Bruce Levine Blog

“Therapy” for Obama and His Demoralization by the Insurance Industry

November 12th, 2009

President Obama appears to have a serious case of demoralization induced by the financial power of the insurance industry. Obama has trapped himself with the same kind of thinking that initially demoralized his hero Abraham Lincoln, who ultimately rejected that kind of thinking, regained his morale, and fought against what was morally wrong. The sad […]

When Liberals and Conservatives Are Two Sides of the Same Oppressive Coin

July 30th, 2009

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

July 16th, 2009

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 […]

Revolutionary Road, A Beautiful Mind and Truthfulness

March 25th, 2009

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 […]

Are We Really Okay with Electroshocking Toddlers?

January 30th, 2009

“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 […]

Just How Corrupted Has American Medicine Become?

January 13th, 2009

“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” – Jonathan Swift After reading “The Neurontin Legacy — Marketing through Misinformation and Manipulation” in the January 8, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, one may conclude that (1) America’s prisons would be put to better […]

“Fundamentalist Consumerism” Kills Us Quickly and Slowly

December 23rd, 2008

While fundamentalist Jews, Christians, and Moslems are singularly attached to their literal interpretations of particular texts, fundamentalist consumerists are singularly attached to cheap stuff. All fundamentalists decry, deny, or ignore the multiple dimensions of life that fall outside their particular theologies and ideologies. Fundamentalist consumerists could not care less about workers’ rights, human-scale business, environmental […]

NPR Embarrassed by Psychiatrist Host: Bad Apple or Bad Barrel?

November 25th, 2008

National Public Radio announced on November 21, 2008 that it had fired psychiatrist Frederick Goodwin and would be terminating his program “The Infinite Mind.” Goodwin was released after NPR learned that he had received at least $1.3 million from drug companies between 2000 and 2007. In the 2008 ongoing Congressional investigation of psychiatry, Goodwin is […]

Can Voters and Nonvoters Battling Against Despair Respect Each Other?

October 20th, 2008

There is a faction of Americans who believe that it is their civic duty to vote, and there is another faction who believe it is their civic duty to reject the pseudo-democratic voting ritual, and these two groups routinely engage in mutual mocking of one another. However, I have found that within both groups there […]

Thinking Critically About Scientology, Psychiatry, and Their Feud

September 10th, 2008

For many Americans who gain their information solely from television, all critics of psychiatry are Scientologists, exemplified by Tom Cruise spewing at Matt Lauer, “You don’t know the history of psychiatry. . . . Matt, you’re so glib.” The mass media has been highly successful in convincing Americans to associate criticism of psychiatry with anti-drug […]