INTRODUCTION I have recently read: ‘The Explanation You Have Been Looking For’: Neurobiology as Promise and Hermeneutic Closure The piece was written by Joseph E. Davis, PhD, Research Professor of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia. It was published online by Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry on the 5th of August, 2021…. Continue Reading
WHY DO PSYCHIATRISTS INSIST THAT THEIR “DISORDERS” ARE REAL ILLNESSES?
INTRODUCTION Since about the mid 1960’s, the great majority of psychiatrists have abandoned any form of psychosocial perspective, and have insisted that the various items listed in successive revisions of the DSM are “real illnesses”. The usual justification for this is based on the assertion that the “symptoms” of these items are caused by neurological… Continue Reading
AntiDepAware Is No Longer Active
On March 14, 2021, I saw the following notice on the AntiDepAware website: “I have decided reluctantly to end my involvement with this website. Although the site will remain online in the meantime, there will be no further updates, and the email address is no longer valid. Many thanks to all those who have contacted… Continue Reading
How Psychiatry Turned General Difficulties in Adaptation into “Real Illnesses Just Like Diabetes”
Disease, illness, disorders, etc. INTRODUCTION One of the problems in the present debate about neurochemical imbalances is that almost every word in the English language has at least two meanings, and sometimes four or five. Some English speakers deplore this state of affairs and regard it as an endless source of confusion. Others consider it… Continue Reading
Book Review: HALF LOVE, A novel by Tej Gilmon
FREE DOWNLOAD: SEE BELOW I have recently read a remarkable novel with a strong anti-psychiatry theme. It is titled: Half Love. The author, Tej Gilmon, is a psychiatric nurse from California who enjoys video gaming and watching the Giants whenever he can. “Imagine a society where it has become illegal to label… Continue Reading
Torture at Lake Alice “Hospital”, New Zealand
According to Wikipedia, Lake Alice Hospital was a rural psychiatric facility in Lake Alice, Manawatū,-Whanganui, New Zealand. It opened in August, 1950, and closed its doors finally in October 1999. Also from Wikipedia: “Former patients of the hospital’s child and adolescent unit made allegations that abuse took place there during the 1970s, including the use… Continue Reading
Dr. Pies’ Non-Apology
INTRODUCTION On June 23, 2020, Awais Aftab, MD, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Case Western, interviewed Ronald Pies, MD, also a psychiatrist, and a professor at Tufts and SUNY. During the interview, Dr. Aftab stated: “I have followed the controversy surrounding ‘chemical imbalance’ with some interest over the years, including the multiple articles you… Continue Reading
Dr. Pies and The Chemical Imbalance Deception
INTRODUCTION For the past several years, the eminent and scholarly Ronald Pies, MD, psychiatrist, of SUNY Upstate Medical and Tufts Universities, has labored the point that psychiatry has never endorsed the simplistic chemical imbalance theory of “mental illness”. As various anti-psychiatry bloggers, including myself, began to accumulate a great many instances of prominent psychiatrists doing… Continue Reading
Don’t Believe Everything You Read: Words Matter Desperately
This article was originally published on January 12, 2021 on Mad in the UK. by Paula J. Caplan, PhD The seed for this essay is the way that the use of five words has skyrocketed in print, in media, and among both professionals and laypeople, and this is causing harm. The overuse of… Continue Reading
Is Anti-Psychiatry Harmful?
INTRODUCTION On September 9, 2020, Jonathan Stea, PhD, Tyler Black, MD, and Joseph Pierre, MD, published a piece on MedPage Today. The article is titled Why Anti-Psychiatry Now Fails and Harms. Dr. Stea is a clinical psychologist and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Dr. Black is the psychiatric medical director of British… Continue Reading
Celebrating the Anti-Psychiatry Movement
Say not the struggle nought availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been, they remain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [But] not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light,… Continue Reading
Dr. Pies: Still Going Wrong
“For e’en tho’ vanquished, he could argue still;” From The Deserted Village (1770) by Oliver Goldsmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On June 23, 2020, Awais Aftab, MD, psychiatrist, published an interview with Ronald Pies, MD, also a psychiatrist, in Psychiatric Times. The interview… Continue Reading
A Psychiatrist Critiques Psychiatry, And Does A Great Job!
Overland describes itself as Australia’s only radical literary magazine. It was founded in 1954, and publishes a quarterly print journal (essays, stories, and poetry) and an online magazine (cultural commentary). In the current issue, Winter 2020, there is an excellent article by Samuel Lieblich, a consultant psychiatrist working in the Greater Melbourne Area. The essay… Continue Reading
Dr. Aftab Interviews Dr. Pies
On June 30, 2020, Awais Aftab, MD, psychiatrist, published an interview with Ronald W. Pies, MD, also a psychiatrist, in Psychiatric Times. As an interview, the piece is somewhat unusual in that Dr. Aftab, as interviewer, does not confine his role to asking questions, but actually contributes substantially to the dialogue. So the piece is… Continue Reading
Is Psychiatry Dangerous?
On August 26, Shayla Love, senior staff writer, published a piece on VICE, an online magazine. The article is titled The Movement Against Psychiatry: The contentious debate of whether to fix—or completely overthrow—the way we treat mental illness. In her article, Ms. Love provides abundant quotes from people on both sides of the issue, including… Continue Reading
Deep Sleep “Therapy” in Australia in the 1960’s and 70’s. Could Something Like This Happen Today?
Here’s an interesting story from Australia, recently back in the spotlight. From 1962 to 1979, psychiatrist Harry Bailey, MD, serving as chief psychiatrist at Chelmsford Private Hospital in New South Wales, practiced “deep sleep therapy”, which involved keeping people in barbiturate-induced comas for days or even weeks. Twenty-four of the individuals who received this “treatment”… Continue Reading
Drs. Pies and Ruffalo Still Rattling Their Wooden Swords
Ronald Pies, MD, and Mark Ruffalo, D Psa, were busy in June. They published two papers in defense of psychiatry: What Is Meant by a Psychiatric Diagnosis? (“Psychiatric diagnoses are not merely descriptive; they reflect genuine illness”); and Psychiatric Diagnosis 2.0: The Myth of the Symptom Checklist (“More on the meaning of psychiatric diagnosis”). Both… Continue Reading
Allen Frances: Still Spinning the Story
On March 4, 2020, the very eminent Allen Frances, MD, published an article in Aeon, which according to its About page is “a digital magazine, publishing some of the most profound and provocative thinking on the web. We ask the big questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on science,… Continue Reading
The Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression: Where Is It Going?
The spurious chemical imbalance theory of depression is arguably the most destructive thing that psychiatry has ever done. Worldwide, millions of individuals are taking antidepressants, often with a cocktail of other drugs, because they have been told the blatant falsehood that they need the pills to combat a brain illness – a “real illness just… Continue Reading
Dr. Huda Has Written His Book
Samei Huda, MD, is a consultant psychiatrist with the British National Health Service. He has written a book called The Medical Model in Mental Health, An Explanation and Evaluation. It was published by Oxford University Press earlier this year. BASIC THEME In his preface, Dr. Huda tells us that he wrote the book to “explain… Continue Reading
The Chemical Imbalance Theory. Dr. Pies Returns, Again
On April 30, 2019, the very eminent and learned psychiatrist Ronald Pies, MD, published a piece in Psychiatric Times titled Debunking the Two Chemical Imbalance Myths, Again. Here’s the opening paragraph: “Like the legendary Count Dracula, who could be killed only by driving a stake through his heart, some myths seem almost immortal. For more… Continue Reading
In Defense of Anti-psychiatry
On August 19, 2018, an article titled The Reality of Mental Illness was published on Psychology Today. The authors were Ronald Pies, MD, and Mark Ruffalo, LCSW. Dr. Pies is a professor of psychiatry at Tufts and at SUNY. Professor Ruffalo has a private psychotherapy practice in Tampa, Florida. He is also an instructor of… Continue Reading
Allen Frances and the Increasing Use of Antidepressants
On May 16, 2018, the prestigious and venerable psychiatrist Allen Frances, MD, gave an interview to Christiane Amanpour on CNN. You can see the video here. It’s titled How Antidepressant Withdrawal “Can Trap People”. Here’s how the interview opened: CA: “So you know, I just wanted to start by saying that who knew that antidepressants… Continue Reading
The “Essential Principles” of Psychiatric Practice: More Psychiatric Cheerleading
In the May 2018 issue of Current Psychiatry, there’s an editorial by Henry Nasrallah, MD. Dr. Nasrallah is a highly renowned psychiatrist, and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal. He is also chair of the St. Louis University Department of Psychiatry. Here’s the opening paragraph of the article. “As the end of the academic year approaches,… Continue Reading
“The Power Threat Meaning Framework”: A New Perspective on Mental Distress
In January, 2018, the clinical psychology division of the British Psychology Society published a very important paper. The document is titled The Power Threat Meaning Framework and is subtitled: “Towards the identification of patterns in emotional distress, unusual experiences and troubled or troubling behaviour, as an alternative to functional psychiatric diagnosis”. The term functional psychiatric diagnosis… Continue Reading