To: psysr-disc@yahoogroups.com
From: target@batstar.net
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 11:52:21 -0800
Subject: Re: [psysr-disc] Torture at home - thousands of minds lost - does anyone care
Moq:
Onm posted about this on the WITHHOLDAPADUES list. One comment she got was that it's psychiatrists and not psychologists who prescribe ECT. Somebody else pointed out that they were involved in a critical study of the psychology of this treatment process, and took a serious interest in Linda's concern here regarding the FDA regulations.
I personally avoided ECT because [a] I was aware of what it was about already and [b] I pretended I was "in a concentration camp" and acted in a way that accommodated the "guards" = the psychiatrists and techs in charge. But I will say I felt more 'complete' 20 years later when I met an
actual Auschwitz survivor from San Luis Obispo, who was then like me serving on her local Mental Health Advisory Board. Her comment was, "When I was placed in a (U.S.) psychiatric institution, I took one look at how things were happening there. I 'got it' right away!"I'm not sure that PsySR will "rise to the occasion" on this one. It took them a long time to grasp fully how "learned helplessness" supports military torture. And it will take them more time I believe to grasp fully how the social engineering of militant behaviorism supports forensic and clinical torture practices. Too many fingers are being pointed, however unjustly. :-(
ECT like lobotomy engages too much volatility, and our dialogue structures have to "catch up." I took physiology from Walter Freeman, Jr., the son of the famous lobotomist. He told the class one day, "You should go to the meat counter at the Coop, and ask to buy 'beef brains'."
Best
Andrew
Quoting Moq:
Linda Andre (author of Doctors of Deception) reminds us that comments about the proposed reclassification of ECT equipment by the Food and Drug Administration are due no later than January 8, 2010. She writes that it's not going well, since very few people have written in and a lot of psychiatrists are going to great lengths to influence the FDA. I urge you to submit comments before the deadline. Here's the item from the October edition of the Key Update, the e-newsletter of the National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse, describing the situation and giving information about how to submit comments: