And thank you for your helpful and insightful comments and ongoing support.
sam,
I think you’re absolutely right. Psychiatry provides a perverse “service” to real medics, in that it enables the latter to shuffle off to psychiatry, which of course, is a “bona fide medical specialty”, those patients that, for whatever reason, they don’t want to deal with, but also don’t want to just kick out the door.
I think this is the primary reason that real doctors don’t expose the psychiatrists. They provide a “convenient” service.
kindredspirit,
Thanks for this. Psychiatry is rotten to the core.
oldhead,
It would be good material for a study.
sam,
Yes, there are lots of parallels between psychiatry and crooked politics. And no, I haven’t been invited to tea yet. But maybe sometime soon. How I crave such an honor!
Willoweed,
Yes. The world-wide psychiatric-pharma machine is light years ahead of any regulatory activity that could hope to rein them in. They are loose cannons on the ship that we call humanity. My guess is that most of them are just hoping that they can make it to retirement before the whole thing unravels.
Frank,
“If psychiatrists didn’t believe in some version of the ‘chemical imbalance theory’ they wouldn’t be damaging their client/patients by giving them harmful psychotropic drugs.”
That is so true!
Someone Else,
You’re welcome. I continue to be appalled by psychiatry’s inherent destructiveness, and their absolute determination to resist any questioning of their self-serving status quo.
bcharris,
I agree. Feelings of sadness are actually adaptive mechanisms that alert us when we get stuck in situations that are not helpful to us.
Thanks. I’m not at all sure that I warrant such praise, but I am grateful.
rebel,
And thank you for putting the matter so well, and so succinctly.
Steve,
Right. And the computer would be kaput also.
Miriam,
Yes. His walk-back didn’t even come close to a genuine apology.
Sam,
Thanks for this and for the interesting link. If anyone had imagined that there was any genuine motivation for reform within psychiatry, their response to the pandemic should be a salutary lesson. Psychiatry’s essential response is to encourage people to come in and get their worries and negative feelings checked out to see if they need “treatment”. And guess what? They do!
Steve,
Yes, indeed! Or perhaps it’s like “repairing” the motherboard of your computer with a backhoe and a couple of jackhammers!
Richard,
Thanks.
Mammon,
I agree that most professions try to present themselves in a favorable light. Electrical engineers, for instance, build marvelous power stations, but tend to understate the negative effects that their products have on the plant’s climate. Similar dynamics occur in most of us. We’re willing to go along with collateral damage for the sake of our comfort. But – and for me this is the critical distinction – change is occurring. People are beginning to realize the reality of climate change. Psychiatry, however, is stuck in its own mythology, and Dr. Pies is perhaps the “stuckest” of them all.
Marie,
You’re right. And yet the learned Dr. Pies would say that you’re wrong: never promoted such nonsense!
boans,
It is serious. Like the Six Million Dollar Man, except that that was fiction, and there was never any suggestion to the contrary.
LindaVZ,
Yes. All psychiatric “illness” is considered “incurable”, on the grounds that their “treatments” are so ineffective. It’s a house of cards.
Stevepittelli,
I think he might actually have been the original editor of Psychiatric Times.
“The periodical was first published in January 1985 as a 16-page bimonthly publication. It was founded by psychiatrist John L. Schwartz and originally edited by Ronald Pies.” (Wikipedia).
rebel,
And thank you for the insights.
Someone Else,
Nice research! Well done.
Fiachra,
Never. And Never!
kindredspirit,
Nice response. Thanks.
beokay,
Thanks for the Max Planck quote. There are several reasons why I am willing to “go the distance” with the learned doctor. I’m currently working on a post to explain these. Perhaps after that I will let him so.
snowyowl,
Welcome back.
Fiachra,
I have heard this too. I hope that the anti-psychiatry movement has played a role in this, and that we can continue the push.
Rosalee,
Thanks for your kind words, which mean a lot to me. This arena has become a real battlefield, which I suppose is inevitable when we start to read their pompous and spurious drivel. They demonstrate little or no critical self-scrutiny and have no claim to truth or scientific integrity.
They cover up their damage and destructiveness with “these are deadly diseases; we’re going everything we can”, and they dismiss the deaths, like your brother’s, with indifference.
Thanks again.
James,
Excellent exposé. Electricity is a great boon, but not when it gets inside one’s brain!
Someone Else,
Sure. The movement, as you know, is not a formal association. It’s rather a loose aggregate of more-or-less like-minded people who see psychiatry as something flawed and rotten. Members of the movement can label themselves as they see fit. I prefer “anti-psychiatry” because I am indeed anti psychiatry. I see no willingness in psychiatry to reverse any of the dreadful things that they do. But Truth about Psychiatry would be OK too. The main thing in my view is to keep calling them out and challenging their destructive and dehumanizing world view.
S82,
One can always find a few psychiatrists who practice ethically and responsibly. But the vast majority just push the pills and the shocks, though they must be aware of the damage being caused. When I first started writing about these matters, I didn’t push the “anti” label either. But as I delved more and more into what they do, I felt that that was the only label that did justice to the reality.
Sam,
Certainly most media outlets walk the “party line”. Notice how they’re pushing psychiatry at present to “help people cope” with the COVID fallout. But occasionally one encounters more honesty, especially in outlets that don’t rely on pharma advertising.
Sam,
“…but most can be made to feel that it’s okay.” How true. It is difficult to resist the pressure when one joins an organization like psychiatry. The great majority leave their scruples at the door.
Rebel,
And thank you for coming in.
Dan,
Thanks. I hope the withdrawal goes OK.
Richard,
Thanks for your support. And yes, I do now have a transplanted kidney, which is working well!
Karin,
The truly galling aspect of all this is that psychiatry’s cause-neutrality doctrine specifically states that it doesn’t matter how much grief or emotional pain you’re suffering, if you meet the Mickey Mouse criteria, you have an illness that only they are qualified to treat.
I agree. It’s a hard-hitting and well-researched classic, to which psychiatry has no answer.
Rosalee,
Thanks for the book recommendation. I agree that we will continue to gain traction.
James,
Thanks. Yes, we will win this battle.
prescribedharm,
It is indeed nearly incomprehensible. And yet it happens every day, world-wide.
Sam,
I agree. We should stop seeking any kind of accommodation with psychiatry. They simply need to go away.
Sam,
Yes. It’s always easy to condemn the “bad guys” of the past, and to promote the notion that all that is behind us now.
Fiachra,
Yes. The old dogma of “neuroleptics for life” was, literally, a killer.
Someone Else,
And thank you for these additions.
rebel,
I agree. Psychiatry has so many ways of marginalizing the voices of those who dare to reject, or even question, its efficacy.
Madrina,
Thanks. I would be very interested in any other choices that you would like to add.
beokay,
They certainly do. But, of course, as the eminent Dr. Pies points out, we have to check this with the psychiatrist! Good luck with that.
Yulia,
Good question. I really don’t know. Perhaps I should try writing something for a mainstream outlet and see how it goes.
ThereAreFourLights,
Yes. Same movie. Different cast.
Frank,
Psychiatry uses the very effective pharma machine to market their “illnesses”, and pharma uses psychiatry to create an impression of legitimacy and to clinch the sales at the point of contact. It’s a match made in Heaven – or perhaps somewhere else?
Rosalee,
Great point. The “diagnosis” is almost as bad as the “treatments”, because in general, they can’t give you the “treatments” unless they’ve first given you a “diagnosis”.
rebel,
And we are winning.
Rachel777,
Maybe. In any event, I think they’ve grossly underestimated the resilience, persistence, and determination of the anti-psychiatry movement.
rebel,
Yes; the notion that virtually every problem of thinking, feeling and behaving is an illness is attractive to them because, as you point out, it fits their biased narrative.
Steve,
Yes. Most of their output is drivel.
Rosalee,
Thanks. I’ll certainly try.
Sam,
Well said!
Frank,
Nice!
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” (Sir Walter Scott, 1808)
Someone Else,
Tragically, many psychologists are becoming more psychiatric than the psychiatrists themselves.
Yulia,
You’re doing it. Keep it up.
Willoweed,
Nice! Only loyal members of the cult understand.
Yulia,
Yes! I think most of the readers are probably psychiatrists.
Yulia,
Dr. Pies is, in my view, one of the 999. But his concepts need to be exposed and countered. He is an avid promoter of the notion that a problem can be considered an illness even though no biological pathology is involved. This is the fundamental rot in psychiatry that has empowered them to pontificate and take action in virtually every facet of human existence.
Sam,
Yes, the learned doctor is skilled at fashioning his “doctrines to the varying hour”.
Oldhead,
The spurious nature of their “diseases” is psychiatry’s fundamental flaw, as I’ve written repeatedly, but from a tactical perspective, their weak spot is the link between the drugs and the mass murders/suicides. The anecdotal evidence for this link grows daily, but definitive proof is not yet to hand.
oldhead,
It’s a hoax, deliberately and consciously promoted by psychiatrists to promote their own ends to the detriment of their customers.
Sam,
And don’t forget: “Gee, you’re wonderful, Dr. Murgatroyd.”
Andrei,
I think that psychiatry’s weak spot is the correlation between psychiatric drugs and the mass murders/suicides. We need definitive proof that the link is causal, and then shout it to the heavens.
oldhead,
Thanks.
KindRegards,
I agree. It is very succinct. He’s hit all the main points.
Willoweed,
Well put.
Exit,
I agree. All psychotropic drugs exert their effects, not by correcting any brain malfunction, but rather by disrupting the normal neural mechanisms. Many psychiatrists will admit this if pressed.
Steve,
Thanks for this.
Endogenous depression is depression for which a psychiatrist has not identified a psychosocial, cultural, economic precipitator, largely because he/she hasn’t looked for one!
Sam,
I agree. But they have left themselves no way out.
Someone Else,
Thanks for this information.
Jeffrey,
I agree. They are not counselors, and in fact their training doesn’t lend itself to adopting this role. They’ve pushed themselves so far back into the medical corner that they have no way out.
registeredforthissite,
It’s a great idea, but it’s not something that I could do. I just don’t have the energy any more.
Sam,
Brilliant!
Sam,
Yes it is. And they continue to push the deception that they are saving lives!
Rosalee,
Thanks for coming in on this. I’m so sorry for your loss, and I realize how galling it must be to read the self-congratulatory drivel that flows endlessly from psychiatry.
NotCrazyAfterAllTheseYears,
Thanks for this helpful insight.
Frank,
Thanks.
KateL,
Yes, they have every reason to be angry and to express this anger.
John,
Not a stitch!
Sam,
Nice phrase – “cocoon of tunnel vision”.
boans,
And thanks for this insight into criminal con-artists.
Oldhead,
I agree. Thanks for the clarification.
Oldhead,
Thanks. When you start to examine their statements in detail, it is clear that it’s mostly self-exculpating drivel.
Oldhead,
Thanks.
Brett,
Thanks for this. At its worst, the psychosocial component consists of nothing more than nagging the client to take his/her pills “as ordered by the doctor”.
Rosalee,
And thank you for your helpful and insightful comments and ongoing support.
sam,
I think you’re absolutely right. Psychiatry provides a perverse “service” to real medics, in that it enables the latter to shuffle off to psychiatry, which of course, is a “bona fide medical specialty”, those patients that, for whatever reason, they don’t want to deal with, but also don’t want to just kick out the door.
I think this is the primary reason that real doctors don’t expose the psychiatrists. They provide a “convenient” service.
kindredspirit,
Thanks for this. Psychiatry is rotten to the core.
oldhead,
It would be good material for a study.
sam,
Yes, there are lots of parallels between psychiatry and crooked politics. And no, I haven’t been invited to tea yet. But maybe sometime soon. How I crave such an honor!
Willoweed,
Yes. The world-wide psychiatric-pharma machine is light years ahead of any regulatory activity that could hope to rein them in. They are loose cannons on the ship that we call humanity. My guess is that most of them are just hoping that they can make it to retirement before the whole thing unravels.
Frank,
“If psychiatrists didn’t believe in some version of the ‘chemical imbalance theory’ they wouldn’t be damaging their client/patients by giving them harmful psychotropic drugs.”
That is so true!
Someone Else,
You’re welcome. I continue to be appalled by psychiatry’s inherent destructiveness, and their absolute determination to resist any questioning of their self-serving status quo.
bcharris,
I agree. Feelings of sadness are actually adaptive mechanisms that alert us when we get stuck in situations that are not helpful to us.
Irit,
Thanks. Incidentally, Robert Whitaker did a nice critique of Dr. Pies’ material in 2015. You can see it here.
https://www.madinamerica.com/2015/09/ronald-pies-doubles-down-and-why-we-should-care/
oldhead,
Thanks. I’m not at all sure that I warrant such praise, but I am grateful.
rebel,
And thank you for putting the matter so well, and so succinctly.
Steve,
Right. And the computer would be kaput also.
Miriam,
Yes. His walk-back didn’t even come close to a genuine apology.
Sam,
Thanks for this and for the interesting link. If anyone had imagined that there was any genuine motivation for reform within psychiatry, their response to the pandemic should be a salutary lesson. Psychiatry’s essential response is to encourage people to come in and get their worries and negative feelings checked out to see if they need “treatment”. And guess what? They do!
Steve,
Yes, indeed! Or perhaps it’s like “repairing” the motherboard of your computer with a backhoe and a couple of jackhammers!
Richard,
Thanks.
Mammon,
I agree that most professions try to present themselves in a favorable light. Electrical engineers, for instance, build marvelous power stations, but tend to understate the negative effects that their products have on the plant’s climate. Similar dynamics occur in most of us. We’re willing to go along with collateral damage for the sake of our comfort. But – and for me this is the critical distinction – change is occurring. People are beginning to realize the reality of climate change. Psychiatry, however, is stuck in its own mythology, and Dr. Pies is perhaps the “stuckest” of them all.
Marie,
You’re right. And yet the learned Dr. Pies would say that you’re wrong: never promoted such nonsense!
boans,
It is serious. Like the Six Million Dollar Man, except that that was fiction, and there was never any suggestion to the contrary.
LindaVZ,
Yes. All psychiatric “illness” is considered “incurable”, on the grounds that their “treatments” are so ineffective. It’s a house of cards.
Stevepittelli,
I think he might actually have been the original editor of Psychiatric Times.
“The periodical was first published in January 1985 as a 16-page bimonthly publication. It was founded by psychiatrist John L. Schwartz and originally edited by Ronald Pies.” (Wikipedia).
rebel,
And thank you for the insights.
Someone Else,
Nice research! Well done.
Fiachra,
Never. And Never!
kindredspirit,
Nice response. Thanks.
beokay,
Thanks for the Max Planck quote. There are several reasons why I am willing to “go the distance” with the learned doctor. I’m currently working on a post to explain these. Perhaps after that I will let him so.
snowyowl,
Welcome back.
Fiachra,
I have heard this too. I hope that the anti-psychiatry movement has played a role in this, and that we can continue the push.
Rosalee,
Thanks for your kind words, which mean a lot to me. This arena has become a real battlefield, which I suppose is inevitable when we start to read their pompous and spurious drivel. They demonstrate little or no critical self-scrutiny and have no claim to truth or scientific integrity.
They cover up their damage and destructiveness with “these are deadly diseases; we’re going everything we can”, and they dismiss the deaths, like your brother’s, with indifference.
Thanks again.
James,
Excellent exposé. Electricity is a great boon, but not when it gets inside one’s brain!
Someone Else,
Sure. The movement, as you know, is not a formal association. It’s rather a loose aggregate of more-or-less like-minded people who see psychiatry as something flawed and rotten. Members of the movement can label themselves as they see fit. I prefer “anti-psychiatry” because I am indeed anti psychiatry. I see no willingness in psychiatry to reverse any of the dreadful things that they do. But Truth about Psychiatry would be OK too. The main thing in my view is to keep calling them out and challenging their destructive and dehumanizing world view.
S82,
One can always find a few psychiatrists who practice ethically and responsibly. But the vast majority just push the pills and the shocks, though they must be aware of the damage being caused. When I first started writing about these matters, I didn’t push the “anti” label either. But as I delved more and more into what they do, I felt that that was the only label that did justice to the reality.
Sam,
Certainly most media outlets walk the “party line”. Notice how they’re pushing psychiatry at present to “help people cope” with the COVID fallout. But occasionally one encounters more honesty, especially in outlets that don’t rely on pharma advertising.
Sam,
“…but most can be made to feel that it’s okay.” How true. It is difficult to resist the pressure when one joins an organization like psychiatry. The great majority leave their scruples at the door.
Rebel,
And thank you for coming in.
Dan,
Thanks. I hope the withdrawal goes OK.
Richard,
Thanks for your support. And yes, I do now have a transplanted kidney, which is working well!
Karin,
The truly galling aspect of all this is that psychiatry’s cause-neutrality doctrine specifically states that it doesn’t matter how much grief or emotional pain you’re suffering, if you meet the Mickey Mouse criteria, you have an illness that only they are qualified to treat.
bcharris,
That’s extreme!
beokay,
Thanks for coming in.
MlanaCa,
You’re welcome.
One great anti-psychiatry writer that I neglected to include is Ted Chabasinski. You can see links to his MIA posts here: https://www.madinamerica.com/author/tchabasinski/
Slaying_the_Dragon_of_Psychiatry,
Thanks for a very detailed and helpful list.
Angela,
Thanks for these very helpful additions.
Fiachra,
I agree. It’s a hard-hitting and well-researched classic, to which psychiatry has no answer.
Rosalee,
Thanks for the book recommendation. I agree that we will continue to gain traction.
James,
Thanks. Yes, we will win this battle.
prescribedharm,
It is indeed nearly incomprehensible. And yet it happens every day, world-wide.
Sam,
I agree. We should stop seeking any kind of accommodation with psychiatry. They simply need to go away.
Sam,
Yes. It’s always easy to condemn the “bad guys” of the past, and to promote the notion that all that is behind us now.
Fiachra,
Yes. The old dogma of “neuroleptics for life” was, literally, a killer.
Someone Else,
And thank you for these additions.
rebel,
I agree. Psychiatry has so many ways of marginalizing the voices of those who dare to reject, or even question, its efficacy.
Madrina,
Thanks. I would be very interested in any other choices that you would like to add.
beokay,
They certainly do. But, of course, as the eminent Dr. Pies points out, we have to check this with the psychiatrist! Good luck with that.
Yulia,
Good question. I really don’t know. Perhaps I should try writing something for a mainstream outlet and see how it goes.
ThereAreFourLights,
Yes. Same movie. Different cast.
Frank,
Psychiatry uses the very effective pharma machine to market their “illnesses”, and pharma uses psychiatry to create an impression of legitimacy and to clinch the sales at the point of contact. It’s a match made in Heaven – or perhaps somewhere else?
Rosalee,
Great point. The “diagnosis” is almost as bad as the “treatments”, because in general, they can’t give you the “treatments” unless they’ve first given you a “diagnosis”.
rebel,
And we are winning.
Rachel777,
Maybe. In any event, I think they’ve grossly underestimated the resilience, persistence, and determination of the anti-psychiatry movement.
rebel,
Yes; the notion that virtually every problem of thinking, feeling and behaving is an illness is attractive to them because, as you point out, it fits their biased narrative.
Steve,
Yes. Most of their output is drivel.
Rosalee,
Thanks. I’ll certainly try.
Sam,
Well said!
Frank,
Nice!
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” (Sir Walter Scott, 1808)
Someone Else,
Tragically, many psychologists are becoming more psychiatric than the psychiatrists themselves.
Yulia,
You’re doing it. Keep it up.
Willoweed,
Nice! Only loyal members of the cult understand.
Yulia,
Yes! I think most of the readers are probably psychiatrists.
Yulia,
Dr. Pies is, in my view, one of the 999. But his concepts need to be exposed and countered. He is an avid promoter of the notion that a problem can be considered an illness even though no biological pathology is involved. This is the fundamental rot in psychiatry that has empowered them to pontificate and take action in virtually every facet of human existence.
Sam,
Yes, the learned doctor is skilled at fashioning his “doctrines to the varying hour”.
Oldhead,
The spurious nature of their “diseases” is psychiatry’s fundamental flaw, as I’ve written repeatedly, but from a tactical perspective, their weak spot is the link between the drugs and the mass murders/suicides. The anecdotal evidence for this link grows daily, but definitive proof is not yet to hand.
oldhead,
It’s a hoax, deliberately and consciously promoted by psychiatrists to promote their own ends to the detriment of their customers.
Sam,
And don’t forget: “Gee, you’re wonderful, Dr. Murgatroyd.”
Andrei,
I think that psychiatry’s weak spot is the correlation between psychiatric drugs and the mass murders/suicides. We need definitive proof that the link is causal, and then shout it to the heavens.
oldhead,
Thanks.
KindRegards,
I agree. It is very succinct. He’s hit all the main points.
Willoweed,
Well put.
Exit,
I agree. All psychotropic drugs exert their effects, not by correcting any brain malfunction, but rather by disrupting the normal neural mechanisms. Many psychiatrists will admit this if pressed.
Steve,
Thanks for this.
Endogenous depression is depression for which a psychiatrist has not identified a psychosocial, cultural, economic precipitator, largely because he/she hasn’t looked for one!
Sam,
I agree. But they have left themselves no way out.
Someone Else,
Thanks for this information.
Jeffrey,
I agree. They are not counselors, and in fact their training doesn’t lend itself to adopting this role. They’ve pushed themselves so far back into the medical corner that they have no way out.
registeredforthissite,
It’s a great idea, but it’s not something that I could do. I just don’t have the energy any more.
Sam,
Brilliant!
Sam,
Yes it is. And they continue to push the deception that they are saving lives!
Rosalee,
Thanks for coming in on this. I’m so sorry for your loss, and I realize how galling it must be to read the self-congratulatory drivel that flows endlessly from psychiatry.
NotCrazyAfterAllTheseYears,
Thanks for this helpful insight.
Frank,
Thanks.
KateL,
Yes, they have every reason to be angry and to express this anger.
John,
Not a stitch!
Sam,
Nice phrase – “cocoon of tunnel vision”.
boans,
And thanks for this insight into criminal con-artists.
Oldhead,
I agree. Thanks for the clarification.
Oldhead,
Thanks. When you start to examine their statements in detail, it is clear that it’s mostly self-exculpating drivel.
Oldhead,
Thanks.
Brett,
Thanks for this. At its worst, the psychosocial component consists of nothing more than nagging the client to take his/her pills “as ordered by the doctor”.
Someone Else,
Thank you.