Over the years I have also compiled a list of works, and reviews of those works, that demonstrate why psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession:
Lawrence, after all this time you’re still confused about psychiatry.
The power, prestige, and perceived authority of psychiatry is part and parcel of the hegemony of the modern medical establishment. People have been looking to doctors for healing since ancient times. It’s nothing new, and it’s perfectly natural. I imagine that you’ve visited a doctor before, have you not? You probably expected that he could help you in some way.
The problem is that psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. In your mind, the problem is obvious, because you’ve watched the deception and coercion from the inside. Most people have absolutely no clue about the true history of medicine or the true history of psychiatry, because both are shrouded in mystery and the mystique of the so-called “healing arts”.
Psychiatry is evil, and that should be more obvious to more people. But unfortunately it is not. Just because psychiatry deceives and harms hoards of innocent people, including children, the elderly, the homeless, and other vulnerable populations doesn’t mean that those innocent people are to blame. How many people have watched One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest or read a book by Thomas Szasz? Very few, especially compared to the numbers of people who have been inundated with psychiatric propaganda and advertising from pharmaceutical companies from the day that they were born.
We don’t blame the American Colonists for the tyranny of King George III. We don’t blame slaves for the Civil War. We don’t blame We don’t blame the Jews for the horrors of the Shoah. Stop blaming the innocent victims of psychiatry for the evils of psychiatry.
“Psychiatrists Divided on Understandings of Psychosis”
This is the funniest title that I’ve seen in a long time.
Even if they understood anything at all in the first place, how on earth would psychiatrists understand a concept that not even the inventors of the concept, including Freud, understood? How could psychiatrists be anything but divided when it comes to understanding false concepts like “neurosis” or “psychosis”?
No. That’s what everyone already believes, namely, that so-called “mental illness” is an illness like any other, diabetes, etc. There is no such thing as “mental illness”. It is a terrible figment of the psychiatric imagination.
“Is It Time to Rethink Mental Illness in Light of the Pandemic?”
Nope, it’s time for people to wake up and realize that there is no such thing as “mental illness” or “mental health”. It’s time for people to understand that psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. It’s time to slay the dragon of psychiatry. 🙂
Thanks. So you understand why “mental illness” is a myth?
My reply was meant for a general audience, not directed at you. But when it comes to drugging and harming innocent children, I don’t think that it’s a virtue to be open minded. These are not “concerns” about “risks”. When psychiatrists label and drug innocent children, it is simply criminal.
Keep reading this blog, or at least the posts by Whitaker, Breggin, Hickey, etc. It will help you to understand why terminology such as “mental illness” and “mental health” is harmful to the very people you are trying to help. Thanks.
Stop drugging innocent children! This is the definition of evil. For heaven’s sake! Stop. Drugging. Innocent. Children!
There is no such thing as “mental illness” or “mental health.” Stop perpetuating the lies of psychiatry. These drugs are not “medications” with “side effects”. These are dangerous, brain disabling chemicals whose primary intended effect is to sedate or otherwise damage the brains of those who are labeled with fake diseases.
In the name of all that is good, STOP DRUGGING CHILDREN!
It blows my mind (not my brain) just how few people can grasp the simple concepts that you elucidate. Keep it up oldhead.
This is a very good article. It is on the right track.
It is impressive that you managed to quote or to cite Kirsch, Whitaker, Breggin, Davies, Gøtzsche, and Moncrieff all in the same article. Well done.
Perhaps one of the only ways to improve the article would be to help people understand the myth of mental illness itself. As long as the general public continues to believe in the myth of mental illness, psychiatry will continue to exercise its tyrannical dominion in one way or another.
But one step at a time. Keep it up.
Excellent.
All of this assumes that “Autism” and “mental health” correspond to underlying medical realities. Newsflash: they don’t.
Mr. Francis,
It is a blessing that you have survived psychiatry, and that you are on a path of discovering the truth about psychiatry. As you progress on that path, and you discover that “mental illness” is a myth, and so-called “schizophrenia” is what Thomas Szasz called “the sacred symbol of psychiatry,” I hope that you will help to expose these myths. If you haven’t yet read the book, I recommend Thomas Szasz’ “Schizophrenia: The Sacred Symbol of Psychiatry.” https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/schizophrenia-the-sacred-symbol-of-psychiatry/
Exactly. The correct use of language is important, and something that both Karl Kraus and Thomas Szasz fought for incessantly.
Exactly. Psychiatry itself is, and always as been the problem. This is one reason why I am recommending a new series of videos called “The Truth About Psychiatry.” This is the first video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eu8WO4VFRk
Excellent.
Dr. Hickey strikes again with his customary precision, acumen, persuasive reasoning.
Well done. Thank you.
I thought that I might also recommend a book by Thomas Szasz for those who are interested in the question regarding the difference between the mind and the brain:
I’ve tried to get through to these people, but like many others, they’re not listening. All of this nutrition mumbo-jumbo will just end up harming the very people they wish to help as long as the myth of mental illness remains the underlying assumption.
It should be quite simple, really. How hard is it to understand that the brain is not the same thing as the mind? Seriously.
By all means, eat healthy food everyone. By all means, keep your brain healthy. But what good is a healthy brain if it doesn’t help you think clearly? What good is a healthy brain that remains impenetrable to the most basic realities?
So, please, for the love of Pete, stop worrying about nourishing brains and start educating your minds to understand that there is no such thing as “mental illness” or “mental health.”
Oldhead, when compared with psychiatry, a heaping, stinking pile of excrement is like a treasure chest filled with gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other precious stones and metals. Furthermore, a rotting mound of dung is useful as manure to fertilize a garden. Psychiatry, on the other hand, not only has less inherent value than an accumulation of waste matter, it actually removes value from the universe. It is perhaps more like a black hole that sucks the light and life away from stars and planets. Eventually it will cave in, implode, and die. In the meantime, however, we can help the process along by refusing to pretend that psychiatry is some kind of bright and shining sun of warmth, light, and healing, and that so-called “mental illness” is some sort of law of physics by which all things must abide. As you have done, we can continue to help the process along by pointing out that the attempt to reform or criticize psychiatry is about as useful as the attempt to persuade people that a black hole might be a good vacation spot.
Oldhead, when compared with psychiatry, a heaping, stinking pile of excrement is like a treasure chest filled with gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other precious stones and metals. Furthermore, a rotting mound of dung is useful as manure to fertilize a garden. Psychiatry, on the other hand, not only has less inherent value than an accumulation of waste matter, it actually removes value from the universe. It is perhaps more like a black hole that sucks the light and life away from stars and planets. Eventually it will cave in, implode, and die. In the meantime, however, we can help the process along by refusing to pretend that psychiatry is some kind of bright and shining sun of warmth, light, and healing, and that so-called “mental illness” is some sort of law of physics by which all things must abide. As you have done, we can continue to help the process along by pointing out that the attempt to reform or criticize psychiatry is about as useful as the attempt to persuade people that a black hole might be a good vacation spot.
Thanks oldhead and Rachel777. Happy Easter to you as well.
I guarantee that someone will find thousands of Easter Bunnies, Tooth Fairies, Santa Clauses, Loch Ness Monsters, Sasquatches, and Leprechauns before anyone, doctors, psychiatrists, or otherwise, will ever find out what “mental illness” really is.
“Believing the system will be abolished is totally unrealistic.”
Thus spoke the Philistines, Saul, and the Israelites before David slew Goliath.
Thus spoke slaveholders in the South before Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Thus spoke Neville Chamberlain before Winston Churchill rose to power and the Allied Forces conquered Hitler and the Nazi regime.
Thus spoke every naysayer and doubter who has since become a hiss and a byword in the annals of history.
Rest assured fair maiden, the dragon of psychiatry will be slain.
Good will conquer evil. Right will overcome wrong. Truth will triumph over error.
Mental illness is a myth. Until this reality becomes clear, psychiatry will continue to flourish at the expense of the innocent.
Good point edward1
In conclusion, your thesis is not just false, it is potentially damaging to the very victims of psychiatry that we should all be striving to help. I encourage you to think a bit harder and to do a little more research into the real reasons for psychiatry’s successful business formula. Even if psychiatry has trained you to think along these lines, I know that you are smarter than that.
No. The myth of psychotherapy is every bit as deceptive as the myth of mental illness, and a good place to begin to understand this myth is Szasz’s book “The Myth of Psychotherapy.” The reason why the myth of mental illness and the myth of psychotherapy are so effective is because they depend upon an element of truth, namely the reality of our mortal condition. Psychiatry is effective because people are naturally inclined to look for solutions to their problems, or even to find problems that aren’t there, with the help of those that they perceive as authority figures. If you are suggesting that it is irrational to trust doctors, I only wish it were that simple. If such were the case, the medical profession would have died out during Hippocrates’ lifetime.
But the most egregious errors are found at the end of your article. It is simply untrue that “biological suppression of independent, intelligent thought wasn’t always psychiatry’s main role.” The attempt to separate biological psychiatry from some other kind of psychiatry, whether it be psychoanalytic theory or psychotherapy, is doomed to failure because the two are inextricably intertwined. Freud and other fathers of psychiatry may have been evil, but they were not stupid. In fact, they were smart enough to convince many people, including yourself, that psychoanalysis is “an attempt to explore logical, cause and effect explanations for why we think/feel/behave as we do.”
As to your last point, psychiatry wages war against the innocent in every way, shape, and form. The chemical weapons that it deploys in the guise of “medicine” doesn’t render the victims stupid. It causes severe brain damage and even death, even to the brightest and most capable individuals. Whether by fraud and deception indirectly applied through the myth of mental illness or through the direct onslaught of chemical warfare, psychiatry is culpable, not its victims. While it is true that we could all afford to better understand the true nature of psychiatry, namely, that it is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession, that is not the fault of the victim but the fault of psychiatry itself. How else could psychiatry thrive unless there were an ingenious method to the madness? Thomas Szasz demonstrated that psychiatry works by the medicalization of everyday life with the support of the therapeutic state.
Psychiatry doesn’t train people to think stupidly. It imbibes its own adherents and practitioners with misleading ideas, or “lying facts” as Thomas Szasz once put it. In turn, these psychiatric overlords – often without realizing it – labor to convince their innocent victims that they are “mentally ill.” The myth of mental illness has yet to be sufficiently debunked, even though Szasz and others spent decades in the attempt. The innocent victims of psychiatry are not stupid. They are real people with real hopes and dreams who have sought for solutions to their problems in the places that make the most sense for people to look. It is true that psychiatry labors to convince people that their problems in living (feelings of sadness, depression, anxiety, etc.) are the result of so-called “mental illness” and “chemical imbalances” in the brain. But the success of these psychiatric myths and hoaxes has more to do with the evil and the fraud inherent in psychiatry than it does with the stupidity or gullibility of the victims of psychiatry.
Psychiatry doesn’t simply train its victims to think stupidly. It trains its practitioners to ensnare others. Even many of those who have a sincere desire to assist their fellow man and relieve suffering, perhaps even someone like yourself, have been hoodwinked by medical schools and the mental health industry. Thus a very smart person with a desire to help others, a person such as yourself, may spend countless hours and a fortune in tuition and other expenses, studying in a field that is inherently corrupt and which offers relief to no one, except perhaps the relief that comes to the coffers of pharmaceutical companies and the bank accounts of psychiatrists themselves. As Upton Sinclair once observed, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
You then claim that psychiatry trains people to think stupidly. Wrong again. Psychiatry deceives people, including innocent children, the homeless, and the elderly, because there is an element of truth to psychiatric claims. If it were merely a silly ruse, no one would be duped by it. But as you can clearly see, the myth of mental illness and the attendant chemical imbalance hoax have been effective enough to bamboozle even the brightest among us.
While there is some truth to your original thesis, it is severely lacking. Please allow me to clarify.
Your first claim is that psychiatry’s business model depends upon making people think that they are stupid even though they are smart. If only it were that simple. You know as well as anyone that this is not true. Psychiatry does not get people to think that they are stupid. Psychiatry labors to convince people that they are sick. The problem with your formulation is that it is not unusual for people to feel many emotions or to experience a wide variety of problems in living, particularly in the day and age in which we live. Even the most brilliant minds, the most competent leaders, and the most promising youth have been duped into believing the myth of mental illness. In fact, I’m not sure that even you, as brilliant as you are, have completely abandoned the myth of mental illness or other psychiatric deceptions.
Not quite Lawrence.
If there were any such thing as “ADHD” and “Autism,” there might be something to this article.
Sorry to steal your thunder oldhead.
Actually, the term psychiatry is even more atrocious than that. The word literally means “medical treatment of the soul.” Let that sink in for a minute.
There are hoards of these “soul doctors” meandering around disguised as real doctors. Does any one of them know what a soul is? Does any one of them have any idea what it would mean to treat the soul medically? Psychiatry is the biggest sham ever pulled off in the world’s history. It is simply astounding how many people have been deceived by it.
“Psychiatry Needs a New Metaphor”
No. Psychiatry needs to be abolished.
Joanna, do you defend psychiatry?
Do you really believe, even after all of your research and writing, that the “mental health” system or psychiatry provides asylum or healing to people?
I’m genuinely curious.
Thanks.
“Maybe the function of a mental health system is, after all, to provide care or “asylum,” while trying, at the same time, to foster people’s own abilities to recover.”
There are so many problems with this dangerous philosophy that I don’t even know where to start.
But let’s begin with the “mental health” system. There is no such thing as “mental health.” The only reason that people believe in “mental health” is because the psychiatric myth of “mental illness” is so pervasive. Psychiatry disseminates the myth of “mental illness” so effectively, that now nearly everyone has been deceived into thinking that there needs to be a “mental health” system to counteract “mental illness.” Balderdash.
The second lie is that this euphemistically termed “mental health” system fulfills the function of providing “care” or “asylum.” Nonsense. In practice, what does this really look like? It looks like the wholesale destruction of countless innocent lives, including the lives of children, the homeless, and helpless elderly people. It looks like the labeling, stigmatization, ostracism, drugging, and torture of the victims of psychiatry.
It is outright tyranny masquerading as medical care. It is, as the titles and content of Szasz’s book reveals, Coercion as Care, Liberation by Oppression, and the Medicalization of Everyday Life. It all begins with the pernicious myth of mental illness.
Enough is enough. The time has come to abolish psychiatry and to expose its pernicious myths for what they are. Psychiatry is the opposite of “care,” “asylum” or “fostering people’s own abilities to recover.”
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” – C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock
“What Can We Learn From the Asylum?”
We can learn that psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. The sooner we learn that fact, the better.
“The most dangerous thing you will ever do is see a psychiatrist.”
This is true. And yet the entire “mental health” and medical system in America is contrived so as to funnel unsuspecting victims into the terrible web of psychiatry. The most dangerous thing you will ever do is see a psychiatrist, but that is precisely what the myth of “mental illness” encourages everyone to do.
Until the myth of mental illness is exposed, as Szasz tried so valiantly to do, psychiatry will continue to thrive, like a terrible parasite that thrives on the suffering of its host.
Excellent.
Dr. Breggin, this is one of your best articles to date. Thank you. I appreciate your courageous stand against the evil institution of psychiatry.
“While it may not live up to its own self-image as a modern and sophisticated technical enterprise, the system does, however, provide care for those who are unable to care for themselves, and containment for those whose behaviour is disturbing to others. Such people still include a mixture of those with organic disorders and psychological problems.”
Isn’t clear by now that psychiatry has nothing to do with “care,” and everything to do with destroying the lives of innocent people? Do you really want to continue to take part in that? Do you really want to continue to defend the pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession?
“Can Psychiatry Incorporate Traditional Healing Practices?”
Can oil and water mix? Can pigs fly? Can I sell you a bridge in Brooklyn?
But of course there is no such thing as an “antidepressant”. “Antidepressant” is a misleading word because it tricks people into thinking that a dangerous psychotropic chemical is somehow fixing a mysterious “chemical imbalance” in the brain. These dangerous chemical compounds would be more appropriately called thanatophoric (death inducing) drugs.
Say more.
LOL!
“And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, ‘O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.’ And the Lord did grin.”
“Capitol Hill Briefings Debunk Myth Linking Gun Violence to Mental Illness” ???
How can a myth about a myth be debunked without the debunking of the original myth?
The original myth is that there is such a thing called “mental illness.” We might as well have Capitol Hill Briefings to debunk the myth linking gun violence to the Easter Bunny. Come to think of it, perhaps it is the Easter Bunny – with his nasty, big, pointy teeth (bonus points for understanding the reference) – that is responsible for all of this violence after all. It couldn’t possibly be the fault of psychiatry and psychotropic drugs that are known to CAUSE the very symptoms that they purport to cure. It must be that nefarious Easter Bunny, and his henchman, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and many Leprechauns.
As long as the myth of mental illness continues to pervade the imaginations of the vast majority of people in the United States, the violence will continue to rise, and the cause will continue to elude us. The time has long since passed when the myth of mental illness and its attendant hoaxes, such as the “chemical imbalance” hoax ought to have been driven from the public square, along with all other pharmaceutical fantasies and psychiatric chimeras.
The truly astounding thing is that Thomas Szasz understood and told the truth about psychiatry long, long ago, as did Karl Kraus long before him, but their truth-telling was ridiculed, rejected, or ignored.
Although Bonnie’s arguments lean much too heavily toward radical Marxist ideologies, she was absolutely right about opposing psychiatry full force. Even though he didn’t get everything right either, Thomas Szasz’s work provides a good counterbalance to the ideological slant of much antipsychiatric literature.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the man who wrote most prolifically and profoundly in opposition to psychiatry has been the most ignored, most misunderstood, and the most slandered. Bonnie made an important contribution to the antipsychiatry canon, but as long as the world continues to ignore the work of Thomas Szasz, psychiatry will continue to thrive at the expense of its unwitting victims.
Having read Shorter’s conventional (and skewed) history of psychiatry, as well as Bonnie’s books and Mr. Whitaker’s books, the contrast between truth and error is quite clear. It is clear that psychiatric survivors, antipsychiatrists, and some critics of psychiatry are telling the truth, whereas psychiatry is, and always has been, based on lies, deception, and chicanery. Psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. Fortunately Bonnie, Mr. Whitaker, and a few others, such as Peter Breggin, have been brave enough to tell the truth.
Is it any wonder that psychiatric survivors, antipsychiatrists, and critics of psychiatry often want to write under the protection of a pseudonym? If journalists treat the dead so poorly, just think how they will treat the living, particularly survivors!
Excellent!
This is your best article to date Mr. Whitaker. Thank you.
Oldhead is right. Everything “mad” goes hand in glove with psychiatry. Szasz was mostly right. Laing was wrong. Foucault… it’s complicated.
The simple point to remember is that psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession, so-called “mental illness” is a myth, and so-called “chemical imbalances” are a hoax. The other simple point to remember is that psychiatry cannot be reformed, criticized, or improved upon. Like slavery, it must be abolished.
Removed for moderation.
Szasz never gets old, because he tells the truth about psychiatry and the need for abolition. “The Inflamed Mind,” on the other hand, relies on the fiction of so-called “mental disorders.”
“Yup, everybody thinks they know what “the truth” is” – I hope that you don’t exclude yourself from this categorization.
I’m skeptical of your skepticism. 🙂 But I agree that we need to dig deeper than what you call the lingo of the moment. That’s why I recommend Karl Kraus and Thomas Szasz. They weren’t right about everything, but they were truth-speakers long before anyone here was born.
New approaches?
Here’s an idea: Stop drugging people.
We don’t need to rethink anything. We need to abolish psychiatry so that those who are drugged into suicidal ideation can get their lives back.
You can try that if you like, but that’s not what so-called “schizophrenia” is. That’s not how it was invented, and that’s not how it operates in the real world.
I would say that it’s worse than an opinion. So-called “schizophrenia” is a figment of the psychiatric imagination. It is the sacred symbol of psychiatry, and psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. Brain damaging drugs are not a cure for fictitious diseases. In fact, brain disabling, psychotropic chemicals CAUSE the very damage that they purport to remedy.
This is just one of the myriad reasons why psychiatry must be abolished.
Exactly, anomie. Exactly.
Whitaker and others do excellent work on the very surface of psychiatric fraud. This is helpful because people who read can begin to question the psychiatric paradigm. But rarely do people have the courage and the foresight to dig deeper into the myth of mental illness. Karl Kraus and Thomas Szasz had greater courage and understanding than anyone writing today, but their works have largely been ignored, ridiculed, or forgotten. That is often the fate of truth-tellers.
Let me just chime in to remind everyone that there is no such thing as “schizophrenia.” It is a figment of the psychiatric imagination.
Great article. Thank you.
Not even Huxley could have foreseen the Brave New World that we now inhabit.
The sad thing is that Thomas Szasz understood the problem more than 50 years ago, and Karl Kraus understood the problem long before him. Psychiatry is, and always has been, a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. Just as Dr. Hatch points out, psychiatry preys upon the most vulnerable in our society, including innocent children, the homeless, the incarcerated, soldiers, and the elderly. Is there any question in anyone’s mind how despicable psychiatry is?
Mad in America is doing great work to bring to light the truth about psychiatry (https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/the-truth-about-psychiatry/), even though Thomas Szasz already did this many, many years ago. If people would read and understand his books, they would soon enlist in the cause of abolition. They would work together to slay the dragon of psychiatry.
“Is There a Small Group for Whom Antidepressants Are Effective?”
The simple answer is no, but define “effective.” Then define “antidepressant.”
If by effective we mean the increase in suicides, then yes, “antidepressants” are very effective.
But even the word “antidepressant” is misleading, because it hinges on the chemical imbalance hoax. There is no chemical that corrects a supposed chemical imbalance.
“Antidepressants” are, in reality, dangerous, brain disabling, chemical compounds. Peter Breggin has repeatedly shown that most supposed “benefits” from so-called “antidepressants” arise from the effect of medication spellbinding.
The problem, however, is that there is no such thing as “schizophrenia.” Obviously it would be wrong to blame mothers for causing “schizophrenia” even if such a thing were real. But it is not. Simply put, so-called “schizophrenia” is, as Thomas Szasz so eloquently articulated, the sacred symbol of psychiatry.
Yes. What most people haven’t quite begun to understand is that all the efforts invested in “suicide prevention” and “treatment” actually contribute to the rise in suicides. Thomas Szasz may have been misguided in his opinions on suicide, but he wasn’t all wrong.
Exactly Rachel777. It’s the simple question that hardly anyone bothers to ask: What is the relationship between the growth of the therapeutic state and the exponential increase in suicides?
Great tribute Don. Thank you.
Although I disagree with Bonnie about many things, she was a tireless antipsychiatry warrior and abolitionist, for which, among other things, she is to be commended. I’ve read Psychiatry Interrogated, Psychiatry Disrupted, and Psychiatry and the Business of Madness, all of which are great books, indispensable works in the antipsychiatry canon.
The Dr. Bonnie Burstow Scholarship in Antipsychiatry is an amazing achievement in and of itself.
It will take vision and perseverance to continue the work that Bonnie helped to establish. For those of us who understand the need to abolish psychiatry, can you imagine antipsychiatry being taught in universities around the world? Can you imagine a best-selling book that reveals the true history of psychiatry? Can you imagine antipsychiatry articles in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal? Can you imagine a blockbuster film that reveals the truth about psychiatry? These are just some ideas that the Burstow’s legacy inspires.
Thank you Don. Thank you Bonnie. And thank you to all those who fight to reveal the truth about psychiatry.
However, I need to correct the use of the word “diagnosis.” I understand why it might makes sense to use the word “diagnosis” in order to communicate simply, but a diagnosis implies that there is an actual disease to identify. There is no such thing as a psychiatric diagnosis because there is no such thing as “mental illness.” “Mental illness,” as Szasz so thoroughly and eloquently articulated, is a myth, and the so-called “diagnoses” are nothing more than fabrications of the psychiatric imagination.
Therefore, our new survivor friend was not “diagnosed” with depression, bipolar, or any other fictitious disease. She was labeled, drugged, and put through chemical torture.
I’m glad to hear that she is on the path of recovery. If she would like to supplement her education about the truth of psychiatry, I recommend the following website: https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com
Yes.
Good question oldhead.
It’s all bogus. We need to stop pretending that somehow we are all mad in order to express solidarity with those who have been labeled as “mentally ill.”
Instead of the insane claim that we are all mad, why don’t we just work to abolish psychiatry along with all of the fictitious diseases that it manufactures.
Every human being, to varying degrees, is born with the capacity to reason, to choose, and to act. Labeling people as “mad,” whether oneself or others, is foolish.
“Researchers Fail to Predict Antidepressant Treatment Success”
More complete and utter nonsense.
The term “antidepressant” is a euphemism for a dangerous, brain-disabling drug. What on earth could it mean for abuse by toxic chemicals to be successful? Could it be that suicides are now the leading cause of deaths in America second only to accidents? That, my friends, is the success of psychiatry.
“Researchers Propose Mindfulness for Treatment of Bipolar Disorder”
What complete and utter nonsense.
While researchers propose mindfulness for treatment of a fictitious disease, I would propose that researchers start using their minds before they publish any of their research.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. I believe that it is natural for those in distress to seek solutions from those who are perceived to be authority figures or persons capable of offering healing. It is human.
Psychiatry has deceived the entire planet, but now you are one of the few who has been enlightened. It’s kind of like the Matrix. You took the red pill and you discovered the truth. Now you can help in the resistance.
A good post in general.
But the trouble begins long before any “real doctors” give fake diagnoses for non-existent diseases. The trouble is in the myth of “mental illness” itself, a myth that permeates our society and is preached in medical schools. The trouble began long ago when psychiatry, soul-doctoring, came to be perceived as a legitimate branch of medicine.
This is a good post, but there is one other problem. So-called “antidepressants” and other psychotropic drugs aren’t just benign placebos or generally unhelpful. They are dangerous brain disabling drugs. You hint at this fact, but it needs to be more explicit.
It is, of course, debatable what it might mean for a person to be a “real doctor.” It’s unfortunate when some people who attend medical school with the intent to help others end up in the trap of psychiatry themselves, since psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. When aspiring doctors are indoctrinated with psychiatric propaganda, they may still earn a medical degree, but they’ve learned next to nothing about healing. In fact, they’ve been taught the opposite.
So it isn’t just real doctors who peddle the fake diseases. There are plenty of fake doctors and quacks, or in other words, there are plenty of psychiatrists who are peddling these fake diseases. Fortunately there are a few psychiatrists who have been enlightened (Lawrence Kelmenson, Peter Breggin, etc.), but the most enlightened (i.e. Thomas Szasz) understand that psychiatry cannot be reformed or criticized. It must be abolished.
I agree oldhead.
Dr. Breggin has done excellent work with Toxic Psychiatry, Medication Madness, and other books. It is great that he encourages empathy, love, and even faith in God. These things are wonderful. But of course they have nothing to do with psychiatry. Psychiatry is inherently the very opposite of empathy, love, and faith in God. Psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. I will never tire of saying it. Psychiatry is the very cause of the problems that it purports to remedy. Psychiatry is torture, abuse, and deception. It is the antithesis of all that is good.
Of course we are all deeply flawed. Of course we all need enabling power to love and to be loved. But if we truly wish to love those who have been labeled as “mad” or “mentally ill,” we need to start thinking more clearly about what is going on. Thomas Szasz was exactly right. So-called “mental illness” is a myth. It is a destructive myth that spreads through the “chemical imbalance” hoax and the aid of the wretched psycho-pharmaceutical industrial complex.
Do we truly want to understand madness? Please allow me to elucidate the matter: It is sheer madness to suppose that psychiatry can be improved upon or fixed. It is madness to suppose that anything but the abolition of psychiatry will help the millions of innocent victims of psychiatry. It is madness to pretend that empathy, love, and any amount of so-called “psychotherapy” can supplement the unspeakable harm that is caused by psychotropic drugs, the vicious labels of the DSM, and the litany of abuses for which psychiatry is guilty.
Enough is enough. Slay the Dragon of Psychiatry.
You are AWESOME!
What a beautiful person, with such a beautiful smile!
God bless you.
My only disagreement with you is that psychiatric care is in desperate need of improvements and humanizing. If you frequent this site often it will probably become clear to you that psychiatry is inherently rotten and dehumanizing. It is not something that can be improved. Only its abolition will prevent the kinds of atrocities that you witnessed first hand as you, from your kind heart, sought to help those in need.
Thank you for your kind deeds and for making this world a better place.
Thanks for sharing your experiences Will. I’m glad that you not only survived psychiatry, but that you have been able to grow and to prosper. I appreciate the intelligence and the articulateness of your article. I appreciate your focus on healing and faith as well. Well done.
That’s an excellent point Rachel777. Even the best of the critics of psychiatry, people like Breggin, Whitaker, Burstow, etc. don’t quite understand what a survivor understands. The work of these critics of psychiatry is indispensable, but only those who have survived psychiatry from the inside truly understand what is going on. That is why it is so important for survivors like you to stay strong and to articulate the truth about psychiatry.
True.
I have found a path to healing, and akathisia is no longer an issue. Glory be to God, and not for my own strength, I emerged from the furnace of affliction stronger, more refined, and with an absolute conviction of the evil that is inherent in psychiatry.
I suffered everything imaginable, and I was, for all intents and purposes, dead. The journey out of the psychiatric abyss was an unimaginable hell, and there were literally times when I thirsted first death because the pain was so intense. But I held on, or I should say, God preserved me for a purpose.
Thanks. Danke schoen.
Good post Mr. Whitaker. Thanks.
One sobering thing to consider is that as awful as this story is, there are probably millions of other stories just like it in process right now. I personally know several friends, acquaintances, and others who have taken their own lives as a direct result of psychiatric abuse, whether they recognized the abuse or not.
The suffering Zel describes is real, and more awful than anyone who has not endured it can imagine. I honestly don’t know how I, or anyone else survives it, except for the help of God. I do not blame anyone who decides to enter the next phase of existence early, because I know just how terrible the suffering is. It is impossible to describe in words, and it will only be matched by the suffering that those who are responsible for it will have to undergo as a result of their crimes. For this reason, I pray for the perpetrators (i.e. proponents of psychiatry and so-called “mental health”) as well as the victims.
One thing is certain: mercy cannot rob justice. There will be an awful reckoning. The dragon of psychiatry will be slain, and all those who have perished by his fangs, claws, or fiery breath will be vindicated.
Jesus is real.
He lives, and He will soon return to the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Because of Him, we will triumph over psychiatry and over every other trial in life.
Merry Christmas.
“Does this mean mental illnesses don’t exist? Surely this isn’t a tired rehash of iconoclasts from the 60s like Szasz, Laing, Foucault, et al? Are you saying that people aren’t suffering?”
Here is the rub. This is the main problem with Mr. Tampiyappa’s article.
He poses the rhetorical question as if it weren’t an important question, but it is the central question. The answer to the question is “Yes. This means that mental illnesses don’t exist.” The truth is always fresh, not a tired rehash. Furthermore, lumping Szasz in with Laing and Foucault misses the mark by a long shot. Szasz wasn’t simply an iconoclast, and he was as different from Laing and Foucault as day differs from night. Szasz understood and articulated the truth about psychiatry. For that crime, he has suffered the fate of most truth-tellers, namely, to be ignored, ridiculed, downplayed, or misinterpreted.
The truth, as Szasz well knew, is that mental illness is a myth. Nothing could be more necessary than to “rehash” the truths that make psychiatrists uncomfortable, which discomfort leads them to dismiss Szasz as an iconoclast or to group him with people with whom he vehemently disagreed. Szasz wrote an entire book on the foolishness of Laing, and he Szasz occupied the opposite end of the political spectrum of both Laing and Foucault.
So, let me answer the questions one by one, because they shouldn’t be rhetorical questions:
“Does this mean mental illnesses don’t exist?” Yes. Exactly. There is no such thing as “mental illness.” So-called “mental illness” is a fabrication of the most nefarious kind, and an illusion of the psychiatric imagination that has caused and continues to cause unspeakable harm to untold numbers of innocent people.
“Surely this isn’t a tired rehash of iconoclasts from the 60s like Szasz, Laing, Foucault, et al?” Again, there is nothing tired about the truths that Szasz set forth in his voluminous works. The truly nauseating and tiresome ideologies are those propounded by psychiatry itself. Nothing could be more necessary than to reiterate the truths that Szasz articulated so clearly, because truth is always new and fresh, whereas psychiatric propaganda is insidious.
“Are you saying that people aren’t suffering?” People are suffering, and many of them are suffering as a direct result of the continued existence and expansion of psychiatry. Psychiatry is the very cause of the suffering that it purports to assuage. Yes. People are suffering, and until psychiatry is abolished, people will continue to suffer from the abusive and coercive practices that are inherent in psychiatry.
Enough is enough. Let me help everyone out of the Matrix. There is no need to disentangle antipsychiatry. There is an urgent need, however, to abolish psychiatry. The time has come to slay the dragon of psychiatry.
Psychiatry is the polar opposite of anything ethical. A psychiatrist cannot practice ethically in any circumstance because psychiatry is by its very nature an unethical endeavor. In other words, oldhead is correct. The only way for a psychiatrist to practice ethically is to stop being a psychiatrist, and to start doing work that is ethical.
Thank you Dr. Hickey. Great work, as always.
Over the years I have also compiled a list of works, and reviews of those works, that demonstrate why psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession:
https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/the-truth-about-psychiatry/
Lawrence, after all this time you’re still confused about psychiatry.
The power, prestige, and perceived authority of psychiatry is part and parcel of the hegemony of the modern medical establishment. People have been looking to doctors for healing since ancient times. It’s nothing new, and it’s perfectly natural. I imagine that you’ve visited a doctor before, have you not? You probably expected that he could help you in some way.
The problem is that psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. In your mind, the problem is obvious, because you’ve watched the deception and coercion from the inside. Most people have absolutely no clue about the true history of medicine or the true history of psychiatry, because both are shrouded in mystery and the mystique of the so-called “healing arts”.
Psychiatry is evil, and that should be more obvious to more people. But unfortunately it is not. Just because psychiatry deceives and harms hoards of innocent people, including children, the elderly, the homeless, and other vulnerable populations doesn’t mean that those innocent people are to blame. How many people have watched One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest or read a book by Thomas Szasz? Very few, especially compared to the numbers of people who have been inundated with psychiatric propaganda and advertising from pharmaceutical companies from the day that they were born.
We don’t blame the American Colonists for the tyranny of King George III. We don’t blame slaves for the Civil War. We don’t blame We don’t blame the Jews for the horrors of the Shoah. Stop blaming the innocent victims of psychiatry for the evils of psychiatry.
“Psychiatrists Divided on Understandings of Psychosis”
This is the funniest title that I’ve seen in a long time.
Even if they understood anything at all in the first place, how on earth would psychiatrists understand a concept that not even the inventors of the concept, including Freud, understood? How could psychiatrists be anything but divided when it comes to understanding false concepts like “neurosis” or “psychosis”?
No. That’s what everyone already believes, namely, that so-called “mental illness” is an illness like any other, diabetes, etc. There is no such thing as “mental illness”. It is a terrible figment of the psychiatric imagination.
“Is It Time to Rethink Mental Illness in Light of the Pandemic?”
Nope, it’s time for people to wake up and realize that there is no such thing as “mental illness” or “mental health”. It’s time for people to understand that psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. It’s time to slay the dragon of psychiatry. 🙂
Thanks. So you understand why “mental illness” is a myth?
My reply was meant for a general audience, not directed at you. But when it comes to drugging and harming innocent children, I don’t think that it’s a virtue to be open minded. These are not “concerns” about “risks”. When psychiatrists label and drug innocent children, it is simply criminal.
Keep reading this blog, or at least the posts by Whitaker, Breggin, Hickey, etc. It will help you to understand why terminology such as “mental illness” and “mental health” is harmful to the very people you are trying to help. Thanks.
Stop drugging innocent children! This is the definition of evil. For heaven’s sake! Stop. Drugging. Innocent. Children!
There is no such thing as “mental illness” or “mental health.” Stop perpetuating the lies of psychiatry. These drugs are not “medications” with “side effects”. These are dangerous, brain disabling chemicals whose primary intended effect is to sedate or otherwise damage the brains of those who are labeled with fake diseases.
In the name of all that is good, STOP DRUGGING CHILDREN!
It blows my mind (not my brain) just how few people can grasp the simple concepts that you elucidate. Keep it up oldhead.
This is a very good article. It is on the right track.
It is impressive that you managed to quote or to cite Kirsch, Whitaker, Breggin, Davies, Gøtzsche, and Moncrieff all in the same article. Well done.
Perhaps one of the only ways to improve the article would be to help people understand the myth of mental illness itself. As long as the general public continues to believe in the myth of mental illness, psychiatry will continue to exercise its tyrannical dominion in one way or another.
But one step at a time. Keep it up.
Excellent.
All of this assumes that “Autism” and “mental health” correspond to underlying medical realities. Newsflash: they don’t.
https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2018/09/02/the-myth-of-autism/
Psychiatry cannot be reformed or merely criticized. Psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that must be abolished.
Or you might not.
To each his own.
Hey, I didn’t know that there was such an award!
Oldhead, you might be interested in this new series of videos on the truth about psychiatry. This is video number 12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PeMqUuwK-c
Mr. Francis,
It is a blessing that you have survived psychiatry, and that you are on a path of discovering the truth about psychiatry. As you progress on that path, and you discover that “mental illness” is a myth, and so-called “schizophrenia” is what Thomas Szasz called “the sacred symbol of psychiatry,” I hope that you will help to expose these myths. If you haven’t yet read the book, I recommend Thomas Szasz’ “Schizophrenia: The Sacred Symbol of Psychiatry.” https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/schizophrenia-the-sacred-symbol-of-psychiatry/
Exactly. The correct use of language is important, and something that both Karl Kraus and Thomas Szasz fought for incessantly.
For more on the truth about psychiatry, please see these new videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eu8WO4VFRk
To discover the truth about psychiatry, please watch this new series of videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eu8WO4VFRk
For anyone who might be interested, please watch this new video series “The Truth About Psychiatry”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eu8WO4VFRk
Exactly. Psychiatry itself is, and always as been the problem. This is one reason why I am recommending a new series of videos called “The Truth About Psychiatry.” This is the first video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eu8WO4VFRk
Excellent.
Dr. Hickey strikes again with his customary precision, acumen, persuasive reasoning.
Well done. Thank you.
I thought that I might also recommend a book by Thomas Szasz for those who are interested in the question regarding the difference between the mind and the brain:
https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/the-meaning-of-mind/
Thanks oldhead.
I’ve tried to get through to these people, but like many others, they’re not listening. All of this nutrition mumbo-jumbo will just end up harming the very people they wish to help as long as the myth of mental illness remains the underlying assumption.
It should be quite simple, really. How hard is it to understand that the brain is not the same thing as the mind? Seriously.
By all means, eat healthy food everyone. By all means, keep your brain healthy. But what good is a healthy brain if it doesn’t help you think clearly? What good is a healthy brain that remains impenetrable to the most basic realities?
So, please, for the love of Pete, stop worrying about nourishing brains and start educating your minds to understand that there is no such thing as “mental illness” or “mental health.”
Oldhead, when compared with psychiatry, a heaping, stinking pile of excrement is like a treasure chest filled with gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other precious stones and metals. Furthermore, a rotting mound of dung is useful as manure to fertilize a garden. Psychiatry, on the other hand, not only has less inherent value than an accumulation of waste matter, it actually removes value from the universe. It is perhaps more like a black hole that sucks the light and life away from stars and planets. Eventually it will cave in, implode, and die. In the meantime, however, we can help the process along by refusing to pretend that psychiatry is some kind of bright and shining sun of warmth, light, and healing, and that so-called “mental illness” is some sort of law of physics by which all things must abide. As you have done, we can continue to help the process along by pointing out that the attempt to reform or criticize psychiatry is about as useful as the attempt to persuade people that a black hole might be a good vacation spot.
Oldhead, when compared with psychiatry, a heaping, stinking pile of excrement is like a treasure chest filled with gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other precious stones and metals. Furthermore, a rotting mound of dung is useful as manure to fertilize a garden. Psychiatry, on the other hand, not only has less inherent value than an accumulation of waste matter, it actually removes value from the universe. It is perhaps more like a black hole that sucks the light and life away from stars and planets. Eventually it will cave in, implode, and die. In the meantime, however, we can help the process along by refusing to pretend that psychiatry is some kind of bright and shining sun of warmth, light, and healing, and that so-called “mental illness” is some sort of law of physics by which all things must abide. As you have done, we can continue to help the process along by pointing out that the attempt to reform or criticize psychiatry is about as useful as the attempt to persuade people that a black hole might be a good vacation spot.
Thanks oldhead and Rachel777. Happy Easter to you as well.
I guarantee that someone will find thousands of Easter Bunnies, Tooth Fairies, Santa Clauses, Loch Ness Monsters, Sasquatches, and Leprechauns before anyone, doctors, psychiatrists, or otherwise, will ever find out what “mental illness” really is.
“I believe that, realistically speaking, psychiatry isn’t going away.
“Believing the system will be abolished is totally unrealistic.”
Thus spoke the Philistines, Saul, and the Israelites before David slew Goliath.
Thus spoke slaveholders in the South before Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Thus spoke Neville Chamberlain before Winston Churchill rose to power and the Allied Forces conquered Hitler and the Nazi regime.
Thus spoke every naysayer and doubter who has since become a hiss and a byword in the annals of history.
Rest assured fair maiden, the dragon of psychiatry will be slain.
Good will conquer evil. Right will overcome wrong. Truth will triumph over error.
Mental illness is a myth. Until this reality becomes clear, psychiatry will continue to flourish at the expense of the innocent.
Good point edward1
In conclusion, your thesis is not just false, it is potentially damaging to the very victims of psychiatry that we should all be striving to help. I encourage you to think a bit harder and to do a little more research into the real reasons for psychiatry’s successful business formula. Even if psychiatry has trained you to think along these lines, I know that you are smarter than that.
No. The myth of psychotherapy is every bit as deceptive as the myth of mental illness, and a good place to begin to understand this myth is Szasz’s book “The Myth of Psychotherapy.” The reason why the myth of mental illness and the myth of psychotherapy are so effective is because they depend upon an element of truth, namely the reality of our mortal condition. Psychiatry is effective because people are naturally inclined to look for solutions to their problems, or even to find problems that aren’t there, with the help of those that they perceive as authority figures. If you are suggesting that it is irrational to trust doctors, I only wish it were that simple. If such were the case, the medical profession would have died out during Hippocrates’ lifetime.
But the most egregious errors are found at the end of your article. It is simply untrue that “biological suppression of independent, intelligent thought wasn’t always psychiatry’s main role.” The attempt to separate biological psychiatry from some other kind of psychiatry, whether it be psychoanalytic theory or psychotherapy, is doomed to failure because the two are inextricably intertwined. Freud and other fathers of psychiatry may have been evil, but they were not stupid. In fact, they were smart enough to convince many people, including yourself, that psychoanalysis is “an attempt to explore logical, cause and effect explanations for why we think/feel/behave as we do.”
As to your last point, psychiatry wages war against the innocent in every way, shape, and form. The chemical weapons that it deploys in the guise of “medicine” doesn’t render the victims stupid. It causes severe brain damage and even death, even to the brightest and most capable individuals. Whether by fraud and deception indirectly applied through the myth of mental illness or through the direct onslaught of chemical warfare, psychiatry is culpable, not its victims. While it is true that we could all afford to better understand the true nature of psychiatry, namely, that it is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession, that is not the fault of the victim but the fault of psychiatry itself. How else could psychiatry thrive unless there were an ingenious method to the madness? Thomas Szasz demonstrated that psychiatry works by the medicalization of everyday life with the support of the therapeutic state.
Psychiatry doesn’t train people to think stupidly. It imbibes its own adherents and practitioners with misleading ideas, or “lying facts” as Thomas Szasz once put it. In turn, these psychiatric overlords – often without realizing it – labor to convince their innocent victims that they are “mentally ill.” The myth of mental illness has yet to be sufficiently debunked, even though Szasz and others spent decades in the attempt. The innocent victims of psychiatry are not stupid. They are real people with real hopes and dreams who have sought for solutions to their problems in the places that make the most sense for people to look. It is true that psychiatry labors to convince people that their problems in living (feelings of sadness, depression, anxiety, etc.) are the result of so-called “mental illness” and “chemical imbalances” in the brain. But the success of these psychiatric myths and hoaxes has more to do with the evil and the fraud inherent in psychiatry than it does with the stupidity or gullibility of the victims of psychiatry.
Psychiatry doesn’t simply train its victims to think stupidly. It trains its practitioners to ensnare others. Even many of those who have a sincere desire to assist their fellow man and relieve suffering, perhaps even someone like yourself, have been hoodwinked by medical schools and the mental health industry. Thus a very smart person with a desire to help others, a person such as yourself, may spend countless hours and a fortune in tuition and other expenses, studying in a field that is inherently corrupt and which offers relief to no one, except perhaps the relief that comes to the coffers of pharmaceutical companies and the bank accounts of psychiatrists themselves. As Upton Sinclair once observed, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
You then claim that psychiatry trains people to think stupidly. Wrong again. Psychiatry deceives people, including innocent children, the homeless, and the elderly, because there is an element of truth to psychiatric claims. If it were merely a silly ruse, no one would be duped by it. But as you can clearly see, the myth of mental illness and the attendant chemical imbalance hoax have been effective enough to bamboozle even the brightest among us.
While there is some truth to your original thesis, it is severely lacking. Please allow me to clarify.
Your first claim is that psychiatry’s business model depends upon making people think that they are stupid even though they are smart. If only it were that simple. You know as well as anyone that this is not true. Psychiatry does not get people to think that they are stupid. Psychiatry labors to convince people that they are sick. The problem with your formulation is that it is not unusual for people to feel many emotions or to experience a wide variety of problems in living, particularly in the day and age in which we live. Even the most brilliant minds, the most competent leaders, and the most promising youth have been duped into believing the myth of mental illness. In fact, I’m not sure that even you, as brilliant as you are, have completely abandoned the myth of mental illness or other psychiatric deceptions.
Not quite Lawrence.
If there were any such thing as “ADHD” and “Autism,” there might be something to this article.
Sorry to steal your thunder oldhead.
Actually, the term psychiatry is even more atrocious than that. The word literally means “medical treatment of the soul.” Let that sink in for a minute.
There are hoards of these “soul doctors” meandering around disguised as real doctors. Does any one of them know what a soul is? Does any one of them have any idea what it would mean to treat the soul medically? Psychiatry is the biggest sham ever pulled off in the world’s history. It is simply astounding how many people have been deceived by it.
“Psychiatry Needs a New Metaphor”
No. Psychiatry needs to be abolished.
Joanna, do you defend psychiatry?
Do you really believe, even after all of your research and writing, that the “mental health” system or psychiatry provides asylum or healing to people?
I’m genuinely curious.
Thanks.
“Maybe the function of a mental health system is, after all, to provide care or “asylum,” while trying, at the same time, to foster people’s own abilities to recover.”
There are so many problems with this dangerous philosophy that I don’t even know where to start.
But let’s begin with the “mental health” system. There is no such thing as “mental health.” The only reason that people believe in “mental health” is because the psychiatric myth of “mental illness” is so pervasive. Psychiatry disseminates the myth of “mental illness” so effectively, that now nearly everyone has been deceived into thinking that there needs to be a “mental health” system to counteract “mental illness.” Balderdash.
The second lie is that this euphemistically termed “mental health” system fulfills the function of providing “care” or “asylum.” Nonsense. In practice, what does this really look like? It looks like the wholesale destruction of countless innocent lives, including the lives of children, the homeless, and helpless elderly people. It looks like the labeling, stigmatization, ostracism, drugging, and torture of the victims of psychiatry.
It is outright tyranny masquerading as medical care. It is, as the titles and content of Szasz’s book reveals, Coercion as Care, Liberation by Oppression, and the Medicalization of Everyday Life. It all begins with the pernicious myth of mental illness.
Enough is enough. The time has come to abolish psychiatry and to expose its pernicious myths for what they are. Psychiatry is the opposite of “care,” “asylum” or “fostering people’s own abilities to recover.”
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” – C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock
“What Can We Learn From the Asylum?”
We can learn that psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. The sooner we learn that fact, the better.
“The most dangerous thing you will ever do is see a psychiatrist.”
This is true. And yet the entire “mental health” and medical system in America is contrived so as to funnel unsuspecting victims into the terrible web of psychiatry. The most dangerous thing you will ever do is see a psychiatrist, but that is precisely what the myth of “mental illness” encourages everyone to do.
Until the myth of mental illness is exposed, as Szasz tried so valiantly to do, psychiatry will continue to thrive, like a terrible parasite that thrives on the suffering of its host.
Excellent.
Dr. Breggin, this is one of your best articles to date. Thank you. I appreciate your courageous stand against the evil institution of psychiatry.
“While it may not live up to its own self-image as a modern and sophisticated technical enterprise, the system does, however, provide care for those who are unable to care for themselves, and containment for those whose behaviour is disturbing to others. Such people still include a mixture of those with organic disorders and psychological problems.”
Isn’t clear by now that psychiatry has nothing to do with “care,” and everything to do with destroying the lives of innocent people? Do you really want to continue to take part in that? Do you really want to continue to defend the pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession?
“Can Psychiatry Incorporate Traditional Healing Practices?”
Can oil and water mix? Can pigs fly? Can I sell you a bridge in Brooklyn?
Phil Hickey = STUD.
Agreed.
Gøtzsche does great work. See also: https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/deadly-medicines-and-organised-crime/
But of course there is no such thing as an “antidepressant”. “Antidepressant” is a misleading word because it tricks people into thinking that a dangerous psychotropic chemical is somehow fixing a mysterious “chemical imbalance” in the brain. These dangerous chemical compounds would be more appropriately called thanatophoric (death inducing) drugs.
Say more.
LOL!
“And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, ‘O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.’ And the Lord did grin.”
“Capitol Hill Briefings Debunk Myth Linking Gun Violence to Mental Illness” ???
How can a myth about a myth be debunked without the debunking of the original myth?
The original myth is that there is such a thing called “mental illness.” We might as well have Capitol Hill Briefings to debunk the myth linking gun violence to the Easter Bunny. Come to think of it, perhaps it is the Easter Bunny – with his nasty, big, pointy teeth (bonus points for understanding the reference) – that is responsible for all of this violence after all. It couldn’t possibly be the fault of psychiatry and psychotropic drugs that are known to CAUSE the very symptoms that they purport to cure. It must be that nefarious Easter Bunny, and his henchman, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and many Leprechauns.
As long as the myth of mental illness continues to pervade the imaginations of the vast majority of people in the United States, the violence will continue to rise, and the cause will continue to elude us. The time has long since passed when the myth of mental illness and its attendant hoaxes, such as the “chemical imbalance” hoax ought to have been driven from the public square, along with all other pharmaceutical fantasies and psychiatric chimeras.
This is a brief review of his book on psychiatry: https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/a-history-of-psychiatry/
I think that the review you gave of Shorter’s gynecology book suffices for now. 🙂 But that is a gem. Well done.
Maybe you can relate to the following:
https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/end-psychiatric-torture/
Oh Rachel777, you are genius!
Pure gold. Thanks for the tip. How did you come across this treasure?
This is an excellent review of Shorter’s book “A History of Psychiatry”: https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/a-history-of-psychiatry/
The truly astounding thing is that Thomas Szasz understood and told the truth about psychiatry long, long ago, as did Karl Kraus long before him, but their truth-telling was ridiculed, rejected, or ignored.
Although Bonnie’s arguments lean much too heavily toward radical Marxist ideologies, she was absolutely right about opposing psychiatry full force. Even though he didn’t get everything right either, Thomas Szasz’s work provides a good counterbalance to the ideological slant of much antipsychiatric literature.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the man who wrote most prolifically and profoundly in opposition to psychiatry has been the most ignored, most misunderstood, and the most slandered. Bonnie made an important contribution to the antipsychiatry canon, but as long as the world continues to ignore the work of Thomas Szasz, psychiatry will continue to thrive at the expense of its unwitting victims.
Having read Shorter’s conventional (and skewed) history of psychiatry, as well as Bonnie’s books and Mr. Whitaker’s books, the contrast between truth and error is quite clear. It is clear that psychiatric survivors, antipsychiatrists, and some critics of psychiatry are telling the truth, whereas psychiatry is, and always has been, based on lies, deception, and chicanery. Psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. Fortunately Bonnie, Mr. Whitaker, and a few others, such as Peter Breggin, have been brave enough to tell the truth.
Is it any wonder that psychiatric survivors, antipsychiatrists, and critics of psychiatry often want to write under the protection of a pseudonym? If journalists treat the dead so poorly, just think how they will treat the living, particularly survivors!
Excellent!
This is your best article to date Mr. Whitaker. Thank you.
Oldhead is right. Everything “mad” goes hand in glove with psychiatry. Szasz was mostly right. Laing was wrong. Foucault… it’s complicated.
The simple point to remember is that psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession, so-called “mental illness” is a myth, and so-called “chemical imbalances” are a hoax. The other simple point to remember is that psychiatry cannot be reformed, criticized, or improved upon. Like slavery, it must be abolished.
Removed for moderation.
Szasz never gets old, because he tells the truth about psychiatry and the need for abolition. “The Inflamed Mind,” on the other hand, relies on the fiction of so-called “mental disorders.”
“Yup, everybody thinks they know what “the truth” is” – I hope that you don’t exclude yourself from this categorization.
I’m skeptical of your skepticism. 🙂 But I agree that we need to dig deeper than what you call the lingo of the moment. That’s why I recommend Karl Kraus and Thomas Szasz. They weren’t right about everything, but they were truth-speakers long before anyone here was born.
New approaches?
Here’s an idea: Stop drugging people.
We don’t need to rethink anything. We need to abolish psychiatry so that those who are drugged into suicidal ideation can get their lives back.
You can try that if you like, but that’s not what so-called “schizophrenia” is. That’s not how it was invented, and that’s not how it operates in the real world.
https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/schizophrenia-the-sacred-symbol-of-psychiatry/
Truth is more useful than illusory neutrality.
Thank you.
I would say that it’s worse than an opinion. So-called “schizophrenia” is a figment of the psychiatric imagination. It is the sacred symbol of psychiatry, and psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. Brain damaging drugs are not a cure for fictitious diseases. In fact, brain disabling, psychotropic chemicals CAUSE the very damage that they purport to remedy.
This is just one of the myriad reasons why psychiatry must be abolished.
Exactly, anomie. Exactly.
Whitaker and others do excellent work on the very surface of psychiatric fraud. This is helpful because people who read can begin to question the psychiatric paradigm. But rarely do people have the courage and the foresight to dig deeper into the myth of mental illness. Karl Kraus and Thomas Szasz had greater courage and understanding than anyone writing today, but their works have largely been ignored, ridiculed, or forgotten. That is often the fate of truth-tellers.
Let me just chime in to remind everyone that there is no such thing as “schizophrenia.” It is a figment of the psychiatric imagination.
Great article. Thank you.
Not even Huxley could have foreseen the Brave New World that we now inhabit.
The sad thing is that Thomas Szasz understood the problem more than 50 years ago, and Karl Kraus understood the problem long before him. Psychiatry is, and always has been, a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. Just as Dr. Hatch points out, psychiatry preys upon the most vulnerable in our society, including innocent children, the homeless, the incarcerated, soldiers, and the elderly. Is there any question in anyone’s mind how despicable psychiatry is?
There are many who have written on the direct connection between psychotropic drugs (these are not in any way “medications”) and acts of violence such as mass shootings. Peter Breggin’s book, Medication Madness is just one of them. https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/warning-medication-madness/
Mad in America is doing great work to bring to light the truth about psychiatry (https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/the-truth-about-psychiatry/), even though Thomas Szasz already did this many, many years ago. If people would read and understand his books, they would soon enlist in the cause of abolition. They would work together to slay the dragon of psychiatry.
“Is There a Small Group for Whom Antidepressants Are Effective?”
The simple answer is no, but define “effective.” Then define “antidepressant.”
If by effective we mean the increase in suicides, then yes, “antidepressants” are very effective.
But even the word “antidepressant” is misleading, because it hinges on the chemical imbalance hoax. There is no chemical that corrects a supposed chemical imbalance.
“Antidepressants” are, in reality, dangerous, brain disabling, chemical compounds. Peter Breggin has repeatedly shown that most supposed “benefits” from so-called “antidepressants” arise from the effect of medication spellbinding.
http://www.toxicpsychiatry.com/medication-spellbinding/
Interesting article.
The problem, however, is that there is no such thing as “schizophrenia.” Obviously it would be wrong to blame mothers for causing “schizophrenia” even if such a thing were real. But it is not. Simply put, so-called “schizophrenia” is, as Thomas Szasz so eloquently articulated, the sacred symbol of psychiatry.
https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/schizophrenia-the-sacred-symbol-of-psychiatry/
Yes. What most people haven’t quite begun to understand is that all the efforts invested in “suicide prevention” and “treatment” actually contribute to the rise in suicides. Thomas Szasz may have been misguided in his opinions on suicide, but he wasn’t all wrong.
Exactly Rachel777. It’s the simple question that hardly anyone bothers to ask: What is the relationship between the growth of the therapeutic state and the exponential increase in suicides?
Great tribute Don. Thank you.
Although I disagree with Bonnie about many things, she was a tireless antipsychiatry warrior and abolitionist, for which, among other things, she is to be commended. I’ve read Psychiatry Interrogated, Psychiatry Disrupted, and Psychiatry and the Business of Madness, all of which are great books, indispensable works in the antipsychiatry canon.
The Dr. Bonnie Burstow Scholarship in Antipsychiatry is an amazing achievement in and of itself.
It will take vision and perseverance to continue the work that Bonnie helped to establish. For those of us who understand the need to abolish psychiatry, can you imagine antipsychiatry being taught in universities around the world? Can you imagine a best-selling book that reveals the true history of psychiatry? Can you imagine antipsychiatry articles in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal? Can you imagine a blockbuster film that reveals the truth about psychiatry? These are just some ideas that the Burstow’s legacy inspires.
Thank you Don. Thank you Bonnie. And thank you to all those who fight to reveal the truth about psychiatry.
https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com/
Great post.
However, I need to correct the use of the word “diagnosis.” I understand why it might makes sense to use the word “diagnosis” in order to communicate simply, but a diagnosis implies that there is an actual disease to identify. There is no such thing as a psychiatric diagnosis because there is no such thing as “mental illness.” “Mental illness,” as Szasz so thoroughly and eloquently articulated, is a myth, and the so-called “diagnoses” are nothing more than fabrications of the psychiatric imagination.
Therefore, our new survivor friend was not “diagnosed” with depression, bipolar, or any other fictitious disease. She was labeled, drugged, and put through chemical torture.
I’m glad to hear that she is on the path of recovery. If she would like to supplement her education about the truth of psychiatry, I recommend the following website: https://psychiatricsurvivors.wordpress.com
Yes.
Good question oldhead.
It’s all bogus. We need to stop pretending that somehow we are all mad in order to express solidarity with those who have been labeled as “mentally ill.”
Instead of the insane claim that we are all mad, why don’t we just work to abolish psychiatry along with all of the fictitious diseases that it manufactures.
Every human being, to varying degrees, is born with the capacity to reason, to choose, and to act. Labeling people as “mad,” whether oneself or others, is foolish.
“Researchers Fail to Predict Antidepressant Treatment Success”
More complete and utter nonsense.
The term “antidepressant” is a euphemism for a dangerous, brain-disabling drug. What on earth could it mean for abuse by toxic chemicals to be successful? Could it be that suicides are now the leading cause of deaths in America second only to accidents? That, my friends, is the success of psychiatry.
“Researchers Propose Mindfulness for Treatment of Bipolar Disorder”
What complete and utter nonsense.
While researchers propose mindfulness for treatment of a fictitious disease, I would propose that researchers start using their minds before they publish any of their research.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. I believe that it is natural for those in distress to seek solutions from those who are perceived to be authority figures or persons capable of offering healing. It is human.
Psychiatry has deceived the entire planet, but now you are one of the few who has been enlightened. It’s kind of like the Matrix. You took the red pill and you discovered the truth. Now you can help in the resistance.
A good post in general.
But the trouble begins long before any “real doctors” give fake diagnoses for non-existent diseases. The trouble is in the myth of “mental illness” itself, a myth that permeates our society and is preached in medical schools. The trouble began long ago when psychiatry, soul-doctoring, came to be perceived as a legitimate branch of medicine.
This is a good post, but there is one other problem. So-called “antidepressants” and other psychotropic drugs aren’t just benign placebos or generally unhelpful. They are dangerous brain disabling drugs. You hint at this fact, but it needs to be more explicit.
It is, of course, debatable what it might mean for a person to be a “real doctor.” It’s unfortunate when some people who attend medical school with the intent to help others end up in the trap of psychiatry themselves, since psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. When aspiring doctors are indoctrinated with psychiatric propaganda, they may still earn a medical degree, but they’ve learned next to nothing about healing. In fact, they’ve been taught the opposite.
So it isn’t just real doctors who peddle the fake diseases. There are plenty of fake doctors and quacks, or in other words, there are plenty of psychiatrists who are peddling these fake diseases. Fortunately there are a few psychiatrists who have been enlightened (Lawrence Kelmenson, Peter Breggin, etc.), but the most enlightened (i.e. Thomas Szasz) understand that psychiatry cannot be reformed or criticized. It must be abolished.
I agree oldhead.
Dr. Breggin has done excellent work with Toxic Psychiatry, Medication Madness, and other books. It is great that he encourages empathy, love, and even faith in God. These things are wonderful. But of course they have nothing to do with psychiatry. Psychiatry is inherently the very opposite of empathy, love, and faith in God. Psychiatry is a pseudo-scientific system of slavery that masquerades as a medical profession. I will never tire of saying it. Psychiatry is the very cause of the problems that it purports to remedy. Psychiatry is torture, abuse, and deception. It is the antithesis of all that is good.
Of course we are all deeply flawed. Of course we all need enabling power to love and to be loved. But if we truly wish to love those who have been labeled as “mad” or “mentally ill,” we need to start thinking more clearly about what is going on. Thomas Szasz was exactly right. So-called “mental illness” is a myth. It is a destructive myth that spreads through the “chemical imbalance” hoax and the aid of the wretched psycho-pharmaceutical industrial complex.
Do we truly want to understand madness? Please allow me to elucidate the matter: It is sheer madness to suppose that psychiatry can be improved upon or fixed. It is madness to suppose that anything but the abolition of psychiatry will help the millions of innocent victims of psychiatry. It is madness to pretend that empathy, love, and any amount of so-called “psychotherapy” can supplement the unspeakable harm that is caused by psychotropic drugs, the vicious labels of the DSM, and the litany of abuses for which psychiatry is guilty.
Enough is enough. Slay the Dragon of Psychiatry.
You are AWESOME!
What a beautiful person, with such a beautiful smile!
God bless you.
My only disagreement with you is that psychiatric care is in desperate need of improvements and humanizing. If you frequent this site often it will probably become clear to you that psychiatry is inherently rotten and dehumanizing. It is not something that can be improved. Only its abolition will prevent the kinds of atrocities that you witnessed first hand as you, from your kind heart, sought to help those in need.
Thank you for your kind deeds and for making this world a better place.
Thanks for sharing your experiences Will. I’m glad that you not only survived psychiatry, but that you have been able to grow and to prosper. I appreciate the intelligence and the articulateness of your article. I appreciate your focus on healing and faith as well. Well done.
That’s an excellent point Rachel777. Even the best of the critics of psychiatry, people like Breggin, Whitaker, Burstow, etc. don’t quite understand what a survivor understands. The work of these critics of psychiatry is indispensable, but only those who have survived psychiatry from the inside truly understand what is going on. That is why it is so important for survivors like you to stay strong and to articulate the truth about psychiatry.
True.
I have found a path to healing, and akathisia is no longer an issue. Glory be to God, and not for my own strength, I emerged from the furnace of affliction stronger, more refined, and with an absolute conviction of the evil that is inherent in psychiatry.
I suffered everything imaginable, and I was, for all intents and purposes, dead. The journey out of the psychiatric abyss was an unimaginable hell, and there were literally times when I thirsted first death because the pain was so intense. But I held on, or I should say, God preserved me for a purpose.
Thanks. Danke schoen.
Good post Mr. Whitaker. Thanks.
One sobering thing to consider is that as awful as this story is, there are probably millions of other stories just like it in process right now. I personally know several friends, acquaintances, and others who have taken their own lives as a direct result of psychiatric abuse, whether they recognized the abuse or not.
The suffering Zel describes is real, and more awful than anyone who has not endured it can imagine. I honestly don’t know how I, or anyone else survives it, except for the help of God. I do not blame anyone who decides to enter the next phase of existence early, because I know just how terrible the suffering is. It is impossible to describe in words, and it will only be matched by the suffering that those who are responsible for it will have to undergo as a result of their crimes. For this reason, I pray for the perpetrators (i.e. proponents of psychiatry and so-called “mental health”) as well as the victims.
One thing is certain: mercy cannot rob justice. There will be an awful reckoning. The dragon of psychiatry will be slain, and all those who have perished by his fangs, claws, or fiery breath will be vindicated.
Jesus is real.
He lives, and He will soon return to the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Because of Him, we will triumph over psychiatry and over every other trial in life.
Merry Christmas.
“Does this mean mental illnesses don’t exist? Surely this isn’t a tired rehash of iconoclasts from the 60s like Szasz, Laing, Foucault, et al? Are you saying that people aren’t suffering?”
Here is the rub. This is the main problem with Mr. Tampiyappa’s article.
He poses the rhetorical question as if it weren’t an important question, but it is the central question. The answer to the question is “Yes. This means that mental illnesses don’t exist.” The truth is always fresh, not a tired rehash. Furthermore, lumping Szasz in with Laing and Foucault misses the mark by a long shot. Szasz wasn’t simply an iconoclast, and he was as different from Laing and Foucault as day differs from night. Szasz understood and articulated the truth about psychiatry. For that crime, he has suffered the fate of most truth-tellers, namely, to be ignored, ridiculed, downplayed, or misinterpreted.
The truth, as Szasz well knew, is that mental illness is a myth. Nothing could be more necessary than to “rehash” the truths that make psychiatrists uncomfortable, which discomfort leads them to dismiss Szasz as an iconoclast or to group him with people with whom he vehemently disagreed. Szasz wrote an entire book on the foolishness of Laing, and he Szasz occupied the opposite end of the political spectrum of both Laing and Foucault.
So, let me answer the questions one by one, because they shouldn’t be rhetorical questions:
“Does this mean mental illnesses don’t exist?” Yes. Exactly. There is no such thing as “mental illness.” So-called “mental illness” is a fabrication of the most nefarious kind, and an illusion of the psychiatric imagination that has caused and continues to cause unspeakable harm to untold numbers of innocent people.
“Surely this isn’t a tired rehash of iconoclasts from the 60s like Szasz, Laing, Foucault, et al?” Again, there is nothing tired about the truths that Szasz set forth in his voluminous works. The truly nauseating and tiresome ideologies are those propounded by psychiatry itself. Nothing could be more necessary than to reiterate the truths that Szasz articulated so clearly, because truth is always new and fresh, whereas psychiatric propaganda is insidious.
“Are you saying that people aren’t suffering?” People are suffering, and many of them are suffering as a direct result of the continued existence and expansion of psychiatry. Psychiatry is the very cause of the suffering that it purports to assuage. Yes. People are suffering, and until psychiatry is abolished, people will continue to suffer from the abusive and coercive practices that are inherent in psychiatry.
Enough is enough. Let me help everyone out of the Matrix. There is no need to disentangle antipsychiatry. There is an urgent need, however, to abolish psychiatry. The time has come to slay the dragon of psychiatry.
Psychiatry is the polar opposite of anything ethical. A psychiatrist cannot practice ethically in any circumstance because psychiatry is by its very nature an unethical endeavor. In other words, oldhead is correct. The only way for a psychiatrist to practice ethically is to stop being a psychiatrist, and to start doing work that is ethical.