Alternative perspective on psychiatry’s so-called mental disorders PHILIP HICKEY, PH.D.
I am a licensed psychologist, presently retired. I have worked in clinical and managerial positions in the mental health, corrections, and addictions fields in the United States and England. My wife and I have been married since 1970 and have four grown children.
The phrase “mental health” as used in the name of this website is simply a term of convenience. It specifically does not imply that the human problems embraced by this term are illnesses, or that their absence constitutes health. Indeed, the fundamental tenet of this site is that there are no mental illnesses, and that conceptualizing human problems in this way is spurious, destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing.
The purpose of this website is to provide a forum where current practices and ideas in the mental health field can be critically examined and discussed. It is not possible in this kind of context to provide psychological help or advice to individuals who may read this site, and nothing written here should be construed in this manner. Readers seeking psychological help should consult a qualified practitioner in their own local area. They should explain their concerns to this person and develop a trusting working relationship. It is only in a one-to-one relationship of this kind that specific advice should be given or taken.
If we’re happy to take some of the credit for our children’s successes, we should also accept a share of the responsibility when they don’t do so well.
In the late 70’s, I met an elderly gentleman in a social context. I’ll call him James. He was in his early 80’s.
We got to talking, and found that we had a good deal in common – primarily a love for the land, the forests, gardening, and just generally being active.
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The Illness Theory Is Everywhere
A few days ago, there was an interesting item in the Dear Abby column of our local newspaper. Dear Abby is a general advice column written by Jeanne Phillips, and is widely read.
The letter in question was written by “Sibling Standing By,” who described his/her 63 year old sister as someone who “…takes no responsibility for her health.” The sibling goes on to say:
"She’s extremely overweight because she overeats and doesn’t exercise. She complains every day that she feels 'terrible.' (I call it self-pitying whining.)"
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Shock Treatment In Israel
I’ve recently come across (courtesy of Tallaght Trialogue on Twitter) an article titled: The Court: Electroshock treatments should not be forced on psychiatric patients. The original was in Israel Hayom, an Israeli newspaper, and was written by Edna Adato. The English version above was on occupypsychiatry.net, and was translated by Janna Weiss.
The article is brief, and the content is straightforward. As a result of a recent Israeli court ruling, electric shock treatment will not be administered against a person’s will, even if the person has been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.
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Another School Shooting: Unanswered Questions
Earlier this week (August 21), a 20-year-old gunman entered a school in Atlanta, apparently intending to kill people, but was talked down by a school bookkeeper.
As everyone knows, we’ve had a great many incidents of this sort in the past fifteen years, most of which ended more tragically than this one.
The reporting of these incidents in the media often mentions the fact that the perpetrators of these murders had a history of “mental health problems.”
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Never Mind The Facts; Just Sell More Pills
There’s an interesting article, recently published in Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, on Springer Link. It’s titled Shooting the Messenger: The Case of ADHD, and it was written by Gretchen LeFever Watson, PhD, et al.
Apparently some of the authors had noted in 1995 a marked increase in the “diagnosis” and “treatment” of the condition known as ADHD in southeastern Virginia. This is a large urban conglomeration of six different cities, including Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach.
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Do Psycho-Pharma Drugs Have Any Legitimate Function?
BACKGROUND
In the last ten years or so, the anti-psychiatry movement has been gaining adherents, and has been growing more focused and more outspoken.
But we are not a unified group. I, for instance, take what I think would be considered a fairly extreme position. I believe that there are no mental illnesses; that the clusters of thoughts, feelings, and actions labeled as mental illnesses are better conceptualized as habits that have been acquired in accordance with the normal principles of behavior acquisition or as understandable responses to extreme life stressors. I further believe that conceptualizing these problems as illnesses has been disastrous for the individuals involved, and for society in general. In particular, I believe that psychiatry’s promotion of the idea that all problematic thinking, feeling, and behaving is caused by brain illnesses and can only be treated with drugs is causing extraordinary levels of physical damage to their clients. It is also severely stigmatizing and disempowering. As a culture, we are losing the notion that people can improve their lives through effort and application, and through mutual assistance and support.
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Psychiatry and Neurology - A Merger in the Works?
BACKGROUND
Those of us on this side of the debate, who criticize psychiatry for medicalizing and drugging virtually every problem of human existence, sometimes ask the question: If all these problems are truly illnesses of the brain, then why are they not being treated by neurologists?
The standard psychiatric response to this question has been: neurology deals with nervous system illnesses that result in problems of movement, sensation, physical pain, etc.; psychiatry deals with nervous system problems that result in disordered thinking, feeling, and general behavior. Psychiatry has never produced the proof that these latter problems are caused by illnesses of the brain/nervous system, but that’s a separate issue.
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Dead from Meds
My sister was diagnosed at that difficult time when she had to get a job after college. She was shy and fearful too, about life but not growing up in the cocoon of a large family, the youngest of 6 children. I was the oldest girl and required to work at the family business every summer starting at 9 years old. Sis, I will call her di not have to do anything. 6 years younger than me she was bought expensive clothes because my parents had more money. I was bought cheap things and when I hit 16 was told that I had to buy all my clothes from then on. I left and now am so glad I did.
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Neuroleptics and Alzheimer's Disease
I’ve mentioned the CATIE study before. CATIE (Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness) was a NIMH-funded double blinded, randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness and side effects of newer-generation neuroleptics versus an older neuroleptic.
CATIE-AD was a part of CATIE. The AD stands for Alzheimer’s disease. CATIE-AD was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in October 2006. The results of the study were as follows:
"There were no significant differences among treatments with regard to the time to the discontinuation of treatment for any reason"
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ECT And Adolescents At The Mayo Clinic
BACKGROUND
At the APA annual convention in San Francisco in May of this year, Chad Puffer, DO, of the Mayo Clinic, presented a poster display titled ECT Use in Adolescents at the Mayo Clinic. The poster was reported by Caroline Cassels of Medscape.com, a month later (ECT in Kids: Safe, Effective, Robust and …Underutilized), and drew critical comment a week later (July 2) from Kelly Patricia O’Meara of CCHR International.
I didn’t spot any of this until last week, when it came up on the Twitter feed from DxRevision Watch and Peter Kinderman.
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