Am I Crazy? - An
Address to Psychiatry
by Marianne Broug
It has always been extremely difficult for me to
identify as a "mental health consumer". I never saw myself in that way at
all and I assume that neither do most consumers. It always seemed obvious
to me that we are all human and we ALL suffer. If people did take on a role
as a "mentally ill person" it seemed to me that they were doing so because
they could then have their suffering attended to. There are only very
limited pathways in our society for our suffering to actually be heard.
Throughout the years I simply wanted to know why I was suffering. Many
people gave me techniques that they thought would help me, but ultimately it
was never the technique that made any difference. Rather the technique often
seemed to deny the legitimacy and the meaning of that suffering, or relegate
it to the biological or the genetic. To label my suffering or to place it
within a prescribed format, never solved anything for me. Rather I always
felt it was a way that those in the helping professions could feel that they
were doing something. What is it that really
helps us to be whole? That is the question I ask in this article (addressed
to psychiatrists, or indeed any helping professionals) and indeed what
this entire web site is about.
by Marianne Broug
When we're suffering we want answers, the quicker the better. But the real answers don't always come quickly or easily. And they don't necessarily come in the neat little packages that belong to others. A visit to the hairdresser sets me thinking ...
Are "they" just like you and me?
by Marianne Broug
This short piece of writing asks the question, "Who are the 'mentally ill'?
New Perspectives on Mental Health
- An Interview with Adelaide Mental Health Social Worker, Counsellor and
self-described heretic
Andrew Gara
by Marianne Broug
This is an interview with Andrew Gara that I completed in 2003. It is a down-to-earth and comprehensive introduction to understanding the work of Peter Wilberg, Seth and the basic tenets of this site. It covers many of the following points: Andrew's early experiences in the Mental Health field, the limitations of psychiatry, who we are as human beings, the importance of our relationship to ourselves and our inner being, resonation versus empathy, the reason why all therapies work some of the time, consciousness and awareness, the healing power of real relationship, the meaning of illness and pain, and the realities of change.
