PROJECT TOPICS

DODGY BEGINNINGS

Hysteria in the Making.

Freud, Jung, Adler, Kraeplin: A catalogue of speculation, misrepresentations, incompetence and lies.
The man who couldn’t define ‘mind’ or ‘personality’ but could write books about the ‘unconscious mind’ and ‘personality disorder’.
We can’t define ‘depression’, but we’re not going to let it get us down.
The phony schizophrenia model of disliked behaviour.

PERSONAL SERVICES (PSYCHOTHERAPY)

The client’s time is limited. They can talk all they like about whatever they like. They leave feeling relaxed and happy (but not so much so they never want to return). But there the comparison ends -- psychiatry is much more expensive than prostitution and far less respectable.

A chat with a good friend (or the bar-tender of a local hostelry) can be just as effective as a year of sessions with a shrink and considerably less expensive.
How a computer program challenged the claims of the psychotherapists.
Become a Psychotherapist in a Weekend!
Shrinks as fashion accessories.

UNHAPPY PILLS

Although there is no evidence of biological causes for conditions such as depression, Shrinks continue to prescribe medication for it.

Speculations on the causes of psychiatric ‘conditions’: biological, social, genetic?
The drugs used to treat symptoms; the ‘pharma-cosh’.
Mad people seem to be odd because of the drugs they are taking – not because they are ‘mentally ill’. This also undermines research.
The questionable relationship between the drug companies and psychiatric practitioners.

KILLER VOLTS AND ICE-PICKS

Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Long-term, enforced institutionalisation.
The ECT controversy.
Lobotomy.
DIY Trepanning for the cost-conscious.

DEEPER AND DEEPER (HYPNOSIS 1)

Stage hypnotists evaluate the performance of their less-respectable cousins – the hypnotherapists.

Is there such a thing as hypnosis anyway?
How about self-hypnosis?
If self-hypnosis is it, then some ‘selfs’ must be better at it than others.
Relaxation, suggestibility and imitative behaviour.

FANTASYLAND (HYPNOSIS 2)

The shrinks hi-jack a perfectly-respectable form of entertainment and relaxation and use it to invent new ‘conditions’. Then they sell you the ‘cure’.

Past-life regression.
Recovered Memory Syndrome.
Multiple Personality Disorder.
Münchhausen’s Syndrome by Proxy
Alien abduction.

CARE IN THE COMMUNITY

Should psychiatrists be allowed out?

The schizophrenia model of unacceptable behaviour.
‘Mental patients’ are no more violent than any other section of society.
And shrinks, it has been reported, are no more effective at predicting behaviour than the average man or woman in the shopping centre.
So who is going to be responsible for the ‘clients’ they forcibly imprisoned on public-safety grounds and subsequently released on economic grounds?

SNAKE-OIL IN THE WORLD OF MEDICINE

The case of the young woman who wanted to be a doctor but changed her mind and became a psychiatrist instead.

Do psychiatrists need to be doctors? (It has been argued – by Freud among others -- that conventional medical training is actually a disadvantage. It has also been claimed that an ‘intelligent layman’ can learn all he needs to know to become a psychotherapist in only eight hours of reading.)
Does the association with the medical profession give shrinks an inappropriate – if not dangerous – level of influence with the para-shrinks? (Social workers, counsellors etc.)
What type of doctor becomes a psychiatrist? And why?
Should psychiatry be re-classified along with aromatherapy, homeopathy and acupuncture as ‘fringe medicine’? Or should it be done away with altogether? (Folks with brain diseases -- about 5% -- being treated by real physicians and rest being sent down to the pub for a drink with a mate?)

INTRODUCTION

Psychiatry is the only branch of medicine which has no scientific basis. It should, at least, be relegated to the ranks of other ‘fringe medicines’ such as acupuncture, homeopathy and faith healing. At best, it should be scrapped in favour of a radically new approach rooted in the historical failings of psychiatry and based on the extensive body of research into its effectiveness – or lack of it.

Psychiatry claims to diagnose and cure the ills of the human mind. Yet since the early days psychiatrists have been unable to agree on the fundamentals of their profession; a definition of ‘human mind’, for example, might have proved to be remarkably useful. Consequently, psychiatry can be compared with employing a tv repairman to stop all those annoying commercials.

Real doctors – physicians -- agree that rickets is a bone condition caused by lack of vitamin D in the diet. Symptoms include flabby muscles, sweating and deformity of the bones. The shortage of vitamin D can be confirmed by tests and the treatment is, in simple terms, to give the patient calcium tablets and encourage them to eats lots of butter and eggs while sitting under an ultra-violet light.

It was never thus with the mind doctors. The symptoms for schizophrenia are ubiquitous, ambiguous and un-measurable. For instance: ‘the patient feels happy all the time, feels sad all the time, feels neither happy nor sad or has mood-swings between happiness and sadness’. Just like any other member of the population, really. A hundred years of research has failed to find any physiological cause for the condition, but that hasn’t discouraged psychiatrists from concocting all kinds of symptomatic ‘treatments’ which alter, even damage, the brain. These include the use of electro-convulsive therapy and powerful drugs.

But the research finding that must make mind doctors sad most of the time is the conclusion that ‘schizophrenics’ who receive no treatment tend to get better on their own. As many as 50% have reported that they became totally ‘cured’. Similar outcomes have been found in the case of people suffering from ‘depression’.

Many psychotherapists set great store by hypnotism. Hypnosis is a blend of relaxation, suggestibility and imitative behaviour. The famous stage hypnotist Paul McKenna has said that there is no such thing as hypnotism. He puts suggestible people in situations where they willingly do what he tells them to do – all in the interest of entertainment and making an honest dollar.

Because hypnotism appears to have something to do with the mind, it was quickly adopted as a tool by psychiatrists. As a consequence, psychiatry has become the only ‘branch’ of medicine which invents new conditions. One notable common denominator among all the ‘victims’ of multiple personality disorder (MPD), recovered memory syndrome (RMS) and alien abduction is the involement of a psychotherapist (or psychologist) using hypnosis. This is no coincidence. There is no such thing as MPD and RMS and no-one has ever been abducted by aliens. The ‘victims’ are really victims of psychiatry. Families have been split up and parents thrown into jail when the ‘recovered memories’ have been about incest and so-called satanic abuse.

Paul McKenna has probably done far more to raise the net level of human happiness than an Albert Hall full of psychiatrists.

There is little public awareness of these splits and arguments within and about psychiatry. In spite of the fact that Freud is now recognised as a con-man, a ‘therapy culture’ has arisen which accepts his ‘talking cure’ as an essential element in modern life. Prescribing, seeking out and paying for ‘therapy’ or ‘counselling’ is commonplace in American and European culture. Everybody needs therapy or, better still, a therapist.

The really interesting thing about the huge body of research in this field is that in proving psychiatry doesn’t work, the research reveals what might. Also, a number of psychiatrists have observed that, despite taking up to eight years to qualify, what they use in their day-to-day practice could be learned in about eight hours. What the psycho-therapist wanna-be needs to learn in those eight hours are the useful findings of the research. This is centred on the proven assertion that an intelligent, caring person willing to listen is just as effective as any board-certified psychiatrist.

We have taken a careful look at this important issue and made a case against psychiatry and for something equally effective and considerably less harmful. Some of the most outspoken critics are themselves qualified psychiatrists and we confess that the bulk of our work is based on their research and consequent findings. Many practitioners doubt their own profession and some have been expelled from the American Psychiatric Association for speaking out.

The conclusion? Unlike conventional medicine, psychiatry has no scientific basis and, over a century, it has probably achieved more harm than good. Their training as physicians is irrelevant – even Freud conceded that. Psychiatry, therefore, should cease to be a part of the medical profession and be reclassified among the fringe specialities.

Comments and contributions welcome:

mingus@offmsg.connectfree.co.uk.