CCHR Birmingham uncovers legacy of Psychiatry
Added: (Thu Oct 13 2005)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
In light of current plans to build a new £37M secure Mental Hospital in Birmingham, The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) Birmingham has uncovered pertinent information regarding the history of psychiatry and just what “help” really can be offered by these psychiatric facilities.
It is interesting to note that a past president of the World Psychiatric Association Norman Sartorius stated: “The time when psychiatrists considered that they could cure the mentally ill is gone. In future mentally ill have to learn to live with their illness” add to this the recent revelation from the current president of the American Psychiatric Association Steven Sharfstein admitting that there is no way to test for a "chemical imbalance" as the cause for mental disorders. PEOPLE magazine (July 11), quoted Dr. Sharfstein conceding, "We do not have a clean-cut lab test."
It would be logical for members of the public to expect that psychiatry has an understanding and therefore the means to set people free from their “demons”. The solution chosen by psychiatry is to enter into a Faustian like pact with the pharmaceutical industry in an admission of their outright failure. It is the politics of control and profit not personal freedom or success for their patients.
What would the readers of this article conclude of a profession that invents mental illness, by literally casting a vote at a conference and then adding it to the list in their “guide” The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM), so that a child who fidgets at school is said to have the dubious “mental disorder" ADHD and is prescribed Ritalin (or other Methylphenidate Hydrochloride derivatives) which has the same effect on the brain as Cocaine.
Well known psychiatrists responsible for a dramatic impact on society are Radavan Karadzic the mastermind behind the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, and close cohort of Slobodan Milosevic, who was a patient of his. Heinrich Gross who was responsible for the murder of institutionalised children during the war, and Hendrick Verwoerd in South Africa who was instrumental in instigating the detestable apartheid policy, he was in fact accused by the courts of being helpful to the German propaganda machine during WWII.
Ernst Rudin the psychiatrist who helped spearhead the extermination effort and co-wrote the Sterilization Act, proudly proclaimed in 1944: “Only through the Führer did our dream of over 30 years, that of applying racial hygiene to society become a reality.”
Evidence points to the fact that psychiatry is creating Mental Illness not solving it as the increasing use of antidepressants indicates. If one were to take into account these points raised and consider that perhaps Psychiatry may not be the answer to man’s ills after all, we may find ourselves living in a less threatening world.
Chris Wrapson (Volunteer)
Media Relations Officer
Citizens Commission on Human Rights Birmingham
07793 285 784 or 0121 523 8185