Let’s look at the terminology

Some of the terms defining the role of the person who has had experience in the mental health/illness system are: Mental patient I don’t like the term mental patient. Cage one has a cage two. This is the cage of words. The patience of saints might never be rewarded. This is a role without an [...]

Mental Illness, The Redefinition

I got that “oh, no” feeling when I came across this very short piece in The Atlantic entitled What is mental illness? It was alluding to a blog post about efforts among the American Psychiatry Association committee revising the DSM to redefine “mental illness”. That’s right, these guys want to take the mental out of [...]

Personal accounts of liberation and bondage

Regarding recent study results showing that despite more of a biological approach to serious “mental illness” issues, the “stigma” had not appreciably lessened, Patrick Corrigan, an Illinois Institute of Technology psychology professor, had a few good remarks to offer on the subject. The report I’m referring to, found in Bloomburg Businessweek, bears the headline For [...]

Two Species Of Mental Disorder

There are two separate species of those life crises that have come to be dubbed mental disorders. I think that a closer scrutiny of what separates these two species might well eventually play a role in debunking the mythology of medical model psychiatry. This cleavage has existed for ages. It roughly parallels the no longer [...]

Nope, Not Even A Smudge

I challenge anybody to prove to me that any mental illness exists. I have never seen a mental illness in my life. I have seen people, and I have heard other people talk about behaviors as symptoms, but that’s not saying much. Have I seen people with mental illnesses? No. I’ve seen the people, but [...]

Newly Discovered Psychiatrist Disorder On The Rise

Perhaps you like I are a little more than a little chagrined by the throwing around of ridiculously slanted statistics these days on the part of the Psychopharmaceutical Industrial Complex (PPIC). The Psychopharmaceutical Industrial Complex, just in case you were wondering, “is a symbiotic system composed of the American Psychiatric Association, the pharmaceutical industry, public [...]

Emergency Room Suicide Prevention

Pay more attention to mental health says another article in the Edmonton Journal concerning the Emergency Room suicide of Shayne Hay I reported on yesterday. Gee, why didn’t that idea occur to the staff working in the emergency room? 12 hours plus is a long time to wait to see someone when you’re having an [...]

Death From Neglect In A Canadian Hospital Emergency Room

A Canadian reporter, on an emergency room suicide, seems to be blaming a broken mental health system on that death. I, on the other hand, see that as a matter of avoiding the specifics of this case, and I am amazed at how hospital bureaucracy commands the emergency room to such an extent that a [...]

Talking Back To E. Fuller Torrey

DJ Jaffe’s bigoted Huffington Post blog most recently included an post by fellow bigot and big shot shrink, E. Fuller Torrey. This guest entry blog post is entitled, What should we call people with mental illness? E. Fuller Torrey wants to censor the language of, as it has been put, “people with lived experience” in [...]

The Disappearing Disease

Here’s another good joke for you. Much ADHD apparently vanishes before the first year is out. As a headline in Internal Medicine News puts it, Kids Diagnosed With ADHD Often Remit. In fact, it can be pretty fleeting. Analysis of serial assessments of more than 8,000 U.S. children and adolescents for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) showed [...]