Bruce Levine
U.S. Renegade History, Psychiatric Survivors, and the Price of Acceptance
The historic divide between the “respectable” vs. the “renegades” is the subject of historian Thaddeus Russell’s A Renegade History of the United States, which argues that when renegade groups gain civil rights and social acceptability, they lose their renegade culture. Many psychiatric survivors, mad priders, and those with lived experience of alternate consciousness question the value of normie culture and see value in their own—this an outlook which puts them in the tradition of Russell’s historic renegades. Has their lack of civil rights and social acceptability enabled them to become America’s last renegades?
America’s Last Renegades?
The historic divide between the “respectable” vs. the “renegades” is the subject of historian Thaddeus Russell’s 2011 book A Renegade History of the United States, which argues that when renegade groups gain civil rights and social acceptability, they lose their renegade culture. At least one group of American outsiders, not discussed by Russell, continues to […]
NIMH Director Rethinks Standard Psychiatric Treatment for Schizophrenia
The director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) now recognizes what treatment reform activists have been talking about for years—people diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychoses are a diverse group who need diverse approaches. NIMH director Thomas Insel recently acknowledged: It appears that what we currently call ‘schizophrenia’ may comprise disorders with quite […]
Why Drugging All Schizophrenics For Life Is Not the Answer
Fascinating research reveals that some people who suffer a psychotic break do better without a lifetime of medication. It is an amazing victory for mental health treatment reform activists and one investigative reporter. On August 28, 2013, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) director, Thomas Insel, announced that psychiatry’s standard treatment for people diagnosed with […]
Amazing Victory for Mental Health Activists and Investigative Reporter: NIMH Director Accepts Once Seen Radical Ideas
It is an amazing victory for mental health treatment reform activists and one investigative reporter. On August 28, 2013, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) director, Thomas Insel, announced that psychiatry’s standard treatment for people diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychoses needs to change. After examining two long-term studies on schizophrenia and psychoses, Insel has […]
Interview with Marcos Guglielmetti: “Bruce Levine: A Dissident Psychologist”
The More a Society Coerces Its People, the Greater the Chance of Mental Illness
Throughout history, societies have existed with far less coercion than ours, and while these societies have had far less consumer goods and what modernity calls “efficiency,” they also have had far less mental illness. This reality has been buried, not surprisingly, by uncritical champions of modernity and mainstream psychiatry. Coercion—the use of physical, legal, chemical, […]
How Societies with Little Coercion Have Little Mental Illness
Throughout history, societies have existed with far less coercion than ours, and while these societies have had far less consumer goods and what modernity calls “efficiency,” they also have had far less mental illness. This reality has been buried, not surprisingly, by uncritical champions of modernity and mainstream psychiatry. Coercion—the use of physical, legal, chemical, […]
Living in America Will Drive You Insane — Literally
In “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?” (New York Review of Books, 2011), Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, discusses over-diagnosis of psychiatric disorders, pathologizing of normal behaviors, Big Pharma corruption of psychiatry, and the adverse effects of psychiatric medications. While diagnostic expansionism and Big Pharma certainly deserve a large […]
Why the Dramatic Rise of Mental Illness? Diseasing Normal Behaviors, Drug Adverse Effects, and a Peculiar Rebellion
In “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?” (New York Review of Books, 2011), Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, discusses over-diagnosis of psychiatric disorders, pathologizing of normal behaviors, Big Pharma corruption of psychiatry, and the adverse effects of psychiatric medications. While diagnostic expansionism and Big Pharma certainly deserve a large […]
