A Behavioral Approach to Mental Disorders

Earlier this year the British publisher PCCS Books published Tales From The Madhouse: An insider critique of psychiatric services, by Gary Sidley. Gary worked for thirty-three years in the British NHS mental health service. He has held positions as a psychiatric nurse, a manager, and a clinical psychologist. He is currently a freelance writer and trainer. His present focus is the promotion of alternatives to biological psychiatry in the alleviation of human suffering. ...

I have recently learned of Psychex, a non-profit Swiss organization that stands up for people who are force-“treated” against their will in psychiatric hospitals. Psychex was founded in 1987 by Edmund Schönenberger, Barrister at Law. In 2012, Edmund produced a document titled Fundamental Criticism of Coercive Psychiatry. It runs to 19 pages, and makes interesting reading. Here are some quotes: "Over the 40 years that I have worked as a lawyer, the majority of the clients I have defended have been people subjected to forced psychiatric treatment. I can therefore claim to know the fields of psychiatry, justice and their 'judgements' inside out. The conclusion I have come to is that the strongholds of psychiatry have absolutely nothing to do with 'care', the law or justice – instead, they are nothing other than instruments of domination." ...

On April 5, 2015, Scott Alexander, MD, a trainee psychiatrist, posted an article titled Chemical Imbalance on his website Slate Star Codex. (The writer tells us that Scott Alexander is a blog handle and not his real name, but for convenience, I will refer to him as Dr. Alexander.) Dr. Alexander begins by noting that there have been a number of articles recently that have criticized psychiatry for “botching the ‘chemical imbalance’ theory.” ...

On April 5, Allen Frances MD, published an article on the Huffington Post blog. The title is Can We Replace Misleading Terms Like ‘Mental Illness,’ ‘Patient,’ and ‘Schizophrenia’ It’s an interesting piece, and it raises some fundamental issues. Here are some quotes from the article, interspersed with my comments. "Those of us who worked on DSM IV learned first-hand and painfully the limitations of the written word and how it can be tortured and twisted in damaging daily usage, especially when there is a profit to be had." ...

This latest book by Bonnie Burstow, PhD, critiques psychiatry, and effectively annihilates any claims that the profession might have had to legitimacy. Bonnie gives us a scholarly, but very readable, account of: the history of psychiatry, ancient and modern; the significance and shortcomings of the DSM; the legal, ethical, and personal ramifications of involuntary "treatment"; the training of psychiatrists and the dynamics underlying their uncritical acceptance of their profession's spurious concepts and destructive treatments; the ways in which non-psychiatrist mental health workers are co-opted into the system, and become, often despite good intentions, supporters and active participants in the psychiatric travesty; the role and tactics of the psycho-pharma industry; the stark, destructive, degrading realities of electric shock "treatment". In the final chapter, Bonnie offers us a glimpse of what an alternative approach might look like. Normally when I write a book review, I include some quotes from the work to enable readers to judge for themselves the quality and content of the material. With Psychiatry and the Business of Madness, however, this presented a problem, in that virtually every one of the 264 pages of text contains eminently quotable material. Here’s a short sample: ...

I have recently come across an interesting paper: How to Understand and then Escape from Depression. It’s written by Saul Youssef, a professor of physics at Boston University. The central theme of the paper is that persistent or chronic depression is caused by “…an unconscious withdrawal of participation in a person’s own internal decision making processes.” Here are some quotes: "I have been depressed for most of my life, and, at various times, I have tried most of the recommended treatments for depression. I have tried Saint John’s Wort, exercise, Yoga, talk therapy, SSRIs, thyroid supplements and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. In my case, I would say that thyroid supplements, exercise and Yoga helped the most and all of them helped at least a little bit. Unfortunately, none of these treatments helped dramatically. Then, however, in late 2013 and early 2014, I finally figured it out. I came to understand what was happening in my own head and why it was causing my own depression and I was able to figure out a way to escape. I don’t mean that I am now successfully managing my depression. I mean it’s gone. I am writing up what I think is going on and what I did to escape because I don’t think that my case is unusual. I think that exactly the same thing will work for many people." ...

On April 7, John Read, PhD, a psychologist at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, published a short article on Mad in America. The title is: Largest Survey of Antidepressants Finds High Rates of Adverse Emotional and Interpersonal Effects. The article presents the results of a survey conducted in New Zealand and published online in February, 2014 in Psychiatry Research. The survey involved 1,827 individuals who were taking antidepressants. Dr. Read is widely published. ...

On March 16, Ronald Pies, MD, published an article in the Psychiatric Times. The article is titled The War on Psychiatric Diagnosis, and the sub-title synopsis on the pdf version reads: “A recent report that argues against descriptive diagnosis in medicine is historically ill-informed and medically naive, in the opinion of this psychiatrist.” Dr. Pies is a very prestigious and eminent psychiatrist. He is a professor of psychiatry at both Syracuse and Tufts. He was the first editor of Psychiatric Times, which, by its own account, provides “News, Special Reports, and clinical content related to psychiatry” for “…psychiatrists and allied mental health professionals who treat mental disorders…Circulation of the monthly print publication is approximately 40,000.” ...

Avery, a member of Penguin Group USA, has recently published A Disease Called Childhood, by Marilyn Wedge. Marilyn has a PhD in psychology and works as a family therapist. In 2014, fully 11% of American children had received a “diagnosis” of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is widely believed by these children, their parents, the press, the public, and government agencies, that this loose collection of vaguely defined behaviors constitutes an illness – specifically a chemical imbalance in the brain, which is corrected by stimulant drugs. ...

I have recently learned of a new website: www.auntiepsychiatry.com. The posts consist of cartoons drawn by Auntie Psychiatry, and the site is well worth a visit. Auntie hopes to publish a new cartoon each week. I have long felt that we need to diversity in the methods we use to spread our message, and cartoons seem a nice choice. One drawing is worth a thousand words!