+confinement, is a core function of the psych guilds, especially psychiatry. deliberate? Especially with the “experienced professionals,” I’d argue yes. Definitely with those who have a PhD or MD/DO…the higher ups, high priests and priestesses. And…
I will say that the “real doctors” in the medical establishment now strike me as…generally similar to psychiatrists. For the longest time, I wanted to believe — perhaps I made myself believe? — that “real” doctors were a different breed. I don’t think so, now. Plus, in the US at least, lots and lots of “real doctors” engage in acts of psychiatry on a regular basis. The expert-level witch doctors get called in when it suits the referring physicians’ purposes, in many cases.
ugh. Back to Szasz…
Psychiatry is The art of -Lies- . Calling the lowest caste of psychiatrized individuals “severely mentally ill” is a rather clever way of sterilizing and sugar coating “Schizophrenia,” which is psychiatry’s sacred symbol, the ultimate justification for it’s ongoing existence and state-sanctioned powers (again; Szasz). Truth? about that…
its all lies. why define “severe mental illness” when “Schizophrenia” was and is only vaguely described, and then in ways that magically contracted or expanded, depending on the guild’s aims?
I think “radically enlightened” would probably include Szasz. And yet…Szasz waited until after getting tenure to debunk psychiatry, so I suppose he was only “radically enlightened” after damaging scores of people/patients and their families, communities…
and then he embarked on a career as a “radical,” while maintaining a private practice and teaching up and coming psychiatrists. ugh. reality, bites.
I think…especially for those of us here at MIA…”radically enlightened” would mean trying to find a way out and doing whatever possible to stay out of mental health, inc. The road out will probably vary considerably, from person to person; my own observation — and this has been pointed out by others, too — is that many current “recovered” people/”patients” are essentially post-psychiatry in terms of self-identification and such, but…
again: reality, bites. Especially now that “mental illness” is declared to be a never ending struggle and such (this vs the “nervous breakdown” mentality of the 50s), escaping the labels and social damage caused by psychiatry and friends seems — to me, someone too young to have actually experienced the witch doctoring of yesteryear — more difficult, not less difficult.
so…yeah. interesting concept. I think the idea of being “radically enlightened” is probably more appealing to the younger set and also to those who have not been so thoroughly psychiatrized that a more practical, “ok, now what?” – approach is probably…if not more appealing, then at least more realistic.
Having said that, I do hope that those who have never been directly affected by the system and/or have only had minimal, less damaging experiences will become “radically enlightened.” 🙂
at a personal level, I benefit from Orthomolecular psychiatry. Orthomolecular psychiatry seems to have helped mitigate, possible un-do, damage done to me by standard issue (read: chemical warfare on “patient” and “illness”) psychiatry. Would I need the mega-dose vitamins if I hadn’t existed as a psychiatric casualty for years? I kind of doubt it. And yet…I do rather enjoy my vitamins’ side -benefits-, so…there’s that.
at a larger, macro-level…what is needed is -not- yet another “new, exciting” approach to “(severe) mental illness,” but rather a less toxic, more viable approach to life and society and the economy. dare I say…socialism with a side dish of utilitarianism? at the very least…an end to the -especially- draconian and merciless neoliberalism of today’s USA. To me, it seems that things have gone from “trickle down economics” to “stomp ’em down economics,” and the growing numbers of “mentally ill” on disability, in jails and prisons, on the streets, and the suicides and other “deaths of despair” demand change…but who will listen?
and to return to the personal end of things…I think of my own vitamin popping, Bible thumping approach as a sort of…meaningful life, -after- psychiatry, despite the labels. Other have their own “formulas” for making a live-able life, post-psychiatrization. 🙂
Szasz writes extensively on psychiatry as a (rather dangerous) religion. I -would- say “cult,” but cults tend to have tension with the state and also surrounding communities. Psychiatry is a tool of the state and seems to be perfectly at ease within most communities in the 21st century.
Szasz also writes extensively about “Schizophrenia” as psychiatry’s “sacred symbol.” Without “Schizophrenia,” psychiatry would probably not be able to justify it’s ongoing existence.
I do find it absolutely horrifying that so many mainstream religions embrace psychiatry. And those that don’t often choose instead to punish the distressed (and, admittedly, often distressing) individual, rather than take a look at the “bigger picture” and try to make life better for the distressed and those around them. The religious approaches seem to be: “take your meds, see you in church next Sunday!” or “you’re a sinful weakling and those pills are sinful, too. shape up or ship out.”
Shootings — especially in the US, where they have happened and continue to happen with alarming regularity and what seems to be (?) increasing frequency, since COVID — are social problems, not “personal (“mental health”) issues.”
Part of the problem is the neoliberalism-on-‘roids that has taken over the US, at all strata and also has permeated all professions, especially the psych-guilds (because — per Szasz — the psych guilds follow power, and the powers that be are deep into reductionism and the never ending inward gaze of psychobabble). I seem to recall reading some material here on MIA that indicates a noticeable shift since Reagan in the US and Thatcher in the UK, with self-help and the professional psych guilds all turning more towards individualistic, sometimes bio-reductionist, explanations of stress, distress, and madness.
so, no; I do not think that “mental health awareness” and “more treatment!” will put a damper on the killing sprees. Now, it seems that many (most? all?) community mental health clinics in the US have some sort of “crisis mobilization unit,” which as best I can tell involves loading counselors up and sending them out to…
talk? -shrug- Its 21st century America. Compassion, a real listener…these are now commodities, another set of goods and services. My “problem” with this is that the psych guild’s “help” is a deceptive trap, one that ensnares troubled (and/or troubling) individuals, their families, communities…
and, really and truly, society -as a whole- . This is especially problematic in societies that have a democratic ideal and/or a concept of legal rights and responsibilities for their citizens. Again: Szasz, rehashing in the AM because I’m caffeinated and…why not?
I do not think “mental health” will reduce school shooting or do much to address any social problems. I do not think “mental health” is designed to improve society or deal with social problems. At best — where I live, anyway — every once in a while some poor, distressed person gets “pushed over the edge,” the case gets handled as psych case (“treatment”), and the papers run the story with the implication: see, justice and compassion (the “cruel compassion” Szasz writes about, undoubtedly) can and do coexist. The system works.
Other than that…the US is so gun-saturated that I don’t see how gun control laws would have that much of an effect now, anyway. Not that such laws are -doomed- , just…wow, way to wait till it is 15 minutes past “too late.” Perhaps focusing on inequality and finding ways to offer higher quality K-12 public schools, make upward mobility a reality and not a faded recollection of an increasingly distant “back then…”
maybe? Perhaps? At most, I would think a stepped up “mental health” policy would eventually have to include giving some of the perpetrators of various crimes — including intense acts of violence — some sort of “treatment,” not the standard off to prison run. Not because “treatment” is effective in the long run or even humane, just…
At best, I think perhaps an occasional case of a sad, desperate, angry, broken human being given the mercy of insanity (Szasz) could perhaps soften up the rest of us? not to “mental illness” so much as the harsh realities of life in the 21st century, and the understanding that people can and do “snap.” something like that, anyway. 🙂
good points, rebel.
I’m doing a DIY Orthomolecular protocol, so the lithium reference sort of…affirms what Hoffer and other OM “experts” have written, for decades and decades. Except…OM tends to be remarkably non-toxic, so..there’s that. I think some “alternative” practitioners recommend very, very, very low doses of some forms of lithium for distressed people, now and then. Never had much interest because of my lithium=destruction of kidney function association, based on what I’ve observed in others.
very helpful. thank you.
so..at best, psychiatry is offering dozens of palliatives? and…the only substance psychiatry offers that has data proving a genuine benefit on the afflicted (possibly the affliction, too?) is lithium? -lithium- ?
oh man. that’s…well, its sort of what I’d gleaned from my own misadventures and reading, but…wow. that’s billions upon billions of dollars, from tax payers and “patients” and families and insurance companies…
for what, really? not to mention the untold agony of lives destroyed by the labels and the “treatments” and the confinements and…
what is the point, again?
on the plus side…the relative success (compared to everything else, it seems) of lithium makes me wonder if there is more substance to Orthomolecular treatment of various ailments than I had originally thought. Time to restock the C and B3 and read some more Hoffer and Pauling. 🙂
thanks again.
yes! the talking section of the guild is often -worse- than the witchdoctors at pushing “treatment for ‘imbalances, ‘ ” etc. I think…its supposed to be some sort of “no-fault” approach to “treatment…”
its an “imbalance,” because apparently the person/patient’s brain just broke one day, which the “miracle meds” can correct (hooray!), not a result of personal failings, social problems, economic issues, personal history, abuse and/or mistreatment, or…you know, life hitting an individual, in any number of different ways. no, no…not that, not that -at all- . definitely an “imbalance.” definitely.
thing is…without going deep into “bitter ex-patient” territory, here…the talking ones are often just as prone to fraud and deliberate destruction as the pill and shock docs, and they also seem to be more threatened by people with resources or access to resources, any sort of education or intellectual ability, on and on. Personal experience: counselors, in particular, seem to be taking over the talking section in droves. I guess its sort of like the equivalent of using highly trained nurses instead of doctors? sufficient credentials, lower costs…something like that, anyway.
problem? especially in the psych guild, which in the US is (of course…and yes, this is Szasz material, yet again) a pseudoscientific, religious control system operating to maintain the current neoliberal capitalist system…
the “professionals” who are, themselves, on the very edge of the middle-middle class and profiteering and defrauding the vulnerable…
have — in my own, limited experience — proven even more dangerous than some of the higher status professionals. Some critiques of the industry I’ve skimmed over point that the mass produced master’s level counselors a) are not given the “correct training” or…something and b) that the training programs, themselves, leave much to be desired. I suppose that if I thought that any of the psych guild could be reformed and possibly made “helpful,” I might (?) buy into that line of thought, but…
as society continues to modernize and such, people are required to obtain more and more credentials. Seems to be more pronounced in some nations, some economies than in others. Some European nations, for instance, wisely track their students into skilled vocational training (which I would assume involves obtaining credentials, too…) rather than telling people to go to college and get a 4 year degree and live the (dying, largely fictional from the beginning…) American Dream, etc. Point there is…there’s lots of people, in lots of fields, who have mass produced degrees that they obtain without developing much in the way of critical thinking or analytical skills, writing skills, etc., because…
that’s what is bound to happen when the economy demands more and more credentials, and when society places more value on a masters level counselor than a well trained HVAC technician who probably makes more per year (and actually benefits the common good!). 🙂
but…yeah…worse troubles with counselors than psychologists or nurse practitioners. psychiatrists…hellish, but that’s to be expected.
The “imbalance theory” was, at best, a fun lie masquerading as a necessary over-simplification. Dig a little deeper, and…
lies, lies, lies. fraud, fraud, fraud. The deception is deliberate, the destruction is expected. Welcome to Mental Health, Inc. 🙁
what is the title of Szasz’s final book…Psychiatry: the science of lies, or…something like that, anyway. and so…
yeah. lies. lying liars turned their craft into a -science-, complete with MD/DO degrees and real pills for fake diseases.
and, now? now and then, out of…I suppose curiosity mixed with a touch of boredom…I check out the mainstream, health information sites to see what these sites have about the various psych drugs. and…
even now, I see “correct…imbalances…natural brain chemicals…” sort of psych-lies pop up. and…then one has the more honest sites (not that it matters much, but I think WebMD is still bigger with the debunked lies, other sites have taken a more honest, less sugar coated approach…) will have a more correct take on it, for instance emphasizing the “tranquilizing effect” of “antipsychotics” (not -quite- to the point at which these pills are referred to correctly, as neuroleptics or major tranquilizers…but OK…), which is a a result of blocking dopamine and often serotonin, blah blah blah.
the truly sad, honestly…to me, frightening…lingering result of the lies about “imbalances” and the magical meds that “correct” them? now, the pills are so ubiquitous, the lies so obvious, the options so generally non-existent…
“ugh, take your medicine.” odd, add, adhd, sad…mix n match from the alphabet soup of lies and lingo…
take your pills, asap. 🙁
Quality post, Miranda Spencer. 🙂
I agree. And I think…as usual…that I hear Szasz (or at least a good enough paraphrase) in my ear: the industry/guild is -not- a valid branch of medicine. This is social control. If the state did not need (and want!) the psych guild, other “professionals” would not be attempting regulatory acrobatics to make psychiatry “fit” into a medical profession that is increasingly expected to perform to some rather basic standards to justify ongoing government funding through Medicare, etc.
If Medicare-funded primary care doctors performed as poorly as psychiatrists, my semi-educated guess is that at least some “heads would roll,” and some attempts at “shaping up,” or at least…giving the appearance of providing adequate care…would be fairly automatic. I’m picturing committees, perhaps some (over)hyped new regulations, on and on. actual…change? -shrug- no idea. but I do think some professionals would at least attempt -the appearance- of “accountability” (” ” because…buzz word…) and such. and then…
psychiatry. Following Szasz…what is it anyone expects, anyway? drugs into people. labels onto people. people into some sort of confinement, and social invisibility and medicalized slavery. done, done, done. I think the -big- reason other “experts” are doing their very, very best to accommodate (obviously, fraudulent, dangerous, sub-standard, often lethal) “psychiatric care” on the government coffers is because…
they -are- doing their jobs. And that’s what scares the living hell out of me, personally. 🙁
thank you, Krista Hartmann. 🙂
I’m fairly certain all doctors who play their hand at acts of psychiatry know what they’re doing, just as Krista Hartmann pointed out.
Notice: the “antidepressants” are “safe, effective treatment” for “depression…” and also “help” with: “ODD,” “anger management,” vexing “patients” labeled with some flavor “personality disorder…”
on and on and on. Its hard to argue that MD/DO providers (and the vast majority of the underlings, too) are unaware of all this when they openly talk about giving people antidepressants for “head pressure” and something like 2/3 of antidepressant prescriptions from the general practitioner/family doctor realms are handed out -without even bothering to establish a dsm-label- to justify ongoing treatment.
Szasz writes of a Pharmacracy, in which we the “patients” get the pills “we deserve.” The pills one “deserves” depends upon a number of variables that themselves change based on location, the providers’ demographics, on and on….but…
it -does- appear that the lower status one is, the more noxious and downright poisonous the “treatment” becomes. And that’s just the pills. That doesn’t include the non-stop lies and labels from the talking sections of the guild, the periodic confinement in “hospitals” and then often in jails, even prison (Szasz–yes, again– writes of prisons as the place to best truly see what psychiatry is really all about…), and…
rambling, sorry. The mental health industry is itself so damaging and wicked that it should simply be abolished. “Antipsychotics” — the best selling “medications” that are so toxic and unpleasant that the industry is now putting them in LAI (long acting injections), just like the old Haldol and Prolixin drug-induced Parkinsonism depot shots — are not even “antipsychotics,” as many articles on MIA and various posters here have pointed out, already. They are neuroleptics, tranquilizers with such unpleasant effects on mood, outlook, and behavior that they are routinely used as -punishment- by all those “experts” who engage in acts of psychiatry, both “voluntary” (really? is there such a thing?) and (truly, openly, obviously) “involuntary.”
the whole thing is truly ridiculous and infuriating. Today’s “mental health treatment” — drugs into people, talk is optional — is the sort of “treatment” that poor and/or low(er) status people/”patients” have -always- received. My growing, personal concern — and I’ve heard this from other people, at different strata of society — is that the label-drug-out the door approach to “mental health…”
is also the standard approach to -most- healthcare in these united states. and Pharmacracy is bad enough dealing with real pills for fake diseases…
what is happening when the “pills one deserves” means that only “good patients” can get quality, truly helpful, healthcare for -valid- health conditions? -shudder-
Both the pill (and shock…and tms…and occasionally, operations…) pushing branch of “mental health” and the “talking” sections (counselors, psychologists) seem to be focused on sort of “care” that Szasz terms “cruel compassion.”
One needs the pills because of the labels the “experts” have decided upon. The lower one’s status, the more “severe” the label/”diagnosis,” the more damaging the pills, especially over the long haul. That is not only acceptable to the “experts.” it is…
to be accepted by the psychiatrized, too, as part of his/her slow-motion march towards destruction, destitution, and (based on data…) early death. Clozapine, for instance, is ridiculously toxic, but even now is heralded as something of a modern day “miracle med.” Clozapine patients are lauded for “adhering to treatment,” with the implication that these suffering souls endure all sorts of toxic ill effects to control their “severe illness,” blah blah blah. This is an extreme example of telling the (often, understandably miserable) “depressed” patient to “wait it out” on the latest wave of “antidepressants.” Apparently, “treatment is effective…,” but also often (quite) unpleasant. Beating back the evil monster of “depression” is worth the often dangerous adverse effects, especially in the first 1-4+/- weeks, because…”they” say so. 🙁
but yeah, shutting up the “sick” and dehumanizing and often destroying the “sick” is what (often never ending) “treatment” is all about, even with the branches of the industry that claim to focus on psychotherapy, counseling, all that.
Honestly, I think the talking parts of the guild are sometimes -more dangerous- , because their labels are then used by the psychiatrists, psych hospitals to create a never ending cycle of labels, stigma, fraud, and destruction. And then…
-social class- many of the counselors and psychologists I’ve encountered seem to be in somewhat less than secure positions. The counselors are often at the fringes of what’s left of the respectable middle-class, and that seems to be a -huge- problem, at times. Psychologists tend to have more advanced degrees, more resources…
which often makes them even more dangerous (upper class, not as solidly upper class as psychiatrists), as their toxic labels and pseudoscientific “wisdom” is regarded as especially “insightful,” etc. blah. 🙁
psychiatrists…tend to view little things, such as “democracy,” “human rights,” and “quality of life” as rather….inconvenient. 🙁
I really don’t understand it, at all. Most shrinks do med checks, now. What’s the incentive to push people to pop major tranquilizers, especially since now many of the “atypicals” are generic or not far from going off patent? hmmm…
worth noting that -most- psych drugs dampen emotions, reduce cognitive abilities, and overall…impair the aspects of our being that we need the most when suffering. the neuroleptics are on the extreme end.
maybe its because to be psychiatrized is to no longer matter (socially), if one ever mattered, at all? label-drug-done. I think the social function of the psych guild is more about the labeling and invalidating. the drugs, talk, what have you…not the real “point” of society permitting psychiatry free reign, from my perspective.
ugh. “informed consent” hard enough with those practicing in valid branches of medicine. psychiatry? pshaw. 🙁
orthomolecular seems to have resolved my TD. Permanently? -prayers going up- My DIY vitamin cocktail focused on mega-doses of the usual suspects (B3, vitamin C, E, b-complex several times daily, selenium, zinc, beta carotene), plus additional natural antioxidants that I’d add, drop, adjust the dosages periodically, as needed (astaxanthin, green tea extract, grape seed extract, alpha lipoic acid, on and on and on…). and now…
“Are you -still- taking the vitamins?!!” funny, how such a profoundly helpful “alternative” treatment is regarded as…”crazy…” now that I’m tic-free and lucid. whaaaa???
I hope (wish?) that, somehow, the growing number of psychiatric casalties will lead to less psychiatry, or at least a less lethal psychiatry. and…
-sigh- the signs of such change seem to be popping up…in lots of places -except- for the USA. I think its…more because of an incredibly sick culture, a culture that has become so sick that the institutions are fueling more sickness, not maintaining any sort of stability. Also worth noting…
even “liberals” (“what does that -mean- ?) in the US seem to think that a return to the older versions of the state hospital system is somehow…”humane,” possibly even “progressive.” ugh. sick culture…not everyone, all over, just…
far, far too many of us. Maybe its the (possibly intended?) result of Reagan-omics? -eek-
this…honestly, is somewhat painful for me.
Reading things like this…from well-intentioned psychiatrists…makes me realize: the system really is the problem. That is -not- to excuse the many, many sinister individuals I have encountered (and I imagine many, many others have, too) over the years. However…
this sort of material humanizes “the other side” of the guild vs psychiatrized divide.
I cannot imagine why someone would complete an MD or DO, and then go into psychiatry. I’ll write that here, because…its true. Honestly. Other specialties seem to provide decent care without the non-stop destruction that the mental health industry unleashes, all over the world. And yet…
-some- people in the mental health industry are well-intentioned. Sometimes, I think others start out well-intentioned, young-ish and perhaps idealistic or…something…
and then…the system gets them, too. That’s the best, most compassionate explanation my survivor mind has been able to come up with. And then, what? masters degree, phd…in the talking section…DO/MD plus residency for the shrinks…
money and time and years and years and…what to do? where to go? Can’t escape the industry, try to revamp it? speak out against the worst crimes, sometimes? of course…
again, speaking as a survivor…I do my best to extend compassion to the human beings who are in a position to label, drug, shock, and destroy human beings and families…
the system is -far- worse for the labeled, for the drugged, for those who survive only to find a world turned ever more hostile towards them/us…
-because- of the mental health industry. so, there’s that.
Perhaps going into family medicine would be a good option? Honestly, I think just about any and every specialty -except- for psychiatry contributes to the common good.
a licensed doctor who has her own understanding of the current medical literature is told to undergo a psych evaluation because she applies her understanding to prescribe some (legal) prescription medications “off label,” which is a legal practice in the US. what does this mean, really? well, let’s ask Captain Obvious…
the issue at hand is controlling behavior. her behavior is -not- criminal, and it seems no one has even pursued a lawsuit or anything. This (apparently, brilliant) doctor’s behavior is unwanted and/or unacceptable to those with more power than her, to those with authority over her…
bring in the shrinks. going back to Szasz (who else is there to turn to, in cases such as this?), one is reminded: psychiatry is an -antidemocratic- form of social control. “Medicalization of deviance,” etc.
ugh. and so it goes… 🙁
shock “treatment” is just…deliberately inflicted brain damage masquerading as “medical treatment.” Problem? the same is true of psychiatric “treatment,” in general (Szasz, of course).
I do find it rather…horrifying, honestly…to see the shrinks’ reactions to anyone daring to question any aspect of their profession. As a former “patient,” I remember seeing a shrink’s face turn bright, bright red…then he started muttering, under his breath, wrote an Rx in record speed, had me out the door…because I brought up an incident in which I had a seizure from rapid benzodiazepine discontinuation. that’s…established in the medical literature basically from day 1, with Librium. But OK. OK.
Even other professionals within the guild face all kinds of hell on earth for daring to dissent. If I recall correctly, Szasz didn’t become the outspoken, brilliant critic of psychiatry until he had secured tenure. Bills to pay, same as everybody else.
I am thankful that the shock guidelines in the UK are facing scrutiny, thankful for the conflict and controversy. and yet…
“where the rubber hits the road…,” something tells me that nothing short of the abolition of psychiatry — both involuntary (again, Szasz) and what passes for “voluntary” — will bring about true, lasting “progress” for humanity. 🙂
good information, thank you 🙂 .
my own experience has been that social class is a -huge- issue in all aspects of the mental health industry. in the talking section, one has to be “good enough” for talking treatments. “Good enough” is based on a number of predictable variables (social class, education level, age, gender, race, sexual orientation), but also on some factors that I think are harder to discern in large studies, such as…
level of vulnerability. an affluent individual who wants some sort of talking treatment, has resources and good insurance is far less vulnerable than an affluent individual with a history of…drug use, hospitalizations, labels, any criminal/legal entanglements, facing divorce, that sort of thing. basically…
my personal, limited experience has been that the talking experts will rip vulnerable people to shreds, given the chance. labels, gaslighting, over-billing, fraud, referrals to prescribers..
and the ones they cannot rip to shreds are often simply coddled and over-billed. 🙂
ugh. Psychiatrists are bad enough, all by themselves. Add in the work a day “real” (?) doctors who commit acts of psychiatry, usually with no repercussions, and…
ugh. done. stick a fork in me, done. I -am- thankful that the “antidepressants,” in particular, are being targeted for serious review and debunking. On the one hand, one can argue (as I do) that the various neuroleptics — “atypical,” doesn’t matter — are more damaging. This is true. But…
the 31 flavors of “antidepressants” are doled out, left and right, to all sorts of people for any and every “problem” imaginable. one problem I have, now? looking back…the family doctors, in particular, know what the “antidepressants” are all about. they’re also the worst offenders on pushing them on vulnerable and/or low status people (read: “weaklings”) and if things don’t pan out…
refer to some noxious “mental health professional” who gives them kick backs and regular updates on the destruction of the “patient.” ugh.
also worth noting: the “antidepressants” are often step 1 to the total and complete destruction of individuals and families. 16-20 years old, some flavor “antidepressant.” labels, additional pills, labels, incapacitation…
5-10 years later, the individual — if alive — may very well be an impoverished psychiatric casualty. thanks, doc. 🙁
as a survivor/”trouble maker” (the shrinks’ term, not mine…), I have seen and heard how very well aware the psychiatrists and lower level members of the psych guild are of “social determinants” of distress and such…
and I’ve seen and heard, first hand, how -very- little they…care. at all. at the time, young as I was, I found it…horrifying, I suppose? I had this sickening sense that I’d been conned in with smiling faces and repeat prescriptions for mother’s little helpers and uppers…
only to be laughed at and ridiculed by the “helping professions” after they had ripped me to shreds. and now…
I find that there is no worldly escape from 21st century psychiatry, in my situation. my life is meaningful and good, but that’s all despite the mental health industry, not because of their cynical death trap con game. what’s left, in my situation, seems to be an oddly similar…corresponding?…version of the med check money hungry shrink’s story the author quoted in parts of this (well-written, excellent) article…
play the game. my situation is somewhat unique, at least…for the psychiatrized/”mental patients” in my area, at this time. so, I engage in DSM theater on a “voluntary outpatient” basis, as infrequently as I can. for a time, I felt…despite my previous experiences, despite my everything…”bad” or…something. I chose to ignore the “bad/non-compliant” junk and…move forward. and now…
I do think “non-compliance” is often the best “treatment” for the psychiatrized. In many respects, I think it can also be the most…genuinely saddening, truly disillusioning. None of the guild who wield the prescription pad genuinely “care,” and even the cursory smiles and light weight conversation at med checks can become…worrisome, because of my understanding of who these “professionals” really are, what they do, what they have done to other “patients,” what they would likely do to me, given the chance. nothing personal, etc.
excellent article, as always. on a personal note, as I pray and reflect upon the possibility of a true, genuine exit, and mull my options over doing my best in life, right now…
I find Dr.Hickey’s materials especially helpful.
i found that very high dose supplementation (in my case, modified, DIY Orthomolecular) helped facilitate my path to freedom, with a surprising side benefit of improved overall physical health. others prefer herbs, amino acids, on and on and on…
just a random suggestion. i enjoy your writing. 🙂
jumping in too late to say anything brilliant and/or unique, but…
Psychiatry is evil. I think because I am a Christian, I feel more comfortable saying that now than I did in years pre-faith. Not that others cannot say it and mean it, not that people in other belief systems cannot call psychiatry evil with the same level of clarity and such, just…
yeah. for me, church-free Christianity has freed my mind to see the evil in all things mental health-related. pop psychology, self help, personality tests, counseling, “Biblical” counseling, psychotherapy, and of course…
Psychiatry. ugh. I find it difficult to understand how a sociologist could, somehow, view over 3 decades of rampant, socially- and legally-enforced wholesale destruction as a “failure.” Clearly, if psychiatry has been on a nationwide killing spree for 3 decades, this is not a “failure,” it is — as other posters have rightly pointed out, already — quite the success story. ugh.
Reagan was called by some a “friendly fascist,” something similar…and they were -not- wrong. My best guess (keep in mind; I’m only 2 cups of coffee in, lol) is that the “trickle down,” no such thing as “society,” up by your boot straps! – mentality did not radically change psychiatry, so much as it took off the softer, more seemingly humane fuzzy edges that had been put in place in decades past, back when the psychiatric guild thought it best to pretend to care about the common good and individuals caught in their clutches. and then…
Psychiatry was already evil. Psychiatry has been evil since day -1- . Psychiatry cannot be “reformed” because it is -evil- . I once thought that the talking people in the mental health industry were not evil, possibly even occasionally good, mostly just useless. No…no, no, no. The whole industry is -evil- , and psychiatry is so unbelievably, nauseatingly -evil- that the latest epidemic of mental health is probably going to end -very badly- , not just for the US, but for the whole, wide world. Starts out with the psych guilds gaining popularity as a band aid for faltering, sometimes failing societies…
predictably, the psych guilds will then use their power to damage the individuals, families, communities, and whole societies they claim to “help.” ugh. 🙁
I think…honestly, my -own personal- approach has been to do my best to build a life as a human being who happens to be burdened by a serious psych label. ever read Stigma, by Goffman? brilliant stuff, really. in all likelihood, my labels and lies, etc. will outlive me. I choose not to engage the “mad” vs “severely mentally ill,” etc. so much as…
do what I can, with the resources I have at my disposal, despite the labels. Each individual is different, to some extent. In my own situation — and I also think my outlook as a fairly traditional (but not “conservative”) Christian plays a strong role in this — I choose to see the psych labels/lies as more lies from a fallen world that is filled with lying liars, anyway.
on a day to day basis, I guess I can say…I see the social and legal fiction of “mental illness” at play around me, every day. And yet…
In large part because of my faith, I do believe in absolute truth. To that end, I do not and cannot “believe” in psychiatry anymore than I can believe in any other false religion. 🙂
the more modern Orthomolecular practitioners use the old school OM cocktails…now, to first minimize exposure to neuroleptics and then to ease discontinuation.
thank you so much. 🙂
this ties in nicely with Szasz’s characterization of psychiatry (maybe the talking parts of the mental health guild, too?) as a religion. Not only is psychiatry a religion, in Szasz’s view, it is a “false religion” that both competes with and undermines real religions (I’m thinking those would be the ones that actually contribute to the common good for the masses). and so…
I do think limiting the scope of the “debunking” to psychiatry and friends’ roles in -capitalist- (especially neoliberal) economies very much…misses the point, as another poster has already explained. The USSR had notorious “psycho-prisons” for dissidents labeled with whatever flavor of “schizophrenia” (I seem to recall reading that “sluggish schizophrenia” was a USSR specialty, but I could be mistaken) and then confined and drugged. China currently uses their psychiatric establishment to further oppress minority groups, when the powers that be feel so inclined. Cuba’s health system has an extensive mental health component, as well.
Psychiatry is all about slavery and social control. The religious aspects are secondary, but significant, nonetheless. The pills-a-go go approach to “mental health” that is apparently the norm all over the world in the 21st century drives up costs, risks, and results in death from all sorts of causes on a regular basis. My hope is that at the -obvious- damage that “mental health treatment” causes individuals, families, and entire societies will one day lead to the abolition of psychiatry. to paraphrase Szasz, once again: psychiatry cannot be reformed. It must be abolished. 🙂
hey, oldhead. how’s it going?
I think neoliberalism most obviously began under Reagan (and Thatcher, of course), but I seem to recall reading that some baby steps in the neoliberal direction began under Ford and Carter. I could be wrong, clearly…I’m not an historian or anything.
thanks so much for this…a quality mix of direct quotes and some thoughtful analysis. much appreciated.
and yet…not to play the part of Debbie Downer and/or Bummer Bob, but…I do hope and think that these changes may very well be implemented all over, in places…that are -not- the United States. 🙁
I don’t know what the “deal” with US psychiatry is, honestly. I’m not one to complain lots about “US culture,” per se, its just…wow. wow. FDA says “please put a warning label on ‘antidepressants’ about a possible suicide risk,” and organized US psychiatry says “you’re killing them! you’re killing the children!”
that’s just -1- example. maybe its the neoliberalism that’s taken over since the 70s or so…and is now threating to turn fascist? sick societies=sick people, and neoliberalism has definitely sickened US culture, at all strata. Plus…now that the only people who really “matter” are those in the top 20% or so…why even bother pretending to be the least bit compassionate? -nobody cares-
and yet…”keep hope alive,” etc. 🙂
i don’t see how pursuing a career in the mental health industry as a psychiatric survivor could be beneficial. I suppose having a salaried position with job stability is the only real perk I can think of…admittedly, that’s a huge one. Other than that…
the industry itself is dedicated to enslaving anyone they can. to top it off, the entire industry — from the prominent psychiatrists who write books and offer their lies/”expert opinions” on TV on down to the counselors barely scraping by working in public/community mental health clinics — is based in fraud, deception, control, and violence. and yet…
one can see the appeal of wanting to change/reform a system, I suppose. Obviously, it does not help that the stigma of psych labels and “treatment” are difficult to escape, and I think the level of difficulty is actually greater, now, than it was in decades past. Neoliberalism, maybe?
To paraphrase Szasz, once again: the mental health industry cannot be reformed. It must be abolished. 🙂
thanks for this and all your other work. seriously. I live in the US, where direc to consumer drug ads have been legal for a while (maybe 20 years, now?), and the (highly profitable) pill for every ill outlook is more or less inescapable. Your work is…not to be cliche or anything, but…truly, a breath of fresh air (and much needed honesty, of course).
I just wanted to jump in and say that psych drug discontinuation is a tricky business, indeed. What strikes me, having somehow survived it in years past, is the cruelty of psychiatrists. I don’t doubt that family doctors make mistakes, but with the psychiatrists, it is truly cruel, sometimes to the point of true sadism. rapid tapers of high potency benzodiazepines, for instance. My own opinion is that this is not any sort of ignorance on the psychiatrist’s part, it is, rather, yet another example of deliberately inflicted pain and harm by pseudo-doctors.
as a side note: I have personally found high dose supplementation (inspired by old school Orthomolecular) quite helpful in facilitating psych drug discontinuation. In the older literature, one reads about MDs prescribing (often surprisingly low, given the era) doses of neuroleptics alongside vitamin therapy. The more modern literature I have come across is surprisingly honest in their assessment of neuroleptics (in particular) as damaging and the potential for careful supplementation to save people/’patients’ from an early grave, ongoing disability, etc.
Thanks, yet again. 🙂
the mental health industry is destructive and deadly, on both individual and social levels. to that end, I personally do not care to talk to a “professional,” nor do I care to take their neurotoxins. Having survived “treatment,” by the grace of God, my personal approach is to avoid mental health, inc. and also encourage others to do the same. and then…
as many other posters have pointed out, suicide is a social problem, not a psychological or psychiatric one. This has been evident since the 19th century, when Durkheim did a (now classic) study on suicide. and yet…
perhaps -not- surprisingly, mental health, inc. demands more and more funding to “treat” more and more individuals suffering from the fall out of social and economic problems…
and instead of dealing with the core problems — the woes of neoliberalism, social disintegration, the collapse of many families and communities, on and on and on — the powers that be are all too happy to jump on the “mental health awareness” bandwagon. and why shouldn’t they be?
providing daily bread, adequate housing, health care, legal rights, and fostering the (re)development of community are all potentially do-able…
but not under the current neoliberal nightmare, not even under a patched up neoliberal system. some data has indicated that the level of inequality and stratification in the US, in particular, is damaging to people all over the socioeconomic spectrum. how could it not be? perhaps, one day this society — and others, too — will see real, meaningful change towards a society that is more humane, less sick and sickening. in the meantime…
mental health, inc. is providing a band-aid, I guess. not for the people “in treatment,” but we/they are not the problem, after all. my concern is that the latest epidemic of “mental health” will never be stopped, not even contained; rather, this ‘epidemic’ seems to have the potential to grow and grow, ensnaring more and more people in psych slavery. 🙁
thank you for your work. The thing about psychiatry is…
they know what they’re doing. I’m not arguing for a bunch of evil geniuses, cackling with glee over all their victims’, but…
they know what they’re doing. the same drugs that a shrink pushed on you (and so many others, so generalized ‘you,’ of course) for ‘depression’ or perhaps ‘anxiety’ the same psychiatrist (or a colleague, blah blah blah) pushed on a working class kid with an attitude for ‘oppositional defiant disorder,’ or perhaps a poor non-white kid in juvenile detention, foster care…for ‘conduct disorder,’ or simply to make them more manageable.’
the same psychiatrist who smiles and has the warmth and professionalism for a respectable person/patient with good insurance or the means to go to a self-pay/cash-pay doctor has, in all likelihood, deliberately destroyed low(er) status people. drugged them, ignored TD, toxic cocktails, over billing, on and on and on…
and that’s just the pills. shock ‘treatments…’ how many victims of shock did my previous psych have a hand in destroying? operations? those are supposed to be rare, now…I”m not so sure, honestly.
on and on and on it goes. Mental Health, Inc. is a dangerous industry filled with dangerous, deceptive individuals. I highly doubt most ‘professionals’ in the industry (the talking ones, the pill pushing ones…doesn’t matter, really…) have any interest in the truth, except in cases where they can bend the truth and make more money, get more power, etc. at a larger level, this leads me back to Szasz (again) who writes that psychiatry cannot be reformed; it must be abolished. some things never change….
my best guess (?) is that ‘patients’ who come in with sufficient leverage (education, social class, overall clout…probably helps to be male, heterosexual, and white…) can ‘haggle’ with the shrinks. before I managed to get over it (and get over myself, to be perfectly honest), I was able to haggle. To my credit, I wasn’t haggling for anything amazing or euphoric, just…fewer drugs, lower doses, less toxic pills. ok. that’s where I was, not too long ago, so…I sort of ‘get’ your position, to a certain extent. and yet…
personally…where I am now…I don’t want to ‘haggle’ or ‘be my own psychiatrist’ any more than I want to cooperate in any other form of oppression, slavery (Szasz), or slow-motion (self) destruction. over it, thanks.
to basically steal from Szasz, yet again…
psych ‘treatment’ changes more based on…dogma, funding, social factors, economic factors, and…did I mention funding?
I think this includes the doctors who engage in acts of psychiatry, while (thankfully…) contributing to society by specializing in…wait for it, wait for it…-real medicine- .
i highly doubt educating affluent, well-educated, powerful guild members in an effort to encourage restraint will do…much, of anything, at all. based on the history of uppers by prescription…and quaaludes…and barbiturates…and the neuroleptics…
with controlled substances — especially with the mental health guild– legislation is crucial. the US love affair (middle class and up, mostly white) with ‘pep pills’ and ‘goof balls’ and…on and on and on…didn’t start to truly fade until ritalin and the amphetamines were put in Schedule II in 1970. even then…
the decade of coke and downers for those with sufficient means and inclination had -already begun- . I’m guessing that, with the myth of ‘ADD/ADHD’ firmly entrenched, even in the real medical specialties that do, in fact, -know better- , one might expect a drop in prescribed uppers…
when some new, ‘safe! effective!’ treatments come out, preferably on patent and with a glitzy marketing campaign. then, expect to hear that Speed Kills! (again), till…
next time. 🙁
how wonderful to see more honesty about tapering arguably the -worst- class of psych drugs…
from way over in the UK, lol. I am thankful that slow, gradual, steady tapering of the neuroleptics/major tranquilizers is -finally- gaining traction, in ‘expert’ circles, as a possible maneuver…
i live in the us. if thy psych drug doth offend thee…ask about another one! add on, switch, something just as needed, maybe you were misdiagnosed and need a different 3-5 drug cocktail? on and and on and on..
meanwhile, the ‘recovery model’ has been incredibly ’empowering…’ to all the -wrong- people. i don’t know if it is the nature of the mental health industry, or if its the mix of mental health + US socioeconomic factors, but…
‘the asylum without walls’ is here, and it is frightening. 🙁
Szasz writes — probably in The myth of mental illness — that psychiatric ‘treatment’ is deliberately inflicted brain damage. drugs, shock, operations, what have you…brain damage is -the core- of ‘somatic treatments’ in psychiatry.
factor in medicare payouts for elderly ladies, the money to be made by everyone involved in the ‘treatment team,’ and the short-term ‘benefits’ (read: confused, compliant people…perfect, by psych standards…), and it becomes abundantly clear that psychiatry is psychiatry is psychiatry…
and psychiatry cannot be reformed; it must be abolished (again, Szasz). 🙂
I’d be interested to know what kind of support networks the different groups had going, income and social class measures, etc. thing is…
a “Schizophrenic” with extensive support from a family in the top 20% or above may very well be able to taper off the tranquilizer and find an ‘exit’ from mental health, inc…
while a person with ‘psychotic depression’ with no outside support and few resources may very well be stuck in the ‘sick role,’ indefinitely. and at a personal level, someone with few resources, no outside support may not be able to drop the tranquilizer as easily (at all?).
szasz, of course, is correct; involuntary acts of psychiatry must be outlawed
as a side note, the for profit confinement centers are notorious for whole new levels of fraud and deception. the cchr has been involved in a number of cases in the US, one of which shuttered a number of for profit ‘facilities.’
until psychiatry — ‘voluntary’ and involuntary — can be abolished, educating the public is probably the best way to protect more people. educating people on the enormous costs of psychiatry and friends, along with the incredible amounts of suffering caused by the industry, would probably be a good step. 🙂
at a practical level, this might be…”progress” ? professional manipulators using a softer form of social control vs the open, honest brutality one often gets from cops?
either way, curbing unwanted behavior, controlling unwanted people is the goal…maybe this is cheaper, over the long haul? and yet…
jail, prison, mental ‘hospitals…’ are places of punitive confinement, but their purpose is (fairly) clear, obvious. the ‘expert’ abuse of language is a (potentially) less punitive means to the same end, but then the bars, the locks…are placed -within- the individual. strikes me as dangerous, personally.
interesting article. it reminds me of some Szasz, in which he compares psychiatry to both religions (a false religion that infiltrates and undermines real, established religions, if I recall correctly) and to the Inquisition.
I don’t know that “cult” is the best term…perhaps dangerous form of slavery and social control, masquerading as medicine while using pseudo-spiritual terminology (“healing” — how often do we hear -that one- , in today’s society?) to entrap and destroy…well, these days, it would seem pretty much anyone the industry can grab a hold of, at all. 🙁 but what to call it? false religion is good. cult sort of implies that there’s a charismatic leader at the center of all this, and I don’t see one. And yet…
psychiatry is more dangerous than any cult I can think of, just off the top of my head. Don’t want to “drink the Kool-Aid” ? too bad. they’ll get a judge to sign an order permitting a nurse to inject you with the Kool Aid. 🙁
“informed psychiatric care without stigma” ?
what else do people want? world peace? an end to poverty? not to be snarky (OK, maybe a bit…), but…not going to happen. ever.
as sam plover already posted, “informed psychiatric care without stigma,” for -anyone- , is not only a pipe dream, such “care” runs counter to what the mental health industry is really about. stigma is a huge weapon in psychiatry’s arsenal (I’d argue the same goes for counseling, psychotherapy…any sort of ‘mental health treatment,’ really). stigmatizing people for power and profit is a core part of psychiatry’s function in society, -any- society, anywhere. always has been, always will be.
I think it is Szasz who writes something to the effect that psychiatry (Szasz being…Szasz…he, of course, means involuntary psychiatry) cannot be reformed. It must be abolished.
I do not have any sort of “problem” with this psychiatrist, but…I don’t think psychiatry, as a field, can be made into anything genuinely “helpful,” much less meaningful…and definitely, never ever, in any way shape or form, can psychiatry somehow magically re-work itself into becoming a valid branch of medicine.
At an individual level, I am glad that this particular psychiatrist has chosen what seems to be a less toxic, less dangerous way of doing business. However, at best, that is harm reduction, and this individual psychiatrist’s pursuit of a less abusive, less damaging sort of psychiatry makes her and those like her in the field…
exceptions who prove the rule. 🙁
thank you for the contribution.
having said that, i do wonder…why bother with psychiatry, as a career? family medicine/general practice, maybe? dermatology? pain management, even? options…lots of them…
nothing against this retired psychiatrist, btw. i can see being young and thinking that this is somehow a way to improve lives, maybe even help society, especially in the 50s and 60s (you know, back when society was a “thing,” before it became just individuals, all at each others’ throats…).
i’ve seen how even the same clinic, the same talking person, the same psychiatrist…can put on a song and dance when one has leverage, good insurance, ‘good family…’
and then when the insurance is out, the family is estranged, no leverage…the mask comes off.
and then when the mask goes back on…some social theater, just suspend your disbelief…forget what came before…
at a larger level, the many guises of psychiatry…tea and sympathy for the troubled; compassion for the suffering; confinement for the ‘dangerous and ill,’ etc…
cover up the 2 core functions: social control and slavery. 🙂
ugh. psychiatry is the same, perhaps just sneakier, and there’s more and more of it in today’s epidemic of psychiatry.
critics of psychiatry are always criticized (at the very least), often punished, because psychiatry is an enforcement arm for society, above all else. the power vested in the hacks and their ideology is immense, and victims and dissidents are silenced and demonized.
sad, sad, sad. i am grateful for this research.
something tells me that the powers that be are tightening the screws on the masses. 🙁
This is not real medicine. Mental health inc is a dogmatic belief system that needs to be outlawed.
I think itd be awesome if mental health inc was abolished. Notice that people are fleeing other forms of organized religion in droves. The difference is that this profit driven cult will have to be outlawed.
true. somehow, that escaped my mind while I was writing my reply. Maybe I was day dreaming, a bit?
thanks for your reply. 🙂
thank you for this, Dr.Moncrieff. well-written, succinct, and well-researched. 🙂
as a “consumer” / “client” / “mental patient,” I find there are times when I yearn for a real, honest to goodness asylum. A place of respite, of protection…from a hostile, cut throat society. Is there such a place, now? Was there ever, really and truly?
The asylum system Dr.Moncrieff describes seems to stem from a genuine sort of noblesse oblige, and I would assume also from a value system of a bygone era, one marked by far more cohesion and stability than the anomic, disintegrating world that neoliberalism has brought us.
I am thankful that Dr.Moncrieff and her colleagues have taken the time to do thorough research and offer a more nuanced, thoughtful perspective on the asylum than those of their predecessors.
Could modern society revive the asylum system, most likely in a modified form? Perhaps. Where I live, all the ‘experts’ emphasize ‘recovery’ and ‘the recovery model.’ Truth? I don’t think the US will throw the poor and working classes crumbs at this point, much less a clean, safe, quiet place of retreat from the neoliberal nightmare. Should an asylum system take hold in these United States, it will, in all likelihood simply mirror an increasingly unjust, harsh, inhumane society. No, thank you.
I appreciate Dr.Moncrieff’s disillusioned reflection upon the rather dismal rates of recovery from Schizophrenia. Is “Schizophrenia” even…real? Honestly, at a personal level, I don’t care. Sometimes, the mind breaks. The mind can break towards what they call ‘mania,’ and then the chances of (re)joining mainstream society are favorable. When the mind breaks in the way that they call “Schizophrenia,” then one’s chances of such a (re)integration are low. Perhaps a humane, livable asylum would prove an ideal situation, both for those in the asylum and for society, as a whole.
more quality research out of the UK. 🙂
what I like (personally) : the ill effects of poverty are being taken more seriously by those in power, those with resources, those with credentials.
what I don’t like (personally) : its the damn psych establishment, again. poverty is bad because now the ‘experts’ say so, and they’ve run their fancy tests to make it a health issue.
I’d really like to see poverty presented (again) as a moral issue, and also a social problem. If the end results are more and better anti-poverty programs and maybe, just maybe a thorough analysis of the horrors of neoliberalism, then…perhaps, as a practical matter, getting the psych-brigade involved will prove to be beneficial. having said that…
what’s wrong with society, now, that people cannot just say poverty is morally repugnant and unacceptable, especially in affluent nations?
thank you for this, Leah Harris. Seriously. 🙂
to me, remembering this former candidate’s mental health plan is important because…it shows what the elites want, really. not just the psych industry, not just the families, but those higher up, those who make big, big decisions for the 99+/- % of us in the USA, day in+day out.
so, apparently, draconian and ineffective measures– by ‘ineffective’ I mean policies that further damage the quality of life for ‘the least of these’ in these United States– have broad support in DC. E. Fuller Torrey and friends are helping frame the discussion, so common sense and the voices of those actually affected are effectively silenced.
I hope+pray the psych laws swing towards something more humane, less…oppressive and cruel. But then again, Szasz pointed out (in one of his many, many books on the subject…) that the psych guilds are pseudo-medical specialties that deal in lies, stigma, and–here’s the big one– social control.
my best -guess- is that this oppression, couched in self-serving jargon and mystification, is not limited to the psychiatrized or the disabled, and unless something is done about out of control inequality, pockets of deep poverty, wage stagnation, the decimation of the middle-middle class and the concentration of inordinate amounts of wealth into ever fewer hands…
more and more people will find themselves in some sort of under-class, kept under control by increasingly harsh, even violent, methods. again, my best -guess- is that the psych guilds will be there, drugs and lies and labels and all, to ‘help’ the under-classes, no matter the official category (felons, probationers, welfare recipients, drug users, etc.). power is power, after all.
the current epidemic of psychiatry seems to be the most frightening one, yet. 🙁
i like your take on this. I think it is worth noting–stealing from Szasz, as usual–that if and when a “mental illness” is shown to have a biologically rooted cause…it is no longer a “mental illness,” and the treatment is handed over to (real) doctors.
psychiatry as a pseudo-medical form of class warfare. that and…
poverty sucks. 🙁
i beg to differ. ‘antidepressants’ -are- amazingly effective!
Prescribing real drugs to treat faux disorders is profitable for professionals and drug companies. Society as a whole benefits by pretending that perfectly understandable reactions to unbearable conditions is a “treatable disorder,” and therefore the answer is more emphasis on ‘treatment,’ not figuring out what the hell is going wrong, with everybody (and their mama) on ‘antidepressants.’
oh, and…the pills shut people up. If that doesn’t work…add more pills. Even if they ditch the pills, they’ve been silenced by psych ‘treatment,’ since the records will -never- be destroyed.
psych-guilds…
manifest functions — ‘treatment of mental illness,’ especially ‘severe mental illness.’ (re)integrating the afflicted/’sick’ person into society, or perhaps providing ‘long term care,’ when appropriate.
latent functions — control. punishing outliers, misfits, the poor and working classes, non-whites, non-males. creation+control of a (growing) under-class. profit. infiltrating and subverting the major social institutions (education, family, religion, etc.).
this is mostly lifted from Szasz, of course. I think his last book is Psychiatry: the science of lies, or something to that affect. An industry built upon lies might be expected to flourish–with enough gov’t cash infusions, social support, etc.– in ‘sick’ (anomic, violent, disintegrating) societies. Societies that are not as ‘sick’ probably have less use for such an industry.
so they want to be amateur sociologists, armed with MD/DO degrees? ummm…ok. why not…
abolish Mental Health, Inc. and put the -actual- Sociologists in charge of society, outliers included?
+1, both of you. 🙂
it occurs to me that if one core objective of ‘psychiatric treatment’ is to shut people up, then the last, last, last thing the guild wants is to hear from pissed off people who were once ‘patients.’
I am thankful for this article. At the same time…
is there some way this data could (possibly) serve as a springboard, from which to take a serious look at the damage caused to all sorts of people from all sorts of counseling, psychotherapy, group therapy, etc.? CBT, DBT, on and on…
harm.many.people.
Psychology and psychiatry are more powerful, and therefore more damaging to more people, than when The Myth of Mental Illness was first published. Some random thoughts from me…
1) religions are designed to deal with distress, provide guidance, now and then tangible assistance to followers. I suppose in a postmodern, highly secularized era Mental Health, Inc. is the state-sponsored religion all are expected to follow (?), and…
2) this doesn’t sound so much like a “revolution in mental health” as it does a shift in the methods of control Mental Health, Inc. uses to keep the misfits+outliers+troubled+just about anybody under control. Fewer pills, more talk. so, I’m thinking…
3) this is probably also something of a power grab, disguised as a “revolution.” Mental Health, Inc. in charge of ‘education provision,’ handling the financial needs of the poor and working classes…
with the goal, it seems, of taking the current Therapeutic State up several notches.
Ideally, Mental Health, Inc. should be somehow put out of business. At a practical level, the industry seems to grow ever more powerful, year by year. Perhaps a softer touch is the best that one can realistically expect, at this point, at least for society as a whole.
‘within the velvet glove lies the iron fist’ 🙁
i don’t actually hate psychiatry or individual psychiatrists. forgiveness is something i’m working on. i just think its crazy, that such pseudoscientific junk is allowed to run rampant in modern society, leaving so much damage in its wake.
I honestly sometimes wonder if psychiatry is straight up evil. I seem to recall reading that Dr.Breggin came to the conclusion that it may very well be evil, so its not just me. deal is…
I’m a Christian, right? Right. I don’t vote GOP or hate people, so a lot of people don’t think I’m a Christian. But…deal is…a part of traditional Christianity (you know, before the shrinks infiltrated) is a belief that there is also an evil one, and he has lots of underlings. I don’t get too into all that, because I’m focused on forgiveness and love, but…
psychiatry strikes me as evil, or at least…wicked, filled with people who lie, lie, lie all the time…they lie. The whole industry is based on lies and destruction of anyone and anything they come into contact with, and that’s been the case since -day 1- . the affluent could pay for their ne’er do wells to be kept at Bedlam, for instance. Remember “drapetomania,” the “disease” that made slaves desire freedom? It isn’t just the US and it isn’t even just capitalist societies, either…psychiatry in China is wicked and cruel, psychiatry in the USSR was notoriously sinister…
wicked. wicked, sometimes evil, almost always mediocre, at best…that, I think, describes most of the worker bees in mental health, inc. the industry itself is downright diabolical.
to be fair to psychiatry, the medical establishment as a whole is rather authoritarian. i don’t know what goes on in other developed nations, but here in the US, there’s been some research on violence within the medical system–apparently, physical aggression towards people lower on the totem pole is an issue. and…
for all this talk of care and compassion, profit is the name of the game. just look at the rise of ‘concierge medicine.’
but with psychiatry–which is not real medicine, although they do make heavy use of real drugs– I have come to think that the answer is abolition, honestly. the costs, the damage to human beings, the damage to the legal system and even education and religion…
too, too much. I do not think voluntary psychiatry should even be allowed. i do not think the talking guilds that usually work with psychiatry should be allowed to continue, either.
i agree with PD. No doubt, Open Dialogue may prove less harmful, to some people, in some respects…
that’s not saying much. I think of it as applying the ‘harm reduction model’ to Mental Health, Inc. perhaps better in some respects, for some people…
not a viable long term solution. I also think this is dangerous, because one speaks of a “democratic atmosphere” in Mental Health, Inc., and…
that is not possible. It’d be like a Jewish Eucharist or an atheist mass. psychiatry -is- a human rights abuse, after all.
I do (obviously) think the distressed need “help.” “Help” often means…real healthcare, money, freedom, a voice. Real “help” scares the “helping professions…”
because they’re really just in existence to “help” the powers that be. 🙂
as much as I’d love to disagree with this…
I cannot.
“Healing” and “recovery” are part of the secular faith that I’m beginning to realize most people believe in, even when their own experiences and those of people close to them run counter to dogma drilled into us from all angles. Even what remains of the old religious institutions have been largely infiltrated by Mental Health, Inc.
A journey out of and away from Mental Health, Inc. is a lonely experience, indeed.
i enjoyed reading this…the author’s perspective should be valued. debated, perhaps, but…valued, nonetheless.
I’m torn between thinking that many (most? all?) stories of ‘recovery’ are really psych survivor stories, edited and retold by the same Mental Health, Inc. that caused much (sometimes all…) of the troubles in the first place….and then thinking…
well, people have always gone batshit crazy insane. Some people could come to function in their communities, some got new jobs, such as shaman or witch or…anyway, others were disposed of, left to wander the streets in never ending pain and social rejection. so…
for now, is reforming Mental Health, inc. perhaps the best step, for most of the mad? if they say ‘hooray! you’re in recovery!,’ is it best to stop and debunk, or is it actually best to…go along with this rather absurd social theater?
i really don’t know. and if recovery and the recovery segment of Mental Health, inc.=jobs/careers for some and also=more humane experiences in Mental Health, Inc…
that’s a worthwhile use of time and resources, right?
I am thankful for your work in this area. 🙂
Having said that…oppression and control are the name of the game at community mental health centers all over the nation. where I live…well, funding for hospitalization has been shredded, so the emphasis on outpatient treatment -can- mean the person/patient/consumer/? has more bargaining power, sometimes. other times, it just means…more olanzapine, depakote, trazadone cocktails, with the threat of court orders lingering over many peoples’ heads.
i guess im just…not convinced that mental health, inc. can be reformed. i think in some places, where the variables are in alignment, it can happen (less rabidly ‘conservative,’ funding for alternatives, legal aid to the people/patients/consumers, a vocal subgroup interested in reform…), but…
speaking for many of the “Severely mentally ill” in 21st century America…
on a day to day basis, the best I can do is to just…do me, and pray+plan for a quiet, graceful exit.
im so happy she’s running. seriously. no, she won’t win. but as long as she’s in the race…she gets media attention, and what she says piques interest in a good % of people. Now, she’s widely regarded as “crazy,” “stay on your meds, hahaha,” but who knows? 10, 20 years from now…her ideas might be implemented, with a “respectable” candidate behind putting “kooky” ideas into practice. or not. for all I know, the US might be a neo-fascist rogue state 20 years from now, run by psychiatrists, corporations, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Time will tell…
she is correct, of course. there are some people who swear up and down that ‘antidepressants’ (the term is ridiculous, btw) make life…(more) live-able. but..by and large, the pills are thrown out there to shut people up and to give the ‘cruel compassion’ of ‘treatment’ to more and more (and more…) people. it is worth noting, of course, that the ‘antidepressants’ are the current ‘quick fix,’ I guess kind of like Librium or Valium back in the day, but on a wider scale (and with so many new flavors!), but…
remember Szasz…Psychiatry is the science of -lies- , and any MD, DO, or nurse practitioner who dishes out psych drugs is trying their hand at psychiatry, and is therefore…lying. “atypical antipsychotics” are also used to shut people up, especially lower status, more vulnerable populations. I’ve seen controlled substances used both to shut people up and to keep people/’patients’ coming back (private practice), and then used as a tool of control (bad behavior: bye bye, xanax…less often: good behavior…hello, Adderall).
i dont expect Marianne Williamson to destroy psychiatry, or even…try. I’m just delighted that she’s gotten this far, complete with media attention. 🙂
Pope John Paul II wrote a good bit about what he termed “The Culture of Death,” and the way this death culture was taking over and destroying much of modern culture. I read some of what he wrote, then I visited the cchr website, where they discuss psychiatry as “the Industry of Death,” or something similar, and…
I see overlap, obviously. Psychiatrists start patients off on a downward spiral and then see them off to death itself on a regular basis. Sometimes, the death is “natural causes,” but hastened by psych drugging. Other times, the death is suicide, often with prescribed drugs or in part because of altered states induced by Rx treatment. And then…
the unfortunate ones who end up destitute, broken, severely brain damaged -but still alive- often seem to end up homeless, in jail, or in prison. Maybe more ‘progressive’ states use the state hospital, but where I live, the state hospital has somehow become a place where only extreme cases go, unless there’s a good lawyer involved…and I think my state is fairly typical in that regard.
we do live in a sick society (I’m speaking of the US here). But…the witch doctors are making us all ever more sick and truly destroyed, for filthy lucre’s sake.
When does it stop? Will it stop?
I think one reason I have difficulty imagining myself organizing with other ex-patients/survivors, etc. is because…we’re a silenced bunch, already. Especially for those of us who have survived and overcome severe treatment and all that junk, the powers that be get angry when we use our voices, raise our voices, God forbid yell…
because the whole point is to shut us up, isn’t it?
well written, thorough, and…well done, is what I’m getting at, Dr.Burstow.
i read, somewhere, that the word “radical” originally dealt with roots (I hope I didn’t pick that up from some of your previous articles, obviously). and…in today’s ‘post-truth,’ (probably deliberately) dumbed down and drugged up world…
getting to the root of just about any issue, institution, belief system, etc. is…”radical,” indeed.
thanks for the ‘radical’ examination of eugenics and psychiatry, Dr.Burstow. 🙂
i managed to duck and dodge depot injections, thank goodness. i remember going into a nurse’s office, at a clinic…she had the Haloperidol vial, in a box, on her desk…she was chatting me up, she was supposed to do an AIMS test, didn’t happen. seeing the long acting vitamin H vial on her desk kind of…made me realize how cruel psychiatry can be, how harsh and controlling.
my problem with advocating minimal use of neuroleptics is -not- that it is ‘bad advice.’ the ‘issue’ i have with such advice is that…in psychiatry, there always seem to be ’emergencies,’ ‘unusual situations,’ etc. there was always a reason to do a lobotomy (‘better to operate than to wait!’), always a reason to push the dosage higher (‘dosage optimization,’ is the going term, I believe), always a reason to disregard whatever common sense recommendations are/were in place…
‘give an inch, they’ll take a mile.’ Dr.Steingard and psychiatrists like her are rare…and I kind of sense that the younger generations of psychiatrists lack the thoughtfulness, the nuance, the finesse, of some of the older set. of course…the elites in today’s America have thrown noblesse obllige out the window, now its all about Ayn Rand…maybe that’s why psychiatrists now are so much more dogmatic, controlling, and cruel? class warfare, playing out in clinics all over America? maybe that explains this growing interest in depot injections, the hi-tech Abilify that tattles on the ‘non-compliant,’ etc…
control of the growing under class, the alienated, the unemployed and/or under-productive. something like that, anyway. 🙂
a problem with not using the labels is that the lables have power, social meaning, and I thnk not using them, oddly enough, disempowers us (again, for a lot of us). example…
‘schizophrenia’ drugs tied to reduced lifespan
what’s the alternative? the ‘ ‘ allows the critics and survivors to engage the mental health industry using its own vocabulary. the ‘ ‘ is a quick way to start the debunking from the headline, onwards. of course…one could try
neuroleptics reduce lifespan
which is true, but even medical articles often use the term ‘antipsychotics’…its a thing, now. and for people just dropping into mia, the 1st title makes the information more accessible.
the ” ” around so much gets cumbersome, but…what’s the alternative, really? to be fair to the many contributors to MIA, this place represents ideology and positions running the spectrum from ‘reform mental health, inc.’ to ‘abolish mental health, inc.,’ with (predictably) a whole lot at various points between those two poles. and yet…
with all due respect to the ‘reform’ camp, callling distress and reactions to oppression, poverty, anomie, etc. ‘depression’ or other sorts of ‘(severe) mental illness’ is not bad or wrong because it ‘rubs me the wrong way,’ or even because it ‘doesn’t fit in’ the new(er) discourse, but rather…
the dsm/icd classifications are not based on fact. how’s that for ‘reality testing,’ y’all? 🙂
shutting people up does, in fact, seem to be what the entire mental health industry is really about, and pills are a quick and lucrative way to get the job done. good article. 🙂
that’s my problem, right there. in some of his writings, Szasz shows such callous disregard for the poor and the marginalized…
its obvious, he’s a psychiatrist. 🙂
controlling the poor, the under-employed, the unemployed, and the occasional ne’er do well is one part of psychiatry’s core mission. what concerns me is that now their power and influence have reached into the upper strata of our world, and it strongly intersects with the legal system. entertainers regularly “come out” as whatever flavor Bipolar and encourage the masses to ‘seek help.’ now and then, wealthy people manage to obtain favorable outcomes for legal problems–provided they pursue “treatment,” of course. i dont usually care for entertainment news and such, but my take on it is…
once they’ve gotten their claws on the 1%-ers, they’ve basically got all of society in their clutches. factor in the successful infiltration of the established church in the US and “TeenScreen” and other projects, and…
its just overwhelming, ridiculously intimidating. I do not see much in the way of critical analysis coming out of the US, which…makes sense, but again, scares me a bit. 🙁
The CCHR is funded by The Church of Scientology. I personally do not have a problem with that arrangement, as long as the CCHR has adequate funding to pursue its mission.
Szasz’s libertarianism has long been a problem for me, a “bleeding heart liberal” who otherwise agrees with his analysis of psychiatry and all things “mental health,” based upon my own experiences and also on the writing of others (Kate Millet, Foucault, Whitaker, etc.) that have influenced my outlook. I have found it is not only possible, but necessary, to appreciate Szasz’s deconstruction of psychiatry and friends without buying into his elitist libertarianism.
My perception of the current situation is that the therapeutic state is not only very much still with us, its powers have grown exponentially since The Myth of Mental Illness was first published. From a position of power and privilege, some mental health professionals can now pick and choose from Szasz’s writings that which they accept, that which they reject, that which they will accept with modifications. Because the mental health industry is now so incredibly powerful, so deeply rooted in all aspects of life in modern culture…
“business as usual” will remain unchanged, and the religion of psychiatry and related field will continue to grow in power and size, growing ever more oppressive and inescapable (“give an inch, they’ll take a mile”).
dragging people down with labels and ‘treatment’ and stigma is what psychiatrists do. poor people, working class people, ‘uppity’ women, drug users, misfits, the ‘too intelligent,’ those who have a hard time learning…
why not attempt to drag a long dead genius down, honestly? they do it to everybody else, right?
I think Dr.Cohen’s comment about force is best put into context. My take on it is that force simple…is, it exists and is used to maintain social cohesion. I interpreted his statement as simply an observation, a statement of fact. now…
I think the US is leaning more on mental health, inc. precisely because this society now requires more coercion and straight up force than in years past, largely due to social disintegration. Mass incarceration and the police state are (apparently) not quite enough to maintain the status quo, and so…
Mental Health, Inc. has now taken over the schools, the churches and other places of worship, the mass media, the courts, the family. Basically…the false religion of ‘mental health’ has now successfully infiltrated all important social institutions.
Not that I want to (or should) single out the US. Other, more ‘progressive’ nations make heavy use of mental health, inc. as well, a fact Dr.Cohen rightly pointed out in the interview. In fact, many of them are far more adept at using -state funded- psychiatry as a form of medicalized control, masquerading as “treatment,” “help,” etc. The mental health industry, of course, reflects the surrounding culture. One sees this in the efforts to rename and thereby ‘de-stigmatize’ the ‘psychotic disorders’ in some nations, while in the US one sees regular advertisements for long acting injections (depot shots) of various ‘atypical’ neuroleptics for “Schizophrenia.”
Szasz, of course, is correct in pointing out that abolishing psychiatry would lead to more freedom and far greater clarity of thought+communication (this is a so so paraphrase, btw). Perhaps one day, this shall come to pass.
wow…amazing. miraculous, even. I am–speaking as someone who has also been thru “the system,” and was completely destroyed by my own behavior and also by “treatment”– incredibly proud of you and the new life you’ve worked so hard to create for yourself. I hope that doesn’t come across as condescending…its The Internet, so all anyone has to go on is what’s typed out…I just mean that I’ve experienced much of the same, not quite as extreme, but similar themes, and…
your story, your new life, your efforts…really made my day. I really enjoyed reading this, and your writing style is hi-quality, too.
I wish you well in your new life, and as you journey on, take on new challenges, make a new way forward, day by day. We probably have different belief systems, but no matter…my prayers are with you. 🙂
sadly…i think you are correct, rachel.
ive seen what i believe to be the deliberate destruction of human beings by ‘experts’ paid to help. after coming to mia for a while, i understand that happens, but…even now, the sheer level of cruelty and malice, all while pretending to “only want to help,” etc.
“Schizophrenia” was once a middle(ish) class white woman’s disease…in the 50s. Then, it became more of an antiauthoritarian, even just misfit “disorder…”
non-whites, people involved in the counterculture or youth culture, women who didn’t know their place, drop outs…
and, of course, now…the same profession that once labeled enslaved human beings with ‘drapetomania’ when they tried to flee to freedom, is labeling those who are low status with ‘schizophrenia,’ which is basically a way of turning distressed human beings in psychiatric slaves. and then those who question the labels are burdened with additional labels, more force, more toxic drugs, more confinement…
“Schizophrenia”=invalidation=psychiatric slavery. The rare exceptions to the rule–Elyn Saks, I think is her name, comes to mind…-prove- the rule.
I think a lot of people in the “recovery movement” have been so thoroughly destroyed, it seems a logical solution to play nice with the oppressors, even sing their praises, than to fight back. and…
it depends on location, too. in 21st century America…ha! good luck! the “progressive” states will ship uppity “mental patients” off to their progressive hospitals. I don’t know what they do their. Maybe…drum circles in between smoke breaks and sips of Thorazine punch? The red states…no. just…no. prison is a distinct possibility.
keep in mind that a big part of psychiatry’s “treatment plan” for the “patients” is poverty, which renders the psychiatrized effectively silenced. Find a way to deal with the poverty of the psychiatrized, then one can start talking about restoration of civil rights, etc.
that’s one thing that -gets to me- , when i see psych “professionals,” especially psychiatrists, defending their industry. as a psychiatrized individual, i know that they have plenty of victims, each and every one of them…and because of “the way the world works,” the victims are effectively silenced, few people (it seems..) would care that much, anyway, if they did somehow get to raise their voices. and…
i agree with you, that being in a position of authority and control obvioulsy affects how they deal with criticism, even simple questions. as a psychiatrized individual, i only wish the world at large could see the victims, see the fraud and coercion and, at times, even violence that goes on in the world of mental health, inc.
but…i’ll settle for people simply deciding to do something else with their time and resources, find better ways of dealing with their lives and problems, etc. 🙂
thanks for this. I’ve sometimes thought that psychiatry will eventually prove its own worst enemy, and it is helpful to see an expert explaining and articulating that…although I do kind of fear that whatever might replace psychiatry will be worse–more punitive, more draconian–than the current mental health industry. I think this is because I live in a more “conservative” part of the US, and I’ve seen how psychiatry and psychiatric labels work in the culture. My concern is that if the (admittedly, dangerous) Myth of Mental Illness dies, people in these areas will be faced with more pain, not less, especially as the safety net has been further shredded and both family and community bonds continue to disintegrate. And yet…
I still long for the day psychiatry withers away, somehow. Honestly, enough is enough. 🙂
i believe the “professional” jargon/euphemism is “dosage optimization,” as in…ramp it up! I was bored one day, and I read a pubmed article about it, dealing with dosing ‘atypicals’ above the fda approved dosage range. Not surprisingly, it is…according to what I remember of that brief paper…the most brilliant idea, ever.
When psychiatry is given more leeway, high(er) dosages become common. One reason the so-called “Golden Age of Psychopharmacology” from the 50s to 70s or so came to an end was an increase in regulations on barbiturates, amphetamines, and more regulations to give people/’patients’ some voice in ‘treatment,’ including informed consent laws. and now…
The Myth of Mental Illness, as Szasz called it, is more firmly entrenched than -ever-. And now…everything is somehow a brain abnormality, that is fully expected to respond to the Miracle Meds.
The last time psychiatry got this out of control, there was something of a pushback. I don’t know, honestly, if it is possible for an organized pushback, this time around. Perhaps the best we–as disillusioned, well-informed people–can really hope for is that enough people with the correct credentials will speak up, or at least offer some alternatives….
thereby sparing at least -some- people -some- pain and destruction. 🙁
I’d disagree with this. Breggin points out a number of cases that were clearly at least negatively influenced by psych drugs, often heavy, long term drugging. The mainstream media…does.not.report this, usually. When the issue of psych ‘treatment’ comes up, it either becomes: ‘wow, they needed treatment…sad’ or ‘crazy, dangerous mental patient should’ve been locked up a long time ago…why did we shut down the state hospitals, again?’
there’s also the use of stigma to control people/”patients,” and the use of drugs to reward or punish the psychiatrized. “Schizophrenia” is more commonly diagnosed in the poor, non-white, lower status. The softer landing of “Bipolar I” is a mixed bag, from what I’ve observed. When thrust upon someone, it is best seen as control, punishment. On the other hand, I’ve seen more affluent people use the Bipolar I label in their social networks (including school, work, family) to further their own ends. and then…
the drugs. well-behaved, “making progress”=reduction in neuroleptic; discontinue neuroleptic or other toxic drugs (“maybe depakote isn’t the best thing for you, after all”). misbehavin’ (or ‘uppity’) patient: higher dose neuroleptic. introduce neuroelptic. rapid taper of controlled substances. add “personality disorder,” which also helps explain “treatment failure,” and justify referral to other “experts,” etc.
Psych ‘professionals’ rarely tell the truth. obviously, truth-telling puts their entire industry at risk. 🙁
hi. i think you’re correct, of course. Szasz wrote in a different time, a different place. These days…the not guilty by reason of insanity (or whatever each state chooses to call it) verdicts are a dead end, even more so (usually…) than prison or jail time.
The not guilty by reason of insanity pleas in my area are rare and, generally, ill advised. “guilty, but mentally ill” is also ill advised, because it is essentially 2x, even 3x the punishment, when one looks at the time spent incarcerated and the ‘treatment’ people receive.
For people who can afford quality legal representation, it seems that using psych labels+history as a sort of mitigating factor is a far, far more desirable route. I kept tabs on one such case, and it seems the now convicted (guilty plea) individual ended up with a less severe felony and the possibility of parole, whereas his initial charge was essentially a death sentence.
In psychiatry, one gets the “treatment you deserve,” often based on social class and overall status, leverage (or lack thereof). The legal system is notoriously biased towards those who have resources, higher overall status. Where the two intersect, I think the disparities become even more apparent.
Szasz wrote something to the effect that mental illness, when used as mitigation, is basically a legally-sanctioned way of seeking mercy. I agree.
Mental Health, Inc. takes on a higher level of authoritarianism and punishment in many red states. -some- red states are still gung ho about the state hospitals, for instance. southern culture+Trump culture+psychiatry=Hell on earth.
to be fair, not all red states are the same, even in the Trump era. Some are shredding the state hospital system down to the bare minimum…that way, rich people in their states don’t have to pay as much $$$ to confine poor people. Prisons do it for far less, anwyay.
i really appreciate Orthomolecular, at a number of levels. I doubt it will ever find mainstream acceptance because…
Psychiatry is about control. Psychiatry is about the creation and control of an ever growing (in the US, at least) under-class. Psychiatry is not medicine. The rest of medicine chooses to tolerate psychiatry for their own reasons, none of which have anything to do with treating, curing, or preventing any bona fide diseases or improving the quality of life for ‘mental patients.’
the vitamins are awesome, though…I’m pushing my way up to 18 grams vitamin C per day. 🙂
“diagnosis is a political decision”
-I think either Kate Millet or Shulamith Firestone.
Mental Health, Inc. should be abolished, somehow. even with reforms and such, peoples’ lives end up ruined, often at a high co$t to the person/”patient,” the families involved, and..given how more “treatment”=more problems, often a lifetime on disability, the gov’t coffers end up supporting those destroyed by Mental Health, Inc. (which includes the psychology/counseling branches)…
and then the destroyed person is labeled both a “mental patient” and a “welfare queen” or “welfare bum.”
i think psychosocial solutions have more probability of lasting success in places -other than- the US. I see this research came out of the UK. I’ve noticed that a lot of “critical psychiatry,” psychosocial research, etc. come out of the UK. In the US…
obviously, psychiatry and psychology reflect the society (as a whole) and also the community. God help you if you’re in a ‘red state’ seeking a real solution; no ‘professional’ will, in all likelihood. Not that the ‘blue states’ are always all that ‘progressive…’
some of them seem to simply use the state hospital system more frequently, since that is “treatment,” not “punishment,” etc.
anyway…thanks for the summary of the new research. While I’ve long feared that because of ‘austerity measures,’ the UK might end up like the US…it appears there’s hope “over there,” yet. In the US…
we have TV ads for Rexulti, usually right before adverstisements for disability lawyers (where I live). Trump is not only still in office, he’s planning a 2020 run. And while the psychosocial treatments are all about talking and communicating and reflecting…
most ‘treatment’ available for ‘severe mental illness’ in the US is really about shutting people/”patients” up, one way or another. 🙁
as punitive and draconian as US culture is…I think its worth noting that 1984 and Brave New World are both set -in England-, some notorious shrinks of yesteryear came out of the UK (Ewan Cameron, Sargeant), and…
-shudder- I saw on the “news” that Oprah and Prince…Harry, I think, the redheaded one…are teaming up to do a documentary about “mental health.” -eek-
this is what neoliberal propaganda is, circa 2019…now, we’re all being encouraged to scrutinize our inner-lives for conformity to a “healthy” norm…
and then seek “expert help” if we don’t measure up. all this, decades after “Schizophrenia” was effectively deconstructed (by psychiatrists, no less!) and in the face of a massive body of evidence that the psych guilds ruin lives and drain the coffers for their fraudulent ‘treatments.’
im also kinda bummed that there won’t be a Huxleyian Soma-type drug to keep us all in a chemically induced cheerful mood…
for most of us, its looking more and more like its going to be “antidepressants” and/or neuroleptics…the mind numbing junk…and they have the neuroleptic depot injections, and that abilify pill that digitally tells on you for ‘non-compliance.’
im guessing austerity measures are making people miserable? the antidepressants are probably still cheaper…
thank you for this. you have…no idea how helpful it is to know that others are being victimized by the Therapeutic State, even after the initial psychiatrization.
“the personal is political.” I agree, wholeheartedly…and I also agree that the mental health industry, by its very nature, narrows the focus to self, perhaps family and social networks, rarely the community.
as a side note, what bother me now is how they–the psych people–know what they’re doing. they see: middle class (good insurance), upper class (bust out the deepak chopra), working class (all drugs, all the time), etc., and they -are- aware of how socioeconomic factors shape peoples’ lives…
and they use this knowledge to further their own interests, all while lying about ‘mental illnesses’ and…it seems…most everything, really.
“patients” are often victims of psych “professional” violence, including the downward spiral to poverty…that’s economic terrorism on a massive scale.
“un-scientific” ? OK. silly me…I thought psychiatrists -knew- that their industry was a destructive con. blame it on my borderline misanthropic view of human nature. this…this delusional thinking, deeply entrenched, irrational beliefs that psychiatry has any sort of valid scientific underpinnings and that “standard treatment” is somehow necessary and/or “life saving…”
that is actually far more frightening than my mental image, which was that of an industry full of mediucre hacks who happened upon psychiatry to feed both their egos+their families (and, quite often, their own drug habits).
so…who is going to protect “patients” from the deranged “professionals” ?
substances that alter brain chemistry — drugs, specifically psychoactive drugs — all “work,” from someone’s perspective. lots of people swear various opioids “work” because of euphoria, reduced pain, reduced anxiety and agitation. Others say those are “bad drugs” because they are “addictive” and/or “dangerous.” Powerful people have decided that those “bad drugs” don’t “work” in ways they find appropriate (or profitable, etc. etc. etc.).
Szasz writes (somewhere…) about an early test of Thorazine. Because Thorazine was first used in pre-operative sedation mixes (a use that continues, apparently), extensive trials were undertaken to find the dosages that would really “work.” Question is: “work” for whom? In one early test, a drug user was injected with Thorazine. He was then asked what he thought of it, and he said something to the effect that “that junk will never sell!,” and in a very real sense he was (and is) correct. Thorazine and most other “antipsychotic” drugs have minimal street value, and I don’t think any are controlled substances. And yet…
Thorazine was a blockbuster! Several of the -zines that followed did quite well, both on their own and in combo with other drugs (sedatives, uppers, antidepressants). Even in the 21st century, various “atypical” neuroleptics have generated billion$ for their patent holders. These drugs do “work!” Right? Yeah…
Those drugs don’t “correct chemical imbalances” anymore than “antidepressants” do, and they tend to have more severe adverse effects. Psychiatrists knew from -day 1- that the neuroleptics could lead to serious brain damage. TD cases started showing up in the literature in the late 50s. Some psychiatrists spoke of a “tranquilizer psychosis,” a condition caused -by- the neuroleptics marked by apathy, indifference, tremor, varying degrees of sedation and emotional blunting…
and the “tranquilizer psychosis” is -how- the drugs “work.”
So…the “chemical imbalance” fraud/lie is maybe, perhaps (?) losing traction. So, what? States all over the US have passed legislation giving shrinks the right to pump drugs into people even if (often -especially- if…) the people involved would rather -not- have the drugs (or…those drugs, at least).
My take on it? The “chemical imbalance” lie was just a means to an end. We’ve gone from those animated SSRI commercials of the 00s, with soothing voices assuring us that this new drug “works” by “correcting imbalances…”
to just telling people that such and such is “medication for (dsm-code HERE),” and sometimes not even that, just “it helps.”
I don’t think most doctors ever really “believed” in the “chemical imbalance” theory. For a time, it made sense…they could pretend that the person/”patient” was “correcting imbalances,” and that psychiatry was a valid branch of medicine…
-shrug- now? drugs.into.people! that’s all “treatment” for poor people ever involved, anyway, and it’s increasingly the treatment most people — from all strata — get, even when they want to talk about life and such. none of that! 🙁
blah. Another concept from Szasz I find relevant today, right now: Pharmacracy. People/”patients” get the pills they/we “deserve,” based on any number of variables. Haldol and cogentin for the low castes, all the way up to “the good stuff” for the affluent classes.
“severe mental illness” means…
at best, an object of “cruel compassion” (Szasz). “oh, he’s -schizophrenic- ” or perhaps “too bad; she’s got -severe bipolar- …” on and on. the faux compassion only makes the cruelty worse…colder, more merciless.
I don’t know the people who work in the psych guilds, but I do think that diagnosis is a political decision is a concept worth revisiting. To say: “this individual is a sick person with “Schizophrenia” and needs treatment…” vs “this pathetic weakling needs to get over it, toughen up…personality disorder if I’ve ever seen it!” and every dsm-label in between speaks volumes to the dynamics of the situation, the people in power and their objectives, and the larger social backdrop. and so…
I do think some in the psych guilds are well-intentioned or at least…start out that way. I knew one who seemed to be sticking with it just because he had to bring home the bacon, somehow, and…with a family and a graduate degree in psych stuff, what else was he to do? At some point, he came to his senses and realized: the problem wasn’t a couple of bad apples here and there. it was the guild, itself. but…what to -do- about it?
using stigma, combined with coercion+force+confinement, is a core function of the psych guilds, especially psychiatry. deliberate? Especially with the “experienced professionals,” I’d argue yes. Definitely with those who have a PhD or MD/DO…the higher ups, high priests and priestesses. And…
I will say that the “real doctors” in the medical establishment now strike me as…generally similar to psychiatrists. For the longest time, I wanted to believe — perhaps I made myself believe? — that “real” doctors were a different breed. I don’t think so, now. Plus, in the US at least, lots and lots of “real doctors” engage in acts of psychiatry on a regular basis. The expert-level witch doctors get called in when it suits the referring physicians’ purposes, in many cases.
ugh. Back to Szasz…
Psychiatry is The art of -Lies- . Calling the lowest caste of psychiatrized individuals “severely mentally ill” is a rather clever way of sterilizing and sugar coating “Schizophrenia,” which is psychiatry’s sacred symbol, the ultimate justification for it’s ongoing existence and state-sanctioned powers (again; Szasz). Truth? about that…
its all lies. why define “severe mental illness” when “Schizophrenia” was and is only vaguely described, and then in ways that magically contracted or expanded, depending on the guild’s aims?
I think “radically enlightened” would probably include Szasz. And yet…Szasz waited until after getting tenure to debunk psychiatry, so I suppose he was only “radically enlightened” after damaging scores of people/patients and their families, communities…
and then he embarked on a career as a “radical,” while maintaining a private practice and teaching up and coming psychiatrists. ugh. reality, bites.
I think…especially for those of us here at MIA…”radically enlightened” would mean trying to find a way out and doing whatever possible to stay out of mental health, inc. The road out will probably vary considerably, from person to person; my own observation — and this has been pointed out by others, too — is that many current “recovered” people/”patients” are essentially post-psychiatry in terms of self-identification and such, but…
again: reality, bites. Especially now that “mental illness” is declared to be a never ending struggle and such (this vs the “nervous breakdown” mentality of the 50s), escaping the labels and social damage caused by psychiatry and friends seems — to me, someone too young to have actually experienced the witch doctoring of yesteryear — more difficult, not less difficult.
so…yeah. interesting concept. I think the idea of being “radically enlightened” is probably more appealing to the younger set and also to those who have not been so thoroughly psychiatrized that a more practical, “ok, now what?” – approach is probably…if not more appealing, then at least more realistic.
Having said that, I do hope that those who have never been directly affected by the system and/or have only had minimal, less damaging experiences will become “radically enlightened.” 🙂
at a personal level, I benefit from Orthomolecular psychiatry. Orthomolecular psychiatry seems to have helped mitigate, possible un-do, damage done to me by standard issue (read: chemical warfare on “patient” and “illness”) psychiatry. Would I need the mega-dose vitamins if I hadn’t existed as a psychiatric casualty for years? I kind of doubt it. And yet…I do rather enjoy my vitamins’ side -benefits-, so…there’s that.
at a larger, macro-level…what is needed is -not- yet another “new, exciting” approach to “(severe) mental illness,” but rather a less toxic, more viable approach to life and society and the economy. dare I say…socialism with a side dish of utilitarianism? at the very least…an end to the -especially- draconian and merciless neoliberalism of today’s USA. To me, it seems that things have gone from “trickle down economics” to “stomp ’em down economics,” and the growing numbers of “mentally ill” on disability, in jails and prisons, on the streets, and the suicides and other “deaths of despair” demand change…but who will listen?
and to return to the personal end of things…I think of my own vitamin popping, Bible thumping approach as a sort of…meaningful life, -after- psychiatry, despite the labels. Other have their own “formulas” for making a live-able life, post-psychiatrization. 🙂
Szasz writes extensively on psychiatry as a (rather dangerous) religion. I -would- say “cult,” but cults tend to have tension with the state and also surrounding communities. Psychiatry is a tool of the state and seems to be perfectly at ease within most communities in the 21st century.
Szasz also writes extensively about “Schizophrenia” as psychiatry’s “sacred symbol.” Without “Schizophrenia,” psychiatry would probably not be able to justify it’s ongoing existence.
I do find it absolutely horrifying that so many mainstream religions embrace psychiatry. And those that don’t often choose instead to punish the distressed (and, admittedly, often distressing) individual, rather than take a look at the “bigger picture” and try to make life better for the distressed and those around them. The religious approaches seem to be: “take your meds, see you in church next Sunday!” or “you’re a sinful weakling and those pills are sinful, too. shape up or ship out.”
Shootings — especially in the US, where they have happened and continue to happen with alarming regularity and what seems to be (?) increasing frequency, since COVID — are social problems, not “personal (“mental health”) issues.”
Part of the problem is the neoliberalism-on-‘roids that has taken over the US, at all strata and also has permeated all professions, especially the psych-guilds (because — per Szasz — the psych guilds follow power, and the powers that be are deep into reductionism and the never ending inward gaze of psychobabble). I seem to recall reading some material here on MIA that indicates a noticeable shift since Reagan in the US and Thatcher in the UK, with self-help and the professional psych guilds all turning more towards individualistic, sometimes bio-reductionist, explanations of stress, distress, and madness.
so, no; I do not think that “mental health awareness” and “more treatment!” will put a damper on the killing sprees. Now, it seems that many (most? all?) community mental health clinics in the US have some sort of “crisis mobilization unit,” which as best I can tell involves loading counselors up and sending them out to…
talk? -shrug- Its 21st century America. Compassion, a real listener…these are now commodities, another set of goods and services. My “problem” with this is that the psych guild’s “help” is a deceptive trap, one that ensnares troubled (and/or troubling) individuals, their families, communities…
and, really and truly, society -as a whole- . This is especially problematic in societies that have a democratic ideal and/or a concept of legal rights and responsibilities for their citizens. Again: Szasz, rehashing in the AM because I’m caffeinated and…why not?
I do not think “mental health” will reduce school shooting or do much to address any social problems. I do not think “mental health” is designed to improve society or deal with social problems. At best — where I live, anyway — every once in a while some poor, distressed person gets “pushed over the edge,” the case gets handled as psych case (“treatment”), and the papers run the story with the implication: see, justice and compassion (the “cruel compassion” Szasz writes about, undoubtedly) can and do coexist. The system works.
Other than that…the US is so gun-saturated that I don’t see how gun control laws would have that much of an effect now, anyway. Not that such laws are -doomed- , just…wow, way to wait till it is 15 minutes past “too late.” Perhaps focusing on inequality and finding ways to offer higher quality K-12 public schools, make upward mobility a reality and not a faded recollection of an increasingly distant “back then…”
maybe? Perhaps? At most, I would think a stepped up “mental health” policy would eventually have to include giving some of the perpetrators of various crimes — including intense acts of violence — some sort of “treatment,” not the standard off to prison run. Not because “treatment” is effective in the long run or even humane, just…
At best, I think perhaps an occasional case of a sad, desperate, angry, broken human being given the mercy of insanity (Szasz) could perhaps soften up the rest of us? not to “mental illness” so much as the harsh realities of life in the 21st century, and the understanding that people can and do “snap.” something like that, anyway. 🙂
good points, rebel.
I’m doing a DIY Orthomolecular protocol, so the lithium reference sort of…affirms what Hoffer and other OM “experts” have written, for decades and decades. Except…OM tends to be remarkably non-toxic, so..there’s that. I think some “alternative” practitioners recommend very, very, very low doses of some forms of lithium for distressed people, now and then. Never had much interest because of my lithium=destruction of kidney function association, based on what I’ve observed in others.
very helpful. thank you.
so..at best, psychiatry is offering dozens of palliatives? and…the only substance psychiatry offers that has data proving a genuine benefit on the afflicted (possibly the affliction, too?) is lithium? -lithium- ?
oh man. that’s…well, its sort of what I’d gleaned from my own misadventures and reading, but…wow. that’s billions upon billions of dollars, from tax payers and “patients” and families and insurance companies…
for what, really? not to mention the untold agony of lives destroyed by the labels and the “treatments” and the confinements and…
what is the point, again?
on the plus side…the relative success (compared to everything else, it seems) of lithium makes me wonder if there is more substance to Orthomolecular treatment of various ailments than I had originally thought. Time to restock the C and B3 and read some more Hoffer and Pauling. 🙂
thanks again.
yes! the talking section of the guild is often -worse- than the witchdoctors at pushing “treatment for ‘imbalances, ‘ ” etc. I think…its supposed to be some sort of “no-fault” approach to “treatment…”
its an “imbalance,” because apparently the person/patient’s brain just broke one day, which the “miracle meds” can correct (hooray!), not a result of personal failings, social problems, economic issues, personal history, abuse and/or mistreatment, or…you know, life hitting an individual, in any number of different ways. no, no…not that, not that -at all- . definitely an “imbalance.” definitely.
thing is…without going deep into “bitter ex-patient” territory, here…the talking ones are often just as prone to fraud and deliberate destruction as the pill and shock docs, and they also seem to be more threatened by people with resources or access to resources, any sort of education or intellectual ability, on and on. Personal experience: counselors, in particular, seem to be taking over the talking section in droves. I guess its sort of like the equivalent of using highly trained nurses instead of doctors? sufficient credentials, lower costs…something like that, anyway.
problem? especially in the psych guild, which in the US is (of course…and yes, this is Szasz material, yet again) a pseudoscientific, religious control system operating to maintain the current neoliberal capitalist system…
the “professionals” who are, themselves, on the very edge of the middle-middle class and profiteering and defrauding the vulnerable…
have — in my own, limited experience — proven even more dangerous than some of the higher status professionals. Some critiques of the industry I’ve skimmed over point that the mass produced master’s level counselors a) are not given the “correct training” or…something and b) that the training programs, themselves, leave much to be desired. I suppose that if I thought that any of the psych guild could be reformed and possibly made “helpful,” I might (?) buy into that line of thought, but…
as society continues to modernize and such, people are required to obtain more and more credentials. Seems to be more pronounced in some nations, some economies than in others. Some European nations, for instance, wisely track their students into skilled vocational training (which I would assume involves obtaining credentials, too…) rather than telling people to go to college and get a 4 year degree and live the (dying, largely fictional from the beginning…) American Dream, etc. Point there is…there’s lots of people, in lots of fields, who have mass produced degrees that they obtain without developing much in the way of critical thinking or analytical skills, writing skills, etc., because…
that’s what is bound to happen when the economy demands more and more credentials, and when society places more value on a masters level counselor than a well trained HVAC technician who probably makes more per year (and actually benefits the common good!). 🙂
but…yeah…worse troubles with counselors than psychologists or nurse practitioners. psychiatrists…hellish, but that’s to be expected.
The “imbalance theory” was, at best, a fun lie masquerading as a necessary over-simplification. Dig a little deeper, and…
lies, lies, lies. fraud, fraud, fraud. The deception is deliberate, the destruction is expected. Welcome to Mental Health, Inc. 🙁
what is the title of Szasz’s final book…Psychiatry: the science of lies, or…something like that, anyway. and so…
yeah. lies. lying liars turned their craft into a -science-, complete with MD/DO degrees and real pills for fake diseases.
and, now? now and then, out of…I suppose curiosity mixed with a touch of boredom…I check out the mainstream, health information sites to see what these sites have about the various psych drugs. and…
even now, I see “correct…imbalances…natural brain chemicals…” sort of psych-lies pop up. and…then one has the more honest sites (not that it matters much, but I think WebMD is still bigger with the debunked lies, other sites have taken a more honest, less sugar coated approach…) will have a more correct take on it, for instance emphasizing the “tranquilizing effect” of “antipsychotics” (not -quite- to the point at which these pills are referred to correctly, as neuroleptics or major tranquilizers…but OK…), which is a a result of blocking dopamine and often serotonin, blah blah blah.
the truly sad, honestly…to me, frightening…lingering result of the lies about “imbalances” and the magical meds that “correct” them? now, the pills are so ubiquitous, the lies so obvious, the options so generally non-existent…
“ugh, take your medicine.” odd, add, adhd, sad…mix n match from the alphabet soup of lies and lingo…
take your pills, asap. 🙁
Quality post, Miranda Spencer. 🙂
I agree. And I think…as usual…that I hear Szasz (or at least a good enough paraphrase) in my ear: the industry/guild is -not- a valid branch of medicine. This is social control. If the state did not need (and want!) the psych guild, other “professionals” would not be attempting regulatory acrobatics to make psychiatry “fit” into a medical profession that is increasingly expected to perform to some rather basic standards to justify ongoing government funding through Medicare, etc.
If Medicare-funded primary care doctors performed as poorly as psychiatrists, my semi-educated guess is that at least some “heads would roll,” and some attempts at “shaping up,” or at least…giving the appearance of providing adequate care…would be fairly automatic. I’m picturing committees, perhaps some (over)hyped new regulations, on and on. actual…change? -shrug- no idea. but I do think some professionals would at least attempt -the appearance- of “accountability” (” ” because…buzz word…) and such. and then…
psychiatry. Following Szasz…what is it anyone expects, anyway? drugs into people. labels onto people. people into some sort of confinement, and social invisibility and medicalized slavery. done, done, done. I think the -big- reason other “experts” are doing their very, very best to accommodate (obviously, fraudulent, dangerous, sub-standard, often lethal) “psychiatric care” on the government coffers is because…
they -are- doing their jobs. And that’s what scares the living hell out of me, personally. 🙁
thank you, Krista Hartmann. 🙂
I’m fairly certain all doctors who play their hand at acts of psychiatry know what they’re doing, just as Krista Hartmann pointed out.
Notice: the “antidepressants” are “safe, effective treatment” for “depression…” and also “help” with: “ODD,” “anger management,” vexing “patients” labeled with some flavor “personality disorder…”
on and on and on. Its hard to argue that MD/DO providers (and the vast majority of the underlings, too) are unaware of all this when they openly talk about giving people antidepressants for “head pressure” and something like 2/3 of antidepressant prescriptions from the general practitioner/family doctor realms are handed out -without even bothering to establish a dsm-label- to justify ongoing treatment.
Szasz writes of a Pharmacracy, in which we the “patients” get the pills “we deserve.” The pills one “deserves” depends upon a number of variables that themselves change based on location, the providers’ demographics, on and on….but…
it -does- appear that the lower status one is, the more noxious and downright poisonous the “treatment” becomes. And that’s just the pills. That doesn’t include the non-stop lies and labels from the talking sections of the guild, the periodic confinement in “hospitals” and then often in jails, even prison (Szasz–yes, again– writes of prisons as the place to best truly see what psychiatry is really all about…), and…
rambling, sorry. The mental health industry is itself so damaging and wicked that it should simply be abolished. “Antipsychotics” — the best selling “medications” that are so toxic and unpleasant that the industry is now putting them in LAI (long acting injections), just like the old Haldol and Prolixin drug-induced Parkinsonism depot shots — are not even “antipsychotics,” as many articles on MIA and various posters here have pointed out, already. They are neuroleptics, tranquilizers with such unpleasant effects on mood, outlook, and behavior that they are routinely used as -punishment- by all those “experts” who engage in acts of psychiatry, both “voluntary” (really? is there such a thing?) and (truly, openly, obviously) “involuntary.”
the whole thing is truly ridiculous and infuriating. Today’s “mental health treatment” — drugs into people, talk is optional — is the sort of “treatment” that poor and/or low(er) status people/”patients” have -always- received. My growing, personal concern — and I’ve heard this from other people, at different strata of society — is that the label-drug-out the door approach to “mental health…”
is also the standard approach to -most- healthcare in these united states. and Pharmacracy is bad enough dealing with real pills for fake diseases…
what is happening when the “pills one deserves” means that only “good patients” can get quality, truly helpful, healthcare for -valid- health conditions? -shudder-
Both the pill (and shock…and tms…and occasionally, operations…) pushing branch of “mental health” and the “talking” sections (counselors, psychologists) seem to be focused on sort of “care” that Szasz terms “cruel compassion.”
One needs the pills because of the labels the “experts” have decided upon. The lower one’s status, the more “severe” the label/”diagnosis,” the more damaging the pills, especially over the long haul. That is not only acceptable to the “experts.” it is…
to be accepted by the psychiatrized, too, as part of his/her slow-motion march towards destruction, destitution, and (based on data…) early death. Clozapine, for instance, is ridiculously toxic, but even now is heralded as something of a modern day “miracle med.” Clozapine patients are lauded for “adhering to treatment,” with the implication that these suffering souls endure all sorts of toxic ill effects to control their “severe illness,” blah blah blah. This is an extreme example of telling the (often, understandably miserable) “depressed” patient to “wait it out” on the latest wave of “antidepressants.” Apparently, “treatment is effective…,” but also often (quite) unpleasant. Beating back the evil monster of “depression” is worth the often dangerous adverse effects, especially in the first 1-4+/- weeks, because…”they” say so. 🙁
but yeah, shutting up the “sick” and dehumanizing and often destroying the “sick” is what (often never ending) “treatment” is all about, even with the branches of the industry that claim to focus on psychotherapy, counseling, all that.
Honestly, I think the talking parts of the guild are sometimes -more dangerous- , because their labels are then used by the psychiatrists, psych hospitals to create a never ending cycle of labels, stigma, fraud, and destruction. And then…
-social class- many of the counselors and psychologists I’ve encountered seem to be in somewhat less than secure positions. The counselors are often at the fringes of what’s left of the respectable middle-class, and that seems to be a -huge- problem, at times. Psychologists tend to have more advanced degrees, more resources…
which often makes them even more dangerous (upper class, not as solidly upper class as psychiatrists), as their toxic labels and pseudoscientific “wisdom” is regarded as especially “insightful,” etc. blah. 🙁
psychiatrists…tend to view little things, such as “democracy,” “human rights,” and “quality of life” as rather….inconvenient. 🙁
I really don’t understand it, at all. Most shrinks do med checks, now. What’s the incentive to push people to pop major tranquilizers, especially since now many of the “atypicals” are generic or not far from going off patent? hmmm…
worth noting that -most- psych drugs dampen emotions, reduce cognitive abilities, and overall…impair the aspects of our being that we need the most when suffering. the neuroleptics are on the extreme end.
maybe its because to be psychiatrized is to no longer matter (socially), if one ever mattered, at all? label-drug-done. I think the social function of the psych guild is more about the labeling and invalidating. the drugs, talk, what have you…not the real “point” of society permitting psychiatry free reign, from my perspective.
ugh. “informed consent” hard enough with those practicing in valid branches of medicine. psychiatry? pshaw. 🙁
orthomolecular seems to have resolved my TD. Permanently? -prayers going up- My DIY vitamin cocktail focused on mega-doses of the usual suspects (B3, vitamin C, E, b-complex several times daily, selenium, zinc, beta carotene), plus additional natural antioxidants that I’d add, drop, adjust the dosages periodically, as needed (astaxanthin, green tea extract, grape seed extract, alpha lipoic acid, on and on and on…). and now…
“Are you -still- taking the vitamins?!!” funny, how such a profoundly helpful “alternative” treatment is regarded as…”crazy…” now that I’m tic-free and lucid. whaaaa???
I hope (wish?) that, somehow, the growing number of psychiatric casalties will lead to less psychiatry, or at least a less lethal psychiatry. and…
-sigh- the signs of such change seem to be popping up…in lots of places -except- for the USA. I think its…more because of an incredibly sick culture, a culture that has become so sick that the institutions are fueling more sickness, not maintaining any sort of stability. Also worth noting…
even “liberals” (“what does that -mean- ?) in the US seem to think that a return to the older versions of the state hospital system is somehow…”humane,” possibly even “progressive.” ugh. sick culture…not everyone, all over, just…
far, far too many of us. Maybe its the (possibly intended?) result of Reagan-omics? -eek-
this…honestly, is somewhat painful for me.
Reading things like this…from well-intentioned psychiatrists…makes me realize: the system really is the problem. That is -not- to excuse the many, many sinister individuals I have encountered (and I imagine many, many others have, too) over the years. However…
this sort of material humanizes “the other side” of the guild vs psychiatrized divide.
I cannot imagine why someone would complete an MD or DO, and then go into psychiatry. I’ll write that here, because…its true. Honestly. Other specialties seem to provide decent care without the non-stop destruction that the mental health industry unleashes, all over the world. And yet…
-some- people in the mental health industry are well-intentioned. Sometimes, I think others start out well-intentioned, young-ish and perhaps idealistic or…something…
and then…the system gets them, too. That’s the best, most compassionate explanation my survivor mind has been able to come up with. And then, what? masters degree, phd…in the talking section…DO/MD plus residency for the shrinks…
money and time and years and years and…what to do? where to go? Can’t escape the industry, try to revamp it? speak out against the worst crimes, sometimes? of course…
again, speaking as a survivor…I do my best to extend compassion to the human beings who are in a position to label, drug, shock, and destroy human beings and families…
the system is -far- worse for the labeled, for the drugged, for those who survive only to find a world turned ever more hostile towards them/us…
-because- of the mental health industry. so, there’s that.
Perhaps going into family medicine would be a good option? Honestly, I think just about any and every specialty -except- for psychiatry contributes to the common good.
a licensed doctor who has her own understanding of the current medical literature is told to undergo a psych evaluation because she applies her understanding to prescribe some (legal) prescription medications “off label,” which is a legal practice in the US. what does this mean, really? well, let’s ask Captain Obvious…
the issue at hand is controlling behavior. her behavior is -not- criminal, and it seems no one has even pursued a lawsuit or anything. This (apparently, brilliant) doctor’s behavior is unwanted and/or unacceptable to those with more power than her, to those with authority over her…
bring in the shrinks. going back to Szasz (who else is there to turn to, in cases such as this?), one is reminded: psychiatry is an -antidemocratic- form of social control. “Medicalization of deviance,” etc.
ugh. and so it goes… 🙁
shock “treatment” is just…deliberately inflicted brain damage masquerading as “medical treatment.” Problem? the same is true of psychiatric “treatment,” in general (Szasz, of course).
I do find it rather…horrifying, honestly…to see the shrinks’ reactions to anyone daring to question any aspect of their profession. As a former “patient,” I remember seeing a shrink’s face turn bright, bright red…then he started muttering, under his breath, wrote an Rx in record speed, had me out the door…because I brought up an incident in which I had a seizure from rapid benzodiazepine discontinuation. that’s…established in the medical literature basically from day 1, with Librium. But OK. OK.
Even other professionals within the guild face all kinds of hell on earth for daring to dissent. If I recall correctly, Szasz didn’t become the outspoken, brilliant critic of psychiatry until he had secured tenure. Bills to pay, same as everybody else.
I am thankful that the shock guidelines in the UK are facing scrutiny, thankful for the conflict and controversy. and yet…
“where the rubber hits the road…,” something tells me that nothing short of the abolition of psychiatry — both involuntary (again, Szasz) and what passes for “voluntary” — will bring about true, lasting “progress” for humanity. 🙂
good information, thank you 🙂 .
my own experience has been that social class is a -huge- issue in all aspects of the mental health industry. in the talking section, one has to be “good enough” for talking treatments. “Good enough” is based on a number of predictable variables (social class, education level, age, gender, race, sexual orientation), but also on some factors that I think are harder to discern in large studies, such as…
level of vulnerability. an affluent individual who wants some sort of talking treatment, has resources and good insurance is far less vulnerable than an affluent individual with a history of…drug use, hospitalizations, labels, any criminal/legal entanglements, facing divorce, that sort of thing. basically…
my personal, limited experience has been that the talking experts will rip vulnerable people to shreds, given the chance. labels, gaslighting, over-billing, fraud, referrals to prescribers..
and the ones they cannot rip to shreds are often simply coddled and over-billed. 🙂
ugh. Psychiatrists are bad enough, all by themselves. Add in the work a day “real” (?) doctors who commit acts of psychiatry, usually with no repercussions, and…
ugh. done. stick a fork in me, done. I -am- thankful that the “antidepressants,” in particular, are being targeted for serious review and debunking. On the one hand, one can argue (as I do) that the various neuroleptics — “atypical,” doesn’t matter — are more damaging. This is true. But…
the 31 flavors of “antidepressants” are doled out, left and right, to all sorts of people for any and every “problem” imaginable. one problem I have, now? looking back…the family doctors, in particular, know what the “antidepressants” are all about. they’re also the worst offenders on pushing them on vulnerable and/or low status people (read: “weaklings”) and if things don’t pan out…
refer to some noxious “mental health professional” who gives them kick backs and regular updates on the destruction of the “patient.” ugh.
also worth noting: the “antidepressants” are often step 1 to the total and complete destruction of individuals and families. 16-20 years old, some flavor “antidepressant.” labels, additional pills, labels, incapacitation…
5-10 years later, the individual — if alive — may very well be an impoverished psychiatric casualty. thanks, doc. 🙁
as a survivor/”trouble maker” (the shrinks’ term, not mine…), I have seen and heard how very well aware the psychiatrists and lower level members of the psych guild are of “social determinants” of distress and such…
and I’ve seen and heard, first hand, how -very- little they…care. at all. at the time, young as I was, I found it…horrifying, I suppose? I had this sickening sense that I’d been conned in with smiling faces and repeat prescriptions for mother’s little helpers and uppers…
only to be laughed at and ridiculed by the “helping professions” after they had ripped me to shreds. and now…
I find that there is no worldly escape from 21st century psychiatry, in my situation. my life is meaningful and good, but that’s all despite the mental health industry, not because of their cynical death trap con game. what’s left, in my situation, seems to be an oddly similar…corresponding?…version of the med check money hungry shrink’s story the author quoted in parts of this (well-written, excellent) article…
play the game. my situation is somewhat unique, at least…for the psychiatrized/”mental patients” in my area, at this time. so, I engage in DSM theater on a “voluntary outpatient” basis, as infrequently as I can. for a time, I felt…despite my previous experiences, despite my everything…”bad” or…something. I chose to ignore the “bad/non-compliant” junk and…move forward. and now…
I do think “non-compliance” is often the best “treatment” for the psychiatrized. In many respects, I think it can also be the most…genuinely saddening, truly disillusioning. None of the guild who wield the prescription pad genuinely “care,” and even the cursory smiles and light weight conversation at med checks can become…worrisome, because of my understanding of who these “professionals” really are, what they do, what they have done to other “patients,” what they would likely do to me, given the chance. nothing personal, etc.
excellent article, as always. on a personal note, as I pray and reflect upon the possibility of a true, genuine exit, and mull my options over doing my best in life, right now…
I find Dr.Hickey’s materials especially helpful.
i found that very high dose supplementation (in my case, modified, DIY Orthomolecular) helped facilitate my path to freedom, with a surprising side benefit of improved overall physical health. others prefer herbs, amino acids, on and on and on…
just a random suggestion. i enjoy your writing. 🙂
jumping in too late to say anything brilliant and/or unique, but…
Psychiatry is evil. I think because I am a Christian, I feel more comfortable saying that now than I did in years pre-faith. Not that others cannot say it and mean it, not that people in other belief systems cannot call psychiatry evil with the same level of clarity and such, just…
yeah. for me, church-free Christianity has freed my mind to see the evil in all things mental health-related. pop psychology, self help, personality tests, counseling, “Biblical” counseling, psychotherapy, and of course…
Psychiatry. ugh. I find it difficult to understand how a sociologist could, somehow, view over 3 decades of rampant, socially- and legally-enforced wholesale destruction as a “failure.” Clearly, if psychiatry has been on a nationwide killing spree for 3 decades, this is not a “failure,” it is — as other posters have rightly pointed out, already — quite the success story. ugh.
Reagan was called by some a “friendly fascist,” something similar…and they were -not- wrong. My best guess (keep in mind; I’m only 2 cups of coffee in, lol) is that the “trickle down,” no such thing as “society,” up by your boot straps! – mentality did not radically change psychiatry, so much as it took off the softer, more seemingly humane fuzzy edges that had been put in place in decades past, back when the psychiatric guild thought it best to pretend to care about the common good and individuals caught in their clutches. and then…
yeah, Reagan, apparently. Thatcher, too. Clinton’s Orwellian “welfare reform,” etc. Thing is…
Psychiatry was already evil. Psychiatry has been evil since day -1- . Psychiatry cannot be “reformed” because it is -evil- . I once thought that the talking people in the mental health industry were not evil, possibly even occasionally good, mostly just useless. No…no, no, no. The whole industry is -evil- , and psychiatry is so unbelievably, nauseatingly -evil- that the latest epidemic of mental health is probably going to end -very badly- , not just for the US, but for the whole, wide world. Starts out with the psych guilds gaining popularity as a band aid for faltering, sometimes failing societies…
predictably, the psych guilds will then use their power to damage the individuals, families, communities, and whole societies they claim to “help.” ugh. 🙁
I think…honestly, my -own personal- approach has been to do my best to build a life as a human being who happens to be burdened by a serious psych label. ever read Stigma, by Goffman? brilliant stuff, really. in all likelihood, my labels and lies, etc. will outlive me. I choose not to engage the “mad” vs “severely mentally ill,” etc. so much as…
do what I can, with the resources I have at my disposal, despite the labels. Each individual is different, to some extent. In my own situation — and I also think my outlook as a fairly traditional (but not “conservative”) Christian plays a strong role in this — I choose to see the psych labels/lies as more lies from a fallen world that is filled with lying liars, anyway.
on a day to day basis, I guess I can say…I see the social and legal fiction of “mental illness” at play around me, every day. And yet…
In large part because of my faith, I do believe in absolute truth. To that end, I do not and cannot “believe” in psychiatry anymore than I can believe in any other false religion. 🙂
the more modern Orthomolecular practitioners use the old school OM cocktails…now, to first minimize exposure to neuroleptics and then to ease discontinuation.
thank you so much. 🙂
this ties in nicely with Szasz’s characterization of psychiatry (maybe the talking parts of the mental health guild, too?) as a religion. Not only is psychiatry a religion, in Szasz’s view, it is a “false religion” that both competes with and undermines real religions (I’m thinking those would be the ones that actually contribute to the common good for the masses). and so…
I do think limiting the scope of the “debunking” to psychiatry and friends’ roles in -capitalist- (especially neoliberal) economies very much…misses the point, as another poster has already explained. The USSR had notorious “psycho-prisons” for dissidents labeled with whatever flavor of “schizophrenia” (I seem to recall reading that “sluggish schizophrenia” was a USSR specialty, but I could be mistaken) and then confined and drugged. China currently uses their psychiatric establishment to further oppress minority groups, when the powers that be feel so inclined. Cuba’s health system has an extensive mental health component, as well.
Psychiatry is all about slavery and social control. The religious aspects are secondary, but significant, nonetheless. The pills-a-go go approach to “mental health” that is apparently the norm all over the world in the 21st century drives up costs, risks, and results in death from all sorts of causes on a regular basis. My hope is that at the -obvious- damage that “mental health treatment” causes individuals, families, and entire societies will one day lead to the abolition of psychiatry. to paraphrase Szasz, once again: psychiatry cannot be reformed. It must be abolished. 🙂
hey, oldhead. how’s it going?
I think neoliberalism most obviously began under Reagan (and Thatcher, of course), but I seem to recall reading that some baby steps in the neoliberal direction began under Ford and Carter. I could be wrong, clearly…I’m not an historian or anything.
thanks so much for this…a quality mix of direct quotes and some thoughtful analysis. much appreciated.
and yet…not to play the part of Debbie Downer and/or Bummer Bob, but…I do hope and think that these changes may very well be implemented all over, in places…that are -not- the United States. 🙁
I don’t know what the “deal” with US psychiatry is, honestly. I’m not one to complain lots about “US culture,” per se, its just…wow. wow. FDA says “please put a warning label on ‘antidepressants’ about a possible suicide risk,” and organized US psychiatry says “you’re killing them! you’re killing the children!”
that’s just -1- example. maybe its the neoliberalism that’s taken over since the 70s or so…and is now threating to turn fascist? sick societies=sick people, and neoliberalism has definitely sickened US culture, at all strata. Plus…now that the only people who really “matter” are those in the top 20% or so…why even bother pretending to be the least bit compassionate? -nobody cares-
and yet…”keep hope alive,” etc. 🙂
i don’t see how pursuing a career in the mental health industry as a psychiatric survivor could be beneficial. I suppose having a salaried position with job stability is the only real perk I can think of…admittedly, that’s a huge one. Other than that…
the industry itself is dedicated to enslaving anyone they can. to top it off, the entire industry — from the prominent psychiatrists who write books and offer their lies/”expert opinions” on TV on down to the counselors barely scraping by working in public/community mental health clinics — is based in fraud, deception, control, and violence. and yet…
one can see the appeal of wanting to change/reform a system, I suppose. Obviously, it does not help that the stigma of psych labels and “treatment” are difficult to escape, and I think the level of difficulty is actually greater, now, than it was in decades past. Neoliberalism, maybe?
To paraphrase Szasz, once again: the mental health industry cannot be reformed. It must be abolished. 🙂
thanks for this and all your other work. seriously. I live in the US, where direc to consumer drug ads have been legal for a while (maybe 20 years, now?), and the (highly profitable) pill for every ill outlook is more or less inescapable. Your work is…not to be cliche or anything, but…truly, a breath of fresh air (and much needed honesty, of course).
I just wanted to jump in and say that psych drug discontinuation is a tricky business, indeed. What strikes me, having somehow survived it in years past, is the cruelty of psychiatrists. I don’t doubt that family doctors make mistakes, but with the psychiatrists, it is truly cruel, sometimes to the point of true sadism. rapid tapers of high potency benzodiazepines, for instance. My own opinion is that this is not any sort of ignorance on the psychiatrist’s part, it is, rather, yet another example of deliberately inflicted pain and harm by pseudo-doctors.
as a side note: I have personally found high dose supplementation (inspired by old school Orthomolecular) quite helpful in facilitating psych drug discontinuation. In the older literature, one reads about MDs prescribing (often surprisingly low, given the era) doses of neuroleptics alongside vitamin therapy. The more modern literature I have come across is surprisingly honest in their assessment of neuroleptics (in particular) as damaging and the potential for careful supplementation to save people/’patients’ from an early grave, ongoing disability, etc.
Thanks, yet again. 🙂
the mental health industry is destructive and deadly, on both individual and social levels. to that end, I personally do not care to talk to a “professional,” nor do I care to take their neurotoxins. Having survived “treatment,” by the grace of God, my personal approach is to avoid mental health, inc. and also encourage others to do the same. and then…
as many other posters have pointed out, suicide is a social problem, not a psychological or psychiatric one. This has been evident since the 19th century, when Durkheim did a (now classic) study on suicide. and yet…
perhaps -not- surprisingly, mental health, inc. demands more and more funding to “treat” more and more individuals suffering from the fall out of social and economic problems…
and instead of dealing with the core problems — the woes of neoliberalism, social disintegration, the collapse of many families and communities, on and on and on — the powers that be are all too happy to jump on the “mental health awareness” bandwagon. and why shouldn’t they be?
providing daily bread, adequate housing, health care, legal rights, and fostering the (re)development of community are all potentially do-able…
but not under the current neoliberal nightmare, not even under a patched up neoliberal system. some data has indicated that the level of inequality and stratification in the US, in particular, is damaging to people all over the socioeconomic spectrum. how could it not be? perhaps, one day this society — and others, too — will see real, meaningful change towards a society that is more humane, less sick and sickening. in the meantime…
mental health, inc. is providing a band-aid, I guess. not for the people “in treatment,” but we/they are not the problem, after all. my concern is that the latest epidemic of “mental health” will never be stopped, not even contained; rather, this ‘epidemic’ seems to have the potential to grow and grow, ensnaring more and more people in psych slavery. 🙁
thank you for your work. The thing about psychiatry is…
they know what they’re doing. I’m not arguing for a bunch of evil geniuses, cackling with glee over all their victims’, but…
they know what they’re doing. the same drugs that a shrink pushed on you (and so many others, so generalized ‘you,’ of course) for ‘depression’ or perhaps ‘anxiety’ the same psychiatrist (or a colleague, blah blah blah) pushed on a working class kid with an attitude for ‘oppositional defiant disorder,’ or perhaps a poor non-white kid in juvenile detention, foster care…for ‘conduct disorder,’ or simply to make them more manageable.’
the same psychiatrist who smiles and has the warmth and professionalism for a respectable person/patient with good insurance or the means to go to a self-pay/cash-pay doctor has, in all likelihood, deliberately destroyed low(er) status people. drugged them, ignored TD, toxic cocktails, over billing, on and on and on…
and that’s just the pills. shock ‘treatments…’ how many victims of shock did my previous psych have a hand in destroying? operations? those are supposed to be rare, now…I”m not so sure, honestly.
on and on and on it goes. Mental Health, Inc. is a dangerous industry filled with dangerous, deceptive individuals. I highly doubt most ‘professionals’ in the industry (the talking ones, the pill pushing ones…doesn’t matter, really…) have any interest in the truth, except in cases where they can bend the truth and make more money, get more power, etc. at a larger level, this leads me back to Szasz (again) who writes that psychiatry cannot be reformed; it must be abolished. some things never change….
my best guess (?) is that ‘patients’ who come in with sufficient leverage (education, social class, overall clout…probably helps to be male, heterosexual, and white…) can ‘haggle’ with the shrinks. before I managed to get over it (and get over myself, to be perfectly honest), I was able to haggle. To my credit, I wasn’t haggling for anything amazing or euphoric, just…fewer drugs, lower doses, less toxic pills. ok. that’s where I was, not too long ago, so…I sort of ‘get’ your position, to a certain extent. and yet…
personally…where I am now…I don’t want to ‘haggle’ or ‘be my own psychiatrist’ any more than I want to cooperate in any other form of oppression, slavery (Szasz), or slow-motion (self) destruction. over it, thanks.
to basically steal from Szasz, yet again…
psych ‘treatment’ changes more based on…dogma, funding, social factors, economic factors, and…did I mention funding?
I think this includes the doctors who engage in acts of psychiatry, while (thankfully…) contributing to society by specializing in…wait for it, wait for it…-real medicine- .
i highly doubt educating affluent, well-educated, powerful guild members in an effort to encourage restraint will do…much, of anything, at all. based on the history of uppers by prescription…and quaaludes…and barbiturates…and the neuroleptics…
expensive, publicized lawsuits, license revocations, perhaps putting Dr.Speedy McSpeedball in prison (and televising it) -might- help…
with controlled substances — especially with the mental health guild– legislation is crucial. the US love affair (middle class and up, mostly white) with ‘pep pills’ and ‘goof balls’ and…on and on and on…didn’t start to truly fade until ritalin and the amphetamines were put in Schedule II in 1970. even then…
the decade of coke and downers for those with sufficient means and inclination had -already begun- . I’m guessing that, with the myth of ‘ADD/ADHD’ firmly entrenched, even in the real medical specialties that do, in fact, -know better- , one might expect a drop in prescribed uppers…
when some new, ‘safe! effective!’ treatments come out, preferably on patent and with a glitzy marketing campaign. then, expect to hear that Speed Kills! (again), till…
next time. 🙁
how wonderful to see more honesty about tapering arguably the -worst- class of psych drugs…
from way over in the UK, lol. I am thankful that slow, gradual, steady tapering of the neuroleptics/major tranquilizers is -finally- gaining traction, in ‘expert’ circles, as a possible maneuver…
i live in the us. if thy psych drug doth offend thee…ask about another one! add on, switch, something just as needed, maybe you were misdiagnosed and need a different 3-5 drug cocktail? on and and on and on..
meanwhile, the ‘recovery model’ has been incredibly ’empowering…’ to all the -wrong- people. i don’t know if it is the nature of the mental health industry, or if its the mix of mental health + US socioeconomic factors, but…
‘the asylum without walls’ is here, and it is frightening. 🙁
Szasz writes — probably in The myth of mental illness — that psychiatric ‘treatment’ is deliberately inflicted brain damage. drugs, shock, operations, what have you…brain damage is -the core- of ‘somatic treatments’ in psychiatry.
factor in medicare payouts for elderly ladies, the money to be made by everyone involved in the ‘treatment team,’ and the short-term ‘benefits’ (read: confused, compliant people…perfect, by psych standards…), and it becomes abundantly clear that psychiatry is psychiatry is psychiatry…
and psychiatry cannot be reformed; it must be abolished (again, Szasz). 🙂
I’d be interested to know what kind of support networks the different groups had going, income and social class measures, etc. thing is…
a “Schizophrenic” with extensive support from a family in the top 20% or above may very well be able to taper off the tranquilizer and find an ‘exit’ from mental health, inc…
while a person with ‘psychotic depression’ with no outside support and few resources may very well be stuck in the ‘sick role,’ indefinitely. and at a personal level, someone with few resources, no outside support may not be able to drop the tranquilizer as easily (at all?).
szasz, of course, is correct; involuntary acts of psychiatry must be outlawed
as a side note, the for profit confinement centers are notorious for whole new levels of fraud and deception. the cchr has been involved in a number of cases in the US, one of which shuttered a number of for profit ‘facilities.’
until psychiatry — ‘voluntary’ and involuntary — can be abolished, educating the public is probably the best way to protect more people. educating people on the enormous costs of psychiatry and friends, along with the incredible amounts of suffering caused by the industry, would probably be a good step. 🙂
at a practical level, this might be…”progress” ? professional manipulators using a softer form of social control vs the open, honest brutality one often gets from cops?
either way, curbing unwanted behavior, controlling unwanted people is the goal…maybe this is cheaper, over the long haul? and yet…
jail, prison, mental ‘hospitals…’ are places of punitive confinement, but their purpose is (fairly) clear, obvious. the ‘expert’ abuse of language is a (potentially) less punitive means to the same end, but then the bars, the locks…are placed -within- the individual. strikes me as dangerous, personally.
interesting article. it reminds me of some Szasz, in which he compares psychiatry to both religions (a false religion that infiltrates and undermines real, established religions, if I recall correctly) and to the Inquisition.
I don’t know that “cult” is the best term…perhaps dangerous form of slavery and social control, masquerading as medicine while using pseudo-spiritual terminology (“healing” — how often do we hear -that one- , in today’s society?) to entrap and destroy…well, these days, it would seem pretty much anyone the industry can grab a hold of, at all. 🙁 but what to call it? false religion is good. cult sort of implies that there’s a charismatic leader at the center of all this, and I don’t see one. And yet…
psychiatry is more dangerous than any cult I can think of, just off the top of my head. Don’t want to “drink the Kool-Aid” ? too bad. they’ll get a judge to sign an order permitting a nurse to inject you with the Kool Aid. 🙁
“informed psychiatric care without stigma” ?
what else do people want? world peace? an end to poverty? not to be snarky (OK, maybe a bit…), but…not going to happen. ever.
as sam plover already posted, “informed psychiatric care without stigma,” for -anyone- , is not only a pipe dream, such “care” runs counter to what the mental health industry is really about. stigma is a huge weapon in psychiatry’s arsenal (I’d argue the same goes for counseling, psychotherapy…any sort of ‘mental health treatment,’ really). stigmatizing people for power and profit is a core part of psychiatry’s function in society, -any- society, anywhere. always has been, always will be.
I think it is Szasz who writes something to the effect that psychiatry (Szasz being…Szasz…he, of course, means involuntary psychiatry) cannot be reformed. It must be abolished.
I do not have any sort of “problem” with this psychiatrist, but…I don’t think psychiatry, as a field, can be made into anything genuinely “helpful,” much less meaningful…and definitely, never ever, in any way shape or form, can psychiatry somehow magically re-work itself into becoming a valid branch of medicine.
At an individual level, I am glad that this particular psychiatrist has chosen what seems to be a less toxic, less dangerous way of doing business. However, at best, that is harm reduction, and this individual psychiatrist’s pursuit of a less abusive, less damaging sort of psychiatry makes her and those like her in the field…
exceptions who prove the rule. 🙁
thank you for the contribution.
having said that, i do wonder…why bother with psychiatry, as a career? family medicine/general practice, maybe? dermatology? pain management, even? options…lots of them…
nothing against this retired psychiatrist, btw. i can see being young and thinking that this is somehow a way to improve lives, maybe even help society, especially in the 50s and 60s (you know, back when society was a “thing,” before it became just individuals, all at each others’ throats…).
i’ve seen how even the same clinic, the same talking person, the same psychiatrist…can put on a song and dance when one has leverage, good insurance, ‘good family…’
and then when the insurance is out, the family is estranged, no leverage…the mask comes off.
and then when the mask goes back on…some social theater, just suspend your disbelief…forget what came before…
at a larger level, the many guises of psychiatry…tea and sympathy for the troubled; compassion for the suffering; confinement for the ‘dangerous and ill,’ etc…
cover up the 2 core functions: social control and slavery. 🙂
ugh. psychiatry is the same, perhaps just sneakier, and there’s more and more of it in today’s epidemic of psychiatry.
critics of psychiatry are always criticized (at the very least), often punished, because psychiatry is an enforcement arm for society, above all else. the power vested in the hacks and their ideology is immense, and victims and dissidents are silenced and demonized.
sad, sad, sad. i am grateful for this research.
something tells me that the powers that be are tightening the screws on the masses. 🙁
This is not real medicine. Mental health inc is a dogmatic belief system that needs to be outlawed.
I think itd be awesome if mental health inc was abolished. Notice that people are fleeing other forms of organized religion in droves. The difference is that this profit driven cult will have to be outlawed.
true. somehow, that escaped my mind while I was writing my reply. Maybe I was day dreaming, a bit?
thanks for your reply. 🙂
thank you for this, Dr.Moncrieff. well-written, succinct, and well-researched. 🙂
as a “consumer” / “client” / “mental patient,” I find there are times when I yearn for a real, honest to goodness asylum. A place of respite, of protection…from a hostile, cut throat society. Is there such a place, now? Was there ever, really and truly?
The asylum system Dr.Moncrieff describes seems to stem from a genuine sort of noblesse oblige, and I would assume also from a value system of a bygone era, one marked by far more cohesion and stability than the anomic, disintegrating world that neoliberalism has brought us.
I am thankful that Dr.Moncrieff and her colleagues have taken the time to do thorough research and offer a more nuanced, thoughtful perspective on the asylum than those of their predecessors.
Could modern society revive the asylum system, most likely in a modified form? Perhaps. Where I live, all the ‘experts’ emphasize ‘recovery’ and ‘the recovery model.’ Truth? I don’t think the US will throw the poor and working classes crumbs at this point, much less a clean, safe, quiet place of retreat from the neoliberal nightmare. Should an asylum system take hold in these United States, it will, in all likelihood simply mirror an increasingly unjust, harsh, inhumane society. No, thank you.
I appreciate Dr.Moncrieff’s disillusioned reflection upon the rather dismal rates of recovery from Schizophrenia. Is “Schizophrenia” even…real? Honestly, at a personal level, I don’t care. Sometimes, the mind breaks. The mind can break towards what they call ‘mania,’ and then the chances of (re)joining mainstream society are favorable. When the mind breaks in the way that they call “Schizophrenia,” then one’s chances of such a (re)integration are low. Perhaps a humane, livable asylum would prove an ideal situation, both for those in the asylum and for society, as a whole.
more quality research out of the UK. 🙂
what I like (personally) : the ill effects of poverty are being taken more seriously by those in power, those with resources, those with credentials.
what I don’t like (personally) : its the damn psych establishment, again. poverty is bad because now the ‘experts’ say so, and they’ve run their fancy tests to make it a health issue.
I’d really like to see poverty presented (again) as a moral issue, and also a social problem. If the end results are more and better anti-poverty programs and maybe, just maybe a thorough analysis of the horrors of neoliberalism, then…perhaps, as a practical matter, getting the psych-brigade involved will prove to be beneficial. having said that…
what’s wrong with society, now, that people cannot just say poverty is morally repugnant and unacceptable, especially in affluent nations?
thank you for this, Leah Harris. Seriously. 🙂
to me, remembering this former candidate’s mental health plan is important because…it shows what the elites want, really. not just the psych industry, not just the families, but those higher up, those who make big, big decisions for the 99+/- % of us in the USA, day in+day out.
so, apparently, draconian and ineffective measures– by ‘ineffective’ I mean policies that further damage the quality of life for ‘the least of these’ in these United States– have broad support in DC. E. Fuller Torrey and friends are helping frame the discussion, so common sense and the voices of those actually affected are effectively silenced.
I hope+pray the psych laws swing towards something more humane, less…oppressive and cruel. But then again, Szasz pointed out (in one of his many, many books on the subject…) that the psych guilds are pseudo-medical specialties that deal in lies, stigma, and–here’s the big one– social control.
my best -guess- is that this oppression, couched in self-serving jargon and mystification, is not limited to the psychiatrized or the disabled, and unless something is done about out of control inequality, pockets of deep poverty, wage stagnation, the decimation of the middle-middle class and the concentration of inordinate amounts of wealth into ever fewer hands…
more and more people will find themselves in some sort of under-class, kept under control by increasingly harsh, even violent, methods. again, my best -guess- is that the psych guilds will be there, drugs and lies and labels and all, to ‘help’ the under-classes, no matter the official category (felons, probationers, welfare recipients, drug users, etc.). power is power, after all.
the current epidemic of psychiatry seems to be the most frightening one, yet. 🙁
i like your take on this. I think it is worth noting–stealing from Szasz, as usual–that if and when a “mental illness” is shown to have a biologically rooted cause…it is no longer a “mental illness,” and the treatment is handed over to (real) doctors.
psychiatry as a pseudo-medical form of class warfare. that and…
poverty sucks. 🙁
i beg to differ. ‘antidepressants’ -are- amazingly effective!
Prescribing real drugs to treat faux disorders is profitable for professionals and drug companies. Society as a whole benefits by pretending that perfectly understandable reactions to unbearable conditions is a “treatable disorder,” and therefore the answer is more emphasis on ‘treatment,’ not figuring out what the hell is going wrong, with everybody (and their mama) on ‘antidepressants.’
oh, and…the pills shut people up. If that doesn’t work…add more pills. Even if they ditch the pills, they’ve been silenced by psych ‘treatment,’ since the records will -never- be destroyed.
psych-guilds…
manifest functions — ‘treatment of mental illness,’ especially ‘severe mental illness.’ (re)integrating the afflicted/’sick’ person into society, or perhaps providing ‘long term care,’ when appropriate.
latent functions — control. punishing outliers, misfits, the poor and working classes, non-whites, non-males. creation+control of a (growing) under-class. profit. infiltrating and subverting the major social institutions (education, family, religion, etc.).
this is mostly lifted from Szasz, of course. I think his last book is Psychiatry: the science of lies, or something to that affect. An industry built upon lies might be expected to flourish–with enough gov’t cash infusions, social support, etc.– in ‘sick’ (anomic, violent, disintegrating) societies. Societies that are not as ‘sick’ probably have less use for such an industry.
so they want to be amateur sociologists, armed with MD/DO degrees? ummm…ok. why not…
abolish Mental Health, Inc. and put the -actual- Sociologists in charge of society, outliers included?
+1, both of you. 🙂
it occurs to me that if one core objective of ‘psychiatric treatment’ is to shut people up, then the last, last, last thing the guild wants is to hear from pissed off people who were once ‘patients.’
I am thankful for this article. At the same time…
is there some way this data could (possibly) serve as a springboard, from which to take a serious look at the damage caused to all sorts of people from all sorts of counseling, psychotherapy, group therapy, etc.? CBT, DBT, on and on…
harm.many.people.
Psychology and psychiatry are more powerful, and therefore more damaging to more people, than when The Myth of Mental Illness was first published. Some random thoughts from me…
1) religions are designed to deal with distress, provide guidance, now and then tangible assistance to followers. I suppose in a postmodern, highly secularized era Mental Health, Inc. is the state-sponsored religion all are expected to follow (?), and…
2) this doesn’t sound so much like a “revolution in mental health” as it does a shift in the methods of control Mental Health, Inc. uses to keep the misfits+outliers+troubled+just about anybody under control. Fewer pills, more talk. so, I’m thinking…
3) this is probably also something of a power grab, disguised as a “revolution.” Mental Health, Inc. in charge of ‘education provision,’ handling the financial needs of the poor and working classes…
with the goal, it seems, of taking the current Therapeutic State up several notches.
Ideally, Mental Health, Inc. should be somehow put out of business. At a practical level, the industry seems to grow ever more powerful, year by year. Perhaps a softer touch is the best that one can realistically expect, at this point, at least for society as a whole.
‘within the velvet glove lies the iron fist’ 🙁
i don’t actually hate psychiatry or individual psychiatrists. forgiveness is something i’m working on. i just think its crazy, that such pseudoscientific junk is allowed to run rampant in modern society, leaving so much damage in its wake.
I honestly sometimes wonder if psychiatry is straight up evil. I seem to recall reading that Dr.Breggin came to the conclusion that it may very well be evil, so its not just me. deal is…
I’m a Christian, right? Right. I don’t vote GOP or hate people, so a lot of people don’t think I’m a Christian. But…deal is…a part of traditional Christianity (you know, before the shrinks infiltrated) is a belief that there is also an evil one, and he has lots of underlings. I don’t get too into all that, because I’m focused on forgiveness and love, but…
psychiatry strikes me as evil, or at least…wicked, filled with people who lie, lie, lie all the time…they lie. The whole industry is based on lies and destruction of anyone and anything they come into contact with, and that’s been the case since -day 1- . the affluent could pay for their ne’er do wells to be kept at Bedlam, for instance. Remember “drapetomania,” the “disease” that made slaves desire freedom? It isn’t just the US and it isn’t even just capitalist societies, either…psychiatry in China is wicked and cruel, psychiatry in the USSR was notoriously sinister…
wicked. wicked, sometimes evil, almost always mediocre, at best…that, I think, describes most of the worker bees in mental health, inc. the industry itself is downright diabolical.
to be fair to psychiatry, the medical establishment as a whole is rather authoritarian. i don’t know what goes on in other developed nations, but here in the US, there’s been some research on violence within the medical system–apparently, physical aggression towards people lower on the totem pole is an issue. and…
for all this talk of care and compassion, profit is the name of the game. just look at the rise of ‘concierge medicine.’
but with psychiatry–which is not real medicine, although they do make heavy use of real drugs– I have come to think that the answer is abolition, honestly. the costs, the damage to human beings, the damage to the legal system and even education and religion…
too, too much. I do not think voluntary psychiatry should even be allowed. i do not think the talking guilds that usually work with psychiatry should be allowed to continue, either.
i agree with PD. No doubt, Open Dialogue may prove less harmful, to some people, in some respects…
that’s not saying much. I think of it as applying the ‘harm reduction model’ to Mental Health, Inc. perhaps better in some respects, for some people…
not a viable long term solution. I also think this is dangerous, because one speaks of a “democratic atmosphere” in Mental Health, Inc., and…
that is not possible. It’d be like a Jewish Eucharist or an atheist mass. psychiatry -is- a human rights abuse, after all.
I do (obviously) think the distressed need “help.” “Help” often means…real healthcare, money, freedom, a voice. Real “help” scares the “helping professions…”
because they’re really just in existence to “help” the powers that be. 🙂
as much as I’d love to disagree with this…
I cannot.
“Healing” and “recovery” are part of the secular faith that I’m beginning to realize most people believe in, even when their own experiences and those of people close to them run counter to dogma drilled into us from all angles. Even what remains of the old religious institutions have been largely infiltrated by Mental Health, Inc.
A journey out of and away from Mental Health, Inc. is a lonely experience, indeed.
i enjoyed reading this…the author’s perspective should be valued. debated, perhaps, but…valued, nonetheless.
I’m torn between thinking that many (most? all?) stories of ‘recovery’ are really psych survivor stories, edited and retold by the same Mental Health, Inc. that caused much (sometimes all…) of the troubles in the first place….and then thinking…
well, people have always gone batshit crazy insane. Some people could come to function in their communities, some got new jobs, such as shaman or witch or…anyway, others were disposed of, left to wander the streets in never ending pain and social rejection. so…
for now, is reforming Mental Health, inc. perhaps the best step, for most of the mad? if they say ‘hooray! you’re in recovery!,’ is it best to stop and debunk, or is it actually best to…go along with this rather absurd social theater?
i really don’t know. and if recovery and the recovery segment of Mental Health, inc.=jobs/careers for some and also=more humane experiences in Mental Health, Inc…
that’s a worthwhile use of time and resources, right?
I am thankful for your work in this area. 🙂
Having said that…oppression and control are the name of the game at community mental health centers all over the nation. where I live…well, funding for hospitalization has been shredded, so the emphasis on outpatient treatment -can- mean the person/patient/consumer/? has more bargaining power, sometimes. other times, it just means…more olanzapine, depakote, trazadone cocktails, with the threat of court orders lingering over many peoples’ heads.
i guess im just…not convinced that mental health, inc. can be reformed. i think in some places, where the variables are in alignment, it can happen (less rabidly ‘conservative,’ funding for alternatives, legal aid to the people/patients/consumers, a vocal subgroup interested in reform…), but…
speaking for many of the “Severely mentally ill” in 21st century America…
on a day to day basis, the best I can do is to just…do me, and pray+plan for a quiet, graceful exit.
im so happy she’s running. seriously. no, she won’t win. but as long as she’s in the race…she gets media attention, and what she says piques interest in a good % of people. Now, she’s widely regarded as “crazy,” “stay on your meds, hahaha,” but who knows? 10, 20 years from now…her ideas might be implemented, with a “respectable” candidate behind putting “kooky” ideas into practice. or not. for all I know, the US might be a neo-fascist rogue state 20 years from now, run by psychiatrists, corporations, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Time will tell…
she is correct, of course. there are some people who swear up and down that ‘antidepressants’ (the term is ridiculous, btw) make life…(more) live-able. but..by and large, the pills are thrown out there to shut people up and to give the ‘cruel compassion’ of ‘treatment’ to more and more (and more…) people. it is worth noting, of course, that the ‘antidepressants’ are the current ‘quick fix,’ I guess kind of like Librium or Valium back in the day, but on a wider scale (and with so many new flavors!), but…
remember Szasz…Psychiatry is the science of -lies- , and any MD, DO, or nurse practitioner who dishes out psych drugs is trying their hand at psychiatry, and is therefore…lying. “atypical antipsychotics” are also used to shut people up, especially lower status, more vulnerable populations. I’ve seen controlled substances used both to shut people up and to keep people/’patients’ coming back (private practice), and then used as a tool of control (bad behavior: bye bye, xanax…less often: good behavior…hello, Adderall).
i dont expect Marianne Williamson to destroy psychiatry, or even…try. I’m just delighted that she’s gotten this far, complete with media attention. 🙂
Pope John Paul II wrote a good bit about what he termed “The Culture of Death,” and the way this death culture was taking over and destroying much of modern culture. I read some of what he wrote, then I visited the cchr website, where they discuss psychiatry as “the Industry of Death,” or something similar, and…
I see overlap, obviously. Psychiatrists start patients off on a downward spiral and then see them off to death itself on a regular basis. Sometimes, the death is “natural causes,” but hastened by psych drugging. Other times, the death is suicide, often with prescribed drugs or in part because of altered states induced by Rx treatment. And then…
the unfortunate ones who end up destitute, broken, severely brain damaged -but still alive- often seem to end up homeless, in jail, or in prison. Maybe more ‘progressive’ states use the state hospital, but where I live, the state hospital has somehow become a place where only extreme cases go, unless there’s a good lawyer involved…and I think my state is fairly typical in that regard.
we do live in a sick society (I’m speaking of the US here). But…the witch doctors are making us all ever more sick and truly destroyed, for filthy lucre’s sake.
When does it stop? Will it stop?
I think one reason I have difficulty imagining myself organizing with other ex-patients/survivors, etc. is because…we’re a silenced bunch, already. Especially for those of us who have survived and overcome severe treatment and all that junk, the powers that be get angry when we use our voices, raise our voices, God forbid yell…
because the whole point is to shut us up, isn’t it?
well written, thorough, and…well done, is what I’m getting at, Dr.Burstow.
i read, somewhere, that the word “radical” originally dealt with roots (I hope I didn’t pick that up from some of your previous articles, obviously). and…in today’s ‘post-truth,’ (probably deliberately) dumbed down and drugged up world…
getting to the root of just about any issue, institution, belief system, etc. is…”radical,” indeed.
thanks for the ‘radical’ examination of eugenics and psychiatry, Dr.Burstow. 🙂
i managed to duck and dodge depot injections, thank goodness. i remember going into a nurse’s office, at a clinic…she had the Haloperidol vial, in a box, on her desk…she was chatting me up, she was supposed to do an AIMS test, didn’t happen. seeing the long acting vitamin H vial on her desk kind of…made me realize how cruel psychiatry can be, how harsh and controlling.
my problem with advocating minimal use of neuroleptics is -not- that it is ‘bad advice.’ the ‘issue’ i have with such advice is that…in psychiatry, there always seem to be ’emergencies,’ ‘unusual situations,’ etc. there was always a reason to do a lobotomy (‘better to operate than to wait!’), always a reason to push the dosage higher (‘dosage optimization,’ is the going term, I believe), always a reason to disregard whatever common sense recommendations are/were in place…
‘give an inch, they’ll take a mile.’ Dr.Steingard and psychiatrists like her are rare…and I kind of sense that the younger generations of psychiatrists lack the thoughtfulness, the nuance, the finesse, of some of the older set. of course…the elites in today’s America have thrown noblesse obllige out the window, now its all about Ayn Rand…maybe that’s why psychiatrists now are so much more dogmatic, controlling, and cruel? class warfare, playing out in clinics all over America? maybe that explains this growing interest in depot injections, the hi-tech Abilify that tattles on the ‘non-compliant,’ etc…
control of the growing under class, the alienated, the unemployed and/or under-productive. something like that, anyway. 🙂
a problem with not using the labels is that the lables have power, social meaning, and I thnk not using them, oddly enough, disempowers us (again, for a lot of us). example…
‘schizophrenia’ drugs tied to reduced lifespan
what’s the alternative? the ‘ ‘ allows the critics and survivors to engage the mental health industry using its own vocabulary. the ‘ ‘ is a quick way to start the debunking from the headline, onwards. of course…one could try
neuroleptics reduce lifespan
which is true, but even medical articles often use the term ‘antipsychotics’…its a thing, now. and for people just dropping into mia, the 1st title makes the information more accessible.
the ” ” around so much gets cumbersome, but…what’s the alternative, really? to be fair to the many contributors to MIA, this place represents ideology and positions running the spectrum from ‘reform mental health, inc.’ to ‘abolish mental health, inc.,’ with (predictably) a whole lot at various points between those two poles. and yet…
with all due respect to the ‘reform’ camp, callling distress and reactions to oppression, poverty, anomie, etc. ‘depression’ or other sorts of ‘(severe) mental illness’ is not bad or wrong because it ‘rubs me the wrong way,’ or even because it ‘doesn’t fit in’ the new(er) discourse, but rather…
the dsm/icd classifications are not based on fact. how’s that for ‘reality testing,’ y’all? 🙂
shutting people up does, in fact, seem to be what the entire mental health industry is really about, and pills are a quick and lucrative way to get the job done. good article. 🙂
that’s my problem, right there. in some of his writings, Szasz shows such callous disregard for the poor and the marginalized…
its obvious, he’s a psychiatrist. 🙂
controlling the poor, the under-employed, the unemployed, and the occasional ne’er do well is one part of psychiatry’s core mission. what concerns me is that now their power and influence have reached into the upper strata of our world, and it strongly intersects with the legal system. entertainers regularly “come out” as whatever flavor Bipolar and encourage the masses to ‘seek help.’ now and then, wealthy people manage to obtain favorable outcomes for legal problems–provided they pursue “treatment,” of course. i dont usually care for entertainment news and such, but my take on it is…
once they’ve gotten their claws on the 1%-ers, they’ve basically got all of society in their clutches. factor in the successful infiltration of the established church in the US and “TeenScreen” and other projects, and…
its just overwhelming, ridiculously intimidating. I do not see much in the way of critical analysis coming out of the US, which…makes sense, but again, scares me a bit. 🙁
The CCHR is funded by The Church of Scientology. I personally do not have a problem with that arrangement, as long as the CCHR has adequate funding to pursue its mission.
Szasz’s libertarianism has long been a problem for me, a “bleeding heart liberal” who otherwise agrees with his analysis of psychiatry and all things “mental health,” based upon my own experiences and also on the writing of others (Kate Millet, Foucault, Whitaker, etc.) that have influenced my outlook. I have found it is not only possible, but necessary, to appreciate Szasz’s deconstruction of psychiatry and friends without buying into his elitist libertarianism.
My perception of the current situation is that the therapeutic state is not only very much still with us, its powers have grown exponentially since The Myth of Mental Illness was first published. From a position of power and privilege, some mental health professionals can now pick and choose from Szasz’s writings that which they accept, that which they reject, that which they will accept with modifications. Because the mental health industry is now so incredibly powerful, so deeply rooted in all aspects of life in modern culture…
“business as usual” will remain unchanged, and the religion of psychiatry and related field will continue to grow in power and size, growing ever more oppressive and inescapable (“give an inch, they’ll take a mile”).
dragging people down with labels and ‘treatment’ and stigma is what psychiatrists do. poor people, working class people, ‘uppity’ women, drug users, misfits, the ‘too intelligent,’ those who have a hard time learning…
why not attempt to drag a long dead genius down, honestly? they do it to everybody else, right?
I think Dr.Cohen’s comment about force is best put into context. My take on it is that force simple…is, it exists and is used to maintain social cohesion. I interpreted his statement as simply an observation, a statement of fact. now…
I think the US is leaning more on mental health, inc. precisely because this society now requires more coercion and straight up force than in years past, largely due to social disintegration. Mass incarceration and the police state are (apparently) not quite enough to maintain the status quo, and so…
Mental Health, Inc. has now taken over the schools, the churches and other places of worship, the mass media, the courts, the family. Basically…the false religion of ‘mental health’ has now successfully infiltrated all important social institutions.
Not that I want to (or should) single out the US. Other, more ‘progressive’ nations make heavy use of mental health, inc. as well, a fact Dr.Cohen rightly pointed out in the interview. In fact, many of them are far more adept at using -state funded- psychiatry as a form of medicalized control, masquerading as “treatment,” “help,” etc. The mental health industry, of course, reflects the surrounding culture. One sees this in the efforts to rename and thereby ‘de-stigmatize’ the ‘psychotic disorders’ in some nations, while in the US one sees regular advertisements for long acting injections (depot shots) of various ‘atypical’ neuroleptics for “Schizophrenia.”
Szasz, of course, is correct in pointing out that abolishing psychiatry would lead to more freedom and far greater clarity of thought+communication (this is a so so paraphrase, btw). Perhaps one day, this shall come to pass.
wow…amazing. miraculous, even. I am–speaking as someone who has also been thru “the system,” and was completely destroyed by my own behavior and also by “treatment”– incredibly proud of you and the new life you’ve worked so hard to create for yourself. I hope that doesn’t come across as condescending…its The Internet, so all anyone has to go on is what’s typed out…I just mean that I’ve experienced much of the same, not quite as extreme, but similar themes, and…
your story, your new life, your efforts…really made my day. I really enjoyed reading this, and your writing style is hi-quality, too.
I wish you well in your new life, and as you journey on, take on new challenges, make a new way forward, day by day. We probably have different belief systems, but no matter…my prayers are with you. 🙂
sadly…i think you are correct, rachel.
ive seen what i believe to be the deliberate destruction of human beings by ‘experts’ paid to help. after coming to mia for a while, i understand that happens, but…even now, the sheer level of cruelty and malice, all while pretending to “only want to help,” etc.
“Schizophrenia” was once a middle(ish) class white woman’s disease…in the 50s. Then, it became more of an antiauthoritarian, even just misfit “disorder…”
non-whites, people involved in the counterculture or youth culture, women who didn’t know their place, drop outs…
and, of course, now…the same profession that once labeled enslaved human beings with ‘drapetomania’ when they tried to flee to freedom, is labeling those who are low status with ‘schizophrenia,’ which is basically a way of turning distressed human beings in psychiatric slaves. and then those who question the labels are burdened with additional labels, more force, more toxic drugs, more confinement…
“Schizophrenia”=invalidation=psychiatric slavery. The rare exceptions to the rule–Elyn Saks, I think is her name, comes to mind…-prove- the rule.
I think a lot of people in the “recovery movement” have been so thoroughly destroyed, it seems a logical solution to play nice with the oppressors, even sing their praises, than to fight back. and…
it depends on location, too. in 21st century America…ha! good luck! the “progressive” states will ship uppity “mental patients” off to their progressive hospitals. I don’t know what they do their. Maybe…drum circles in between smoke breaks and sips of Thorazine punch? The red states…no. just…no. prison is a distinct possibility.
keep in mind that a big part of psychiatry’s “treatment plan” for the “patients” is poverty, which renders the psychiatrized effectively silenced. Find a way to deal with the poverty of the psychiatrized, then one can start talking about restoration of civil rights, etc.
that’s one thing that -gets to me- , when i see psych “professionals,” especially psychiatrists, defending their industry. as a psychiatrized individual, i know that they have plenty of victims, each and every one of them…and because of “the way the world works,” the victims are effectively silenced, few people (it seems..) would care that much, anyway, if they did somehow get to raise their voices. and…
i agree with you, that being in a position of authority and control obvioulsy affects how they deal with criticism, even simple questions. as a psychiatrized individual, i only wish the world at large could see the victims, see the fraud and coercion and, at times, even violence that goes on in the world of mental health, inc.
but…i’ll settle for people simply deciding to do something else with their time and resources, find better ways of dealing with their lives and problems, etc. 🙂
thanks for this. I’ve sometimes thought that psychiatry will eventually prove its own worst enemy, and it is helpful to see an expert explaining and articulating that…although I do kind of fear that whatever might replace psychiatry will be worse–more punitive, more draconian–than the current mental health industry. I think this is because I live in a more “conservative” part of the US, and I’ve seen how psychiatry and psychiatric labels work in the culture. My concern is that if the (admittedly, dangerous) Myth of Mental Illness dies, people in these areas will be faced with more pain, not less, especially as the safety net has been further shredded and both family and community bonds continue to disintegrate. And yet…
I still long for the day psychiatry withers away, somehow. Honestly, enough is enough. 🙂
i believe the “professional” jargon/euphemism is “dosage optimization,” as in…ramp it up! I was bored one day, and I read a pubmed article about it, dealing with dosing ‘atypicals’ above the fda approved dosage range. Not surprisingly, it is…according to what I remember of that brief paper…the most brilliant idea, ever.
When psychiatry is given more leeway, high(er) dosages become common. One reason the so-called “Golden Age of Psychopharmacology” from the 50s to 70s or so came to an end was an increase in regulations on barbiturates, amphetamines, and more regulations to give people/’patients’ some voice in ‘treatment,’ including informed consent laws. and now…
The Myth of Mental Illness, as Szasz called it, is more firmly entrenched than -ever-. And now…everything is somehow a brain abnormality, that is fully expected to respond to the Miracle Meds.
The last time psychiatry got this out of control, there was something of a pushback. I don’t know, honestly, if it is possible for an organized pushback, this time around. Perhaps the best we–as disillusioned, well-informed people–can really hope for is that enough people with the correct credentials will speak up, or at least offer some alternatives….
thereby sparing at least -some- people -some- pain and destruction. 🙁
I’d disagree with this. Breggin points out a number of cases that were clearly at least negatively influenced by psych drugs, often heavy, long term drugging. The mainstream media…does.not.report this, usually. When the issue of psych ‘treatment’ comes up, it either becomes: ‘wow, they needed treatment…sad’ or ‘crazy, dangerous mental patient should’ve been locked up a long time ago…why did we shut down the state hospitals, again?’
there’s also the use of stigma to control people/”patients,” and the use of drugs to reward or punish the psychiatrized. “Schizophrenia” is more commonly diagnosed in the poor, non-white, lower status. The softer landing of “Bipolar I” is a mixed bag, from what I’ve observed. When thrust upon someone, it is best seen as control, punishment. On the other hand, I’ve seen more affluent people use the Bipolar I label in their social networks (including school, work, family) to further their own ends. and then…
the drugs. well-behaved, “making progress”=reduction in neuroleptic; discontinue neuroleptic or other toxic drugs (“maybe depakote isn’t the best thing for you, after all”). misbehavin’ (or ‘uppity’) patient: higher dose neuroleptic. introduce neuroelptic. rapid taper of controlled substances. add “personality disorder,” which also helps explain “treatment failure,” and justify referral to other “experts,” etc.
Psych ‘professionals’ rarely tell the truth. obviously, truth-telling puts their entire industry at risk. 🙁
hi. i think you’re correct, of course. Szasz wrote in a different time, a different place. These days…the not guilty by reason of insanity (or whatever each state chooses to call it) verdicts are a dead end, even more so (usually…) than prison or jail time.
The not guilty by reason of insanity pleas in my area are rare and, generally, ill advised. “guilty, but mentally ill” is also ill advised, because it is essentially 2x, even 3x the punishment, when one looks at the time spent incarcerated and the ‘treatment’ people receive.
For people who can afford quality legal representation, it seems that using psych labels+history as a sort of mitigating factor is a far, far more desirable route. I kept tabs on one such case, and it seems the now convicted (guilty plea) individual ended up with a less severe felony and the possibility of parole, whereas his initial charge was essentially a death sentence.
In psychiatry, one gets the “treatment you deserve,” often based on social class and overall status, leverage (or lack thereof). The legal system is notoriously biased towards those who have resources, higher overall status. Where the two intersect, I think the disparities become even more apparent.
Szasz wrote something to the effect that mental illness, when used as mitigation, is basically a legally-sanctioned way of seeking mercy. I agree.
Mental Health, Inc. takes on a higher level of authoritarianism and punishment in many red states. -some- red states are still gung ho about the state hospitals, for instance. southern culture+Trump culture+psychiatry=Hell on earth.
to be fair, not all red states are the same, even in the Trump era. Some are shredding the state hospital system down to the bare minimum…that way, rich people in their states don’t have to pay as much $$$ to confine poor people. Prisons do it for far less, anwyay.
i really appreciate Orthomolecular, at a number of levels. I doubt it will ever find mainstream acceptance because…
Psychiatry is about control. Psychiatry is about the creation and control of an ever growing (in the US, at least) under-class. Psychiatry is not medicine. The rest of medicine chooses to tolerate psychiatry for their own reasons, none of which have anything to do with treating, curing, or preventing any bona fide diseases or improving the quality of life for ‘mental patients.’
the vitamins are awesome, though…I’m pushing my way up to 18 grams vitamin C per day. 🙂
“diagnosis is a political decision”
-I think either Kate Millet or Shulamith Firestone.
Mental Health, Inc. should be abolished, somehow. even with reforms and such, peoples’ lives end up ruined, often at a high co$t to the person/”patient,” the families involved, and..given how more “treatment”=more problems, often a lifetime on disability, the gov’t coffers end up supporting those destroyed by Mental Health, Inc. (which includes the psychology/counseling branches)…
and then the destroyed person is labeled both a “mental patient” and a “welfare queen” or “welfare bum.”
i think psychosocial solutions have more probability of lasting success in places -other than- the US. I see this research came out of the UK. I’ve noticed that a lot of “critical psychiatry,” psychosocial research, etc. come out of the UK. In the US…
obviously, psychiatry and psychology reflect the society (as a whole) and also the community. God help you if you’re in a ‘red state’ seeking a real solution; no ‘professional’ will, in all likelihood. Not that the ‘blue states’ are always all that ‘progressive…’
some of them seem to simply use the state hospital system more frequently, since that is “treatment,” not “punishment,” etc.
anyway…thanks for the summary of the new research. While I’ve long feared that because of ‘austerity measures,’ the UK might end up like the US…it appears there’s hope “over there,” yet. In the US…
we have TV ads for Rexulti, usually right before adverstisements for disability lawyers (where I live). Trump is not only still in office, he’s planning a 2020 run. And while the psychosocial treatments are all about talking and communicating and reflecting…
most ‘treatment’ available for ‘severe mental illness’ in the US is really about shutting people/”patients” up, one way or another. 🙁
as punitive and draconian as US culture is…I think its worth noting that 1984 and Brave New World are both set -in England-, some notorious shrinks of yesteryear came out of the UK (Ewan Cameron, Sargeant), and…
-shudder- I saw on the “news” that Oprah and Prince…Harry, I think, the redheaded one…are teaming up to do a documentary about “mental health.” -eek-
this is what neoliberal propaganda is, circa 2019…now, we’re all being encouraged to scrutinize our inner-lives for conformity to a “healthy” norm…
and then seek “expert help” if we don’t measure up. all this, decades after “Schizophrenia” was effectively deconstructed (by psychiatrists, no less!) and in the face of a massive body of evidence that the psych guilds ruin lives and drain the coffers for their fraudulent ‘treatments.’
im also kinda bummed that there won’t be a Huxleyian Soma-type drug to keep us all in a chemically induced cheerful mood…
for most of us, its looking more and more like its going to be “antidepressants” and/or neuroleptics…the mind numbing junk…and they have the neuroleptic depot injections, and that abilify pill that digitally tells on you for ‘non-compliance.’
im guessing austerity measures are making people miserable? the antidepressants are probably still cheaper…
thank you for this. you have…no idea how helpful it is to know that others are being victimized by the Therapeutic State, even after the initial psychiatrization.
“the personal is political.” I agree, wholeheartedly…and I also agree that the mental health industry, by its very nature, narrows the focus to self, perhaps family and social networks, rarely the community.
as a side note, what bother me now is how they–the psych people–know what they’re doing. they see: middle class (good insurance), upper class (bust out the deepak chopra), working class (all drugs, all the time), etc., and they -are- aware of how socioeconomic factors shape peoples’ lives…
and they use this knowledge to further their own interests, all while lying about ‘mental illnesses’ and…it seems…most everything, really.
“patients” are often victims of psych “professional” violence, including the downward spiral to poverty…that’s economic terrorism on a massive scale.
“un-scientific” ? OK. silly me…I thought psychiatrists -knew- that their industry was a destructive con. blame it on my borderline misanthropic view of human nature. this…this delusional thinking, deeply entrenched, irrational beliefs that psychiatry has any sort of valid scientific underpinnings and that “standard treatment” is somehow necessary and/or “life saving…”
that is actually far more frightening than my mental image, which was that of an industry full of mediucre hacks who happened upon psychiatry to feed both their egos+their families (and, quite often, their own drug habits).
so…who is going to protect “patients” from the deranged “professionals” ?