Scrutinize Psychiatry Not Its Victims


This article marginalizes people with disabilities. (Alissa Quart, "Listening to Madness," NEWSWEEK, May 2, 2009 (Magazine issue May 18, 2009)) Quart says, "Will Hall believes that psychiatrists are prone to making arbitrary distinctions between 'crazy' and 'healthy,' and to using medication as tranquilizers." No psychiatrist can distinguish clearly between sanity and insanity. Drugs merely inhibit offensive speech and behavior - alleged symptoms. They do not cure causes. Only psychiatrists can see mental illnesses. There are no pathologies. Police, psychiatrists, medical physicians, politicians and journalists all reinforce the "stigma attached to mental illness."

Among drug company flacks and psychiatrists "questioning the need for medication [. . .] is controversial." Among others it is common sense and good patient behavior.

Quart rewrites the Icarus myth as psychiatry. Icarus' father Daedalus counseled his son to make wings to escape from King Minos' Labyrinth prison. Icarus was carried away with his success just as politicians often are (John Edwards, Barack Obama: Come on down!). He flew too close to the sun after ignoring Daedalus' warning. Psychiatrists call that oppositional disorder a common activity of youth. The therapeutic state makes all human activity mental illness. Psychiatric poets create illnesses by consensus.

Quart distorts the nature of the "Treatment Advocacy Center." TAC promotes forced treatment and an extremely negative view of persons accused of mental illness that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. E. Fuller Torrey is the totalitarian architect of this evil organization.

Quart quotes Peter Kramer saying, "Psychotic depression is a disease." He promotes the "widespread use of antidepressants." Even the drug-company-friendly FDA places a black box warning on anti depressants which have been shown to cause suicidal behavior in some persons. Why is that fact omitted from this report?

Why is the police power of the state used to force medical treatment? Why are police empowered to make psychiatric diagnoses on the street? Newsweek should scrutinize psychiatry and its drug company funding rather than the victims of psychiatric abuses.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/195694

SOCIETY
Listening to Madness
Why some mentally ill patients are rejecting their medication and making the case for 'mad pride.'
By Alissa Quart
NEWSWEEK
Published May 2, 2009
From the magazine issue dated May 18, 2009