anti-psychiatry - books and sites
MindFreedom: United Action for Human Rights in Mental Health. MindFreedom International is one of the few groups in this field that is not funded by the mental health industry, drug companies or the government. It is an independent nonprofit coalition defending human rights and promoting humane alternatives in mental health. Their vision is: Unite in a spirit of mutual cooperation for a nonviolent revolution in mental health.
Their Mad Market has an enormous selection of books on the topic exposing the genetic and biological approach as short-sighted and irrelevant to people's suffering.
This is the site of Peter Breggin MD. I first read Peter Breggin's book Toxic Psychiatry many years ago, when I was realising that medicating my distress, suffering and depression was not the answer. Psychiatry saw me as nothing but a conglomeration of physical bits and pieces that were "going wrong", but I knew that I was a lot more than that. Breggin's book helped me to articulate for myself the fact that medication was actually making things a lot worse, simply by removing me even further from any chance I might have had to articulate the meaning that my particular distress had for me. Since then Breggin has written many more books on the use of Anti-depressants, Ritalin, Prozac etc. as well as outlining more humane strategies for approaching people who are deeply disturbed. The fact that Breggin is a practising psychiatrist lends enormous weight to everything he writes.
The Antipsychiatry Coalition. This site is run by a volunteer group who feel they have been harmed by psychiatry. There are many good articles and contributions on this site, not only those written from a survivor's point of view but also from a professional one. I particularly like David Kaiser's article Against Biologic Psychiatry. There are also links to the sites of people like Thomas Szasz, Peter Breggin, Loren Mosher, Al Siebert etc. and other sites that have a similar focus as this one.
Other books
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M.Scott Peck - The Road Less Travelled (the first half).
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RD Laing - many books, particularly The Divided Self.
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See also the Bibliography to Andrew Gara's article Helping People Change (Introductory Articles) for a selection of books.
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Denise Russell's Women, Madness and Medicine which helped me to clarify that people's distress, rather than being a sign of disorder, was a natural reaction to exceptional circumstances.
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New Zealand writer Janet Frame - both her autobiography and fictionalised accounts of her own journeys through madness and through psychiatry.
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Marie Cardinal - The Words to Say It was a very powerful book in my life - I found many similarities to my own experiences.
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Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar and other writing.
against child abuse
'Humiliations, spankings and beatings, slaps in the face, betrayal, sexual exploitation, derision, neglect, etc. are all forms of mistreatment, because they injure the integrity and dignity of a child, even if their consequences are not visible right away. ... They don't know that the only reason for the punishments they had to endure is the fact that their parents themselves endured and learned violence without being able to question it.
This is why society's ignorance remains so immovable and parents continue to produce severe pain and destructivity - in all "good will", in every generation. Most people tolerate this blindly because the origins of human violence in childhood have been and are still being ignored worldwide. Almost all small children are smacked during the first three years of life when they begin to walk and to touch objects which may not be touched. This happens at exactly the time when the human brain builds up its structure and should thus learn kindness, truthfulness, and love but never cruelty and lies. Fortunately, there are many mistreated children who find "helping witnesses" and can feel loved by them.'
This site takes the position that children should no longer be excluded from the legal protections against assault and battery that apply to adults. Moreover, the defense of children should be more vigorous because they are more vulnerable.
They
believe that the information offered to professionals in the healthcare and educational fields and to parents and other childcare providers by means of their Web site and printed literature can lead the way to a healthier and more peaceful society governed by the principles of nonviolence-based interactions for all.A global initiative to end all corporal punishment of children.
