Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Toxic Psychiatry : Why Therapy, Empathy and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry" by Peter R. Breggin ISBN: 0-312-11366-8 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 August, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.57 (37 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the most shocking books I've ever read
Comment: I was amazed at some responses to this book - it seems many people haven't read this book carefully and are responding more out of passionate beliefs about the use of psychoactive medicines based on their own experiences with them.
This book does not advocate the outright stopping of psychoactive medicines. It points out, through very careful discussion of a huge host of experimental data, case studies, and a wide range of professional opinion (in addition to the author's), that none of the so-called diseases that these medicines supposedly treat has ever been shown to have a biological basis. In fact, this discussion is so complete and convincing that it would seem to be outright denial to argue the opposite, even though that is what the media and numerous "experts" do regularly - many of these so-called experts going so far as to blindly ignore data that they either previously or later agreed did support the opposing viewpoint.
The book then goes on to point out through more careful analysis of a great deal of data that these medicines are all very general and act on large areas of the brain, and do not (and quite frankly can not) treat specific biological problems. They all treat symptoms in a very general sense. Additionally, all of them have severe side effects, and many (if not all) cause permanent brain damage.
This book makes an important point concerning these so-called "diseases of the mind" which bears repeating. People in the throes of these afflictions, or people very close to them, are often suffering so greatly that they want nothing more than to have the symptoms alleviated. It is widely known that a large number of alcohol and drug abusers are simply medicating away their depression, anxiety, or other more extreme form of mental anguish. Should we as a society and as individuals suffering from these afflictions be so ready to accept what amounts to a professionally sanctioned drugging away of these symptoms?
The book does not state, as some people have erroneously suggested, that psychiatric and psychological problems are all rooted in one's childhood, or that one's parents are always to blame. It does, however, suggest and point out through numerous case studies and analysis of data that these problems are almost always due to a personal, mental, family, or spiritual crisis of some kind. It also suggests that developing the will to investigate and ultimately resolve these crises with a competent therapist is almost always preferable to drugging them away, for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is that it develops one's sense of personal self-determination and self-knowledge rather than subjecting her or him to a further demoralizing dependence on drugs.
I would suggest suspending judgment and giving this book a careful read. It is easily one of the most disturbing books I have ever read, and is a shocking expose of the abuses of the psychiatric industry for its own gain.
Before jumping to conclusions, ask yourself this: what would this man, a psychiatrist himself, who has been exposing and fighting these abuses for his entire career, have to gain from telling people about the cruelty and pseudo-science that is rampant in the psychiatric profession? And what would the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industry, whose combined economic influence is staggering, and whose gross domestic product probably rivals that of many smaller nations, have to gain from keeping this information out of the media and away from public knowledge?
Rating: 1
Summary: Classic case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater...
Comment: Dr. Breggin makes a lot of important points about the ways in which pharmacology industry effectively controls much of modern psychiatry. "Biologically-based brain disease" has become an unexamined mantra among psychiatrists, the health care industry, and even the media and advocacy organizations.
The "disease" model avoids difficult questions about why a person became mentally ill, and whether a lifestyle change or change in environment might contribute to his or her recovery. Mental illness is simply the product of a malfunctioning--as opposed to confused or suffering--brain, and if the patient accepts their sickness and takes the right pill, all will be well.
Breggin destroys much of the good in his book by carrying his argument to the point of self-parody. Persons tormented by voices ordering them to kill themselves and visions of bloody body parts are simply suffering from social-religious crisis, and need compassion and acceptance, not drugs to control these symptoms--essentially claiming that their suffering makes them who they are.
Likewise, persons suffering from malignant, suicidal depression simply need some compassion and CBT, and they'll be just fine. Antidepressants not only don't work, they cause brain damage, lead people to murder and suicide, and have other horrible side-effects too numerous to list.
I have a background in psychopharmacology, and am nauseated by the way in which the pharmaceutical industry has concealed the serious side effects of SSRI's and the terrible withdrawl symptoms experienced by many Paxil and Effexor users. I am also angry that in promoting these new drugs they engaged in a smear campaign against the older MAOI and TCA antidepressants, which have not only been proven more effective for serious depression, but often have milder side effects as well (depending on the patient, of course).
That said, much of what Breggin says about psychotropics is rubbish. He presents all psychiatric drugs as dangerous brain-damaging poisons that have no legitimate use. At present, we really know very little about the long-term effects of these drugsLike all drugs--they might be harmful, or they might not. For people who really need them, however, they have saved countless lives, and made it possible for many people crippled by illness to reenter society and find life worth living again.
It's hard to forgive Breggin using his moral authority as a physician to essentially deny the severity of diseases that kill thousands each year. The most severe forms of mental illness are terminal if untreated. Psychotherapy is often the best tool for long term improvement and change, but one can't simply talk away mania, a suicidal depressive spiral, or psychosis. Often a patient's life depends on being able to control life-threatening symptoms. Psychiatric drugs don't cure anything, but they can save lives and help the emotionally crippled gain some pleasure from life.
Dr. Breggin simply appears to have no conception of what severe mental illness is.
Rating: 2
Summary: Some valid points, but ultimately wrong
Comment: The author states that mental illness - even schizophrenia - are the result of emotional conflicts and are not physical in origin, and that they should all be treated by Freudian psychotherapy. Beggin marshalls some sobering arguments about the dangers of psychiatric drugs (especially neuroleptics like Risperidal and Thorazine) and the role the pharmacuetical industry plays in swaying the medical establishment toward drug treatments. But in the end, I don't find Beggin's arguments to be totally correct. For starters, I have obsessive-compulsive disorder (a disease that author blames on the victim's refusal to deal with repressed memories and traumas, but mainstream medicine blames on a basal ganglia malfunction in the brain), and I simultaneously have symptoms of Tourette's Syndrome (stuttering, tics, speech pathologies) - and not only I, but many OCD victims have these same overlapping symptoms. If OCD is a purely emotional disease, then why do so many of us have neurological problems? Did my father's aloofness make me CLUMSY and mess up my speech as well as my emotions? Beggin also fails to address the fact that psychologists themselves have inflicted severe trauma on neurological patients by refusing to acknowledge that their patients suffered from a physical disease. "Stuttering" is a prime example of psychoanalysis gone bad - psychoanalysts tried to treat those with speech impediments for decades without the slightest bit of success before finally begrudgingly handing the baton to neuroscience. As a result, genuinely effective treatments for stuttering, based purely on neurology (like the use of audio feedback devices), was held back for the better part of the 20th century. Surely, Beggin can acknowledge that his own school has dropped the ball on more than one occasion. (Interestingly, autism, which psychoanalysts also botched, is missing from Beggin's book as well. One might forgive the omission of a minor disorder like Stuttering, but to leave out a mental disorder as widespread and catastrophic as AUTISM? One gets the impression Beggin isn't putting all his cards on the table.)
The assertion that schizophrenia is not a physical disease and can be cured through emotional support also seems to be a stretch. I know a schizophrenic who started attending a fundamentalist Baptist church and found as good a support structure as one is apt to find - and then he stopped taking his meds and within a week heard God telling him to break the statues at the local Catholic parish.
I think a better approach is advocated by Jeffrey Schwartz in "Brain Lock" and "The Mind and the Brain." The inner life of a person can affect their brain functioning - Schwartz himself believes that OCD and other mental illnesses are biological, but can be ameliorated through non-pharmacuetical therapy that aims at retraining the brain's functioning. Beggin raises concerns that deserve a hearing, but his all-or-nothing approach is dishonest in view of psychoanalysis' own failures with neurological syndromes such as Tourette's, Stuttering, and Autism and offers no improvements over the failed paradigms of the past.
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
