Stripped of False Realities: Americans’ Political “Psychotic Break”
Stripped of the false realities of democracy, legitimate media authorities, and American exceptionalism, U.S. society is having a “psychotic break” of sorts. What many Americans have previously believed to be “reality” is disintegrating. Science provides us with no monolithic explanation for what is commonly called a psychotic break, but for some people who have […]
Is Society or Psychiatry to Blame for the ‘Seriously Mentally Ill’ Dying 25 Years Prematurely?
“Adults in the U.S. living with serious mental illness die on average 25 years earlier than others, largely due to treatable medical conditions,” according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. This is not controversial, as establishment psychiatry and its critics agree. What is controversial is who is to blame—society, psychiatry, or the victims themselves? […]
Proven Wrong About Many of Its Assertions, Is Psychiatry Bullsh*t?
In the current issue of the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, Australian dissident psychiatrist Niall McLaren titles his article, “Psychiatry as Bullshit” and makes a case for just that. The great controversies in psychiatry are no longer about its chemical-imbalance theory of mental illness or its DSM diagnostic system, both of which have now […]
Compelling Alternatives — ‘Outside Mental Health’ — To Mainstream Psychiatry
Alternatives to mainstream mental health are now being taken seriously by the mainstream media, as evidenced by the New York Times August 2016 article, “An Alternative Form of Mental Health Care Gains a Foothold.” The recently published book Outside Mental Health: Voices and Visions of Madness (2016) provides both compelling alternatives and realistic hope for those who […]
Naked Cynicism—Can I Be Bribed to Vote for a Phony, Hedge-Fund Warmonger?
Back in 2000, when the evangelical, chicken hawk, smirking frat boy—another rich kid, spoiled brat—grabbed the presidency, the Democrats blamed (and never forgave) Ralph Nader and the Green Party. If Trump wins, a similar scapegoating will not work, not if we remember the unequivocal realities of the polls. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party establishment, and […]
Drug Choice, Scientology, Ego Needs & Other Divides: Real Politics 101, Part Three
Abolishing First-Order Psychiatry—which includes the American Psychiatric Association and its Big Pharma partners—as a legitimate authority in determining “mental illness” as well as abolishing First-Order Psychiatry’s “treatment” and control dominion are primarily political struggles. In Part One, I discussed how the Rehumanizing Resistance has been winning scientific battles but losing the war against the expansion […]
What Does It Mean to Be Called ‘Crazy’ in a Crazy World?
It has become increasingly mainstream to criticize psychiatry for its corruption by drug companies, invalid diagnoses, lack of long-term treatment effectiveness, and other scientific failings. The recently published book Outside Mental Health: Voices and Visions of Madness reminds us that perhaps the most pathetic aspect “inside mainstream mental health” is how simplistic, boring, and reductionist […]
Effective Tactics for the “Rehumanizing Resistance”: Real Politics 101, Part Two
In Part Two, I will discuss strategy and tactics for the Rehumanizing Resistance, including: (1) Traditional, Personal, and Underground Politics; (2) Direct Action and Confrontation: When It Can and Cannot Succeed (3) Organizing: Taking Advantage of the Current Cultural Climate; (4) Alliances and Coalitions; and (5) Film and Media. In Part One, I discussed how the Resistance has been winning scientific battles but losing the war against the expansion of influence of First-Order Psychiatry (which includes American Psychiatric Association and Big Pharma), and how this is due in large part to the First-Order’s effective political tactics and the Resistance’s political naivety.
Real Politics 101, Part One: “First-Order Psychiatry” vs. the “Rehumanizing Resistance
In the political struggle between First-Order Psychiatry (which includes the American Psychiatric Association and Big Pharma) and the Rehumanizing Resistance (which includes many in the Mad in America community), the Resistance continues to win key scientific victories (including the First-Order’s retreat from its “chemical imbalance theory of mental illness”); however, the Resistance is losing the […]
Why We Ignore the Litany of Potentially Deadly Side Effects in TV Ads for Drugs
Who doesn’t laugh at drug commercials with their before-and-after scenes of life-changing improvements accompanied by numerous terrifying side effects? But these drug ads continue because they work. Beyond the overt manipulations, there are more covert ones—including techniques that diminish the impact of the required warning section. Former advertising executive Jerry Mander observed that his ex-colleagues […]
