Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Many people have come to feel that the psychiatric profession has failed to treat them respectfully. Several issues have inflamed them, arguably the most emotional being involuntary drug treatment which, to them, is often viewed as torture. Among the groups that agree with this torture notion is the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA). Its mission statement reads:…
In 1961 psychiatrist Thomas Szasz published an article in the American Psychologist titled, “The Myth of Mental Illness.” There he proposed that the set of experiences, behaviors, and thoughts viewed as “mental illness” are more aptly construed as “problems in living.” The following year, Dr Szasz published a best selling book by the same name. Some loved it while others writhed in anger. One reviewer, for example,…
On this blog, one of the main topics of discussion is name calling. And, from time to time, some people have asked me what I think of the types of names psychiatrists use to talk about their patients. In response, I wrote a post titled Name Calling by Psychiatrists: Is it Time to Put a Stop to it? It stirred up a great deal of…
