Bruce Levine
Liberation Psychology for the U.S.
Are we too demoralized to protest?
The term “liberation psychology” was popularized by Ignacio Martin-Baró (1942-1989), the psychologist, priest, and activist who was assassinated in El Salvador by government troops. Martin-Baró focused on the oppression of his fellow Salvadorans, Central Americans, and Latin Americans. It is increasingly apparent that U.S. citizens need Martin-Baró’s insights along with their own special kind of liberation psychology.
Protect Us From Our Friends
When Liberals and Conservatives are Two Side of the Same Oppressive Coin
For many people I know — especially many young people, Native Americans, and others alienated from American dominant culture — the difference between liberals and conservatives is only in technique used to coerce conformity and gain control.
When Liberals and Conservatives Are Two Sides of the Same Oppressive Coin
For many people I know — especially many young people, Native Americans, and others alienated from American dominant culture — the difference between liberals and conservatives is only in technique used to coerce conformity and gain control. My friend Roland Chrisjohn is a psychologist and a professor in the Native Studies Department at St. Thomas […]
The Wave of Evil: New Report on ADHD Drugs Blowback
The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson The wave of evil washes not only the financial-industrial complex, the military-industrial complex, the energy-industrial complex, and predatory executives at AIG, Citibank, Halliburton, Blackwater/Xe, Enron, and Exxon. The pharmaceutical-industrial complex has virtually annexed the mental health profession, whose all-star opportunist team is captained […]
Suicide Spike for U.S. Soldiers
Psychiatric or Political Solution?
In February 2009, Americans heard about a dramatic rise in suicides among U.S. soldiers. While treatment for emotionally troubled soldiers increasingly consists of antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft, recent investigations show that these drugs are no more effective than placebos and can actually increase suicidality. In order to prevent even more suicides, both the research and basic common sense instruct us that we need less psychiatric drugs and more political courage.
Revolutionary Road, A Beautiful Mind and Truthfulness
The films Revolutionary Road and A Beautiful Mind both portray mathematicians turned mental patients who create havoc for their families. But the similarity ends there. In director Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind (2001), the facts of the real-life recovery of Nobel prize winner John Nash are fabricated to create a politically-correct version of mental illness […]
The Case for Giving Eli Lilly the Corporate Death Penalty
At this point, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is basically a public menace.
Eli Lilly & Company’s rap sheet as a public menace is so long that for Lilly watchers to overcome the “banality-of-Lilly-sleaziness” phenomenon, the drug company must break some type of record measuring egregiousness. Lilly obliged earlier this year, receiving the largest criminal fine ever imposed on a corporation.
Psychiatry’s ‘Shock Doctrine’: Are We Really OK With Electroshocking Toddlers?
Many Americans think electroconvulsive therapy has been abandoned. But American psychiatry still regards it as a respected treatment, even for kids.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. — C.S. Lewis
Psychiatry’s “shock doctrine” is quite literally electroshock, and its latest victims are – I’m not kidding – young children.
Fundamentalist Consumerism and an Insane Society
At a giant Ikea store in Saudi Arabia in 2004, three people were killed by a stampede of shoppers fighting for one of a limited number of $150 credit vouchers. Similarly, in November 2008, a worker at a New York Wal-Mart was trampled to death by shoppers intent on buying one of a limited number of 50-inch plasma HDTVs.
Are We Really Okay with Electroshocking Toddlers?
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” — C.S. Lewis Psychiatry’s “shock doctrine” is quite literally electroshock, and its latest victims are – I’m not kidding – young children. On January 25, 2009, the Herald Sun, based in Melbourne, Australia, reported, “Children younger than […]
