Involuntary Commitment « Citizens Commission on Human Rights St. Louis

Posts Tagged ‘Involuntary Commitment’

Study Adds to Research Showing Involuntary Psychiatric Hospitalization Does More Harm Than Good

Monday, July 24th, 2023

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Citizens Commission on Human Rights, National Affairs Office

WASHINGTON, DC, July 13, 2023 — A new study has found that involuntary hospitalization for substance abuse treatment is not effective, adding to the growing body of research finding that forced behavioral health treatment does more harm than good and raising ethical questions about the use of coercion by the psychiatrists typically in charge of the treatment.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston investigated the outcomes of 22 patients involuntarily committed for substance abuse treatment after first coming to a hospital emergency room. The result was that after release, none of the patients stayed off their alcohol and/or drugs, and all of them ended up back in the emergency room within a year because of their substance misuse.

“One year following involuntary commitment, all patients had relapsed to substance use and had at least one emergency department visit,” wrote lead author John C. Messinger. Half reverted to substance abuse within two months after the start of their involuntary treatment.

“The study adds to a growing literature recognizing the harms of involuntary commitment for substance use disorder,” the researchers concluded.

Other research has found that forced hospitalization is also ineffective and harmful for mental health treatment. A study earlier this year found no benefit to patients’ mental health condition and no lower risk of death from nonconsensual mental health treatment.

This follows a 2020 study which found that psychiatric in-patients were actually more likely to attempt suicide after release if they were admitted and treated against their will as compared to those who were not.

The harm and lack of benefit from involuntary commitment for psychiatric treatment has resulted in some people avoiding mental health treatment. The U.S. 2011-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health revealed that one in four depressed young adults cited their concern over being involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility or forced to take psychiatric drugs against their will as a reason not to seek mental health treatment.

The potential of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization and treatment doing more harm than good has led some medical professionals to argue that such acts violate the Hippocratic oath of “first do no harm” and should be abolished.

Among them is the co-founder of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), the late professor of psychiatry and humanitarian Thomas Szasz, M.D., who advocated an end to forced psychiatric treatment. Considered by many scholars and academics to be psychiatry’s most authoritative critic, Dr. Szasz wrote: “Increasing numbers of persons, both in the mental health professions and in public life, have come to acknowledge that involuntary psychiatric interventions are methods of social control. On both moral and practical grounds, I advocate the abolition of all involuntary psychiatry.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also taken a strong position against coercive mental health practices. In a series of guidelines issued in 2021, WHO stated that nonconsensual practices are used “despite the lack of evidence that they offer any benefits, and the significant evidence that they lead to physical and psychological harm and even death.”

The guidelines further state: “People subjected to coercive practices report feelings of dehumanization, disempowerment and being disrespected. Many experience it as a form of trauma or re-traumatization leading to a worsening of their condition and increased experiences of distress.”

WHO’s call for an end to involuntary mental health treatment extends even to those experiencing acute mental distress. The guidelines note that individuals in mental health crisis “are at a heightened risk of their human rights being violated, including through forced admissions and treatment.”

WHO challenged United Nations member nations, including the United States, to ensure that their mental health services are free from coercion, including forced drugging, the use of physical and chemical restraints and seclusion, electroshock without consent, and involuntary institutionalization.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights has been a global leader in the fight against the coercive and abusive use of involuntary commitments, seclusion and restraints, psychiatric drugs, and electroshock. In 1969, CCHR issued a Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights that laid out fundamental human rights in the field of mental health to ensure the right to one’s own mind and the right to be free from forced mental health treatment.

CCHR was co-founded in 1969 by members of the Church of Scientology and Dr. Szasz to eradicate abuses and restore human rights and dignity to the field of mental health. CCHR has been instrumental in obtaining 228 laws against psychiatric abuse and violations of human rights worldwide.

The CCHR National Affairs Office in Washington, DC, has advocated for mental health rights and protections at the state and federal level. The CCHR traveling exhibit, which has toured 441 major cities worldwide and educated over 800,000 people on the history to the present day of abusive and racist psychiatric practices, has been displayed at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC, and at other locations.

Anne Goedeke
Citizens Commission on Human Rights, National Affairs Office

Tags:CCHR, Coercive psychiatry, Human Rights, Involuntary Commitment, Substance Abuse, suicide, Szasz, United Nations, World Health Organization
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White Paper on Improving Psychiatric Patient Outcomes

Monday, July 3rd, 2023

Reference:
WHITE PAPER on Improving Patient Outcomes, Addressing Treatment Caused Trauma & Injuries, Enhancing Patient Rights, and Grievance Procedures for the Report Required by § 36 of CH 41 SLA 2022 (HB172)
by James B. (Jim) Gottstein, Esq.; Faith Myers; Susan Musante, LPCC; David Cohen, PhD; Peter C. Gøtzsche, MD; David Healy, MD; The International Society for Ethical Psychology & Psychiatry
April 2023, Addenda May 2023
Anchorage, Alaska

[Note: Full references and citations are provided in the original White Paper.]

On July 15, 2022, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy signed HB172 into law which requires the Department of Health, Department of Family and Community Services, and the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority to report on, among other things, improving psychiatric patient outcomes, institutional trauma, enhancing patient rights, the grievance process, and patient injuries.

The Legislation was enacted to comply with a settlement over a successful lawsuit brought against the State of Alaska for illegally confining people for extended periods of time in correctional facilities and emergency rooms awaiting admission to the Alaska Psychiatric Institute for court ordered psychiatric evaluations.

This White Paper provides input for the required Report to the Legislature, focusing on improving patient outcomes, enhancing patient rights, having an effective and legitimate grievance process, and addressing patient injuries and treatment-caused trauma.

Executive Summary of the White Paper

If the fundamental purpose of the mental health system is to improve the lives of psychiatric patients it is failing miserably. That the State does not keep track of institutional trauma and patient complaints, and has no legitimate grievance process are illustrations of the lack of commitment to improving patients’ lives.

The mental health system’s standard treatments are counterproductive and harmful, and often forced on unwilling patients. The overreliance on psychiatric drugs is reducing the recovery rate of people diagnosed with serious mental illness and reducing their life spans. Psychiatric incarceration, euphemistically called “involuntary commitment,” is similarly counterproductive and harmful, adding to patients’ trauma and massively associated with suicides. Harmful psychiatric interventions are being imposed on people by judges in proceedings where the facts about treatments and their harms are not being presented by appointed counsel, rendering the proceedings shams.

Court proceedings to psychiatrically incarcerate people on the grounds it is necessary to protect other people from harm should be eliminated; predictions of violence are not accurate and no one else besides someone who receives a psychiatric diagnosis is incarcerated for something they might do in the future. Court proceedings to psychiatrically drug people against their will on the grounds it is in their best interest should be eliminated. They are not in people’s best interest if unwanted. “If it is not voluntary it is not treatment.” If such proceedings are nonetheless held, they should be conducted in a legitimate manner.

The most important elements for improving patients’ lives are People, Place and Purpose. People—even psychiatric patients—need to have a safe place to live (Place), relationships (People), and to have activity that is meaningful to them, usually school or work (Purpose). People need to be given hope these are possible. Voluntary approaches that improve people’s lives should be made available instead of the currently prevailing counterproductive and harmful psychiatric drugs for everyone, forever regime often forced on people. The White Paper lists at least 8 successful non-drug treatment programs that already exist for people experiencing mental distress. Brutal incarceration and coercive psychiatry is not the only option.

By implementing these approaches, Alaska’s mental health system can improve the recovery rate. As bad as it is for adults, the psychiatric incarceration and psychiatric drugging of children and youth is even more tragic and should be stopped. Instead, children and youth should be helped to manage their emotions and become successful, and their parents should be given support and assistance to achieve this.

Tags:Abuse, Alaska, alternatives, Child Drugging, Coercive psychiatry, courts, Involuntary Commitment, Mental Health, Psychiatric Drugs
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New York City Goes Big-Time For Involuntary Commitment

Monday, December 12th, 2022

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a major effort on November 29, 2022 to involuntarily commit the homeless and anyone found suffering from mental trauma.

Involuntary Commitment, sometimes euphemistically called “Civil Commitment”, is a profound violation of Human Rights, and a major tool of coercive psychiatry to funnel government funds into the mental health system.

As the late Professor Thomas Szasz said, “coercive psychiatrists function as judges and jailers not physicians and healers” with the power of life and death over the most vulnerable people.

“Disguising social control as medical treatment is a deceit which conceals an abuse.” This is a de facto abuse of power, as it seeks to limit and control the individual instead of helping the individual to get better and improve their conditions in life.

Coercive psychiatry is not intended to cure anything. On the contrary, psychiatry is the science of control and entrapment, and having power over distressed and vulnerable individuals. Wherever men have advocated and advanced totalitarianism, they have used psychiatric principles to control society, to put limits on individual freedom, to suppress and punish dissent, and to trap people into worsening conditions. It is actually a mis-use of power, since its intentions are to make less of a person’s self-determinism and give more power to others and the State.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that forced treatment is not proven to prevent violent practices yet are relied upon “despite the lack of evidence that they offer any benefits, and the significant evidence that they lead to physical and psychological harm and even death.”

There is a heavy ongoing push country-wide, called Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT), to train police officers to “handle” difficult situations involving “suspected mental illness.” In the name of “help”, it removes unwanted citizens from the street and forces them, using government funds, into mental health facilities.

Your mental health, and the mental health of your family, friends and associates, can be questioned by CIT-trained police. If this makes you uncomfortable, execute a Living Will (Letter of Protection from Psychiatric Incarceration and/or Treatment) and then express your opinion to your local, state and federal officials, especially if you live in New York City.

Tags:Coercive psychiatry, Involuntary Commitment, Living Will, Mental Health, Szasz
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Hallelujah! Keep the Faith

Monday, August 15th, 2022

Faith (some of the many definitions):
* confidence, trust or loyalty for a person or thing
* belief that is not based on objective observations
* a system of religious beliefs

[From the Latin root fidere “to trust”.]

In Hebrew, faith is emunah ?????. It is an innate conviction, a perception of truth that transcends, rather than evades, reason.

Furthermore, faith is confidence in one’s abilities, especially confidence in one’s ability to create. An individual who cannot create has to hold on to what they already have; thus the obsessiveness of some faiths.

Faith is not the same as Faith-In. When one has Faith In something or someone, there is an inflow of agreement from another to self, thus placing oneself under the control of another. This is what hypnotism is. Faith by itself has no flow, is native to the individual, and expresses that one is in full control of one’s own beingness, doingness and havingness.

The opposite of faith is distrust (i.e. trust nothing) or disbelief. At the top of this dichotomy [Faith/Distrust] is Life; at the bottom is Death.

The philosopher who said “have faith” was mistaken, for one does not “have” faith, one “is” faith. That is, the source of faith is oneself. This misunderstanding leads one to be afraid to understand, substituting obsessive faith [belief] for actual understanding.

The scale of faith is very close to the scale of self-determinism. At the top of the scale, an individual’s greatest health, sanity and effectiveness are achieved with the greatest self-determinism, and thus the greatest faith. At the bottom of the scale, where self-determinism is lacking and other-determinism predominates, ill-health, insanity, and ineffectiveness are the norm, and thus the greatest distrust.

One could say that self-determinism is the ability to direct oneself. The technical definition of self-determinism is the relative ability to determine location in time and space, and the ability to create and destroy space, time, energy and matter.

Faith Corrupted By Psychiatry

Contrast this with psychiatry. When we speak of “coercive psychiatry” we mean that psychiatry is used as a means of social control against which one has no recourse and cannot fight back, which is destructive of one’s self-determinism, causing distrust instead of faith. Prime examples are involuntary commitment, electroshock, and enforced treatment.

All too often people may mistakenly disparage their own strength or power; do not allow psychiatry to crush yours even further.

Contact your local, state and federal officials and tell them to stop funding coercive psychiatry.

Forced Psychiatry is Legislated Violence

Tags:Coercive psychiatry, ECT, Faith, Involuntary Commitment, Self-determinism, Totalitarianism
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Mental Health Rights Policy To Prevent Patient Torture

Monday, January 31st, 2022

The word “compulsory” and the practice of coercion must be removed from any mental health policy. Effective mental healing should improve and strengthen individuals and thereby society, by restoring individuals to personal strength, ability, competence, responsibility, and spiritual wellbeing.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, a mental health industry watchdog, launched a policy for governments to adopt to prevent abuse and coercive psychiatric practices that constitute torture. This is based on reports and guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO—guidance on community mental health services) and United Nations representatives for health and against torture. In 2020, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture presented a report on “psychological torture” to the UN Human Rights Council, with the strongest condemnation to date of involuntary psychiatric interventions.

Currently, New Zealand is in the process of transforming its mental health law away from coercive and compulsory incarceration and treatment and towards a human rights approach—something CCHR says is urgently needed throughout the United States and worldwide. Recently in the U.S., the mental health system has been rocked with allegations of staff physical, sexual and chemical assaults of patients, especially children and teens in for-profit behavioral facilities, including restraint use leading to death. In 2021, fourteen staff from behavioral hospitals faced criminal proceedings over patient abuse and deaths.

Yet, U.S. psychiatrists have called for the power to increase their rights to involuntarily detain and treat patients, based on the arbitrary argument that persons are a danger to themselves or others. Such arguments fly in the face of the March 2020 UN Special Rapporteur on Torture report on “psychological torture” presented to the UN Human Rights Council, berating involuntary psychiatric interventions based on the supposed “best interests” of a person or on “medical necessity.” Such interventions, the report says, “generally involve highly discriminatory and coercive attempts at controlling or ‘correcting’ the victim’s personality, behavior or choices and almost always inflict severe pain or suffering…such practices may well amount to torture.”

WHO states that forced treatment is not proven to prevent violent practices yet are relied upon “despite the lack of evidence that they offer any benefits, and the significant evidence that they lead to physical and psychological harm and even death.”

Psychiatrists and psychologists are unable to predict whether a person is a danger to oneself or others as this relies upon subjective opinion, not science. “Violence is not a diagnosis nor is it a disease. Potential to do harm is not a symptom or a sign of mental illness,” and cannot be scientifically assessed.

Recommendations

Prohibition of all ElectroConvulsive Therapy (ECT) and psychosurgery, with criminal penalties to those administering these in violation of the law.
Informed Consent must be obtained with all major treatment risks documented in writing; the person informed that there are diverse opinions and disagreements about the medical legitimacy of psychiatric diagnoses which cannot be determined with physical-medical tests; the patient has the right to refuse treatment and revoke consent at any time, as well has the right to all available alternatives.
Abolish mechanical and chemical restraints, with criminal penalties if used and resulting in harm or death of the patient.
Proper medical testing to be conducted as part of the patient assessment, ruling out underlying and undiagnosed physical conditions that may manifest in “psychiatric” symptoms.
Facilities established to safely withdraw patients from psychotropic drugs.

Tags:Coercive psychiatry, ECT, Human Rights, Informed Consent, Involuntary Commitment, Mental Health, restraints, United Nations, violence, Withdrawal
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Putting Profit Above Children’s Lives

Monday, August 30th, 2021

The child mental health industry is a system that puts profit above children’s lives, preying on unsuspecting parents and taking advantage of disadvantaged children, such as those covered under Medicaid (state and federal health coverage for lower income families and those with disabilities). It is rife with abuse, yet this hugely profitable industry is rarely held to account for its rampant abuse of our most vulnerable—children.

It is an industry which milks the foster care system for huge profit, where children are four times more likely to be given mind-altering psychotropic drugs than non-foster care children, and much more likely to be prescribed cocktails of these drugs.

It is an industry that electroshocks children including babies, using state funds for lower income families (Medicaid).

It is a business masquerading as healthcare which sells parents and legislators on the idea of helping troubled children. Yet this help is more often simply incarcerating children in behavioral schools or psychiatric wards, where treatment consists of psychiatric drug cocktails, degradation, solitary confinement, and brutal restraint procedures which have killed children. And all of this is done under the guise of helping children.

The abuse is not limited to one chain of psychiatric facilities or one mode of psychiatric behavioral “treatment.” This abuse in the child mental health industry is systemic—yet unknown to most of the public.

For example: Information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveals that 19 states are currently administering electroshock to children, with 7 of those states electroshocking children aged 0-5 years old. These are all children being electroshocked while psychiatrists and facilities bill Medicaid for their “treatment.”

Yet another example — Only one month after the world witnessed the tragic death of George Floyd, unable to breathe as he was physically restrained and held to the ground, 16-year-old Cornelius Frederick, an African American, was physically restrained at Sequel Youth & Family Services’ facility in Michigan, and also cried out, “I can’t breathe!” before passing out. Thirty hours later, on May 1, 2020, he was dead. Cornelius had gone into cardiac arrest while being restrained by Lakeside Academy staff, a residential psychiatric facility that treated foster care and other kids with behavioral issues. A witness to Cornelius’s restraint said, “[T]his kid threw a sandwich. He was being unruly and they couldn’t control him. So, four guys…the size of rugby players tackled him.”

Cornelius is not alone; countless children have suffocated and died after being subjected to deadly restraints within these psychiatric facilities and behavioral treatment centers.

This is not healthcare. This is child abuse. And it is just the tip of the iceberg.

Please help us to support the cause and end the abuse of children in the psychiatric industry. We are making incredible progress, as many of the psychiatric facilities abusing these children are now under investigation. And many state legislators want to put an end to this abuse. There is more to be done, and so we ask you to continue to support our Fight For Kids campaign. Please support the cause and also watch our latest video here.

For more information, visit our Child Psychiatric Treatment page here.

Tags:Abuse, Child Drugging, ECT, Foster Children, Involuntary Commitment, Medicaid, restraints
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Missouri Department of Mental Health Merges Adult St. Louis Psychiatric Hospitals

Monday, March 1st, 2021

The Missouri Department of Mental Health (DMH) has merged the two St. Louis adult psychiatric hospitals into one entity called the St. Louis Forensic Treatment Center. One is the former St. Louis Metropolitan Psychiatric Center on Delmar; the other is the former St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center on Arsenal.

Both facilities have a long history of handling involuntarily committed individuals from the criminal justice system.

By combining the two hospitals for a total of 230 patient beds, the department hopes to be able to take advantage of natural efficiencies across both campuses.

They claim to reintegrate individuals into the community, but in the case of Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services (SORTS), individuals are involuntarily committed for the rest of their lives after having completed their prison terms.

The DMH budget for 2020-2021 is approximately $2.4 Billion. Roughly $36.8 Million from General Revenue is allocated to the SORTS program. Roughly $30.5 Million from General Revenue is allocated to the two St. Louis adult psychiatric hospitals. This does not include any Federal funds or State funds other than General Revenue.

The MO DMH Division of Behavioral Health (DBH) operates six adult inpatient facilities and one children’s psychiatric hospital. The two forensic hospitals under discussion are in this Division.

Involuntary Commitment: A Crack In The Door Of Constitutional Freedoms

Every 1¼ minutes, someone in the U.S. becomes the next victim of involuntary incarceration in a psychiatric hospital. Because of their ubiquity and far–reaching powers, involuntary commitment laws lay a truly concrete foundation for totalitarianism. And they are not, it must be stressed, a threat of what might be, but a present danger — representing America’s gaping breach in the otherwise admirable wall of individual Constitutional rights.

While involuntary commitment laws enrich the psychiatric industry, they not only deprive individuals of their freedom of choice, but milk millions of health insurance dollars annually from private, state, national and military health plans.

Involuntary commitment creates an astonishing debt load on our health care system. Given a very conservative daily cost of $940 for hospitalization and treatment, each involuntary commitment costs around $16,700. With up to 1.5 million people committed yearly, and using the conservative individual figure of $16,700, the annual health care drain is almost $25 billion! And this is paying for a service that most would refuse if given the chance.

The Missouri Revised Statutes (RSMo) Chapter 552 Section 20, Chapter 632 Section 300, Chapter 632 Section 305, Chapter 632 Section 484, and Chapter 660 Section 290 specify the conditions under which, and by whom, someone can be forcibly incarcerated in a mental health facility. It isn’t always called “involuntary commitment”; other euphemisms are “detention” or “civil commitment”.

The fact that these actions are couched in such Orwellian doublespeak as “for his own good,” “to prevent him from committing harm,” etc., is unfortunate, for it obfuscates the intention, which is undeniably to harm instead of help.

The first thing to realize is that if mental asylums were places of rest, where people did not fear to seek help, knowing they would not be assaulted with restraints, drugs and electric shock — but where they could receive real medical help — people would be more approachable about being helped.

The dangerous person who is violent must be dealt with independent of psychiatrists. If a dangerous offense is committed by a person, then the fact remains criminal statutes exist to address this. As the late psychiatrist Thomas Szasz stated, “All criminal behavior should be controlled by means of the criminal law, from the administration of which psychiatrists ought to be excluded.”

What Must Be Done?

First there needs to be an increase in humane and rational alternatives to psychiatric involuntary institutionalization.

Second, involuntary commitment laws must be abolished and this unconstitutional and coercive practice stopped.

Third, any psychiatrist found to be using coercion, threats or malice to get people to “accept” psychiatric treatment, or who hospitalizes a patient against their will should be charged with assault and false imprisonment.

Take the initiative today towards achieving human rights in this country and contact your local, state, and federal officials to have these oppressive commitment laws abolished.

CCHR recommends that citizens execute a Living Will, or Letter of Protection from Psychiatric Incarceration and/or Treatment, which directs that psychiatric incarceration, hospitalization, treatment or procedures not be imposed on you.

Nothing says "I love you" like an involuntary commitment.

Tags:Involuntary Commitment, Missouri
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Are You Certain About That?

Monday, October 26th, 2020

Definitions
Certainty: Quality or state of being fixed, settled, specific but unspecified character, dependable, reliable, indisputable, inevitable, assured.

[Originally from Latin certus, past participle of cernere “to sift, discern, decide, determine”.]

An even better definition is “A gradient scale of clarity of observation.” By gradient scale we mean a gradually increasing (or decreasing) degree of something.

Scale of Certainty

For example, one might say that certainty is a relative scale from “sure thing” at the top, through “maybe” somewhere in the middle, down to “totally uncertain” at the bottom. Dead, by the way, is not the bottom, exemplified by the phrase “dead sure.”

An uncertainty, or maybe, is the product of two certainties, one a positive conviction and the other a negative conviction. Anxiety, indecision, uncertainty, in other words a state of “maybe”, can exist only in the presence of poor observation or the inability to observe.

People who are at low levels of awareness, in other words relatively uncertain, do not observe; they substitute for observation beliefs, preconceptions, evaluations, suppositions, and even physical pain by which to obtain their certainties.

The certainty of an impact, or pain, is a relatively false certainty. A certainty carried home in terms of physical impact is not self-determined, it is other-determined. The rehabilitation of self-determinism, or the ability to direct oneself, should be the aim of all effective therapies.

Psychiatric “Certainty”

The mistaken use of shock by psychiatry upon the insane seeks to deliver sufficient certainty to cause them to be less insane. However, it only produces stimulus-response behavior, not self-determined behavior. Certainty delivered by force, pain, blows and shock eventually brings about only unconsciousness and the certainty of unawareness.

Thus we see that psychiatry as currently practiced does not and never can cause an improvement in mental health, since it relies solely upon shock as its treatments.

Psychiatry’s brutal therapies can now be seen for what they really are: attempts to overwhelm an individual, eventually rendering them unaware of their mental traumas.

Harmful Psychiatric “Treatments”

All psychiatric treatments are based upon shock of one form or another.

Electroshock, also called electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), creates trauma to the brain.

Psychosurgery, such as prefrontal lobotomy, creates trauma to the brain.

Deadly restraints, create trauma to the individual.

Harmful and addictive psychotropic drugs, often called chemical restraints, create trauma to the individual.

Involuntary commitment, creates trauma to the individual.

Therapist sexual abuse, creates trauma to the individual.

Talk therapy, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), is basically telling the patient what is wrong with them (evaluating for them), and is thus just another form of shock therapy.

Being threatened with involuntary commitment or punishment for refusal of treatment, or
Being coerced into hospitalization or treatment, create trauma to the individual.

The Real Problem

The real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness” and stigmatize unwanted behavior or study problems as “diseases,” using the psychiatric billing bible Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as their justification. The bottom line is that all psychiatric “treatments” are harmful.

Contact your local, state and federal officials, let them know what you think about this and urge them to defund psychiatric research and treatments.

Tags:Coercive psychiatry, DSM, ECT, Involuntary Commitment, Mental Health, rape
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Here Come The Judgment

Monday, July 27th, 2020

We keep coming across the subject of Judgment. So many news articles and social media posts deal, directly or indirectly, with good or bad judgment.

We see so many people asking “How do I deal with this or that situation?” where the only truly comprehensive response should be “use good judgment.”

Of course, then they want to know what is good judgment? And while there is a good answer, it isn’t easy to give this a short answer. So we decided to address it here. We’ll give an example from which we hope one can make some useful generalizations.

There is no shortage of advice, aphorisms and quotes about judgment; and when there is so much discussion around a topic one can be sure it is generally not well understood, not the least of which is exactly how to spell the word. “Judgment” and “judgement” are alternate spellings of the same word. They are both common in British English, although only one, judgment, is acceptable in American English.

Not even to mention the religious overtones of Judgment, with which we respectfully leave to other experts.

Definitions

Just as a simple word, there are a number of dictionary meanings to fit different circumstances. Here are some common definitions:
— the process of forming an opinion or evaluation by discerning and comparing
— the cognitive process of reaching a decision or drawing conclusions
— a formal utterance of an authoritative opinion
— a formal decision given by a court
— good sense

[Ultimately from Latin judicare, from judic-, judex judge, from jus right, law + dicere to decide]

How Does One Make A Judgment?

Judgment is measured by the ability to evaluate relative importances. One must be able to evaluate what is important or unimportant in order to make a judgment. Yet this still does not fully answer the question of how to do this, since one must still recognize what is or is not important in the situation under consideration.

Motivation

There are several areas of Life along which one either survives or succumbs. One can be relatively constructive or destructive along each area of Life. One is motivated by these impulses.

Let’s say one has to make a decision that impacts not only oneself but also one’s family. Should I take this new job in another city? On the one hand, it surely benefits my own career and income; on the other hand it uproots my family which is comfortable where it is. How do I decide? It’s constructive for me myself, but destructive for my family. There isn’t a hard and fast rule about which is better or worse; but there is judgment.

Judgment

Judgment is how many of these motivational impulses can one evaluate instantly, and whether these impulses are constructive or destructive. Looking at all sides, all the facts, each area-of-life impulse, its importance or unimportance, its constructive or destructive nature.

You can see there isn’t a fixed answer; there is an evaluation of importances. What are the consequences? How is the survival of both myself and my family benefited or harmed by each different decision?

Good judgment then is dependent on recognizing benefit and harm along every area of Life touched by the situation at hand. How fast can you reach a decision given all the facts? What’s best for me and my family may not be best for you and your family.

The Psychiatric Connection

Given this knowledge about judgment, how does all this relate to psychiatric fraud and abuse?

One obvious connection is psychiatry’s corruption of justice. Psychiatry’s influence has eroded the once-firm basis of justice: the differentiation of right and wrong, compromising the ability of justice systems to reach sane judgments. And everyone knows that both the prosecution and the defense hire psychiatrists to testify on opposite sides of a judgment.

Studies also show that professional clinicians do not in fact make more accurate clinical judgments than lay persons. The fraudulent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the basis of psychiatric diagnoses, skews and subverts the judgment of what is sane or insane, benign or harmful, behavior.

The huge and growing variety of mind-altering psychiatric drugs impair one’s ability to make correct judgments. Side effects include many things which can interfere with one’s ability to make judgments, such as hallucinations, aggression, irritation, mood swings, psychosis, abnormal thoughts, anxiety, delusions, forgetfulness, panic attacks, confusion, poor concentration, fear, and just simply trouble with judgment. The consumption of these drugs can cause loss of judgment and self-control leading to increased violence and suicidal impulses.

Involuntary Commitment, euphemistically called “civil commitment”, is a tool psychiatrists use to coerce treatment and collect insurance money, not to mention its use as a political tool to suppress dissent. Who judges someone to be a danger to themselves or others as a criterion for this unconstitutional practice? Why, the psychiatrists of course. They say they are the only ones qualified to make such judgments. Yet psychiatrists themselves admit that they cannot predict violence.

The Bottom Line

Where judgment is concerned, psychiatry is not your friend. Beware, judgment may be in short supply when under the influence of psychiatry.

The psychiatric Community Chest Get Out of Jail, Free

Tags:DSM, Involuntary Commitment, Judgment, justice, Side Effects, suicide, violence
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Involuntary Commitment: A Crack In The Door Of Constitutional Freedoms

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