{"id":47293,"date":"2014-09-15T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T11:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=47293"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:30:35","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:30:35","slug":"defeating-the-violence-of-psychiatry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/09\/defeating-the-violence-of-psychiatry\/","title":{"rendered":"Defeating the Violence of Psychiatry"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the movement to abolish psychiatry continues to gather momentum \u2013 see \u2018On Antipsychiatry\u2019 http:\/\/bizomadness.blogspot.ca\/2014\/07\/on-antipsychiatry.html<\/a> \u2013 it is worth reviewing its delusional foundation, the history of its violence and its function as a weapon of elite social control.<\/p>\n

Psychiatry is based on a delusional conception of how the human mind works and what is needed in order to assist it to function optimally when it is not doing so. This is because the purpose of psychiatry, with the complicity of other professions in the \u2018mental health\u2019 field and the incredibly profitable pharmaceutical industry, as well as the support of the legal system and the corporate media in promoting this violence, has always been about profits and elite social control, not restoring the health of the ailing individual.<\/p>\n

The human mind consists of many interacting components. These include sensory capacities (such as sight, hearing and touch), feelings (such as thirst, hunger, nausea and physical pain), memory, \u2018truth register\u2019, intuition, conscience, more feelings (such as fear, happiness, emotional pain, joy, anger, satisfaction, sadness and sexual arousal), and intellect.<\/p>\n

Each of these capacities is separately important but, in a healthy individual, it is their integrated functioning that is used to crystallize the appropriately precise behavioral option in any given circumstance. If any one of these capacities is not functioning as evolution intended, the individual will suffer accordingly and this might result in a dysfunctional behavioral outcome as well.<\/p>\n

Dysfunctional behavior is caused by terrorizing an individual during childhood so that the integrated functioning of their mind is impeded. This occurs when you inflict \u2018visible\u2019, \u2018invisible\u2019 and \u2018utterly invisible\u2019 violence on a child in order to make them do what you want. This violence forces the child to suppress their awareness of the mental processes, especially the feelings that generated the original and functional behavior so that they can comply with your violence. But their obedience comes at the price of their increased dysfunctionality in the future. For a full explanation of this, see \u2018Why Violence?\u2019 http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/whyviolence<\/a> and \u2018Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice\u2019 http:\/\/anitamckone.wordpress.com\/articles-2\/fearless-and-fearful-psychology\/<\/a><\/p>\n

However, if instead of identifying and addressing the violent social conditions that lead to emotional and behavioural dysfunction, we attribute any dysfunctionalities to a supposed \u2018diseased brain\u2019, \u2018flawed genes\u2019 or a \u2018chemical imbalance in the brain\u2019, then we open the door to psychiatric violence under the label \u2018treatment\u2019. See, for example, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America<\/em> http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Anatomy-Epidemic-Bullets-Psychiatric-Astonishing\/dp\/0307452425<\/a>, \u2018Psychocracy and Community\u2019 http:\/\/www.madinamerica.com\/2014\/07\/psychocracy-community\/<\/a> and \u201812 Shocking Facts About the Dangers of Psychiatric Drugs\u2019 http:\/\/www.globalhealingcenter.com\/natural-health\/12-shocking-facts-psychiatric-drugs\/?trk_msg=QRIITMCTGKD4H9NILM2DP7U6OS&trk_contact=L3IP696R7OB2AE4E7PVISR6I4S&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=http%3a%2f%2fwww.globalhealingcenter.com%2fnatural-health%2f12-shocking-facts-psychiatric-drugs%2f&utm_campaign=Monthly_Newsletter_April_2014&utm_content=Monthly_Newsletter_April_2014<\/a> And this psychiatric violence has catastrophic consequences for society. For some insight into the nature and extent of these consequences \u2013 which include dramatically increased violence, suicide and criminal behaviour \u2013 see the work of Dr Peter R. Breggin http:\/\/www.breggin.com\/<\/a> \u2013 \u2018the conscience of psychiatry\u2019 \u2013 whose research includes his \u2018probing critique of the psychopharmaceutical complex\u2019. See Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide, and Crime<\/em> http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Medication-Madness-Psychiatric-Violence-Suicide\/dp\/031256550X<\/a> and The Conscience of Psychiatry: The Reform Work of Peter R. Breggin, MD<\/em> http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-Conscience-Psychiatry-Reform-Breggin\/dp\/098245600X<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, according to the lengthy research of Peter G\u00f8tzsche, MD, in the USA \u2018prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer\u2019 and it \u2018is inescapable that their availability creates more harm than good\u2019. See \u2018On Pharma, Corruption, and Psychiatric Drugs\u2019 http:\/\/www.madinamerica.com\/2013\/11\/peter-gotzsche-2\/<\/a> and \u2018Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Health Care\u2019 http:\/\/www.madinamerica.com\/2013\/09\/deadly-medicines-organised-crime-big-pharma-corrupted-health-care\/<\/a> And according to Dr Philip Hickey \u2018all psychiatric drugs operate by creating a pathological state within the organism\u2026 [They] are toxic in and of themselves regardless of dosage<\/strong>.\u2019 See \u2018The Use of Neuroleptic Drugs As Chemical Restraints\u2019 http:\/\/www.madinamerica.com\/2014\/07\/use-neuroleptic-drugs-chemical-restraints\/<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the \u2018bible\u2019 of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the \u2018Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders\u2019 (the DSM), there are roughly 300 officially certified and distinct \u2018mental disorders\u2019. But there are no defining physical tests to diagnose any of them. However, given the publication of the DSM is worth over $5 million a year to the APA, historically totalling over $100 million, there is little organisational interest in validity. See \u2018Not Diseases, but Categories of Suffering\u2019 http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/01\/30\/opinion\/the-dsms-troubled-revision.html?_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, as Dr Bonnie Burstow has pointed out: \u2018while psychiatry has been claiming for a very long time that people who are \u201cdisordered\u201d have chemical imbalances and frequently reiterate that imbalances have been found, the reality is that no imbalances have ever been established for a single \u201cmental illness\u201d. By contrast, the various treatments of psychiatry (e.g., the drugs, electroshock) have been demonstrated to create illness.\u2019 See \u2018On Antipsychiatry\u2019 http:\/\/bizomadness.blogspot.ca\/2014\/07\/on-antipsychiatry.html<\/a><\/p>\n

In short, there is no scientific basis for psychiatry and this is occasionally admitted even by prominent psychiatrists. See, for example, \u2018Psychiatry Now Admits It’s Been Wrong in Big Ways – But Can It<\/p>\n

Change?\u2019 http:\/\/www.truth-out.org\/news\/item\/22266-psychiatry-now-%20admits-its-been-wrong-in-big-ways-but-can-it-change<\/a> In fact, on 29 April 2013, the highest ranking federal \u2018mental health\u2019 official in the USA, Thomas Insel, stated that \u2018While DSM has been described as a \u201cBible\u201d for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each\u2026. The weakness is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure.\u2019 See http:\/\/www.nimh.nih.gov\/about\/director\/2013\/transforming-diagnosis.shtml<\/a> And in a candid moment some years earlier, Allen Frances, the lead editor of the fourth edition of the DSM, highlighted the real depth of the problem: \u2018there is no definition of a mental disorder. It\u2019s bullshit. I mean, you just can\u2019t define it\u2019. See \u2018Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness\u2019 http:\/\/www.wired.com\/2010\/12\/ff_dsmv\/all\/1<\/a><\/p>\n

But such occasional candid admissions do not lead to change for several reasons: many individual psychiatrists are ignorant of their own ignorance (simply believing, as most people have been terrorised into believing, what they were taught at school and in subsequent training courses) and, of course, institutional forces and profits ensure that such comments are suppressed by the psychiatric, pharmaceutical and media industries ensuring that they do not get through to the public.<\/p>\n

Tragically, psychiatry has long been used to inflict violence on targeted populations. See \u2018Political Abuse of Psychiatry \u2013 An Historical Overview\u2019 http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC2800147\/?tool=pmcentrez<\/a> Perhaps the best known of these historical examples were the use of psychiatry to justify and help perpetrate the euthanasia programs of the Nazi regime \u2013 see \u2018Psychiatry during the Nazi era: ethical lessons for the modern professional\u2019 http:\/\/www.annals-general-psychiatry.com\/content\/6\/1\/8<\/a> \u2013 and the violence within the Soviet Gulag. See \u2018Political Abuse of Psychiatry in the Soviet Union and in China: Complexities and Controversies\u2019 http:\/\/jaapl.org\/content\/30\/1\/136.full.pdf<\/a> But a more recent version of this type of psychiatric violence was the Federal Violence Initiative started in the US in 1992. According to Dr John Breeding: \u2018This initiative includes ongoing \u201cresearch\u201d into the supposed biological basis of inner-city violence and includes proposals for biomedical social control. The US government asks \u201cAre Black People Genetically Violent?\u201d and plans a psychiatric screening program which would lead to mass drugging of innocent inner-city children, the vast majority of whom are young people of color.\u2019 See The Necessity of Madness and Unproductivity: Psychiatric Oppression or Human Transformation<\/em><\/strong> http:\/\/www.wildestcolts.com\/books\/madness.html<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the violence of psychiatry is now at epidemic proportions given its dramatic expansion in recent decades. It includes experiments conducted on unknowing military personnel and soaring soldier and veteran suicides because of use of psychiatric drugs \u2013 see \u2018The Hidden Enemy: Inside Psychiatry\u2019s Covert Agenda\u2019 http:\/\/www.cchr.org\/documentaries\/the-hidden-enemy.html<\/a> \u2013 complicity in the development of torture techniques for use on political prisoners \u2013 see \u2018The Story of Mitchell Jessen & Associates: How a Team of Psychologists in Spokane, WA, Helped Develop the CIA\u2019s Torture Techniques\u2019 http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2009\/4\/21\/the_story_of_mitchell_jessen_associates<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2013 the use of psychiatric violence to force false confessions from prisoners of war \u2013 see \u2018U.S. Drugged Detainees to Obtain FALSE Confessions\u2019 http:\/\/www.washingtonsblog.com\/2012\/07\/u-s-drugged-detainees-to-obtain-false-confessions.html<\/a> \u2013 the use of psychiatry to imprison political activists \u2013 see \u2018Are People Being Thrown Into Psychiatric Wards For Their Political Views?\u2019 http:\/\/globalresearch.ca\/index.php?context=va&aid=32450<\/a> \u2013 the psychiatric definition of people who have a personal viewpoint at variance with elite interests \u2013 labelled \u2018oppositional defiant disorder\u2019 (ODD) \u2013 as mentally ill \u2013 see \u2018Psychiatrists now say non-conformity is a mental illness: only the sheeple are \u201csane\u201d\u2019 http:\/\/www.naturalnews.com\/044862_psychiatrists_mental_illness_oppositional_defiant_disorder.html<\/a> – and now the violent psychiatric \u2018management\u2019 of children \u2013 see \u2018The Proactive Search for Mental Illnesses in Children\u2019 (part one) http:\/\/www.madinamerica.com\/2014\/07\/proactive-pursuit\/<\/a> and (part two) http:\/\/www.madinamerica.com\/2014\/07\/algorithmic-management\/<\/a> \u2013 and even babies: see \u2018Watchdog Says Report of 10,000 Toddlers on ADHD Drugs Tip of the Iceberg \u2013 274,000 0-1 Year Olds and 370,000 Toddlers Prescribed Psychiatric Drugs\u2019 http:\/\/childreninshadow.wordpress.com\/2014\/06\/12\/watchdog-says-report-of-10000-toddlers-on-adhd-drugs-tip-of-the-iceberg-274000-0-1-year-olds-and-370000-toddlers-prescribed-psychiatric-drugs\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, pregnant women and nursing mothers don\u2019t escape psychiatric violence either although groups such as \u2018Moms & Meds\u2019 http:\/\/www.momsandmeds.com\/<\/a> campaign to raise awareness of the health and death risks from psychiatric \u2018medication\u2019 to the mother and unborn child. And, as you no doubt expect by now, older people, predominantly women, aren\u2019t spared drugging and electroshocking either. Fortunately, in the USA, once a person reaches 65 their electroshocking is paid for by the government which means that, at this age, the number of people diagnosed as requiring electroshocking jumps enormously! See The Necessity of Madness and Unproductivity: Psychiatric Oppression or Human Transformation<\/em><\/strong> http:\/\/www.wildestcolts.com\/books\/madness.html<\/a><\/p>\n

But if you think drugging pregnant women, children and babies is bad, did you know that psychiatrists still electroshock children as well? And \u2018electroconvulsive therapy\u2019 is \u2018never necessary\u2019, damages the brain, always causes memory loss and sometimes kills! See \u2018Electroshocking Children: Why It Should Be Stopped\u2019 http:\/\/www.madinamerica.com\/2014\/02\/electroshocking-children-stopped\/<\/a> Obviously, psychiatrists should not be electroshocking adults either and some organisations actively campaign to end this practice too. See, for example, The Coalition<\/strong> for the Abolition of Electroshock in Texas <\/strong>http:\/\/www.endofshock.com<\/a><\/p>\n

And, of course, psychosurgery, in which \u2018a small piece of brain is destroyed or removed\u2019 \u2013 \u2018irreversible<\/p>\n

brain mutilation\u2019 as it has been called \u2013 is still performed in many countries despite the very long campaign to get it stopped. See, for example, the 1982 article \u2018The Return of Lobotomy and Psychosurgery\u2019 http:\/\/www.breggin.com\/thereturnoflobotomy.pbreggin.1982.pdf<\/a> \u2018In lobotomy and psychosurgery parts of the brain that show no demonstrable disease are nonetheless mutilated or cut out in order to affect the individual\u2019s emotions and personal conduct.\u2019 Despite its horror history, recent \u2018justifications\u2019 for \u2018irreversible brain mutilation\u2019 are readily found.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is this: Most psychiatrists, like most people, are terrified of listening to your feelings (and especially when they are driving dysfunctional behaviour and might need considerable time for healing to occur). This is the inevitable outcome of being terrified of feeling their own feelings. Feelings won\u2019t hurt you; suppressing your awareness of them with drugs, electroshocking or other violence will. Feelings are a vital part of the information your body gives you; feeling these feelings is the way you heal from traumas (great or small) and a vital source of information about what you need to do.<\/p>\n

If, like me, you are nauseated by the cowardice and violence of the psychiatrists, doctors, other \u2018mental health professionals\u2019 and the pharmaceutical industry personnel who so readily damage our emotional health for the sake of elite social control and personal profit, then you have a simple choice: you can choose to never consult a psychiatrist or other \u2018mental health professional\u2019 and you can choose to never subject your child to their violence either. And if you are forced into involuntary psychiatric \u2018care\u2019, you can choose to remain silent and pursue avenues for being released.<\/p>\n

In the end, even if they forcibly drug you, you have a considerable chance of making a full recovery from this (hopefully short-term) violence. (For expert assistance in withdrawing from psychiatric drugs, check out Gerson Therapy https:\/\/gerson.org<\/a>, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families<\/em> http:\/\/www.breggin.com\/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=296<\/a>, Point of Return http:\/\/www.pointofreturn.com\/<\/a> and the International Coalition for Drug Awareness http:\/\/www.drugawareness.org\/<\/a>) Unfortunately, recovery from the brain damage that results from forced electroshocking is far less likely \u2013 but for an inspirational account by someone who did survive and fully recover from psychiatric violence, including brain electrocution, you can read Ronald Bassman\u2019s evocative account \u2018Never Give Up\u2019: http:\/\/www.ronaldbassman.com\/pdfs\/Never%20Give%20Up.pdf<\/a> \u2013 and recovery from psychosurgery is effectively impossible.<\/p>\n

You might also consider joining the movement to abolish psychiatry \u2013 see, for example, opportunities outlined in \u2018On Fighting Institutional Psychiatry With the \u201cAttrition Model\u201d\u2019 http:\/\/www.madinamerica.com\/2014\/07\/attrition-model-psychiatry-abolition\/<\/a> \u2013 as well as signing the online pledge of the worldwide movement to end all violence \u2018The People\u2019s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World\u2019 http:\/\/thepeoplesnonviolencecharter.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Some people have argued that psychiatry should be reformed. But any experienced nonviolent activist knows that psychiatry, like other manifestations of violence (such as domestic violence, economic exploitation, slavery, ecological destruction and war) cannot be \u2018reformed\u2019. We must work for abolition.<\/p>\n

Finally, value your emotional health extremely highly. An empathic listener can help you feel your way through those times when you need to feel the sadness, pain, fear, anger and other valuable feelings that evolution gave you to enable a full recovery from the inevitable traumas of life. (Although the information is directed at soldiers who have been traumatised by war, the process as outlined in this article applies to anyone who needs emotional support to recover from difficult life experiences, however \u2018trivial\u2019: see \u2018An Open Letter to Soldiers with \u201cMental Health\u201d Issues\u2019 https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/01\/an-open-letter-to-soldiers-with-mental-health-issues\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t allow yourself to feel and express the so-called \u2018negative\u2019 feelings, you will soon find that your emotional responses to the joys of life will be unconsciously suppressed too.<\/p>\n

And life without feelings is not life: it is \u2018flatlining\u2019.<\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

Robert Burrowes, Ph.D. is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment and has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of \u2018<\/em>Why Violence?\u2018 http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/whyviolence<\/a>. Websites: http:\/\/thepeoplesnonviolencecharter.wordpress.com<\/a> (Charter) http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/flametree<\/a> (Flame Tree Project)\u00a0 http:\/\/anitamckone.wordpress.com<\/a> (Songs of Nonviolence) http:\/\/robertjburrowes.wordpress.com<\/a><\/em>
\nEmail: flametree@riseup.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the movement to abolish psychiatry continues to gather momentum it is worth reviewing its delusional foundation, the history of its violence and its function as a weapon of elite social control. According to research, in the USA \u2018prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer\u2019 and it \u2018is inescapable that their availability creates more harm than good\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}