My ten-cents on the DSM-5 debate debacle, part 2

I was going to drop the DSM-5 discussion last week, but another article came to light, and I just couldn’t do it. Sorry. This time its an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, Not Diseases But Categories of Suffering. It’s not the current A.P.A.’s fault. The fault lies with its predecessors. The D.S.M. is [...]

My ten-cents on the DSM-5 debate debacle, part 1

I happened to leave the following comment under the Miriam-Webster definition for normalize recently. While psychiatrist Allen Frances is critical the DSM revising process for medicalizing normal, I’m more critical of the same process for normalizing medicalization. I stand by those words. Allen Frances is to be praised for the position he has taken toward [...]

On finding another illness with little or no basis

One headline struck my consciousness as curious in recent weeks for exposing certain blatant weaknesses in current biological psychiatric theory. WebMD covered the story with an article titled, CDC: Morgellons Disease May Be Psychiatric Disorder. The truth of the matter is a little more profound than this headline suggests. Extensive study of people suffering from [...]

The National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery Chastises Dr. Oz

The Sacramento Bee is to be commended for running the story, National Mental Health Coalition Calls “Dr. Oz” Electroshock Show One-Sided, on The National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery’s (NCMHR) view of a segment The Dr. Oz Show is running on electro-shock. The National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR) calls upon the producers of [...]

Envisioning the wane of the intermediary

The media is not always the best place to go to learn about the mental health system. People who come out in the press as “mentally ill” are often cherry picked by mental health staff in order to make their profession look good. This, in effect, is the mental health system equivalent of what in [...]

Former Mental Patients Suing Hospitals Over Electroshock

I was surprised to come across this tidbit of information today. It’s from an article in Stuff, a New Zealand rag, Shock treatment ‘needed’. The retired Timaru woman has every reason to have an opinion on the 250 former psychiatric patients who are suing psychiatric hospitals throughout New Zealand over their treatment and the use [...]

Putting Up With The Antics Of Rebecca And A Couple Of Other Crazies

Oh no, I found another one! Here’s an article from Kansas, from The Topeka Capital-Journal to be exact. The heading of this article reads, Topekan talks about living with schizophrenia. A Topeka woman is sharing what it is like to live with schizophrenia in a 30-minute documentary that will air Sunday on Topeka’s public television [...]

Introducing Psychiatric Drug Toxicity Syndrome

The Washington Post recently published an article, Government survey finds that 5 percent of Americans suffer from a ‘serious mental illness’, on a Government survey of emotional disturbance. About 20 percent of American adults suffer some sort of mental illness each year, and about 5 percent experience a serious disorder that disrupts work, family or social [...]

Abortion Sterilization Decision Overturned In Massachusetts

Lest anybody think eugenics a completely dead issue, a Massachusetts appeals court just overturned a Judges abortion and sterilization order for a woman 5 months pregnant and labeled schizophrenic. The story was reported in The Boston Globe under the headlines Court strikes decision for mentally ill woman’s abortion. Unbidden, the judge further directed that the 32-year-old woman [...]

What science is not?

I happened to stumble upon this press release  in MarketWatch,  New Essay Offers Hope to Public’s Growing Disenchantment with Science. One really has to beware of any press release with a sensational build up of the sort we are given in this item. The World Transformation Movement today published a ground-breaking essay titled What is science? [...]