E. Fuller Torrey Brain Collector, Psychiatric Fraud

I decided to update this blogpost after seeing the Torrey's quote about Thomas Szasz in the NY Times when I read Rossa's blog, Holistic Recovery from Schizophrenia. 

"Whenever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm." 

Hippocrates

I wonder why blowing up our proverbial skirts about the "safety" and "efficacy" of psychiatric "treatments" appears to be the preferred method for some "advocates" and advocacy groups?


A prime example:
The psychiatrist who is the most vocal in advocating a forced treatment agenda for "the seriously mentally ill,"  E. Fuller Torrey.  I would be interested to know how this came to be.  He used to admire, but now vilifies, Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus of State University of New York Upstate Medical University at Syracuse.    


In his book, "The Death of Psychiatry" 1974, Torrey stated, "The very term ['mental disease'] is nonsensica­l, a semantic mistake. The two words cannot go together except metaphoric­ally; you can no more have a mental 'disease' than you can have a purple idea or a wise space". Similarly, there can no more be a "mental illness" than there can be a "moral illness." The words "mental" and "illness" do not go together logically. Mental "illness" does not exist, and neither does mental "health." These terms indicate only approval or disapproval of some aspect of a person's mentality (thinking, emotions, or behavior)." emphasis mine

HOW did this man become the Nation's leading forced psychiatric treatment advocate? What motivated Torrey to become an outspoken proponent  of using coercion and force?  "Mental Illnesses" he now believes are real diseases which require the force of Law, to "successfully treat." there is not public record that I can find to indicate what caused Torrey's aboutface, although Torrey's transformation does coincide with becoming a benificiary of Ted Stanley's generosity.  He believes schizophrenia is caused by cat feces and collects brains as a hobby---and is not particular about having permission of the decedant or their family members...

Torrey's supposed status as a "researcher" would almost be humorous---if he didn't have the massive amount of  money from Ted Stanley, and the Stanley Family Foundation to fund his crack pot ideas, collect brains, and propel the massive media machine that distributes his biased research findings and his fear-based and bigotry directed at "the seriously mentallhy ill" themselves. Ted Stanley supports E. Fuller Torrey's "research," and the intolerant, discriminatory  "treatment" agenda, Torrey champions.   I wonder if Torrey's ideas for a Brand New World were once delusions that the illusory "mental illnesses" are actual diseases, have become entrenched "delusions of grandeur."  

The only reason I have found that may explain why Torrey went from having a perspective that "mental illness" is not disease, to that of being a maniacal proponent of forced psychiatric treatment, is this abrupt about-face coincided with his becoming the "pet project" of Ted Stanley, and a benefactor of The Stanley Family Foundation's beneficence.  In 21 years, The Stanley Family foundation gave over $300 million dollars The Treatment Advocacy Center and The Stanley Medical Research Institute both of which were under  Torrey's direction.  These organizations have a pre-determined biased research agenda in seeking to treat schizophrenia.   More accurately, these organizations have directed all research, education and advocacy activities towards an agenda of finding proof that mental illnesses are caused by a brain disease, and have lobbied for forced psychiatric treatment--TAC is a special interest pseudo think tank and lobbying group which advises and vigorously lobbies State Legislators to pass more stringent Involuntary Treatment Laws.  

Torrey was given a faculty position at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and was made an Adjunct Professor at George Mason School of Law. If it were just one of these positions bought and paid for it would cause a person would wonder what the hell?! The guy is not a "researcher " per se--ok, he isn't worth a fuck as a researcher, IMO--which isn't worth a helluva lot itself, Ha! Edwin Fuller Torrey is an adjunct faculty at a Law School is beyond ludicrous.  The man has recommended people commit crimes, i.e. lying to the Police and the Court, in effect work to deprive a "loved one" of their individual rights using perjured testimony i.e. Bearing False Witness, commit perjury, fraud, file a false Police Report out of "love" if that isn't a load of crap I don't know what is!   

via Holistic Recovery from Schizophrenia:

an excerpt WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

Dr. Thomas Szasz, Psychiatrist Who Led Movement Against His Field, Dies at 92
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: September 11, 2012 “For the record, I will say that I admired him, even though I think he was dead wrong about the nature of schizophrenia,” said Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, Va., which supports stronger laws to ensure treatment of people with severe mental disorders. “But he made a major contribution to the issue of the misuse of psychiatry. His message is important today.” read here

Edwin Fuller Torrey: 

Here's what Thomas Szasz, M.D. had to say about Edwin:
Psychiatric Fraud and Force: A Critique of E. Fuller Torrey

portions published previously as The Brain Collector 3-7-11

I am not the jerk whisperer

 

This started out being a response to a comment left on my blog post titled, "Advocacy "for the mentallly ill" is actually advocacy for an agenda" and wound up being too long for a comment, and so I made it a blog post, months later, I rewrote portions of it to more clearly state my views...

It is simply incredible to me that people with a psychiatric diagnosis who are victimized by violent crime are perceived to be somehow at fault for being victimized. 

DJ Jaffe interviewed Carla Jacobs in an apparent attempt to use the murder of Kelly Thomas to further his agenda for forced treatment, and Jaffe states that, "police could always use better training in how to handle dangerous mentally ill individuals, the police are not always the villains."

It is true that police are not always the villains when a person with a psychiatric diagnosis ends up dead as a result of police contact; it is also be true that police officers may need more training to effectively interact with people with psychiatric diagnoses safely.  It shows extremely poor judgement on Jaffe's part to make these statements in relationship to Kelly Thomas' brutal murder at the hands of rogue police officers in Fullerton, California.  It seems that DJ Jaffe is attempting to minimize the horrific nature of the behavior of the police officers involved in Kelly Thomas' murder. Jaffe's interviewee, Carla Jacobs, insults one's intelligence when stating, "When it comes to treating people with the most serious mental illnesses, the police will react where California's mental health system won't." Jacob's statement implies that the brutal attack on Kelly Thomas is in some way understandable; since he was not being drugged!

The murder of Kelly Thomas is neither understandable, nor justifiable.  I find these two advocates statements minimizing and excusing  felonious conduct of police officers who victimized Kelly Thomas incomprehensible.  How can  advocacy "for the seriously mentally ill" include minimizing homicide committed by men who had sworn an oath to perform a legal duty with honor and integrity, i.e. to protect and to serve Kelly Thomas?

People who claim to be advocating for those with a psychiatric diagnosis who fail to defend the mentally ill who are victimized and who exploit tragic events to further an  agenda, are not so much advocating for "the mentally ill," as they are lobbying for a special interest agenda; specifically, an agenda to expand the number of people who are forced into psychiatric treatment. The appropriate word which describes a person who advocates for a narrow agenda, including exploiting tragic events to further the agenda, is not "advocate;" the appropriate word is lobbyist.  DJ Jaffe and Carla Jacobs are Special Interest Lobbyists who promote forced psychiatric treatment as a public policy. Jaffe and Jacobs lobby for legislation to legally mandate forced treatment on people regardless of the adverse effects or actual benefit to the individual.

Most of the training provided to police in this country is developed by Treatment Advocacy Center, the 'research' arm of NAMI, and provided by NAMI affiliates.  If it is true that police need more or different training; it is likely that who is entrusted with developing and providing the training may also need to be reconsidered.  There is a definite bias in the training provided to Law Enforcement due to an inherent Conflict of Interest: the training serves to support, and market the forced treatment agenda; the biased "information" used in the training is meant to justify forced psychiatric treatment. To exploit Kelly Thomas's murder as a means of furthering a biased forced treatment agenda dishonors his memory. I wonder, do advocates like Jaffe and Jacobs have any ability to focus solely on the needs of the people they advocate for?  Where is the outrage for people who are victimized because of their psychiatric diagnosis?  Where is the advocacy for "the seriously mentally ill" when Justice is needed for those who are victimized? Where is the desire to protect and defend the mentally ill from perpetrators who victimize them?  Nowhere to be found...   

"AOT does not require anyone to take dangerous chemicals. The only required service is case management services. Others are optional and are negotiated by patient, his lawyer, and the court. Interestin­gly, consumers in AOT retroactiv­ely overwhelmi­ngly support it;" according to DJ Jaffe.

DJ Jaffe is apparently unaware of the glaring contradictions in his statement.  The fact that people in AOT who object to taking what are dangerous drugs--which may or may not "help" them--need to have a lawyer to help them 'negotiate' with the Court,--makes it obvious that this is not a "medical diagnosis" being treated so much as it is a psychiatric diagnosis being adjudicated, and a legal sentence applied.  I am sick of people like Jaffe claiming that "Anosognosi­a (not being aware you are ill) is very common."  This diagnostic label is assigned to anyone who is not "treatment compliant;" it is a label used to denigrate, malign and slander people who have had their rights diminished due to a legal determination under a guise of  "medical necessity." In this respect, a Court determines that a person is guilty of having a "mental illness," then sentences them to psychiatric treatment which may ultimately disable and kill them.  

I am not saying that people who have been labeled with a psychiatric diagnosis can't have a lack of insight. I am saying that it is simply ludicrous to imply that the only reason people don't want to take neuroleptic and other psychotropic drugs is due to a lack insight; because they "just don't know what's good for them!"  The drugs have serious negative effects, and serious risks; so pretending that people in distress don't know what an adverse effect feels like, or know what is tolerable to them; adds insult to injury. It is apparent to me that even when in distress, a person in an extreme state can discern if they are being respected or invalidated by the manner in which they are being treated. A patient being de-voiced and being deprived of choice in this way is not due to the patient's lack of insight, it is a ploy which serves to prevent patients from being believed or even heard when they refute the forced treatment lobbyists claim that forced treatement is effective and in the best interests of people adjudicated as mentally ill. Advocates and professionals who are devotees to the bio-disease paradigm justify this use of force by claiming that virtually anyone who refuses to comply with psychiatric diagnosis and treament has anosognosia. It is a specious claim to make. All things considered, it is despicable that it is acceptable to malign and slander people; to in effect, deprive them of a means to defend and advocate for themselves by ensuring others don't listen to them because "the seriously mentally ill lack insight and don't know what's good for them." 

Some just may not be amenable to being coerced and manipulated; some may be sick of being misled and outright lied to about the diagnoses they are given and the drugs forced upon them purportedly to "medically treat" psychiatric diagnoses.  As DJ Jaffe knows, the drugs are, "dangerous chemicals," and are part and parcel to AOT. Some do not want to experience the negative effects of the drugs, the drugs can be agents of trauma for a statistically significant percentage of people who take them. Some are unwilling to subject themselves to the dishonesty: i.e. the manipulative, coercive and patriarchal manner that public mental health services are provided.  I would be willing to bet that anosognosia is rarely the reason a person refuses 'treatment.' This claim is offered in an attempt to rationalize and justify what is an unethical abuse of power and authority of mental health professionals and self proclaimed "patient advocates" who lack not only insight, but ethical integrity as well.

It is likely that the fraud, i.e. misinformation used to coerce treatment compliance, and the disrespectful manner in which people with a psychiatric diagnosis are treated may have something to do with the lack of trust many have for the mental health treatment system and for the professionals who adhere to the bio-disease paradigm of mental health "treatment."  The subterfuge and the disrespectful treatment is well-known and incredibly, socially accepted--and this is one reason some people do not "seek treatment," and/or become "non-compliant." It is also why some are determined to avoid "mental health treatment" like the plague. It is not a lack of insight on a non-compliant patient's part, given the reality of the subjective nature of psychiatric diagnoses, and the disabling and fatal risks of the teratogenic drugs used to treat psychiatric diagnoses, it is despicable to state the only reason that a person would avoid taking the drugs is because they lack insight. It is mental health professionals and so-called advocates that lack insight, since they seem to have decided to be willfully blind to the well-documented risks and seem to believe it's acceptable to medically neglect their patients with iatrogenic injuries. Drugs used in "standard psychiatric treatment" can and do benefit some people; they are not "effective treatment" in a therapeutic or healing sense biologically; while they do alter biological processes, they do not correct an identified dysfunction, or cure an identified disease. Whether a person treated with the drugs experiences positive benefits which justify the serious risks is not the criteria which determines whether or not a particular drug or combination of drugs is successful. In bio-psychiatry, "successful treatment" is synonymous with "treatment compliance," so the real world outcome for the patient is and never has been a determinant of what is considered successful treatment.

The fact that "treatment compliance" is the primary goal of "successful treatment;" rather that the real world outcome for the patient, is a clear indication that this "medical treatment" is not to primarily serve a patient's "best interest;" it is primarily used to control the patient. "Psychoeducation" is used to limit a patient's autonomy and restrict their ability to advocate for themselves; in effect, people are (de)VOICED; not "allowed" to make treatment decisions for themselves. Complaints of harm are dismissed; or attributed to the proverbial "tolerable side effects." Bio-psychiatry, i.e. psychopharmacology first, foremost for life; is not an ethical standard of medical care. Ethical medical care serves the individual patient's "best interest;" not the interests of the people who seek to control a patient. In the ethical practice of medicine, the actual effects of the medical treatment on a particular patient, i.e. the real world medical condition/outcome and the patients's perspective would be used to determine whether a person is "successfully treated."

The patient's perspective is never irrelevant, and should never be minimized or dismissed. No one but the patient can ultimately determine what adverse effects are "tolerable." It is inconceivable that anyone else can determine what a patient can and cannot tolerate; the need for the patient's perspective is implicit.  It is an abuse of power and authority to minimize or dismiss the patient's perspective; a disrespect that evinces a profound lack of regard, compassion and respect for a patient. Treatment that doesn't cure shouldn't have significant risks for causing a patient harm!

photo from FB~ Troublemakers
this post was originally published October 10, 2011 and appears here with minor alterations...

Equal Protection: Individual Rights Procedural Due Process of Law

E. Fuller Torrey, DJ Jaffe's mentor and Treatment Advocacy Center co-founder, is funded by a wealthy businessman, Ted Stanley through the Stanley Family Foundation.  Mr. Stanley has spent well over $300 million dollars in twenty-one years funding E. Fuller Torrey's forced treatment agenda and "research" which is more accurately described as biased, hateful propaganda; and it is spread the same way; insidiously, using deception, manipulation and fear.

The architects of psychiatry's (psychopharmacology) Brave New World have used what were once family run advocacy groups to spread the propaganda; they have enlisted the groups members as unpaid lobbyists; perverting the purpose of the Courts, by ignoring Standard Court Procedures. Legislation passed to Court Order 'special treatment' for those who are diagnosed as mentally ill; compelling Police to work as Mental Health treatment compliance officers, using their authority to become social control agents for Psychiatry.

As the Director of the Treatment Advocacy Center and the Stanley Medical Research Institute,  Edwin Fuller Torrey, NAMI's 'schizophrenia expert,' consultant and resident Hero Psychiatrist, Torrey has helped craft a forced treatment public policy and the agenda to implement it Nationwide.  Led by  Torrey and funded by The Stanley Family Foundation and BigPharma, who also crafts legislation, directs lobbying efforts, and acts as advisers to National Alliance on Mental Illness. NAMI claims to be a 'grassroots' advocaes for those who have "mental illness;" however, NAMI has been pushing across the Nation a forced treatment agenda, which belies it's claim to being "grassroots" advocates, and calls into question whether it functions as advocates for "the seriously mentally ill," or for a forced treament agenda.

What I find more than a little strange is the rise of E. Fuller Torrey as an expert on schizphrenia and a proponent of forced treatment.  He appears to be a man who jumped on a money train when the opportunity arose.  The money train was powered by the generosity of Ted Stanley and elevated  Torrey onto a pedestal as the leader of biopsychiatry's forced treatment agenda, funding him as the "founder" of The Stanley Medical Research Institute in 1989 and the Treatment Advocacy Center in 1998. Inexplicably, Torrey was also gifted with an adjunct faculty appointment at George Mason University; even more disturbing: he was made a Professor at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. 

This guy is no scientist, his track record in schizophrenia research speaks of an affinity for ideas which have borne little to no fruit.  Torrey's lack of ethical integrity is renown, he has been quoted numerous times advocating for family and friends of people who are diagnosed as mentally ill to lie to the Police and to submit perjured testimony to obtain Court Orders.  This so-called expert "advocate for the seriously mentally ill' recommends illegally stripping people of their Liberty, and violating people's rights "for their own good;" in effect, he is advocating ignoring the Ethical Guidelines for Informed Consent. 

Psychiatrists and mental health treatment providers coerce and lie to patients, and "support" the family by encouraging them to  develop crisis plans for mental health emergencies that put these spurious suggestions in writing.  Torrey and his protege, DJ Jaffe, collaborated on a Tip Sheet that suggests family members use false statements, exaggerate events and falsely testify in Court. it goes so far as to say some families have learned to tip over furniture to bolster the false claims.  Torrey's goal is obviously to effectively deprive people of their liberty, their human rights, if that costs them their life, it's a "natural death." This is the New World advocacy "for the seriously mentally ill."

Torrey utilizes TAC, his relationship with NAMI, and his bought and paid for Academic posts as a platform to peddle misinformation, fuel bigotry towards the "mentally ill" while advocating for discriminatory treatment of the very people proclaims himself to be an advocate for. As Kenneth S. Lynn, a history professor of Johns Hopkins opined in review of Torrey's book, "The Roots of Treason: Ezra Pound and the Secret of St. Elizabeths" in Commentary Magazine, "Although by all accounts he is an efficient administrator, his achievements as a scientist are dim to the point of invisibility."

In "The Death of Psychiatry" Fuller states, "Diseases are something we have behavior is something we do."  He further asserts, "None of the conditions we call mental 'diseases' have any of the structural or functional changes in the brain...this is true of conditions with 'explosive personality' and 'paranoid personality,' but also the behavior we categorize as schizophrenia."  Most significantly, Torrey says that warehousing the mentally ill to protect society is not necessary; because the number who are "dangerous is infinitesimal."

In this book, Torrey quotes Dr. Thomas Szasz liberally and with apparent admiration; Torrey even sent an autographed copy to Dr. Szasz as a gift.  Dr. Szasz wrote a critique of E. Fuller Torrey; asking a very important question, "If Torrey is as deceitful and disrespectful of the truth in his role as physician to the poor, homeless people as he says he is, why should we assume he is any more honest in his role as brain scientist?"  Read Thomas Szasz's Critique:

The  mis-treatment of the "seriously mentally ill" is a historical as well as a current day blight on humanity.  At the same time that NAMI lobbied for Involuntary Commitment Laws in Washington State, and across the country; there has been a Mental Health Transformation being implemented that is  federally funded.  The Transformation and NAMI's agenda are contradictory.  How is it possible for an advocacy group to advocate those with psychiatric diagnoses to be fully included in all aspects of mental health service planning, policy, and service provision, yet be lobbying for legislation that will deprive the same group of people of Equal Protection under the law?

Why would we as a society want to Court Order people to "treatment" that "effectively "treats" only 26% of adults and 12% of children and adolescents with symptoms of psychosis?   The drugs used are teratogenic, expensive, cause several illnesses, leading to increased heath care costs, can be disabling, can diminish quality of life, and can be fatal used as directed?  These are not "safe" medications; but they are dangerous drugs.  As such, they should not be widely prescribed, or used on everybody with a diagnosis.  Since the majority of people do not actually benefit from taking the drugs and the drugs have grave risks why is it that we are forcing people to take them based on the advice of an unethical 'psycho' pharmacologist, pseuo-researcher bigot?

Here in Washington State, NAMI members who are "Peer consumer leaders" or family members of are on committees for charged with transforming the public mental health system into a system that provides client-driven mental health care.  The same people advocate for NAMI's forced treatment agenda, and use NAMI National materials and advisers.  As far as I can tell from committee member lists, virtually every "community" member, whether a "consumer" or a family member, on every committee for the Mental Health Transformation here in Washington State is a member of NAMI...NAMI's forced treatment agenda is not consistent with full inclusion, or client directed mental health services.  Indeed, they are polar opposites.  The Federal Mental Health Transformation mandates that the "seriously mentally ill" and their families be involved in the planning, implementation and provision of care.  That every aspect of mental health treatment and it's reform be led by those who have in the past or are receiving mental health services.  It is obvious to me that ONLY NAMI members and "treatment compliant" mental health clients are brought to the table and allowed to participate.

Special interest groups, like NAMI, and other "stake holders," from the drug industry, government, academia, psychiatry and family advocacy need to respect that Nothing About Us Without Us is not just a slogan; and that the bio-psychiatric paradigm is NOT the only choice, which should be available.  It is largely due to the dominance of this incomplete, and ineffective paradigm of care that the Mental Health System is ineffectively "treating" so many.

All of us need to respect the Law of the Land; and recognize that Equal Protection Under the Law, does not mean everybody except those who need care, protection and/or assistance because they are experiencing difficulties or are labeled as mentally ill!  It seems to me that we as a society should be more protective of those who need our assistance, not less!   How can we pretend to "advocate for them" while failing to protect them from abuse of psychiatrists, or governmental authority and power?  There is no advocacy, or therapeutic value evident in a "medical treatment" program which is Legislated without a recognition of and plan for the potential harm that can and will be done when inappropriately implemented.

We, as a society, have a duty to those who have been determined by psychiatrists based on a subjective opinion to be in need of psychiatric treatment by Force of Law, who obtain Court Orders to use teratogenic drugs to Involuntarily 'treat' a person.  Individual Rights to Substantive, Procedural Due Process of Law, are Constitutional Rights; e.g. Human Rights.  People who have never been given a  psychiatric diagnosis, often take these rights for granted.  A just society recognizes that Equal Protection under the Law means exactly that.  It is discrimination to effectively Under Color of Law to deprive an entire class of people of their Individual Rights due to a psychiatric diagnosis and sentence them to what could literally be a death sentence.  If that isn't a STIGMA, I don't know what the hell is!  No one can lawfully be deprived of their Liberty without their Individual Rights to Procedural Due Process of Law being protected and defended, except if they have been given a psychiatric diagnosis, is not what the Constitution says.

Advocates like Torrey, must come to the realization that history does not record good intentions; history records events, and an individual's actions.  Human beings, even those who are distressed who have a psychiatric diagnosis, can usually tell the difference between benevolent assistance and kind, positive regard and coercion and manipulatoin.

History records actual events; actual human behaviors.  The behavior of advocates who rely on using fear, subterfuge, coercion and manipulation to gain conformity and compliance will not be remembered for the good intentions used to justify the inhumane treatment of vulnerable people.  All of us will be remembered for what we do, and the effects our behavior had on others.  It is the content of our character, and the impact our actions had on others in our family and in our community. Our individual intentions and the motives which compel our behavior, are entirely subjective, open to interpretation; motive and intent are not concrete; actual events and observable behaviors are.


Psychiatric Fraud and Force: A Critique of E. Fuller Torrey
The Journal of Humanistic Psychology Vol. 44 No. 4 (2004)  416-430

This post has been rewritten, first published 12-15-2010 with a different title. 

Advocacy Program or Progrom?

:
The Deputy Prosecutor and the psychiatrist involved in the violation of my son in late July and early August of 2010 have both lost their jobs... the psych unit is closing...

I was asked by someone I respect very much, if I was certain I did not fill out a court document when I took my son to the crisis center at the end of July. My response was I know absolutely for certain that I did not. I shared that over the years I have filled out and filed court documents.

There is no way in hell I would have filled out a statement in support of my son's Constitutional Rights being diminished or violated! The law that allows for this kind of human rights violation is something that I have been living in fear of. I am a mother, and a person who was given one of the labels that is often used as an excuse to violate people's human rights; my son has already endured the most horrendous ongoing violations of his human dignity and human rights for most of his life. It is an added insult to the injustice that Designated Mental Health Professional, Nancy Sherman perpetrated. She maligned and slandered both my son and myself in Court proceedings. What she did is claim that I asked her to lock up my son. People who know what my son's childhood was like, know that I fought for almost 2 years to rescue him from CSTC, where he had been used in drug trials, know that we as a family endured horrifying experiences which were traumatic in the extreme for all of us. Isaac was tortured and disabled by psychiatric treatment. FYI There is no way in hell I would trust a Mental health Professional or a State authority to take care of a dead animal-- and I would die and go to hell before I trusted any of them to take care of my son. There is no way I could.

In her testimony, under penalty of perjury, she alleges that Isaac threw a television. The TV was not smashed, or even damaged. My son is seriously impaired from massive amounts of neuroleptic drugs he was forced to take. He was told that if he didn't take them he would never get to leave and go home. A kid in a locked facility who wanted to go home, he took the drugs. One of the adverse effects and the iatrogeinic harm he experienced causes him to lose his balance easily. What Sherman described, is not something Isaac is physically capable of doing.

Unfortunately, this lie is repeated by Dr. Jeffrey Jennings, who is, as the petition he filed instructs: only to state facts he knows "first hand," to be true; as testimony. Dr. Jennings commits Perjury in his petition. He did not speak to me, he had no "first hand" knowledge of the events that occurred for which Isaac went to the crisis center. He did not in the time he "treated" my son speak to my son's primary physician, his psychiatrist, his brother, or his mother. As a physician, how can he believe he actually has any ethical integrity? I say this because the reason cited for the court order's necessity, "To protect the integrity of the Medical Profession" I asked Isaac if he remembered Dr. Jennings, he said, "he wanted to talk to me but I was tired and asked him to leave me alone, but he kept trying to talk to me. Mom, I asked him 4 times to leave me alone, then I screamed, get the fuck out of my room." Well, who wouldn't want their wishes respected in the hospital? The patient rights list given to Isaac upon admission gave him the right to tell Jennings to leave him alone...Jennings simply chose not to respect those rights.

This event is recorded by Jeffrey Jennings in Isaac's hospital chart as, Isaac became agitated and needed to be medicated. Jennings doubled the dose of a benzodiazepine that Isaac had to take and that he had been tapered totally off, due to "cardiac risk," and increased a neuroleptic drug by 250 mg and Jennings made it a part of the Court Order which was in effect for six months. The drugs have caused my son iatrogenic illness and iatrogenic neurological impairments. The neuroleptic drug is, according to it's manufacturer, is only to be increased by 50 mg at a time, no more frequently than twice a week to minimize risk of death among other things. My son has yet to recover from this psychiatrist's assault. Apparently, Jennings had never heard of the Hippocratic Oath.

I am a mother, it is my duty to protect my son from harm. I am his caretaker I make sure he takes what is prescribed, and he has never refused to take what is prescribed. It is because the drugs have caused profound iatrogenic injuries that disabled Isaac, that he needs assistance in his daily life. I'm gratful he trusts me, and that he listens when I tell him he can't just stop taking them; he's humble and knows it's ok to need help. He believes me when I tell him that there are people who are trustworthy. But, believing what your mom says, and knowing something for yourself as a young man, is not at all the same thing. I hope he doesn't end up thinking I lied about there being people who are trustworthy.

The two thugs who are mental health "professionals" must be members of NAMI, an organization that purports to be a "grassroots" advocacy movement, it refers to itself as, "The Nation's voice on mental illness." It was one of NAMI's affiliates that disseminated a "Tip Sheet" written by D.J. Jaffe and E. Fuller Torrey, the so-called co-founders of The Treatment Advocacy Center, "TAC" D. J. Jaffe's Tip Sheet appears to be advising people to exaggerateto syptoms and behaviors, to tip over furniture when attempting to have have a family member committed. This, "Tip Sheet" was developed to advise family members who are calling on Law Enforcement to assist them. In effect, it advises people to file false police reports, which is a crime. More than once E. Fuller Torrey, has been quoted in the media and in NAMI literature as saying it is necessary to lie; and advises family members in NAMI to do so in order to have a person committed. It is criminal as a matter of fact.

Has anybody else noticed a pattern in this yet? This is all smoke and mirrors. The drugs are falsely billed as effective and necessary medical treatment for treating "brain diseases" without any disease actually being identified. The drugs can in fact cause iatrogenic diseases, particularly when used in high doses and for long periods. A group of people who are purportedly advocating for me and my son; and for everybody who has ever had or who may be suspected of having a psychaitric diagnosis. The grassroots advocates do not speak for me. No one can pretend to speak for me with a voice that advocates treating any human being who is creatively maladjusted, a trauma survivor, with neurodiverse, unique human qualities as if they are unworthy of their Human Rights--My son has Human rights that so-called advocates and mental health providers have no interest in. No interest in what the truth is, what happened to him, or what it's done to him physically or emotionally. The self-appointed grassroots advocates, The Voice on "mental illness" has no interest in helping the people who are harmed by the forced treatment that NAMI endorses; so NAMI is not in fact qualified to speak for, let alone be THE VOICE for my son whom they have helped to de-voice by refusing to acknowledge his existence or the profound iatrogenic injuries he sustained as a victim of the progrom of forced treatment that NAMI advocates for. NAMI advocates for an agenda regardless of it's detrimental effect on the people NAMI claims to be advocating for.

As advocates, with a government, pharma, and private foundation funded pharma fear-based forced treatment agenda marketing machine, NAMI marched it's grassroots progrom of advocacy "for the seriously mentally ill" across the nation. The people who are targeted for "special treatment" are just like everybody else, advocates say. The methods, the tools this progrom uses are distortortion of current and historical events, feeding individual fears, using innuendo, gossip, and traumatic events to polarize groups of people to fuel innate ignorance and biases to promate bigotry and create an US and THEM dichotomy. These are the building blocks and the tools of propaganda. These advocates are using a progrom that made man's inhumanity to man public policy, and then the law in Germany leading up to WWII. The neuroleptic drugs used for "necessary medical treatment" of schizophrenia in use since the mid fifties have killed far more individuals than the Third Reich did. We just don't bother to count the bodies; victims who were stripped of their human dignity in life, don't count once they're dead...because drug induced death is totally "natural."

Here, we have grassroots advocates "for the seriously mentally ill" enlisting the general public, law enforcement, medical professionals, schools, churches and government agencies help further the goal of the treatment advocacy agenda: To identify every human being who "needs special treatment" whether they, or anyone who knows them knows it or not...This special treatment progrom, requires family and friends to help advocates by referring family, neighbors, and friends, for special treatment "for their own good" because they just don't know what's good for them at all! NAMI has endorsed and lobbied for the legislation that legally mandates a diminished social and political status and stripping the Human Rights that the advocates take for granted, from the people they advocate for---but of course you know, "it's for their own good" we have to do it, to protect the public is the fear-based mantra used to justify torture, and trauma as medical treatment, essentially Crimes Against Humanity.

This purposeful overt victimiztion of people based on subjective opinions, errors of attribution, distortions of known facts and histrical events, is blatant bullying, systematic discrimination and calling it medical treatment does not change the nature of what is being done, and it certainly does not ameliorate the harm done. People being drugged with terotogenic drugs and given electric shock treatments will cause a statistically significant percentage to die within the first year; and will disable and kill a statistically significant percentage of the people taking the drugs on an ongoing basis either willingly or under court order, regardless of age or psychiatric diagnosis.

If this progrom was for the primary benefit of the mentally ill; there would at least be a show of civility, if not actual compassion for the people who have been and are being harmed and the family members who mourn the loss of loved ones who are killed. Indeed, it seems that assistance being offered and preventative measures would be taken to avoid further harm, and efforts made to ammeliorate the harm that's already been done...NAMI and no other "patient advocacy" group does anything like that...It seems that it is more important when advocating for "special treatment" that any adverse and fatal effects of the treatment being advocated for are ignored; because it would divert attention away from the "benefits" of the special treatment! When you advocate for a progrom to Court Order people to take neuro-toxic drugs and/or get electric shock treatments, it's important to focus on the safety and effectiveness of the special treatment...

The adverse effects caused by neuroleptic drugs and electic shock treatment are direct effects; i.e. they are the mechanism of "how the special tratment works." Calling these direct adverse effects "side-effects," is analogous to saying decomposition a "side-effect" of death.

Neurleptics increase mortality from heat attack, heat stroke and sudden brain death.

First published October 21, 2010
update Sept. 13, 2011

Psychiatry Has Anosognosia

I started this blog when I realized that no one was ever going to be held accountable for crimes committed against my son. My thinking was that I know that I can not make anyone do anything; but I can tell the world what has been done to my son and my family. Hopefully, by sharing our story, we can prevent others from experiencing what we have. I am truly humbled by what I have learned in the short time since I started to "tell the world" about my family's American Experience. 

I named my youngest son Isaac; because it means laughter. In retrospect, it is ironic that I gave him the name of the son Abraham was asked to sacrifice in the Old Testament to prove his loyalty to God. Unlike Abraham, I was not given a choice; neither one of us were asked if we were willing to make the sacrifices that were forced upon us. I am a mother whose son has been victimized by unethical mental health "professionals;" people who work for the State of Washington directly, and contracted "providers;" none of whom have been charged for their felony crimes. Some, still have the State paid jobs or publicly funded mental health jobs as contracted providers that they had when they committed these crimes; others have retired with pensions. The latest crimes victimizing my son occurred in July and August of 2010. 

What I have come to learn about how public mental health policy is developed and implemented in the United States of America, is horrifying. I can not tell you what is worse: my suspicions being founded; or coming to know it is so very much worse than I ever imagined...

Here is what Wikipedia says about anosognosia:

Psychiatry

"Although largely used to describe unawareness of impairment after brain injury or stroke, the term 'anosognosia' is occasionally used to describe the lack of insight shown by some people who suffer from psychosis, and who therefore do not have the insight to recognize that they suffer from a mental illness. There is also evidence that schizophrenic anosognosia may be the result of frontal lobe damage."

The term anosognosia is used by bio-psychiatry devotees more often than "occasionally."  It is used as a justification for laws which force "treatment" upon those labeled with psychiatric illness. Forced treatment robs human beings of their dignity and their Constitutional Rights to Procedural Due Process. According to my son, neuroleptic drugs have robbed him of his intelligence. Liberty and a Constitutional Right to Procedural Due Process of Law are something most Americans take for granted; some claim these are God-given rights; both are in fact denied as a matter of course for those people who are labeled "mentally ill." The Constitutional Rights of parents are stripped from parents whose child has been labeled with a psychiatric diagnosis, as well; it happened to me. 

I know liberty was denied my son for long periods as a child without his Constitutional Rights being preserved or defended. My Rights as a parent were repeatedly violated; my rights to make mental health treatment decisions for my son were illegally stripped from me by a "lead researcher" and psychiatrist. This 'doctor' ignored my pleas to stop using my son in Drug Trials; to stop drugging my son without Informed Consent. I was told I had NO SAY, by Jon McClellan, "Quack Master Jack." Incredibly, the man is still the Medical Director of Child Study and Treatment Center the only State run psychiatric facility for children, and he is still a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Washington. Jon McClellan is one of the investigators who was funded by the NIMH to conduct the TEOSS Drug Trials. I know my son trusts no one but family, for good damned reason...

How have so many psychiatrists victimized patients, lied to, manipulated and coerced family members? The American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have forged an alliance with the pharmaceutical industry; then solicited the cooperation of desperate family members in 'grassroots' advocacy groups to spread the myth that "mental illnesses" are brain diseases that can be "safely and effectively treated" with neurotoxic drugs. It is a fraud that was perpetrated in order to push a bio-medical "psychiatric treatment" paradigm regardless of the outcome for the individual patients. 

The "Involuntary Commitment" agenda is advocated for by grassroots advocates who are funded by the pharmaceutical industry. This so-called "medically necessary treatment" has caused a significant percentage of patients iatrogenic injuries, permanent disability and early death for countless hundreds of thousands. The public mental health system which is paid by Medicaid and Medicare, and Child Welfare workers are all taken in by this fraud. The fraud could not be effectively perpetrated without the unethical 'psycho' pharmacologists, who claim psychiatric symptoms are evidence of a pathology, and that teratogenic drugs which cause diseases is 'safe and effective treatment." The forced treatment agenda and bio-medical psychiatric fraud have enabled a public policies to be adopted which make what happened to my little boy, possible.

It appears the underlying agenda of the Treatment Advocacy Center and the Stanley Medical Research Institute is to supply NAMI and other "advocacy" groups with propaganda, called "educational and informational" materials. In a little over twenty years more than $300 million was spent by the Stanley Family Foundation to further a forced treatment agenda and lobby for the implementation of involuntary treatment laws in virtually every State in the Nation. The materials were disseminated by advocacy groups and are nothing more than thinly disguised direct to consumer advertising developed by the pharmaceutical company's marketing deprtments. The primary purpose of the so-called advocacy and education materials distributed in the public interest is to increase industry profits. KOLs who are members of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent psychiatrists, professors, and researchers have willingly aided and abetted an ongoing criminal enterprise which continues to defraud publicly funded programs. This endeavor has been extremely profitable for the pharmaceutical industry; while it has decimated Medicaid, Medicare and Veteran Health Care budgets. Even worse, this bio-medical agenda has caused devastating and permanent disabilities and has caused the early deaths of vulnerable people who needed care and protection.

This video is about an Anti-Terrorism program which was developed to identify potential domestic terrorists. When I first watched this video in October 2010, I was shocked to learn that according to this report I could be identified as a "potential terrorist" because of what I write about on this blog.

This following link is the first in a four part message delivered by Dr. Peter Breggin who has the ethical integrity to produce research on the practice of psychiatry that is largely ignored. Our ignorance has meant that we, as a society have become unwitting accomplices to psychiatric practices that are are Human Rights crimes based on eugenic theories; not therapeutic medicine. Under a guise of benifi- cence,  public mental health policy strips the "mentally ill" of their Human Rights "for their own good."

Each of the videos is ten minutes. You will be able to access the subsequent videos on youtube.

Please say a prayer for my son, and for all the victims of iatrogenic illness.

this was originally written and posted on October 26, 2010 with the title "Psychiatric Anosognosia: Historically and In the Present." I have made minor changes and updated


comic by Jen Sorenson at Slowpoke Comics

Advocacy Requires Understanding

via Huffington Post:

DJ Jaffe

Advocate for seriously mentally ill

Posted: September 30, 2010 09:06 PM

People With Mental Illness Shunned by 

Alternatives 2010 Conference in Anaheim

an excerpt:
"During the first week of October, mental health advocates around the country will gather to celebrate Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) by shunning the seriously mentally ill. The most egregious example of this "celebration" will take place this weekend at the Alternatives 2010 conference in Anaheim, California.

"The Alternatives 2010 conference is a gathering of "consumers and survivors of mental health services." They use that language, because many in the leadership believe mental illness doesn't exist and is merely a label society uses to control them. By failing to include "people with mental illness" in the list of 'consumers' and 'survivors' who are invited, they are sending a not-so-subtle message: mentally ill not welcome. The term "mental illness" isn't even allowed in the program." read here

D J Jaffe bills himself as an advocate for the seriously mentally ill, but shows a lack of understanding for what the word advocate means.  According to Merriam-Webster online the definition of advocate:

1: one that pleads the cause of another; specifically : one that pleads the cause of another before a tribunal or judicial court
2: one that defends or maintains a cause or proposal
3: one that supports or promotes the interests of another


He is not an attorney, so the first does not apply to his stated avocation.   The third appears to be what D. J. Jaffe is claiming as his intention, support and promote the interests of others, whom he refers to as, “the seriously mentally ill.”  All due respect, it appears to me that he somehow seems to believe this can best be achieved without input from the very people he is purportedly advocating for!  Which makes the second definition, “one that defends or maintains a cause or proposal,” the most accurate description of what Mr. Jaffe actually is doing.  And bully for him, he has found a cause he is passionate about; what I find disturbing is his inability to distinguish between advocating for a particular agenda or cause, like TAC, and/or ACT; and advocating for the individuals who are directly effected by these policies and “treatments.”  D. J. Jaffe’s blog post on September 30, 2010, was untrue, inflammatory, slanderous, and just plain mean-spirited.  It is ironic that he so thoroughly pissed off so many of the people who were labeled with a diagnosis that is considered to be a “serious mental illness.”  It is evident to me that he is an advocate for an agenda, not the “seriously mentally ill” as he proclaims himself to be.


I am in fact alarmed that such ill-informed opinions and discriminatory propaganda is considered 'newsworthy;' very disappointing that this man is provided a forum in the  Huffington Post.


There were many who cried foul over this gross misrepresentation of a group of people who are simply trying to have what everybody wants: human rights that those without a diagnosis of “mental illness” can take for granted; the right to choose for themselves how to best address difficulties, achieve recovery and live how and where they wish.


This is my response that was approved for posting:


Mr. Jaffe,
As a person who is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and the parent of son who is diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 12, I can assure you, your views are not representative of mine or my son's interests or values. While it is true that there are people who do not believe that "mental illness" exists, to state that the individuals who subscribe to this belief are responsible for those with diagnoses being shunned by the conference goers is inflammatory and slanderous; a thesis not supported by any evidence in your piece.


You sir labeled the high functioning consumers who are professionals the "Consumertocracy" and implied that these individuals exclude those who, are perceived to have not as yet attained the same level of recovery. You further stated that symptomatic individuals are inconsistent with the, "narrative that people with mental illness are just like you and me." This is not a narrative I associate with the consumer movement, but I recognize it as a version of the, "mental illness is the same as any biological illness" propaganda used to fight the stigma of a diagnosis. You referred a person to a previous post of yours in which you were critical of the drug industry, you stated in that post that, "NAMI is the only hope we have," Looks to me that it is you who shuns the mentally ill who do not fall in with your views.
_________________________________________________________________

Mr. Jaffe referred me to the TAC site in response to my published response which added insult to injury.  TAC supports coercion, and does not represent any values that I consider worthy of my support.

This is a response that was not approved that I posted after Ron Unger’s response to Jaffe's post:


"I wonder how many of the "seriously mentally ill" you claim to advocate for that you have befriended, seen on and off medication, invited into your home, and heart; much less support having the same rights as a human that I am sure you take for granted?  Holy smokes! You have nothing but lame excuses and deflections in response to honest criticism of your stated opinions and judgments of those of us who are offended by your outrageous views."
_________________________________________________________________
The basis of the consumer movement is self-determination--that being the case, it is obvious that coercion, manipulation and forced treatment of any kind is not part of what should be practiced or preached by professionals, peer providers, consumers, survivors or family and other informal support people, this includes those who proclaim to, “advocate for the seriously mentally ill!”


To advocate for a group or class of people requires that one understand the issues faced by them and support them in their position on those issues, to empathize with members of the group on an individual basis.  The only way I have experienced empathy for another is to accept that person's perception of who they are and that their understanding of their experience is always more valid than my opinion about their experience.  I know the truth about myself and what is helpful or hurtful and believe that everybody else does too.  There are consequences to the current practices in the mental health system that have caused a great deal of harm to me and my sons, directly and indirectly. I have a great deal of anger about this and sometimes it is effort to just stand up, and walk through the day. I, in despair and utter outrage, asked a friend, "are they trying to kill my son?!"  He answered no.  I want to believe my thought is paranoid--but my gut is screaming from a place that is so pain-filled, and my mother's heart is crying over what I harm I have seen done to my now adult son; I can hardly breathe sometimes.


My son is right now under court order to take medication, that has already caused him harm.  The reason cited for the necessity of the court order, “To maintain the ethical integrity of the medical profession.”  Not to benefit my son.  The only ethical reason a person should be medicated is for their benefit, and informed consent is required.  The "doctor" who obtained this court order to maintain the "integrity" of his chosen profession showed none in his treatment of my son.  He had the contact information for his current doctor, therapist, mother and brother and did not speak to any of us even once.  Dr. Jeffery Jennings put him back on a medication that Isaac was no longer on at twice his previous dose, despite having in his record upon admission that he had been taken off of it "due to cardiac risk."  I left multiple messages for him to please call me, to no avail.  How can obtaining a court order to  medicate my son to harmful medication maintain Dr. Jennings' integrity, let alone the "integrity of the medical profession?!"


If you wonder why I share this story at the end of my response to D. J. Jaffe's "People With Mental Illness Shunned by Alternatives 2010 Conference In Anaheim;" it is because Mr. Jaffe advocates for the very laws, policies and procedures which caused my son's Constitutional Rights to Due Process of Law to be violated when he sought to be hospitalized for the first time in more than 5 years--the laws in Washington State came straight out of New York State, and the Treatment Advocacy Center; co-founded by E. Fuller Torrey and D.J. Jaffe--and funded by the Stanley Family Trust to push legislation legalizing forced treatment using NAMI members as unpaid lobbyists.  As a result, my son has permanently lost his 2nd Amendment rights; and has been placed on a tracking system for life.  The crime was initiated by an Mental Health Professional who committed perjury and fraud it was perpetuated by a psychiatrist; both of these "professionals" were aided and abetted by the criminal acts of a Deputy Prosecutor and the Assigned Counsel for the Defense.  

Lying, coercion and subterfuge are tactics supported by D. J. Jaffe and E. Fuller Torrey in the "How to prepare for an emergency" tip sheet.  Perjury in Courts of Law and using fraudulent Affidavits as evidence, are the type of behaviors that Jaffe and Torrey, as Nationally renown "Advocates for seriously mentally ill," suggest that people use to obtain Court Orders for Involuntary Treatment. 

More on D.J. Jaffe and E. Fuller Torrey and other members of TAC (Treatment Advocacy Center)  from Pat Risser