www.recoveringfrompsychiatry.com
"Mental Illness" in "A Dictionary of Green Ideas" (1988).
Mental Illness
[c.1950]
A creation of professional psychiatrists from the mid-nineteenth century onwards to explain rebellious or "anti-social" behaviour, usually called "hysteria" until the 1950s and thought of as a primarily female "disorder". In the last twenty years many people have questioned the legitimacy of the label of mental illness, and have criticized the way that those given the label are treated as second-class human beings.
Green thinkers prefer to take mental health or mental wellness as their starting-point, rather than framing the issue within the conventional and limiting terms of mental illness, disease or handicap. Some humanistic psychologists use the term "mental distress": "Humanistic psychology does not attach very much importance to diagnostic categories, and does not see mental distress as a medical problem" (John Rowan, 1976).
Yet health care professionals, their patients and the public have invested so much in believing that mental illness does exist that a person's mind and body frequently oblige by presenting very convincing symptoms, further confusing the question of whether or not there is such a thing as mental illness.
"The notion of a person "having a mental illness" is scientifically crippling. It provides professional assent to a popular rationalization, namely, that problems in living experienced and expressed in terms of so-called psychiatric symptoms are basically similar to bodily diseases. Moreover, the concept of mental illness also undermines the principle of personal responsibility, the ground on which all free political institutions rest. For the individual, the notion of mental illness precludes and inquiring attitude towards his [or her] conflicts which his [or her] symptoms at once conceal and reveal. For a society, it precludes regarding individuals as responsible persons and invites, instead, treating them as irresponsible patients." (Thomas Szasz, 1962).
"We must face the fact that much of what is called "mental illness" by the oppressive society is healthy and at least semi-rational rebellion against conformity, against submission to, or co-operation with, oppression. The "mental health systems" in our present societies are almost entirely instruments of oppression in spite of the good intentions and the basic humanness of the practitioners who act out their roles in the machinery. Mental health oppression is invoked and used to force submission, to enforce conformity, and to imprison and destroy rebels and non-conformists." (Harvey Jackins, 1983).
And of course it is still women who suffer the most, which is not unconnected with the fact that 86% of all US psychiatrists are men: "In the mental health field, as in most other arenas of social life, it is largely men who have the power to define reality - to name the problem....the typical male Expert is likely to construe the statistics that women are psychologically sicker than men. The numbers may be taken as evidence of the problem of female mental illness. But if we look closer, this way of defining the problem is itself part of the problem. For statistics also show that male doctors will diagnose women as neurotic or psychotic twice as frequently as they do men with the same symptoms: Man as Expert simply sees women quite differently than he sees men." (Miriam Greenspan, 1983).
Entry in "A DICTIONARY OF GREEN IDEAS", JOHN BUTTON, 1988.
[c.1950]
A creation of professional psychiatrists from the mid-nineteenth century onwards to explain rebellious or "anti-social" behaviour, usually called "hysteria" until the 1950s and thought of as a primarily female "disorder". In the last twenty years many people have questioned the legitimacy of the label of mental illness, and have criticized the way that those given the label are treated as second-class human beings.
Green thinkers prefer to take mental health or mental wellness as their starting-point, rather than framing the issue within the conventional and limiting terms of mental illness, disease or handicap. Some humanistic psychologists use the term "mental distress": "Humanistic psychology does not attach very much importance to diagnostic categories, and does not see mental distress as a medical problem" (John Rowan, 1976).
Yet health care professionals, their patients and the public have invested so much in believing that mental illness does exist that a person's mind and body frequently oblige by presenting very convincing symptoms, further confusing the question of whether or not there is such a thing as mental illness.
"The notion of a person "having a mental illness" is scientifically crippling. It provides professional assent to a popular rationalization, namely, that problems in living experienced and expressed in terms of so-called psychiatric symptoms are basically similar to bodily diseases. Moreover, the concept of mental illness also undermines the principle of personal responsibility, the ground on which all free political institutions rest. For the individual, the notion of mental illness precludes and inquiring attitude towards his [or her] conflicts which his [or her] symptoms at once conceal and reveal. For a society, it precludes regarding individuals as responsible persons and invites, instead, treating them as irresponsible patients." (Thomas Szasz, 1962).
"We must face the fact that much of what is called "mental illness" by the oppressive society is healthy and at least semi-rational rebellion against conformity, against submission to, or co-operation with, oppression. The "mental health systems" in our present societies are almost entirely instruments of oppression in spite of the good intentions and the basic humanness of the practitioners who act out their roles in the machinery. Mental health oppression is invoked and used to force submission, to enforce conformity, and to imprison and destroy rebels and non-conformists." (Harvey Jackins, 1983).
And of course it is still women who suffer the most, which is not unconnected with the fact that 86% of all US psychiatrists are men: "In the mental health field, as in most other arenas of social life, it is largely men who have the power to define reality - to name the problem....the typical male Expert is likely to construe the statistics that women are psychologically sicker than men. The numbers may be taken as evidence of the problem of female mental illness. But if we look closer, this way of defining the problem is itself part of the problem. For statistics also show that male doctors will diagnose women as neurotic or psychotic twice as frequently as they do men with the same symptoms: Man as Expert simply sees women quite differently than he sees men." (Miriam Greenspan, 1983).
Entry in "A DICTIONARY OF GREEN IDEAS", JOHN BUTTON, 1988.
DIMID (Disbelief in Mental Illness Disorder)
DIMID (Disbelief in Mental Illness Disorder) is a liberating condition to have but it is also quite stigmatizing to have it in many contexts but especially amongst mental health professionals.
800th Anniversary of Magna Carta
The ideology of "mental illness" includes A CLEAR, FLAGRANT AND TOTAL BREACH of an old English legal principle of HABEAS CORPUS which has been a strong principle since
at least 1215 and Magna Carta.
This means "the body must be had or present" at a legal trial before a person can be detained by the State.
The Mental Health Act contradicts this principle for no good reason and it is open to abuse.
Detention by the state without a trial is allowed for by the Mental Health Act and this dishonours what was achieved at Magna Carta.
The Mental Health Acts should simply be repealed as unnecessary and inhumane and as insults to our legal traditions.
It is a good thing that someone is saying this as we rightly celebrate the 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta.
More people need to say it.
at least 1215 and Magna Carta.
This means "the body must be had or present" at a legal trial before a person can be detained by the State.
The Mental Health Act contradicts this principle for no good reason and it is open to abuse.
Detention by the state without a trial is allowed for by the Mental Health Act and this dishonours what was achieved at Magna Carta.
The Mental Health Acts should simply be repealed as unnecessary and inhumane and as insults to our legal traditions.
It is a good thing that someone is saying this as we rightly celebrate the 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta.
More people need to say it.
25 Good Reasons Why Psychiatry Must Be Abolished
25 Good Reasons Why Psychiatry Must Be Abolished
1. Because psychiatrists frequently cause harm, permanent disabilities, death - death of the body-mind-spirit.
2. Because psychiatrists frequently violate the Hippocratic Oath which orders all physicians "First Do No Harm."
3. Because psychiatrists patronize and disempower people, especially their patients.
4. Because psychiatry is not a medical science.
5. Because psychiatry is quackery, a pseudo-science which lacks independent diagnostic tests, testable hypotheses, and cures for "schizophrenia" and all other types of alleged "mental illness" or "mental disorder".
6. Because psychiatrists can not accurately and reliably predict dangerousness, violence, or any other type of human behaviour, yet make such claims as "expert witnesses", and with the media promote the "dangerous mental patient" myth/stereotype.
7. Because psychiatrists have caused a worldwide epidemic of brain damage by promoting and prescribing brain-disabling treatments such as the neuroleptics, antidepressants, electroconvulsive brainwashing (electroshock), and psychosurgery (lobotomy).
8. Because psychiatrists manufacture hundreds of "mental disorders" classified in its bible called "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (a modern witch-hunting manual); such "mental disorders" and "symptoms" are in fact negative, class-and-culturally-biased moral judgments for dissident ways of coping with personal problems and alternative ways of perceiving, interpreting or being in the world.
9. Because psychiatrists, blinded by their medical model bias, fraudulently pathologize and label people's serious life or existential crises as "symptoms" of "mental illness" or "mental disorder" such as "schizophrenia","bipolar affective disorder", and "personality disorder".
10. Because psychiatrists compound this fraud by falsely claiming, without scientific proof, that these "mental disorders" are caused by a "biochemical imbalance" in the brain, genetic factors or "genetic predispositions", despite the fact that there are no genetic factors in "mental illness".
11. Because psychiatrists frequently misinform their patients, families and the public by claiming that brain-disabling procedures such as the neurotoxins (e.g.,"antipsychotic medication" and "antidepressasnts"), electroconvulsive brainwashing (electroconvulsive therapy/"ECT"), psychosurgery (lobotomy) and other behaviour modification-mind control procedures are "safe, effective and lifesaving". The exact opposite is tragically true.
12. Because psychiatrists routinely deceive or lie to patients, prisoners, their families, and the public.
13. Because psychiatrists routinely and willfully violate the medical-ethical principle of "informed consent" by misinforming or not informing their patients about the numerous toxic, disabling and frequently permanent effects of the neuroleptics such as memory loss, tardive dyskinesia, tardive psychosis, parkinsonism, dementia (all signs of brain damage), and death.
14. Because psychiatrists routinely threaten, intimidate or coerce many patients - particularly women, children, the elderly, and prisoners - into consenting to health-threatening/brain-damaging "treatment" such as the antidepressants, neuroleptics, electroconvulsive brainwashing, and hi-risk experiments.
15. Because psychiatrists frequently fail to fully inform psychiatric inmates and prisoners about existing safe and humane, non-medical alternatives in the community such as survivor-controlled crisis centres, drop-ins, self-help or advocacy groups, diet, massage, wholistic medicine, affordable supportive housing, and jobs.
16. Because psychiatrists are sexist in frequently stereotyping women in crisis as "hysterical" or "over-emotional", blaming women whenever they voice real complaints and assertively express their feelings and emotions, prescribing massive doses of tranquilizers and antidrepressants to disproportionately large numbers of women, and in sexually assaulting women in their offices and institutions.
17. Because psychiatrists, particularly white male psychiatrists, are homophobic - the American Psychiatric Association (APA) once labelled homosexuality as a "mental illness" or "mental disorder" - and have used forced electroshock on lesbians, trying to coerce them into adopting a heterosexual life style.
18. Because psychiatrists are ageist in prescribing tranquilizers, antidepressants ("medication") and electroconvulsive brainwashing for disproportionately large numbers of elderly people - a form of elder abuse.
19. Because psychiatrists are racist in disproportionately incarcerating and drugging people of African descent, aboringal people, other people of colour and labelling them "psychotic" or "schizophrenic".
20. Because psychiatrists routinely violate people's civil rights, human rights and constitutional rights such as imprisoning innocent people without court trial or public hearing ("involuntary commitment"), and subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishments or tortures such as forced drugging, electroconvulsive brainwashing, psychosurgery, solitary confinement, "chemical restraints", and 4-point or 5-point restraints.
21. Because psychiatrists masterminded the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people including disabled children, the elderly and psychiatric patients during The Holocaust in Nazi Germany, and "selected" hundreds of thousands of concentration camp prisoners for death ("T-4 euthanasia" program) - historical facts still missing in psychiatric textbooks and histories.
22. Because psychiatrists have willingly participated in and administered mind-control experiments in the United States and Canada since the early 1950s - its chief targets have been poor patients, women, dissidents and prisoners.
23. Because psychiatry, particularly institutional-biological psychiatry, is based on the 3 Fs: Fear, Fraud,and Force.
24. Because psychiatry is a form of social control or punishment - not treatment.
25. Because psychiatry, particularly institutional-biological psychiatry, is fascist - a direct threat to democracy, human rights and life.
A serious and dangerous error for the whole of humankind.
The United Nations Organisation and the World Health Organisation have seen "Mental Illness" as existing; and "Psychiatry" as part of Medicine.
The holding of these beliefs and principles by such organisations is a serious and dangerous error for the whole of humankind.
We owe it to the countless millions of victims of "Psychiatry" that there have already been to make sure that it ends its existence as a "discipline" of what is left of "Medicine" as soon as possible.
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"Mental Illness" is not really a DECEIT - it is a MISTAKE and it is not JUSTIFIED or JUSTIFIABLE.
Humanity's continued belief in it - in any form - is INTOLERABLY STUPID.
Belief in "Mental Illness" is not PREJUDICE - BUT IGNORANCE!
The holding of these beliefs and principles by such organisations is a serious and dangerous error for the whole of humankind.
We owe it to the countless millions of victims of "Psychiatry" that there have already been to make sure that it ends its existence as a "discipline" of what is left of "Medicine" as soon as possible.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Mental Illness" is not really a DECEIT - it is a MISTAKE and it is not JUSTIFIED or JUSTIFIABLE.
Humanity's continued belief in it - in any form - is INTOLERABLY STUPID.
Belief in "Mental Illness" is not PREJUDICE - BUT IGNORANCE!
An insult to over a thousand years of English legal tradition!
It is an insult to over a thousand years of English legal tradition to compare the immoral crime of murder to an illness for which one receives "treatment".
The English legal system is very old - dating right back to the Anglo-Saxon period - and a very great achievement of English civilization.
The English legal tradition - in fact all legal traditions - rightly CONDEMN and rightly MORALLY CONDEMN the absolute crime of MURDER.
This weighty condemnation is demeaned and diminished by the recent foolish words of a judge, which seemed to imply that a murderer acted as he did through lack of medication.
How can we tolerate a situation where murder is effectively regarded by the state as a health problem on the part of the person that perpetrates it?
And in which people are arrested for it under health legislation of any kind?
How have we allowed such a farcical and disastrous situation to emerge in our great legal system?
There is not and cannot be any "PRAGMATIC DEFENCE" whatsoever of "Psychiatry" as a "means of justice".
JUSTICE is emfatically never ever served by a FAKE science and never can be.
It is indeed ABSOLUTELY VITAL that MEDICINE and LAW are kept completely separate.
If a criminal needs to be "prevented" from committing a crime (a dubious concept straight away).
then this must be a PROVISION of the Justice system itself and never of anything else.
"Prevention of crime" is a highly dubious - and extremely dangerous and worrying - legal principle and is no part of "Punishment" anyway.
"Prevention" as a punitive principle is illogical for whilst the criminal cannot offend in prison (unless he attacks someone there or offends there) neither does denying him freedom guarantee that were he free he would not offend.
Every offence must be chosen.
This is a principle of Law and Jurisprudence which guarantees freedom and liberty for all.
If someone's behavior is "irrational" and "unusual" (according to someone) this is NOT and CANNOT BE an ILLNESS - of any kind. To treat it as such is illogical and an evil.
This logical error causes imense harm.
When one considers the Breivik case and the like, it becomes clear that there is indeed no such thing as "mental illness" and its ideology has no relation to anything - let alone the justice system.
The justice system must be worthy of respect. Such rulings and such speech by legal personnel are absolutely disgraceful.
To compare murder to having a migraine or sneezing has no justification of any kind.
The reality that the English government insults its people and its legal system by openly equating murder with sneezing, and has done for some time - should be a shock to our people.
IF we deny even the so-called "criminally insane" (and there are no such people) their REAL or CONCEPTUAL FREEDOM then we are BASICALLY NAZIS.
The legal implication is that such people have no choice but to act in such ways which is absurd.
The specific words of the legal official were something like "he murders because he hasn't had his pills".
Such words are entirely without the merest truth.
The young man involved - so clearly guilty of deliberate murder - was only charged with manslaughter. For no reason whatsoever.
An insult to and a disaster for the English legal system! There have been many over the last few years.
It is time that this farcical evil ended.
Many murders are committed by people who may have taken another USELESS medicine/poison - alcohol.
Should people who have taken their Pils be immediately incarcerated!
The whole country would be locked away in the local nick every Saturday night! :)
The utterly unspeakable and unconscionable dogshit that is ALL "Psychiatric" "Medication", if anything in reality causes the so-called "symptoms" that it supposedly "treats".
-----------------------------------------------------------
The BBC News often reports stories in which the words like - "a "psychiatric patient" has admitted to stabbing someone".
Would the BBC - in any circumstances - report that a "tuberculosis patient" had admitted to stabbing someone?
Not at all. In no circumstances whatsoever would they use such words.
There is no necessary link - even according to "psychiatrists" - between so-called "mental illness" and violence.
Not least because "mental illness" does not exist.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If any behaviour or feeling can be the "symptom" of an "illness" - then any crime can similarily be the "symptom" of an "illness"!.......
I hope I don't need to say much more in order to point out how dangerous and immoral a tendency this could be!
We must beware of this nonsense called "Psychiatry"!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
All so-called "Mental Health Acts" are not really parts of the Justice System - yet they are used as such.
They are intrinsically open to profound abuses!
And they are indeed consistently and systematically inappropriately and unjustly used.
On an horrendously large scale.
The are effectively "Laws unto themselves."
They should no longer be used at all; and I believe that they should be rescinded and abolished as soon as practicable.
Incidentally, all "Mental Health Acts" in the UK are extremely recent arrivals to the millenial tradition referred to above.
The Mental Health Act(s) are not really part of the justice system.
They are aimed at helping people who are supposedly in -
(a) a situation in which they are incapable of helping themselves in some way and/or
(b) may possibly harm others in some way.
ALL of this is highly dubious in principle and no basis for ANY law.
Though these Acts may have had some kind of benign intent they are all, for many reasons, I believe, absolutely inadmissable.
Their antecedents were perhaps the Vagrancy Acts.
Though there is no necessary link even to them!
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
As the Northern Irish M.P. Jeffrey Donaldson has said:
"There is no nation in the free world today where murder is not a crime.
You cannot say that murder is not a crime - it is."
I agree.
And I am opposed to the Mental Health Act's serious compromise of this principle here in the U.K.
Psychiatry is itself murder as well.
And the murder that it perpetrates goes unrecognized and unpunished.
Here's to you Mrs.Robinson!
By the way, Jeffrey, the Missus of your Boss, Peter Robinson, was DIAGNONSENSED and LOCKED UP after simply feeling very bad about a misdemeanor.
Whereas we all know that guilt is no disease and no crime!
================================
The English legal system is very old - dating right back to the Anglo-Saxon period - and a very great achievement of English civilization.
This weighty condemnation is demeaned and diminished by the recent foolish words of a judge, which seemed to imply that a murderer acted as he did through lack of medication.
How can we tolerate a situation where murder is effectively regarded by the state as a health problem on the part of the person that perpetrates it?
And in which people are arrested for it under health legislation of any kind?
How have we allowed such a farcical and disastrous situation to emerge in our great legal system?
-------------------------------------------------------------
JUSTICE is emfatically never ever served by a FAKE science and never can be.
It is indeed ABSOLUTELY VITAL that MEDICINE and LAW are kept completely separate.
If a criminal needs to be "prevented" from committing a crime (a dubious concept straight away).
then this must be a PROVISION of the Justice system itself and never of anything else.
"Prevention of crime" is a highly dubious - and extremely dangerous and worrying - legal principle and is no part of "Punishment" anyway.
"Prevention" as a punitive principle is illogical for whilst the criminal cannot offend in prison (unless he attacks someone there or offends there) neither does denying him freedom guarantee that were he free he would not offend.
Every offence must be chosen.
This is a principle of Law and Jurisprudence which guarantees freedom and liberty for all.
If someone's behavior is "irrational" and "unusual" (according to someone) this is NOT and CANNOT BE an ILLNESS - of any kind. To treat it as such is illogical and an evil.
This logical error causes imense harm.
When one considers the Breivik case and the like, it becomes clear that there is indeed no such thing as "mental illness" and its ideology has no relation to anything - let alone the justice system.
The justice system must be worthy of respect. Such rulings and such speech by legal personnel are absolutely disgraceful.
To compare murder to having a migraine or sneezing has no justification of any kind.
The reality that the English government insults its people and its legal system by openly equating murder with sneezing, and has done for some time - should be a shock to our people.
IF we deny even the so-called "criminally insane" (and there are no such people) their REAL or CONCEPTUAL FREEDOM then we are BASICALLY NAZIS.
The legal implication is that such people have no choice but to act in such ways which is absurd.
The specific words of the legal official were something like "he murders because he hasn't had his pills".
Such words are entirely without the merest truth.
The young man involved - so clearly guilty of deliberate murder - was only charged with manslaughter. For no reason whatsoever.
An insult to and a disaster for the English legal system! There have been many over the last few years.
It is time that this farcical evil ended.
Many murders are committed by people who may have taken another USELESS medicine/poison - alcohol.
Should people who have taken their Pils be immediately incarcerated!
The whole country would be locked away in the local nick every Saturday night! :)
The utterly unspeakable and unconscionable dogshit that is ALL "Psychiatric" "Medication", if anything in reality causes the so-called "symptoms" that it supposedly "treats".
-----------------------------------------------------------
The BBC News often reports stories in which the words like - "a "psychiatric patient" has admitted to stabbing someone".
Would the BBC - in any circumstances - report that a "tuberculosis patient" had admitted to stabbing someone?
Not at all. In no circumstances whatsoever would they use such words.
There is no necessary link - even according to "psychiatrists" - between so-called "mental illness" and violence.
Not least because "mental illness" does not exist.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If any behaviour or feeling can be the "symptom" of an "illness" - then any crime can similarily be the "symptom" of an "illness"!.......
I hope I don't need to say much more in order to point out how dangerous and immoral a tendency this could be!
We must beware of this nonsense called "Psychiatry"!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
All so-called "Mental Health Acts" are not really parts of the Justice System - yet they are used as such.
They are intrinsically open to profound abuses!
And they are indeed consistently and systematically inappropriately and unjustly used.
On an horrendously large scale.
The are effectively "Laws unto themselves."
They should no longer be used at all; and I believe that they should be rescinded and abolished as soon as practicable.
Incidentally, all "Mental Health Acts" in the UK are extremely recent arrivals to the millenial tradition referred to above.
The Mental Health Act(s) are not really part of the justice system.
They are aimed at helping people who are supposedly in -
(a) a situation in which they are incapable of helping themselves in some way and/or
(b) may possibly harm others in some way.
ALL of this is highly dubious in principle and no basis for ANY law.
Though these Acts may have had some kind of benign intent they are all, for many reasons, I believe, absolutely inadmissable.
Their antecedents were perhaps the Vagrancy Acts.
Though there is no necessary link even to them!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
As the Northern Irish M.P. Jeffrey Donaldson has said:
"There is no nation in the free world today where murder is not a crime.
You cannot say that murder is not a crime - it is."
I agree.
And I am opposed to the Mental Health Act's serious compromise of this principle here in the U.K.
Psychiatry is itself murder as well.
And the murder that it perpetrates goes unrecognized and unpunished.
Here's to you Mrs.Robinson!
By the way, Jeffrey, the Missus of your Boss, Peter Robinson, was DIAGNONSENSED and LOCKED UP after simply feeling very bad about a misdemeanor.
Whereas we all know that guilt is no disease and no crime!
================================
About Me
- Citizen Sofa
- I am an amateur FILOSOFER. (I am not really a sofa). I dropped out of Cambridge University though I got an "S" grade in the entrance examination. I eventually received a 1st class Bachelors degree elsewhere. I received A.H.R.B. funding to pursue postgraduate study, but did not do so. Please enjoy my blogs. To parafrase Orwell, I am trying to make political blogging into an art. My intellectual heroes are Kenan Malik, Thomas Szasz and Noam Chomsky. I have made some mistakes in my life - and I would like to apologize wholeheartedly and from the depths of my cushions for any problems I may have caused and may be causing for anyone anywhere.