Today's date is
PSYCHIATRIC FRAUD AND FORCE: A CRITIQUE OF E.FULLER TORREY BY THOMAS SZASZ, MD, JOURNAL OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY, VOL. 44 NO. 4, FALL 2004 416-430
What are we to think of a profession whose members openly acknowledge that they lie to patients and even boast about it? Torrey (1997) writes, “It would probably be difficult to find any American psychiatrist working with the mentally ill who has not, at a minimum, exaggerated the dangerousness of a mentally ill person’s behavior to obtain a judicial order for commitment of someone in need of care.(p.152)”
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), a group with which Torrey is closely allied, also endorses “therapeutic prevarication.” [http://www.the free man on line.org/columns/mental-illness-from-shame-to-pride/]
At this URL, Dr. Szasz gives the following context: “So convinced is NAMI of the nobility of its cause that its website once offered this scenario:]” The following is an excerpt from [“this scenario”] a NAMI Web site:
“Sometime, during the course of your loved one’s illness, you may need the police. By preparing now, before you need help, you can make the day you need help go much more smoothly....It is often difficult to get 911 to respond to your calls if you need someone to come & take your [mentally ill] relation to a hospital emergency room (ER). They may not believe that you really need help. And if they do send the police, the police are often reluctant to take someone for involuntary commitment.. . . When calling 911,the best way to get quick action is to say, “Violent EDP,” or “Suicidal EDP.” EDP stands for Emotionally Disturbed Person. This shows the operator that you know what you’re talking about. Describe the danger very specifically. “He’s a danger to himself” is not as good as “This morning my son said he was going to jump off the roof.”
For the full PDF text click here Original URL here Watch film, “Against Psychiatry”
Excerpts from Thomas Szasz’s Psychiatric Fraud and Force: A Critique of E. Fuller Torrey
