2 Phoenix RisingEncoreThe PHOENIX RISING Collective would like to thank all thosepeople who responded to the request for contributions in our Springissue: we are very grateful for all the sums that readers have so generouslysent.We are still alive, but our funding is coming to a definite end, and inorder to survive we must look elsewhere. That is why we are appealing,again, to you, our readers.Meanwhile, if not our survival at least our ability to flourish andgrow, to reach people so far unaware <strong>of</strong> our issues and to tap materialso far inaccessible to us-depends entirely on forces beyond our control.Those forces are-together-time and money. And anyone whocan help with either will be most gratefully received.
Phoenix Rising 3aJRf"teDONOTE TO READERS: Phoenix Risingassumes any correspondence sent to usmay be reprinted in our leeters sectionunless otherwise specified. Please tell usif you would like your name withheld ifyour letter is printed. Letters 'withoutnames and addresses will not be accepted.** * *Have just finished reading yourWinter 1983 issue. Terrific! Everything itshould be. I'm impressed.-There are many relative issuesblanketing ex-inmates <strong>of</strong> prisons as wellas nuthouses. My specific interest for 10years has been designing a rehabilitationprogram for ex-prisoners.For instance, the term "sociopath" isthe flip side <strong>of</strong> schizophrenia when thepsychologists (as well as psychiatrists)use labeling criteria for convictedprisoners. I would love to see yourmagazine take that term on. Szasz'spublications have shed light here too.All convicted prisoners in WashingtonState Dept. <strong>of</strong> Correction wear thislabel.My personal experience has includedover 25 years inside various jails, reformschools, prisons and nuthousesthroughout the U.S.A. I've been ECTedin Louisiana (retribution for agitating awork strike via "cut heel strings" <strong>of</strong> 600prisoners where 11 ringleaders werehauled to the nuthouse for "selfmutilation"and had our "pushy Yankeeattitudes" leaned on by the thunderboltmambo machine.I've watched them kill a man namedGrigsby with ECT at San Quentin prisonin California during 1954. They hid hisbody in the crapper, for several"inspectors from the capital" were inthe building inspecting.I was there in the days <strong>of</strong> DoctorSchmidt when "treatment" and mentalhealth programs became popular. Grantswere available for ever common shysterbug doctors who, for lack <strong>of</strong> income,hustled the penal system. I watched theThorazine fog at its birth there. I'vewatched electic shock in "3rd Psych(a ward on the 3rd floor <strong>of</strong> San QuentinHospital) and a room filled (always)with insulin shock comatosed prisoners;"4th Psych" (a ward on the 4th floor.)There were always fifty or sixty braincell wars being waged.I've watched an MD at this prison,Wash. State Penitentiary, develop aninterest in ECT and use it almost as ahobby. I've watched many experimentalprograms; from LSD, sterilization, andthe like, to Bertillion-like measuring <strong>of</strong>physical features.It's been as though some twisted psychologicalgenius was at workdeveloping a mental abyss to destroymen's minds collectively. It's anabsurdity. All prisons are <strong>of</strong> the samemold. There are no good prisons.Prisons create crime just as an insaneworld creates crazy folks, not tomention what evil results from mentalinstitutions. We are terminal as a race ifsomething is not changed.Hooray for Phoenix Rising from theashes. Good luck in your work.a Walla Walla PrisonerWalla Walla, WashingtonIn the article about me in yourSpring issue, I was pleased that youemphasized my interest in the CATscan technique <strong>of</strong> revealing ECT braindamage, for I believe this is the trumpcard that is held by the critics <strong>of</strong> ECT.However, I'd like to correct a misquotationthat was carried over fromthe Saturday Evening Post.Actually I think it would be quite impracticalto CAT scan patients beforethey receive ECT. I can't imaginedoctors saying to patients, "We wantto measure your brain size so that wecan find out whether ECT shrinks it."Fortunately, no such cumbersome approachis necessary for testing whetherECT shrinks the brain. The statisticallyadequate method would be to CATscan a group <strong>of</strong> persons who have hadECT at some time in the past (at least ayear earlier) and compare the resultswith what is normal for their ages.The point <strong>of</strong> waiting a year is thatthe initial effect <strong>of</strong> ECT is to cause thebrain to swell. To see the shrinkagecaused by ECT, one has to allow timefor the swelling to go down and thedead cells to be carried away by theblood.Marilyn RiceArlington,*Virginia* * *David Petterson's letter (<strong>Vol</strong>. 3, No.4)struck home. The negative stories <strong>of</strong>horror get to be too much until someonesays, "Hey, that's me!" In our case thevictim is our son. Years <strong>of</strong> state "medications"have damaged the temperaturecontrol and appetite mechanisms <strong>of</strong> hisbrain and left him with other <strong>of</strong>ficiallydocumented damage from Thorazine.A California legislator, Dr. Filanteinstigated a therapeutic review afternine! hellish years <strong>of</strong> our naive, morelocal efforts to stop the Thorazine 400 to 900 mgs. daily! Multiple drugswere also used for a cruel time untilProlixin put Chris in an acute ward,near death. (The minister met us at thehospital- Porterville, 1978 - thoughwe had been informed <strong>of</strong> an infectedscratch only.) Chris transferred North in1979.Despite the review's recommendationsover a year ago to dropThorazine, it continues - though atleast at a lower dose, because the help <strong>of</strong>megavitamins for Chris was finally recognized.(In 1974 a pyridoxine treatable enzymatic defect was found.On the whole, the information wasignored, having been ordered fromoutside by us and not duplicated againby either <strong>of</strong> the two hospitals. We weremaybe too eager to pay for more sophisticatedtests or to put them in touch withan expert.)We tried very hard to carry out somegood plans for our son's freedomrecently. In spite <strong>of</strong> his legal right at thetime to be released within 3 days <strong>of</strong> hisasking out, plans were blocked anddrugs upped. We are now asking for atransfer to a better ward. The answer isChris won't "co-operate"; so againtransfer is denied at Sonoma StateHospital.One thing that has come out <strong>of</strong> this.
Change language