Psychiatry’s “Defect Model of Mental Illness:” a Path for Those it Has Failed
Depressed, anxious, and substance-abusing people can beat themselves up for being defective. And psychiatrists and psychologists routinely validate and intensify their sense of defectiveness by telling them that they have, for example, a chemical-imbalance defect, a genetic defect, or a cognitive-behavioral defect. In plain words, many depressed, anxious, and substance-abusing persons think: “I feel fucked […]
Healing Voices: Intriguing Documentary, Innovative Release
The soon-to-be released documentary Healing Voices goes a long way to healing our fear of people commonly labeled as “schizophrenic,” “bipolar,” and “psychotic.” The message of this film is that understanding and love—not fear and stigmatizing labels—are what people who have experienced these altered states need. Writer and director PJ Moynihan explores two question: What […]
The 10 Most Egregious U.S. Abuses of Psychology and Psychiatry
Psychiatrists and psychologists have been used by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to facilitate mind control and torture in Project MKUltra and in the American Psychological Association bolstered CIA torture program. Psychiatric political abuses in nations that are U.S. enemies have been routinely denounced by U.S. establishment psychiatry and the U.S. government, especially during the Cold War within the Soviet Union (where […]
The “Institutional Corruption” of Psychiatry: A Conversation with Authors of Psychiatry Under the Influence
What does psychiatry have in common with the U.S. Congress? “Institutional corruption,” concludes Psychiatry Under the Influence (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), which investigates how drug company money and psychiatry’s own guild interests have corrupted psychiatry during the past 35 years. Co-authored by investigative reporter Robert Whitaker and psychologist Lisa Cosgrove, the foreword for Psychiatry Under the […]
Who’s a “Menace to Society”? Journalist or Leading Psychiatrist?
Jeffrey Lieberman, American Psychiatric Association through May 2014, recently called Robert Whitaker a “menace to society” because Whitaker had challenged the long-term effectiveness of psychiatric medication. But is it Whitaker or Lieberman who has been a menace to society?
Leading American Psychiatrist Conducted Disturbing Experiments — and Now He’s Smearing Journo Who Uncovered It
On April 26, 2015, Jeffrey Lieberman, former president of the American Psychiatric Association, stirred up controversy by calling investigative journalist Robert Whitaker a “menace to society” on CBC radio because Whitaker, in his book Anatomy of an Epidemic, had challenged the long-term effectiveness of psychiatric medication. But is it Whitaker or Lieberman who has been […]
Medical Nemesis: The Cycle of Physician-Caused Anger, Despair and Death
Regaining power over our own health—power that has been taken from us by uncaring bureaucracies and arrogant authorities—was the goal of Ivan Illich’s 1976 book Medical Nemesis, which detailed an epidemic of physician-caused death and illness. Unfortunately, this epidemic continues, and so does an epidemic of physician-caused anger, despair and crazy-appearing behaviors. It is today […]
The Politics of Suicide and Depression
In November of 2014, the U.S. government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued a press release titled “Nearly One in Five Adult Americans Experienced Mental Illness in 2013.” This brief press release provides a snapshot of the number of Americans who are suicidal, depressed, and mentally ill, and it bemoans how many […]
How 7 Historic Figures Crushed by Depression Eased Their Suffering
What did Abraham Lincoln, Georgia O’Keeffe, William James, Sigmund Freud, William Tecumseh Sherman, Franz Kafka, and the Buddha have in common? According to their biographers, all suffered from depression. And they utilized antidotes—some of them forgotten in the modern age— that helped them overcome and transform their depression without doctors.
Why Psychiatry Holds Enormous Power in Society Despite Losing Scientific Credibility
“What’s a guy gotta do around here to lose a little credibility?” asked ProPublica reporter Jesse Eisinger in a 2012 piece about top Wall Street executives who created the financial meltdown but who remain top Wall Street executives, continue to sit on corporate and nonprofit boards, serve as regulators, and whose opinions are sought out […]
