Comments for BRUCE E. LEVINE

Comment on Depression Treatment: What Works and How We Know by Lawrence Sutherland

Lawrence Sutherland — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:47:21 +0000

Hey there~

I’ll mention that I’ve developed a page for the Recapitulation technique, something which may help to remove the effects of both prior trauma and abuse. I’ve indicated the address in the “Website” field and hope you’ll take a small amount of time to read what’s in the “Info” section.

Cheers,

~Lawrence Sutherland

Comment on How the “Brain Defect” Theory of Depression Stigmatizes Depression Sufferers by ally41

ally41 — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:19:54 +0000

As a long term participant in psychodynamic art therapy, I am convinced that the drive towards proving mental illness as a biological ‘defect’ is due to both individual and collective denial. We surely know that dysfunctional families and societies lead to splitting and often then to mental illness, but in order to address these issues we must first acknowledge them and take responsibility for them. No-one wants to admit how much as a society, we let people down. This isn’t just about not wishing to accept blame or being able to continue with projection and scapegoating. We fail to advocate health in the family because healthy families produce confident, questioning and ultimately free-acting people. People, who as Bruce puts it can ‘detect bullshit’ aren’t easily manipulated or drawn fully into the rat race of capitalist ‘democratic’ society. It’s far better to carry on marginalising all those who can neither understand the rules nor obey them and if we can blame them for being defective? Well that just makes it a whole lot easier and it keeps the drug companies in business too.

Comment on How Technology Worship Keeps Americans Ignorant about Depression Treatment by Bruce Levine

Bruce Levine — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:32:29 +0000

Matt–I’ve been reading about bio-chemical-electrical new miracle cures for decades, and they always hit the headlines and are discarded when people realize how unimpressive studies on them, in a scientific sense, really are. So, in the case of the Kennedy and Lorenzo study on implants, there were only 20 subjects who were seriously depressed; depression lifted in 12, and 2 committed suicide — that’s about the same as any treatment, including a placebo. Kennedy says, “Between 15 and 30% of such treatment-resistant patients commit suicide.” First off, I don’t know where he came up with those numbers, but 2 of his 20 subjects committed suicide, which is about 10 percent on a small sample that’s been given all kinds of special attention. In scientific terms because of the small sample and the the lack of a double-blind control, Kennedy’s results are pretty meaningless. The one thing he did get right was that there is lots of relapse with antidepressant medication, as the antidepressants actually make one more susceptible to relapse–I’ll have an article out on this soon. Thanks for your interest–Bruce

Comment on How Technology Worship Keeps Americans Ignorant about Depression Treatment by Matthew Colborn

Matthew Colborn — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:12:29 +0000

Hi Bruce –

Can I ask you about your opinions concerning the use of brain implants in treating depression? I think that this area needs discussion, as it’s probably going to be increasingly sigificant in years to come. I’ve already read several ‘miracle cure’ stories in newspapers and on the web recently. Here’s a report on implants:

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110207/full/news.2011.76.html

Thanks,

Matt.

Comment on How Ayn Rand Seduced Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. into an Uncaring Nation by Patricia Williams

Patricia Williams — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:02:23 +0000

I read Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ when I was only 19 (now 73) and internalized the premises at a time when I was coming up to my first vote: I voted Conservative for the only time in my life! Happily, I came back to my natural small -l liberalism. I ahve re-read it since and am now re-reading again and can see why “Greed” became the watchword on Wall Street: wasnt it required reading for MBA students in the ’90s?

Comment on The Myth of U.S. Democracy and the Reality of U.S. Corporatocracy by Bert

Bert — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:19:41 +0000

You’ve given me a lot to work with here but I’ll save the rant . . . or just keep it short anyway.

Yes, “government for the people by the people” . . . give me a break.

As you said in the article:

“This disapproval of the bailout was before most Americans discovered that the Federal Reserve had loaned far more money to “too-big-to-fail” corporations than Americans had been originally led to believe (The Wall Street Journal reported on December 1, 2010, “The US central bank on Wednesday disclosed details of some $3.3 trillion in loans made to financial firms, companies and foreign central banks during the crisis.”)”

Our money is handled by the biggest scam of a private corporation on the planet . . . just like the “central” bank of every country on earth.

Thanks for putting this all together,
Bert

Comment on Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill, and How This Helps America’s Illegitimate Authorities Stay in Charge by Shannon Coleman

Shannon Coleman — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:06:12 +0000

WOW! Thank you for this, i’ve just blasted your amazing, spot on quotes all over my Facebook page! You have just described my son to the tee! I have an 18 year old who was raised 50% of the time in a very loving, nurturing, free environment, where he was taught that he was special, unique and could do anything that he imagined. The other 50% of the time is was in a home of authoritarian control freaks, not to mention “pill pushers”, that told him to conform so that he could be “successful”. We fought this evil force as much as we could…but guess who finally won out? He was always arguing with teachers in school and labeled “difficult” when the whole time he was BORED and smarter than the majority of his teachers. He is now in an existential crisis in life…frozen in time, not knowing what to do with his life. He thinks that he needs to get a job in order to be productive but also knows that any job he gets will make him miserable because he won’t be able to “fake” it and be a kiss ass.

He is now depressed and immobilized by the fear that he will be a failure no matter what he does. So thank you for this, I have passed it onto him, I can only hope that the new changes that we are seeing in our time will affect him sooner, rather than later. “Everything that society has told you is wrong with you…is actually what’s right with you” ~The Wayseers Manifesto

We can BE the change by spreading the word and having courage to stand up and say NO more to those that want to put us in neat little boxes!

Comment on Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill, and How This Helps America’s Illegitimate Authorities Stay in Charge by Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:50:26 +0000

Thank you Dr. Levine, for your humanist, anti-authoritarian writings. Another great article; useful, insightful, accurate, and anodyne for all us freethinkers and dissidents.

Comment on Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill, and How This Helps America’s Illegitimate Authorities Stay in Charge by David Ferraro

David Ferraro — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:02:33 +0000

Thank you for this perceptive article. Some time ago I stumbled upend a press notice that “oppositional defiant disorder” had been added as a diagnosis, and recalled immediately that the Soviets supposedly so institutionalized political prisoners, people of consciene, and other inconvenient types. The authoritarian playbook is nothing if not predictable.

Comment on Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill, and How This Helps America’s Illegitimate Authorities Stay in Charge by Melanie Vesser

Melanie Vesser — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 10:07:46 +0000

Before I stumbled across your article on Facebook,I was talking to my husband today saying I feel like Einstein. He thought I was being grandiose comparing myself to genius. I was trying to describe my anti authoritarian bones.
Six days ago I was booted out of teacher credentialing program/ Masters program and told I could not go and say goodbye to the children the classroom where I am doing my student teaching.Initially, my supervisor got upset when I questioned the curriculum we are using. In Dec. she put me in program improvement and I have been jumping through hoops in good faith never dreaming that it would come to this. I have not missed a class. I have excellent grades. I have done everything to help the classroom teacher. I had the audacity to choose mindfulness as my area to research for my MA. She asked me if I thought the subject appropriate for a school in program improvement. I see mindfulness as allowing us all to discover our inner authority.
I went to the student disability office 2 weeks before they booted me out of school at the suggestion of a friend. They sent me to an Educational psychologist who gave me 4 hours of testing and said I had some learning disabilities that the university would need to accommodate.Perhaps these disabilities are due to my drug use history; perhaps they are due to my age he said; or perhaps they are congenital. They also suggested that I get tested for ADHD, again at my expense. I do not want their accommodations to entail some pharmaceutical solution.
When I told the Professors that I qualified for accommodations. One of them said,” I hardly think so. Your grades are good. Five adults find you difficult to work with.
So now I have no job, no credential, and plenty of debt and plenty of time to “Occupy!!!”
Thank you for your timely article! If you have any career advice, I am all ears.