Bruce Levine
Do You Still Believe in the “Chemical Imbalance Theory of Mental Illness”?
It continues to come as a great surprise for many people to learn that psychiatry’s leading authorities, including the former longtime director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), have discarded the “chemical imbalance theory of mental illness”—an idea which has had a profound impact on millions of emotionally suffering people and on our […]
Do You Still Believe in the “Chemical Imbalance Theory of Mental Illness”?
It continues to come as a great surprise for many people to learn that psychiatry’s leading authorities, including the former longtime director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), have discarded the “chemical imbalance theory of mental illness”—an idea which has had a profound impact on millions of emotionally suffering people and on our […]
A Profession Without Reason
The Crisis of Contemporary Psychiatry―Untangled and Solved by Spinoza, Freethinking, and Radical Enlightenment
There is today a crisis in psychiatry. Even the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health has said: “Whatever we’ve been doing for five decades, it ain’t working.” The field of psychiatry requires a completely fresh look, and Bruce E. Levine finds that needed perspective in the seventeenth-century works of Baruch Spinoza. Readers unfamiliar with Spinoza will be intrigued by his life and the modern relevance of his radical philosophical, psychological, and political ideas. With the help of Spinoza, freethinking, and radical enlightenment, A Profession Without Reason untangles and solves the crisis of contemporary psychiatry.
Why, With More Treatment, Suicides and Mental Distress Have Increased? Former NIMH Director’s New Book
Insel begins by comforting his fellow psychiatrists with his claim that current psychiatric treatments “are as effective as some of the most widely used medications in medicine,” but he then asks this unsettling question: “If treatments are so effective, why are outcomes so dire?”
Why, With More Treatment, Suicides and Mental Distress Have Increased? Former NIMH Director’s New Book
Insel begins by comforting his fellow psychiatrists with his claim that current psychiatric treatments “are as effective as some of the most widely used medications in medicine,” but he then asks this unsettling question: “If treatments are so effective, why are outcomes so dire?”
Anti-Psychiatry, Szasz, Torrey, Biederman & the Death of Freethinking
In contemporary U.S. society, financial conflicts of interest, flip-flopping, belittling, and arrogance are no drawbacks to becoming a powerful authority—this is true today not only for national leaders but for influential psychiatry authorities (discussed later). Illegitimate authorities are often embraced when fear subverts critical thinking. Americans appear to be increasingly terrified by the possibility of […]
Anti-Psychiatry, Szasz, Torrey, Biederman & the Death of Freethinking
In contemporary U.S. society, financial conflicts of interest, flip-flopping, belittling, and arrogance are no drawbacks to becoming a powerful authority—this is true today not only for national leaders but for influential psychiatry authorities (discussed later). Illegitimate authorities are often embraced when fear subverts critical thinking. Americans appear to be increasingly terrified by the possibility of […]
The Shaming and Punishment of Whoopi Goldberg: What Does It Say About US Society?
A couple of days after the public shaming and suspension punishment of Whoopi Goldberg for saying that “the Holocaust isn’t about race,” I combed the Internet to see if any Jewish leader would cut her some slack. Finally, I found one, Rabbi Sharon Brous of the Ikar community in Los Angeles. She tweeted, “If what […]
The Shaming and Punishment of Whoopi Goldberg: What Does It Say About US Society?
A couple of days after the public shaming and suspension punishment of Whoopi Goldberg for saying that “the Holocaust isn’t about race,” I combed the Internet to see if any Jewish leader would cut her some slack. Finally, I found one, Rabbi Sharon Brous of the Ikar community in Los Angeles. She tweeted, “If what […]
