Vol. 5, No. 4 - Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto

Coleman: That's right. All physical treatments in psychiatry
- all the way back to bleedings, the incredible
variety of toxic substances, lobotomy, up to phenothiazines,
lithium, shock treatment have one thing in
common: they create a new disability. They damage the
body, and then the results of this bodily damage, the
change, that is, gets labelled as a treatment and sometimes
even a cure. Shock treatment is the classic example. We
cause a brain injury using electricity, with all the classic
effects: memory loss, confusion, inability to retain new
information, learning disability. Then, because the person
isn't crying for a few weeks, because the brain injury keeps
them from remembering what they were crying about,
their life situation which was the cause of their upset and
depression gets temporarily forgotten - we say the patient
has been treated.
The real result, of course, is that in a few months most of
the intellectual capacity comes back and with it comes back
an appreciation of their problem. They'll be depressed
again, but they will also now, at least in some cases ­
nobody knows exactly how many, but it's a significant
number of cases - be left with permanent intellectual
deficits, permanent learning disabilities, and permanent
gaps in their recollection of their life.
This is what psychiatry is doing. Do not expect
psychiatry to blow the whistle on itself. The American
people are going to have to be the ones to demand
changes.
Markman: I was thinking in terms of sexual dysfunction,
bulimia, nicotinism, allsorts of addictive problems.
Psychiatry has expanded into these areas as they face
more and more competition.
Coleman: Yes, it's medicalizing problems of behaviour,
problems of living, problems of emotion. That's not to
minimize the problems. Bulimia, for example, can be a
very serious problem, or anorexia can be life-threatening.
But it's nonsense to think that unless you regard it as a
medical problem you don't take it seriously. Medicalizing it
only means that you're going to bring in medical doctors as
the ones who supposedly have the best answer; they will
give us medical answers which will be the most expensive
and least effective answers.
Markman: What's interesting is how psychiatrists start to
create new territory outof nothing. Ifbulimia were a
metabolic disorder, and somebody discovered it to be a
metabolic disorder, then bulimics would go to endocrinologists,
not to psychiatrists. Similarly, syphilitics used to be
treated by psychiatrists until syphilis was discovered to be
an infection; then syphilitics began to be treated by true
medical practitioners. Psychiatry exists in this limbo area.
Coleman: Psychiatry is fighting desperately. Imagine
what it would mean ifthe American people were to
recognize that there was only a very, very tiny percentage
of mental problems which have any relation to any
medical issues. (There are a few. There are some
hormonal and metabolic problems; certain medical
conditions can lead to behavioural and mental symptoms;
but it's such a tiny percentage of the problems that
psychiatrists are now given to deal with.) If we recognized
how phony all of this medicalizing was, how phony the role
of psychiatry is in the courts, and the link with the state and
SOCIAL CHANGE?
What is being done to bring it about in Canada!
Which groups are working for it at the grass roots!
What is being thought-said-written-about it!
What are the strategies atrd visions!
Which are the best sources of information! The most relevant
educational materials! Thefilms! The books!
~
is a quarterly digest which summarizes this information. The
only publication of its kind, it is an excellent way of keeping
up on what is being done and written and a valuable
educational resource for groups, conferences, courses, etc.
Subscriptions $IO/year, $20 institutions, $1 sample copy.
Larger orders for educational use available at discount.
CONNEXIONS, 427 Bloor St. W., Toronto M5S IX7.
Phoenix Rising 47