Some of the things in Stewards of the Flame were drawn from my imagination -- even some of those that have turned out to be closer to reality than I originally knew. This was not the case with my concept of psychiatric treatment. I have long been aware of the damaging nature of today's so-called therapy for mental illness, or alleged mental illness, and have always been strongly opposed to it. My portrayal of it in the story is, if anything, less horrifying than the reality, since there wasn't room to go into much detail. My only exaggeration was in having psychiatric drugs cause permanent brain damage faster than they do at present, simply for plot reasons. Today's drugs are just as bad and for victims who fail to escape the clutches of the orthodox psychiatric establishment, they cause more suffering over a longer period of time.
It may seem incredible that this terrible abuse of the members of society deemed weakest could continue into an era when we travel between the stars. This story is, of course, unrealistically close to today in many respects, because I intentionally write for today's readers in such a way that they will identify with the characters. But I think that given the fundamental premise of the novel -- the total control of society by a medical establishment that focuses wholly on the physical aspect of being human -- it really is inevitable that psychiatry would not have progressed. After all, to me and to many others it's incredible that such abuse goes on here and now. The public at large refuses to believe it. Most people assume, because they want to assume, that psychiatrists with medical degrees must know what's best for their patients, and that even the mentally ill who "don't know they're sick" will benefit from the medication they are usually reluctant to take. This is a prime example of the mentality that wants to impose unwanted care on the helpless "for their own good," and the reason why I fear that my fictional extension of the principle to all health matters is not at all unreasonable. Friends, open your eyes! Today it's the mentally ill who are victimized by well-meant coercion; tomorrow it may be all of us. . . .
There is no point in taking space here to say what's wrong with psychiatric treatment for the sake of readers who may not know, since the links and books that follow make it appallingly clear. Nor can I offer any hope that public awareness can alter today's psychiatric dogma. The public could, however, force abandonment of the worst elements of what currently exists. It could, and must, insist that electroshock -- ECT, or electroconvulsive "therapy" -- be outlawed; there is absolutely no justification for allowing this horrific practice to continue. The surest way of stopping it, short of laws that would take time to get passed, would be to ban the use of federal funds for it (are you really comfortable with the thought that your taxes are now being spent to intentionally inflict brain damage on innocent people?) That is the first priority; but beyond that, sufficient public protest could lead to the elimination of all force in psychiatric hospitalization and/or treatment, except in the case of violent patients who pose a danger to others -- though on the other hand, perhaps willingness to tolerate unseemly behavior on the part of people who are "different" is too much to expect from the public. At the very least, let's not cling to the illusion that such persons are "better off" if drugged into compliance with society's norms. Let's recognize that forced treatment of the sick serves our convenience, not their welfare, and think very carefully about what precedent we are setting with respect to our own freedom of choice.
Links to Criticism of Current Psychiatric Treatment
International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP), a
nonprofit research and educational network founded by Dr. Peter Breggin (pictured at right). "We have focused on critiques of the so-called medical model of psychiatry, that is, the theory that people who behave in ways neither understood nor approved by society at large have something wrong with their bodies or brains, requiring the physical intervention of doctors using such techniques as drugs, electroshock and lobotomy.... We are especially opposed to the use of force and fraud in the mental health movement."
Psychiatric Drug Facts, the personal site of Dr. Peter Breggin, the foremost psychiatrist who opposes use of drugs and ECT. Many of his articles and formal papers are here, plus news reports.
Thomas S. Szasz Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility, a site
dedicated to the life and work of Dr. Thomas Szasz (pictured at left.) "In it you will find information from friends and colleagues sharing similar points of view to those of Thomas Szasz on diverse topics ranging from psychiatry and law, to drugs and addiction, to psychotherapy and public policy." Szasz is the best-known critic of the entire concept of "mental illness" and of government involvement in therapy.
Mindfreedom International, "an independent nonprofit that unites 100 grassroots groups and thousands of members to peacefully take action for human rights in the mental health system.... A majority of our members identify themselves as 'psychiatric survivors.'" This site contains many good articles.
CHAADA (Children and Adults Against Drugging America). "Our goal is to raise awareness about the overmedicating of America & the deception occurring within the psychiatric profession, the inhumanity of involuntary hospitalization, the preying on innocent people, especially children, in order to turn a profit, and the dangers of the drugs used to treat alleged mental illnesses."
Antipsychiatry Coalition, a nonprofit volunteer group consisting of people who feel they have been harmed by psychiatry, and their supporters. Another site containing many good articles.
Disturbing News for Patients and Shock Doctors Alike, Huffington Post (blog), April 1, 2007. By Dr. Peter Breggin. "A team of investigators has recently published a follow up study of 347 patients given the currently available methods of electroshock, including the supposedly most benign forms -- and confirmed that electroshock causes permanent brain damage and dysfunction."
Shock for ECT Advocates, Psychiatric News (blog), January 30, 2007. "The forced application of ECT to millions of people ranks alongside the worst atrocities of the twentieth century.... It is time for society at large to take a good hard look at itself. The truth is that we all knew what was happening; we all knew that it was completely wrong and yet very few did a damn thing about it."
Shocking Truths, Blackfly Magazine, May 17, 2007. "People, especially women, are being manipulated and used. ECT is robbing them of their memories, their emotions and their creativity leaving behind a docile, complacent, zombie like shell of a human being."
Psychiatry's Electroconvulsive Shock Treatment, a Crime Against Humanity, Antipsychiatry.org. "Other than by causing mental disorientation and memory loss, ECT does not help eliminate the unhappy feeling called depression.... Indeed, rather than eliminating depression, the memory loss and lost mental ability caused by ECT has caused some subjected to ECT so much anguish they have committed suicide after receiving the 'treatment.'"
What You Should Know About Electroshock, Committee for Truth in Psychiatry, a national organization of over 500 former electric shock patients. "None of us was truthfully informed about the nature or consequences of this treatment before consenting to it."
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Electroshock Must Be Banned as Crime Against Humanity, Street Spirit, August 2005. "I refuse to call electroshock a treatment. Why? Because this allegedly 'safe, effective and lifesaving treatment' for depression and other so-called 'mental disorders' always causes brain damage, permanent memory loss, terror, trauma, and sometimes death."
Mad In America: An Indictment of Psychiatric Abuse and Brain Damage, Street Spirit, August 2005. "It may seem self-evident now that electroshock and lobotomy purposely assault and incapacitate the brain, but the next generation of antipsychotic medications also created the same kind of brain pathology by blocking the neurotransmitter dopamine and essentially shutting down many higher brain functions. In fact, when antipsychotics such as Thorazine and Haldol were introduced, psychiatrists themselves said that these neuroleptic drugs were virtually indistinguishable from a 'chemical lobotomy.'"
Psychiatric Drugs: An Assault on the Human Condition, Street Spirit Interview with Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America, August 2005.
"The real tragedy is, that even as we peddle these drugs as chemical balancers, chemical fixers, in truth we're doing precisely the opposite. We're taking a brain that has no known abnormal brain chemistry, and by placing people on the drugs, we're perturbing that normal chemistry."
Madness and the Mental Health System, Alternatives Magazine, June 2006. "The mental health system is now targeting the general public -- especially youth through 'screening programs' -- for inappropriate and sometimes brain damaging psychiatric drugging without adequate informed consent, advocacy or alternatives."
Psych Truth Radio (audio files). Aims "to inform and educate the consumer and professional communities about the myth that human unhappiness, emotional pain and conflict are medical conditions to be treated with psychiatric drugs, electroconvulsive therapy and other assaults on the human brain." The Advisory Board consists of prominent psychiatrists.
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Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a major organization dedicated to investigating and exposing psychiatric violations of human rights. It is affiliated with the Church of Scientology, which is noted for its opposition to psychiatry but promotes its own agenda; therefore many opponents of psychiatric treatment disassociate themselves from it. However, its site contains good material on psychiatric abuses.
Say No to Psychiatry. Maintained by a Scientologist; has a lot of useful articles, but also includes material that's somewhat exaggerated.
Fight for Kids, a website that aims "to educate parents worldwide on the facts about today's widespread practice of labeling children mentally ill and drugging them with heavy, mind-altering, psychiatric drugs." This site is affiliated with the CCHR (see above).
The Medicalization of the Human Condition. Psychiatric Service, May 2002. "I believe that in pursuing the Holy Grail of remedicalization, psychiatry has corrected an error in one direction but has gone too far in the other. The result has been not only the excessive emphasis on medical-model diagnosis but also a related "furor psychopharmacologus" that seeks a specific drug for every aberrant feeling or behavior as if we were in quest of a society tranquilized by 'Soma' as in the dystopia described in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Disorder, PLoS Medicine, April 1, 2006. By David Healy, author of Let Them Eat Prozac. "The absence of a solid theoretical or empirical basis for using psychotropic medication as 'mood stabilizers' raises questions as to what lies in store for [children] exposed to these complex psychotropic agents from such a young age."
Akathisia (Wikipedia article). This is a common and extremely distressing effect of psychiatric drugs; the reference is included here because it is mentioned, though not named, in Stewards of the Flame. There are reports that the Nazis and Soviets used such drugs to induce it as a form of torture. Milder forms are now known to occasionally occur even with common antidepressants.
Spiritual Emergency Blog. "It is possible to undergo a profound crisis involving non-ordinary experiences and to perceive it as pathological or psychiatric when in fact it may be more accurately and beneficially defined as a spiritual emergency" (Stanislav Grof). Frequently people who are having this type of experience fall into the hands of a psychiatrist and are inappropriately treated.
Some Books Critical of Psychiatry and Psychoactive Drugs
Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation, Charles Barber, Vintage, 2009, 0307274950.
Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion?, Mary Boyle, Routledge, 2002, 0415227186.
Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry," Peter R. Breggin, St. Martin's, 1994, 0312113668.
Talking Back To Prozac: What Doctors Aren't Telling You About Today's Most Controversial Drug, Peter R. Breggin, St. Martin's, 1995, 0312956061.
Talking Back to Ritalin: What Doctors Aren't Telling You About Stimulants and ADHD, Peter R. Breggin, Da Capo, 2001, 0738205443.
The Anti-Depressant Fact Book: What Your Doctor Won't Tell You About Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Luvox,
Peter R. Breggin, Da Capo, 2001, 073820451X.
Medication Madness: True Stories of Mayhem, Murder, and Suicide Caused by Psychiatric Drugs, Peter R. Breggin, St. Martin's, 2008, 0312363389.
They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal, Paula J. Caplan, Addison Wesley, 1996, 0201488329.
Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health, William Glasser, Harper Quill, 2004, 006053866X.
Prozac Backlash: Overcoming the Dangers Of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil... Joseph Glenmullen, Touchstone, 2001, 0743200624.
Punishing the Patient: How Psychiatrists Misunderstand and Mistreat Schizophrenia, Richard Gosden, Scribe, 2001, 0908011520.
Spiritual Emergency, Stanislav and Christina Grof, Tarcher, 1989, 0874775388.
Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression, David Healy, New York University Press, 2004, 0814736971.
America Fooled: The Truth About Antidepressants, Antipsychotics, and How We've Been Deceived. Timothy Scott, Argo, 2006, 0977307506.
Bedlam: Greed, Profiteering, and Fraud in a Mental Health System Gone Crazy, Joe Sharkey, St. Martin's, 1994,
0312104219.
The Myth of Mental Illness, Thomas Szasz, Harper, 1967 (rev. ed. 1984), 0060911514.
The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement , Thomas Szasz, Harper, 1970 (rev. ed. 1984), 0060911514.
Schizophrenia: The Sacred Symbol of Psychiatry, Thomas Szasz, Syracuse University Press, 1988, 0815602243.
Coercion as Cure: A Critical History of Psychiatry, Thomas Szasz, Transaction, 2007, 0765803798.
Blaming the Brain: The Truth About Drugs and Mental Health, Elliot Valenstein, Free Press, 2002, 0743237870
Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill, Robert Whitaker, Perseus, 2003, 0738207993.
Use of Implants to Treat Alcoholism
I imagined this when I wrote the first draft of Stewards of the Flame, only to find recently that reality has long ago caught up with even my most drastic speculation. Here's a quote from
The Guardian (UK), July 17, 2003: "The implants act only as a deterrent. 'They are purely a chemical terror-based medication,' says Dr. Kris Zakrzewski, a private consultant who has fitted the implants in hundreds of patients. 'They work on the assumption that people know if they drink they would have some pretty violent physical effects.' But the effects differ from patient to patient and Zakrzewski says up to half of all patients experiment with alcohol, to see what they can get away with.... The implants are fitted under the skin of the abdomen, directly above the stomach. They release a steady amount of a chemical called disulfiram, which interferes with the way alcohol breaks down in the body. Alcohol usually oxidises all the way to carbon dioxide and water, but disulfiram blocks this reaction, causing a poisonous intermediate called acetaldehyde to build up. With even small amounts of alcohol this can cause headaches and vomiting; more severe reactions can lead to heart failure, coma and even death."