Vol. 4 No.1 - Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto

Phoenix Rising 15comprehensive, analytical or powerfulas the position paper produced by thewomen's caucus at last year's conference("Mental Health and ViolenceAgainst Women: -A Feminist Analysis,"published both in Phoenix Rising,winter 1983 and in Inmates' Voice, fall/winter 1982, spring/summer 1983.)However, our statement is a timely andimportant step toward a full politicalanalysis of men's sexism in theMovement and the psychiatric system.Highlights of the conference for mewere the Press Panel and Public Tribunalon Sunday, May 22nd, our Dayof Protest Against Psychiatric Injusticeon Monday, and the independent CivilDisobedience Against Electroshock atBenjamin Rush Center on Monday andTuesday. The Press Panel featuredshort presentations on variousMovement issues by six ex-inmateselected by the conference.The Public Tribunal on THECRIMES OF PSYCHIATRY began at1 o'clock and ended around 4: 15. Whatan afternoon it was! At least 30 people,chiefly ex-psychiatric inmates togetherwith three or four non-inmatesupporters, walked in turn up to theopen mike to deliver very personal,political and often moving testimony: ittook courage, especially for the manynew people at the conference. Theyspoke the truth as we have lived it.They spoke the truth about what it'sreally like to be forcibly incarcerated,abused and brain-damaged by psychiatrists;the truth about what it's liketo lose our human and civil rightsunder the guise of "treatment"; thetruth about how both psychiatry andpsychiatric institutions humiliate andinvalidate us. The personal testimony Iwitnessed that afternoon will stay withme a long time.We held our public demonstrationson Monday, May 23rd: our DAY OFPROTEST AGAINST PSYCHIATRICINJUSTICE. There were actually foursimultaneous demonstrations targetedat four different psychiatric institutionsin Syracuse - the VA Hospital, one offour federal hospitals in the US wherepsychosurgery is legally performed;Benjamin Rush Center which practiceselectroshock treatment; St. Joseph'sHospital which practices heavydrugging, and Hutchings PsychiatricCenter where we finally assembled.After a brief meeting on campus, wesplit up into groups and startedmarching, chanting and singing. A fewmedia people met us en route and atthe psychiatric institutions forinterviews. I joined the group going toBenjamin Rush Center. We handed outanti-psychiatry /anti-shock leaflets, thenformed a moving 'picket line on thesidewalk in front of the entrance,chanted anti-psychiatry slogans andtalked with the media. Around 12:30that afternoon, we met at Hutchings,and for the next two hours we publiclydenounced psychiatry and forcedtreatment, talked with some inmateswho were glad to see us, and celebratedour survival, strength and solidarity inspeeches and songs. A few of ushanded a copy of the Movement'sDECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES tothe Medical Director and / or Administratorof Hutchings. The DECLARA­TION was published in Phoenix Rising,vol. 2, no. 4, and in Madness NetworkNews, vol. 7, no. 1.Throughout the conference, anumber of fine films and videotapeswere shown including "Psychiatry isgonna die" - a videotape of last year'sconference in Toronto produced andPanel And Tribunaldistributed by Auto-Psy in Quebec.Some of the films scheduled included:Titticut Follies, One Flew Over theCuckoo's Nest, Frances, I'm DancingAs Fast As I Can and Liz (about ONOUR OWN).The conference really ended with theCivil Disobedience Against Electroshockat Benjamin Rush Center,Syracuse's 'shock shop.' (The conferenceitself neither endorsed norblocked the CD.) For roughly fifteenhours - thirteen of us ex-inmatessuccessfully blockaded the institution'sfront entrance. The only violence happenedwhen either a staff person orvisitor forced his way through ourchain from the inside. We were alwayspeaceful and non-violent, which isessential for any CD. Eventually wejust sat down and fell asleep in front ofthe entrance, while our great supportpeople stayed awake watching over usand bringing us food and blankets tokeep warm. Our CD at Benjamin Rushended Tuesday morning with a pressconference around 10:45, when three orfour of us met with Dr. Dyer, MedicalDirector of the institution.The final plenary scheduled for Wednesdaymorning never took place, Iundenttand, because a lot of people hadalready left and many of those remainingstayed at Benjamin Rush to give us encouragementand support. As a result,no decisions were made about the placeor date of next year's conference, andno committee was elected to organizeour plannedAGAINSTDAY OF PROTESTELECTROSHOCK.Altogether it was another great conference.My congratulations to theMPA people in New York who did amagnificent job of both organizing andmaking us feel welcome.The panel discussion held on the morning of May 22 consistedof 5-minute presentations by six ex-inmates, chosen notas leaders but because each had something different and importantto say. Questions were received from other conferenceparticipants after each presentation, and from the public andthe press after all the presentations. The transcript whichfollows includes edited sections of three of the presentations,together with one final question and reply.JUDI CHAMBERLIN: Welcome. This Panel is to discussthe crimes of psychiatry. Virtually everyone here has been avictim of psychiatry. And I think it's very very importantthat we know what our history is, because like all oppressedpeople our history has been systematically kept from us anddestroyed.We know from brief fragmentary kinds of evidence thatex-patients have been fighting back for at least 100 years.And yet their words have been destroyed, discredited.Sometimes you read about these things in books written bypsychiatrists where they talk about these ideas as "paranoidideas," and about this anger as "symptomatic," and soforth. But we know that these people are speaking the truth.And that's really the power of our Movement - TRUTH.We don't have a lot of money; we don't have a lot of accessto the media, and from a glance I'm not sure that they'reany reporters here today. We don't have the credibility, thebuilt-in credibility that experts - especially medical experts- get in this society. So all we really have is the truth.This Movement, the part we're all part of now, is actuallyonly twelve years old, but there've been forerunners. As amatter of fact, one of our panelists today, Jordan Hess, wasinvolved in a group called WANA (WE ARE NOT ALONE)in 1948, where ex-inmates got together and talked about theirexperiences and gave each other support. And thatorganization was taken over and subverted and has nowbecome a large institution. And I say it's an institution, notbecause it's a building, a community program, but an in-