Member Commentary
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Ginger Breggin writes: I am so very excited about the wonderful feedback we are receiving from folks all over the country and indeed the world. Peter and I are thrilled to be more active again and in the coming weeks we will be detailing the terrific lineup of speakers and presentors we have for our April 2011 Empathic Therapy Conference. Meanwhile, I am receiving writeups from members about what they are doing and although some of it is going into our e-newsletter, I want to post it here to help us connect with one another.
Psychiatry is NOT a Medical Practice--Fred Baughman, Jr., M.D., Child Neurologist
Our emotions—be they elation, depression or anxiety—are a barometer of how we are doing at the game of life. If you reject what your feelings and emotions are telling you, these signals become muddled and lose their attachment to specific failures or successes. Psychiatrists often claim depression, anxiety, and other painful emotions are endogenous—arising from within and not traceable to life events. If they don't take the time to hear a patient's life history surely they will not discover the roots of these feelings.
Intent on making disease pronouncements and on drugging their patients, psychiatrists never take time to understand their patients. Instead, they quickly apply the DSM 'disease' label, scribble a script and then go on to the next normal if troubled patient. But be certain of one thing—there are no diseases in psychiatry.
Contrasting Therapeutic Approaches
If we approach the human as a being, then our task is to understand and to empower. Understanding involves intuition, empathy and love. Empowerment involves self-understanding, moral encouragement through a caring relationship, and guidence toward more effective, autonomous and loving principles of living. It may also involve direct assistance in negotiating life's stresses, for example by helping the individual become more effective in utilizing community resources or by including his or her family in the therapy.
If we approach the human "scientifically" or "objectively," then the tendency is to diagnose and to control, to impose our own abstract and potentially oppressive category upon the person, and to manipulate the outcome. Physical interventions, such as drugs and enforced confinement in a mental hospital, become the preferred tools (breggin and Breggin, 1994a & b).
Often the patient feels misunderstood, rather than understood; disempowered rather than empowered. These approaches seem to empower the doctor far more than the patient.....
From: Psychosocial Approaches to Deeply Disturbed Persons-- Peter R. Breggin & E. Mark Stern, Editors
Peter R. Breggin, MD is no longer affiliated with the Center for the Study of Psychiatry, informally known as International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, which he founded and led from 1972-2002, and Dr. Breggin will no longer be involved in its conferences.
Copyright 2010 Peter R. Breggin, MD
Warning! Most psychiatric drugs can cause withdrawal reactions, sometimes including life-threatening emotional and physical withdrawal problems. In short, it is not only dangerous to start taking psychiatric drugs, it can also be dangerous to stop them. Withdrawal from psychiatric drugs should be done carefully under experienced clinical supervision. Methods for safely withdrawing from psychiatric drugs are discussed in Dr. Breggin's new book, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients, and Their Families.
