Spirituality, Philosophy etc

[peng]

cpu - you are a star.

Best wishes.

[cpuusage]

16 minutes ago, peng said:

cpu - you are a star.

Best wishes.

 

Thank you Peng. How are things with you? Yours & other peoples advice have been registering - i have been stepping back more from politics & the news & leaving the World alone more.

[cpuusage]

8 hours ago, degen12 said:

 

Thanks. I'm just looking for something new to read and anti-psychiatry has peaked my interest. Not necessarily sold on him in particular.

Bit of an old article, but the main argument / debate between biomedical psychiatry & anti psychiatry in the USA is summed up here -

http://www.antipsychiatry.org/wellstone.htm

 

The argument in the USA seems to have always been a lot more divided, more black & while, polemical & politically motivated.

It is worth noting that the Szasz type anti psychiatry is very much Atheist / scientific materialism biased, right wing Libertarian Capitalist. The anti-psychiatry of Laing & others was very much left wing & in line with the transpersonal / mystical & highly critical of Atheist scientific materialism. Other proponents of anti-psychiatry have taken more politically centrist positions.

The term anti-psychiatry itself is very much debated - the Wikipedia article does give a good basic overview on some of the complexities of it all -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry

 

In the UK currently within Academia & Medical system things appear more within terms of critical psychiatry - 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network

 

The arguments stem from this debate around etiology - cause & nature of mental health experiences / difficulties, & best ways of treating people / approaching this area.

These arguments fall into 4 main categories, with a lot of variety & combinations - Biology / Psychology / Sociology / The Spiritual & Transpersonal.
Logically & where more people are starting to move towards is an integrated / integral Model - that all areas have validity & effect all the other areas. In theory modern psychiatry has long taken the biopsychosocial model (integrating all areas of biology, psychology & sociology). Some people also add the spiritual dimension.

May be of interest as well is this list of first person narratives of madness -

 

http://www.gailhornstein.com/works.htm


 

 

 

[cpuusage]

31 minutes ago, cpuusage said:

The arguments stem from this debate around etiology - cause & nature of mental health experiences / difficulties, & best ways of treating people / approaching this area.

These arguments fall into 4 main categories, with a lot of variety & combinations - Biology / Psychology / Sociology / The Spiritual & Transpersonal.
Logically & where more people are starting to move towards is an integrated / integral Model - that all areas have validity & effect all the other areas. In theory modern psychiatry has long taken the biopsychosocial model (integrating all areas of biology, psychology & sociology). Some people also add the spiritual dimension.

Due to the lack of a more complete understanding of the human brain, especially regarding the debate around the nature of consciousness, & given the vast myriad of factors that can potentially impact mental; psychological / emotional health, there is a lot that remains a medical mystery within all these areas, especially concerning the psychoses. Psychiatry is facing a real crisis of legitimacy from all corners, for i'd think very obvious & understandable reasons. 

[cpuusage]

14 minutes ago, cpuusage said:

Due to the lack of a more complete understanding of the human brain, especially regarding the debate around the nature of consciousness, & given the vast myriad of factors that can potentially impact mental; psychological / emotional health, there is a lot that remains a medical mystery within all these areas, especially concerning the psychoses. Psychiatry is facing a real crisis of legitimacy from all corners, for i'd think very obvious & understandable reasons. 

 

i think that there is also now a massive cultural problem around all this area. All mental health is generally put in the same bag, 'everyone' says that none of it is comparable & everything is as bad as everything else. Truth is i think at any one time there is likely to only be 1 in 400 people in serious mental health difficulty, Not 1 in 4. It's only 3% of the population that comes under diagnoses of severe mental illness. i don't see it all as the same thing & in the same terms. Probably 80% or more that now comes under mental health / psychiatry shouldn't, & could be far better dealt with, with more healthy social systems & alternative approaches. But some 20% of what comes under psychiatry i think is more legitimate to be treated within psychiatric terms. Of that 20% probably 3 quarters of them could be far better helped to wellness. A quarter of that demographic i think would still have longer term / more severe difficulties. It can't all be seen in blanket terms in my view. There will always be the question as to what as a society / system is done in regards to those more severe / extreme cases. In general, although there is more public discussion, all this area is still taboo - we need a public debate on it all in my view, far more within the mainstream. It's just as much now i feel a case of general public responsibility as it is of psychiatry. 

 

[cpuusage]

Anyway - all just my own opinions & perspectives - everyone has their own opinions on it all.

[cpuusage]

2 hours ago, cpuusage said:

The argument in the USA seems to have always been a lot more divided, more black & while, polemical & politically motivated.

It is worth noting that the Szasz type anti psychiatry is very much Atheist / scientific materialism biased, right wing Libertarian Capitalist. The anti-psychiatry of Laing & others was very much left wing & in line with the transpersonal / mystical & highly critical of Atheist scientific materialism. Other proponents of anti-psychiatry have taken more politically centrist positions.

Hope it's OK to ramble on. People are obviously different. A lot of the way people are currently treated is political. i hold politically to center left democratic socialism. Regardless of what the actual truth is about psychiatry & mental health, i do hold to the fact that some people are unwell, some severely, & deserve proper treatment, care & support. i do Not agree with the implications of Szasz type anti-psychiatry / mental illness doesn't exist position / arguments.

Seems to be very complex politically as to what has befallen people suffering mental health difficulties since deinstitutionalization. In ways both right & left wing politics / arguments i don't think have greatly helped the cause of the long term / severely mentally unwell.

Beyond a transformed society / system within all these areas i find it very hard to see how it is all going to change. These ideological / political / polemical anti / critical / pro / alternative psychiatry arguments, & debating various biological, psychological, sociological, spiritual / transpersonal theories i don't think is really solving anything. Whether by design & intent or the nature of things people are divided within all these areas, as they are many other areas. 





 

[cpuusage]

i'd like to see a society generally in line with all this - But it's an ideal / personal opinion -

The End of this & other Polemical Arguments -

"No one seems able to settle the anti / critical / pro psychiatry argument. No one seems able to settle the argument between arguing various weightings & combinations of biological, psychological / emotional, sociological / environmental & spiritual / transpersonal areas, with all the different positions & agendas that involves, especially between atheist scientific materialism & all the alternatives.

No one seems able to settle the argument between seeing things as natural ranges of human experiences & genuine psychopathology / illness.

One solution that I see is to genuinely integrate all of it. Have a genuinely integral / holistic model, understanding & approach - that covers all areas of biology, psychology, sociology & spirituality. Mind, Body, Soul, Spirit & Environment, within a genuinely individualised & person centred approach. But again few agree with such a Model.

I don't see that anyone will win any side of all this polemical argument / debate."

An End to the primary paradigm of scientific materialism -

Consciousness is Primary -

www.my-big-toe.com/

The Quantum Activist

www.quantumactivist.com/

Toward the First Revolution in the Mind Sciences

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhntEOGslbs

The Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies

www.sbinstitute.com/

Noetic Sciences

noetic.org/about/what-are-noetic-sciences

Science & Non-Duality

www.scienceandnonduality.com/

The Primacy of Consciousness -

www.peterrussell.com/SP/PrimConsc.php

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqSxHzqm1pw

Manifesto for a Post-Materialist Science

opensciences.org/about/manifesto-for-a-post-materialist-science

The implementation of genuine & appropriate health systems -

"Although out reach and crisis services are needed, without a 24/7 front end system sanctuary like Soteria, CooperRiis, Diabasis House, the Open Dialogue or the sanctuary - folks don't have a chance to avoid having their potentially transformative psychosis being aborted with medications and a Schizophrenic diagnosis being laid on them for the rest of their lives. Loren Mosher on alternative approaches to psychosis, was agreed that all the sanctuaries like Laing's Kingsley Hall, John Weir Perry's Diabasis House, Soteria, Burch House, Windhorse, the Agnews Project. And the med free, no restraints, no diagnosis, open door Ward sanctuary; plus the Euorpean and Scandanavian Open Dialogue places- well they ALL basically do the same thing. They provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for a person to go through a psychotic process and come out the other side-'Weller than well'- as Karl Menninger famously said. By being held in the healing crucible of a caring, open hearted setting, the psyche naturally sets it's own course and heals from the early wounds that made a dramatic psychosis renewal necessary in the first place. If instead, a person is labelled as having a diseased brain and medicated into emotional numbness and submission, then the energy and power and symbolic expression of the purposive psychosis simply falls back into the unconscious. Then whenever a loss or trauma happens, the person de-compensates into an ever more amorphous emotional and fragmented daze of so-called chronic psychosis where renewal and healing is far more difficult."

- Michael Cornwall
_____________________________________________

The Life conclusion, in the words of who was arguable the greatest psychiatrist & psychologist this World has seen -

“I have now, after long practical experience, come to hold the view that the psychogenic causation of the disease is more probable than the toxic [physico-chemical] causation. There are a number of mild and ephemeral but manifestly schizophrenic illnesses - quite apart from the even more common latent psychoses - which begin purely psychogenically, run an equally psychological course (aside from certain presumably toxic nuances) and can be completely cured by a purely psychotherapeutic procedure. I have seen this even in severe cases”.

- Carl Jung

The implementation of far better systemic alternatives -

Open economy, a resource-based economy, zero marginal cost economy, or movements like the The Free World Charter, The Venus Project, The Zeitgeist Movement, Ubuntu Contributionism, New Earth Nation, The Thrive Movement, or the works of Jeremy Rifkin, Jacque Fresco, R. Buckminster Fuller, Peter Joseph, Michael Tellinger, Colin R. Turner. Countless other people & projects along very similar lines.

Debt the first 5 Thousand years -

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years

Free World Charter -

www.freeworldcharter.org/en

The Zeitgeist Movement -

thezeitgeistmovementuk.com/about/

The Venus Project -

www.thevenusproject.com/the-venus-project/aims-and-proposals/

The Thrive Movement -

www.thrivemovement.com/

New Earth Nation -

newearthnation.org/

Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller

www.bfi.org/dymaxion-forum/2016/12/weaponry-livingry

www.designsciencelab.com/resources/HumanitysPath_BF.pdf

UN Article 25 -

www.sharing.org/information-centre/articles/implementing-article-25-universal-declaration-human-rights-and-basic

A return of the Universal Wisdom -

There is a Golden thread that runs through all the World's Wisdom. That all points to a Universal Truth & Reality.

The Unification of Religion & the Perennial Philosophy / Universal Wisdom -

www.iawwai.com/UnificationOfReligion.htm

www.theosociety.org/pasadena/ts/pere_wis.htm

Spiritual principles -

www.spiritualwisdom.org.uk/spiritual-principles.htm

www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-howard-samuels/spiritual-principles_b_4220260.html

www.allisnow.com/blog/spiritual-principles/
 

[cpuusage]

15 hours ago, cpuusage said:

Seems to be very complex politically as to what has befallen people suffering mental health difficulties since deinstitutionalization. In ways both right & left wing politics / arguments i don't think have greatly helped the cause of the long term / severely mentally unwell.

Beyond a transformed society / system within all these areas i find it very hard to see how it is all going to change. These ideological / political / polemical anti / critical / pro / alternative psychiatry arguments, & debating various biological, psychological, sociological, spiritual / transpersonal theories i don't think is really solving anything. Whether by design & intent or the nature of things people are divided within all these areas, as they are many other areas.

i have suffered 38 years of serious mental health difficulties & diagnosed as having gone through severe schizophrenia, & i know the severity of my own condition & extreme experiences. Part of me now resents the endless debate around mental health, especially concerning schizophrenia. It is a very real condition. i suppose that schizophrenia is classical / severe madness, & is central to psychiatry, & if someone is critical / anti psychiatry schizophrenia is the main diagnostic category that they will attack.

i have read & heard every theory, opinion & perspective imaginable on schizophrenia. But it doesn't change what the realities have been / are of my own difficulties & of people suffering with it all.

Bottom line is that people that have schizophrenia / psychosis ought to be treated a whole lot better, by society & the system. It is a No fault severe illness.

 

[peng]

Yes, cpu, like myself you have over 35 years lived experience.  You will know more about the affliction than most so-called experts and specialists.  You have studied more extensively than most of them and are, really, a professor in the field.

You/we should be listened to.

[cpuusage]

18 hours ago, peng said:

Yes, cpu, like myself you have over 35 years lived experience.  You will know more about the affliction than most so-called experts and specialists.  You have studied more extensively than most of them and are, really, a professor in the field.

You/we should be listened to.

Thank you Peng. Yes we are experts of experience. i don't have all the relevant bits of papers to show that i am qualified within it all.

i'm Not sure with everything & am not sure than anyone is. Each person is individual & each case is different.

i have tried my best with it all. i have always felt that i have lacked & still lack access to more appropriate psychological / social understanding, help & support, that i feel i have needed & do need to make more progress.

 

i am too afraid to reduce / stop the medication & am hopelessly addicted to tobacco. But in the grand scheme of things i have done very well from where i have come from.

The current socio-economic / political climate doesn't seem very conducive to a sudden shift in the attitudes & treatment of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

 

i also can't deny what the realities of the condition / illness have been & are.

i plod on a day at a time & do the best that i can, & that is all that i can do. Best wishes to you.

[cpuusage]

44 minutes ago, cpuusage said:

Thank you Peng. Yes we are experts of experience. i don't have all the relevant bits of papers to show that i am qualified within it all.

i'm Not sure with everything & am not sure than anyone is. Each person is individual & each case is different.

i have tried my best with it all. i have always felt that i have lacked & still lack access to more appropriate psychological / social understanding, help & support, that i feel i have needed & do need to make more progress.

 

i am too afraid to reduce / stop the medication & am hopelessly addicted to tobacco. But in the grand scheme of things i have done very well from where i have come from.

The current socio-economic / political climate doesn't seem very conducive to a sudden shift in the attitudes & treatment of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

 

i also can't deny what the realities of the condition / illness have been & are.

i plod on a day at a time & do the best that i can, & that is all that i can do. Best wishes to you.

 

As far as can be known - highly individual, multi-factorial, in depth & complex potential aetiology that covers variable biological, psychogenic, sociological & spiritual / transpersonal areas. i take a fully integral / holistic view - mind, body, soul, spirit & environment. It's impossible to separate biology, psychology & sociology - it has to taken as a whole. It's Not known what the weightings are within different cases. It may well be in cases that there are no fault biological / brain conditions in what comes under mental health. Problems for me started with a serious neck / head / brain trauma. i think it's silly to deny potential biological variables, just as it is to deny psyhogenic, environmental & what comes under spiritual / transpersonal areas. In my view it all needs to be taken into account.

Maybe in large part it is what psychiatry says it is in my case - however caused - that it is primarily a No fault biological / brain condition. There is certainly a lot within my life experience, family history, what has happened to me & medical history that would indicate that could well be a large aspect of things. & it may well be the most rational & best thing to do in managing that condition with a low dose of one medication.

 

[cpuusage]

Study Explores Māori Community’s Multifaceted Understanding of “Psychosis”

 

A new study explores how “psychosis” and “schizophrenia” are viewed within the Māori community in New Zealand.

 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/03/study-highlights-maori-communitys-multifaceted-understanding-psychosis/

 

 

[cpuusage]

 

[cpuusage]

Opening the Seals -

 

https://godsandradicals.org/2018/03/22/opening-the-seals/

[cpuusage]

Cultural U-Turns in Mental Well-Being: Acknowledging the Dilemma

Natalie Tobert

First Published March 7, 2018 Research Article

 

http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/pMSttwczHB8jdEqvgBjD/full

 

Notes on counselling

 

Dementia — personal encounters

Dr. Soumitra Basu

Editor’s note:

"Medicine is not just a science, nor even an art, though it has both these sides to it. By the very nature of the work, a medical doctor has to come across and present to himself existential questions about life, birth and death and find answers to the strange enigma of this twin-natured life, ‘the mystery of God’s covenant with Night’. In an answer to this dilemma posed before many practitioners of medicine, this sensitively written article based on personal encounters, explores a philosophical and spiritual side that turn this once noble profession, again into what it is truly meant to be, — a dedicated service to the Eternal in the garb of mortal man."

 

http://www.namahjournal.com/doc/Actual/Dementia-personal-encounters-vol-19-iss-1.html

[peng]

Interesting reads, cpu.

 

Just received yesterday - Psychiatric Diagnosis by Lucy Johnstone and The Myth of Mental Illness by Szasz.

A bit slow of me to catch on, but better late than never.

All I need now is the time to read.

Just finishing Hari's Lost Connections.  Interesting book.

[cpuusage]

59 minutes ago, peng said:

Interesting reads, cpu.

 

Just received yesterday - Psychiatric Diagnosis by Lucy Johnstone and The Myth of Mental Illness by Szasz.

A bit slow of me to catch on, but better late than never.

All I need now is the time to read.

Just finishing Hari's Lost Connections.  Interesting book.

 

i have read users & abusers of psychiatry & have a copy of her book Formulation in Psychology and Psychotherapy.

She also writes for MIA & was involved with the BPS Power Threat Meaning Framework document.

https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/01/publication-power-threat-meaning-framework/

Don't get me started on Szasz. :-)

[peng]

Szasz - ha! ha! ha!

Yes, I look forward to making up my mind about his stuff!

Got to look at all the most controversial stuff people talk about to try and shape my own balanced (or unbalanced?) view. 

Look at MIA most days now.

[cpuusage]

5 hours ago, peng said:

Szasz - ha! ha! ha!

Yes, I look forward to making up my mind about his stuff!

Got to look at all the most controversial stuff people talk about to try and shape my own balanced (or unbalanced?) view. 

Look at MIA most days now.

i was at one time far more anti psychiatry / anti medication.

i'm not so sure about everything any more.

 

[cpuusage]

6 hours ago, peng said:

Szasz - ha! ha! ha!

Yes, I look forward to making up my mind about his stuff!

Got to look at all the most controversial stuff people talk about to try and shape my own balanced (or unbalanced?) view. 

Look at MIA most days now.

 

The sheer volume of material; books, articles, research papers, web sites on mental health is staggering.

i'm fried with it all. & i simply noticed that a lot of it is just a rehashing of the 'same' anti / critical / pro / alternative psychiatry / medication arguments, with a variety of political, biological / biomedical, psychological. sociological & soul / spiritual / transpersonal perspectives. 

i see 'everything' as valid. Nothing is wholly right / wrong.

& 'everyone' has & will keep arguing from all their respective positions.

i thought that these 2 articles from MIA were interesting -

Psychiatric Hegemony: A Marxist Theory of Mental Illness

https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/03/psychiatric-hegemony-marxist-theory-mental-illness/

 

“How Long a Time”: Ten Cold Hard Truths For Ending Psychiatric Abuse

 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/04/how-long-a-time-ten-cold-hard-truths-for-ending-psychiatric-abuse/
 

MIA has the same mix of arguments but is very much dominated by the anti-psychiatry view. i was very quickly banned from posting on their web site.

 

i do feel that more people are waking up to the fact that a lot of the way everything is on this planet is in large part systemic.

How of course a fundamental systemic shift / transformation can be brought about is another question entirely. i'm coming more & more to the personal conclusion of leaving it all alone & accepting it all as far as possible. Yes it's a backward & unawake planet - But that's just how it is. My own human spark from the fire of life is here for a very brief moment & then i'll be gone. As much as i would like to i don't see what i can really change? & humanity in it's own way slowly progresses. The planet carries on gently spinning through space in the vastness of the Cosmos & the Universe / Life endures.

 

[cpuusage]

The mental health act review and the definition of 'mental disorder'

 

https://www.nsun.org.uk/the-mental-health-act-review-and-the-definition-of-mental-disorder

 

It's time for full legal equality

 

https://www.nsun.org.uk/its-time-for-full-legal-equality

 

GOV.UK news 

 

Independent review of the Mental Health Act - update

Part of the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act , the service user and carer survey has been extended untill 6 April.

You can still share your experiences, which are very valuable to this process - please visit this page

[cpuusage]

Promotion and advocacy of alternatives to the medical model in mental health

http://www.mindfreedom.org/crisis-is-un-learning

Phil Hickey masterfully debunking psychiatry's so-called 'biological evidence'

PhD psychologist Phil Hickey is back with another analysis of psychiatry's fundamentally flawed assumptions...

Many MindFreedom members would be aware of Phil Hickey, owner and author of leading psychiatry critique blog 'Behaviorism and Mental Health'. For several years now he has been doing yeoman's work calmly and systematically debunking psychiatry's many spurious assertions. Recently Dr. Hickey published another masterful take-down of psychiatry's quackery, this time he turns his sights on psychiatry's spurious 'evidence' of alleged biological causation for the problematic states of mind, beliefs, thoughts and behaviors that get called 'mental illness'...

 

http://behaviorismandmentalhealth.com/2017/01/10/the-biological-evidence-for-mental-illness/

 

http://behaviorismandmentalhealth.com/2017/01/30/more-on-the-biological-evidence-for-mental-illness/

[cpuusage]

Steven Soderbergh's “Unsane” Exposes the Nightmare of Involuntary Commitment

The only thing scarier than losing your mind is everyone else believing you’ve lost it.

 

https://fee.org/articles/steven-soderberghs-unsane-exposes-the-nightmare-of-involuntary-commitment/

 

Unless someone has experienced severe psychosis & been forced sectioned / hospitalised & forced treated & forced psychiatric drugs, i don't think that they have any idea as to what it's all like & what really goes on.

 

On the ability to keep score… The power of psychiatric diagnosis

One of the greatest strengths of any institution is the ability to keep the score of people lives and for that score to influence or even determine the way they and others define themselves,  their role in life and ultimately the kind of life available to them.

 

https://hopeworkscommunity.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/on-the-ability-to-keep-score-the-power-of-psychiatric-diagnosis/

 

Tina Minkowitz: The Abolition of Forced Psychiatric Interventions

https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/03/tina-minkowitz-abolition-forced-psychiatric-interventions/

[cpuusage]

The Mind-Expanding Ideas of Andy Clark

 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/04/mind-expanding-ideas-andy-clark/

 

"In this piece for The New Yorker, Larissa MacFarquhar profiles the philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark, whose work argues that our minds are inseparable from our bodies and the world around us. Clark emphasizes the interconnectedness between our minds and other minds, as well as the tools we use to help us think, such as language and smartphones."

 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/02/the-mind-expanding-ideas-of-andy-clark

 

[peng]

On 4/4/2018 at 3:46 AM, cpuusage said:

 

................... i'm coming more & more to the personal conclusion of leaving it all alone & accepting it all as far as possible. Yes it's a backward & unawake planet - But that's just how it is. My own human spark from the fire of life is here for a very brief moment & then i'll be gone. As much as i would like to i don't see what i can really change? & humanity in it's own way slowly progresses. The planet carries on gently spinning through space in the vastness of the Cosmos & the Universe / Life endures.

 

I believe and hope this philosophy might help you, cpu.

 

Regards.
 

 

[cpuusage]

What seaside town drug overdoses and suicides tell us about austerity and government cuts -

 

https://www.thecanary.co/discovery/analysis-discovery/2018/04/07/what-seaside-town-drug-overdoses-and-suicides-tell-us-about-austerity-and-government-cuts/

 

This Video Dispels Every "Nature VS Nurture" Myth You've Ever Heard. The Implications are Profound.

 

https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/this-video-dispels-every-nature-vs-nurture-myth-youve-ever-heard/

 

[cpuusage]

There are no ‘schizophrenia genes’: here’s why

 

https://theconversation.com/there-are-no-schizophrenia-genes-heres-why-57294

 

 

[cpuusage]

UCLA/ISEPP - Bonnie Burstow

 

 

 

Bonnie Burstow plenary talk "Grounded Eutopianism - Piecing / Peace-ing Our Way Together" produced for 2014 UCLA/ISEPP Conference "Transforming Mad Science" in Los Angeles, CA. For more info please visit www.TransformingMadScience.com

[cpuusage]

Legacy of R.D. Laing | Michael Guy Thompson | Madness Radio

 

Is psychosis a journey and a breakthrough to somewhere more authentic? Should unhappy people be made to adjust to a mad society? Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing was a fierce critic of the mental health system, and saw madness as a rational adaptation to irrational family and social constraints. Laing’s compelling prose, acute intellect, and spiritual insight made a huge cultural impact worldwide, shaping the psychiatric survivor movement and calling to overturn social conventions during the U.S. war in Vietnam and the revolutionary 1960s. How are Laing’s provocative insights about politics and culture still relevant today?

Michael Guy Thompson, a psychoanalyst and founder of the Gnosis Retreat Center, worked with R.D. Laing in London and has created hospital alternative sanctuaries for people struggling with experiences called psychosis. He directs the annual R.D. Laing in the 21st Century Symposium at Esalen Institute. www.gnosisretreatcenter.org www.michaelguythompson.com
www.rdlaingsymposium.com

 

http://www.madnessradio.net/legacy-of-r-d-laing-michael-guy-thompson-madness-radio/

[cpuusage]

Co- production

Putting principles into practice

in mental health contexts

 

https://recoverylibrary.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2659969/Coproduction_putting-principles-into-practice.pdf

 

 

[cpuusage]

We Are All Wounded Healers

 

http://realitysandwich.com/322843/we-are-all-wounded-healers/

 

What does it mean to heal?

April 19, 2018 By Monica Cassani

https://beyondmeds.com/2018/04/19/heal/

Philosophers Question the Separation of Medicine and Culture

Radically questioning the distinction between the objectivity of science and the subjectivity of culture can give way to powerful biocultural methods of healing.

https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/04/philosophers-question-separation-medicine-culture/

“Psychiatric Meds Saved Your Life,” and Mine

https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/04/psychiatric-meds-saved-life/

[cpuusage]

On 4/3/2018 at 1:01 PM, peng said:

Interesting reads, cpu.

 

Just received yesterday - Psychiatric Diagnosis by Lucy Johnstone and The Myth of Mental Illness by Szasz.

A bit slow of me to catch on, but better late than never.

All I need now is the time to read.

Just finishing Hari's Lost Connections.  Interesting book.

 

How are you getting on with Szasz?

 

Revealing the truth about psychopolitics

Following the death of Thomas Szasz, we republish an extract from Peter Sedgwick’s critique of anti-psychiatry’s leading light -

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/12897

[peng]

cpu

Just reading Lucy Johnstone's book at the moment (when I can fit it in).

Thanks for Sedg. link - that will be interesting, too, by the look of it.

 

Wishing you well,

peng

 

 

[cpuusage]

Newhaven Journeyman #1 – Ben Watson – Psycho Politics

5th January 2015

Ben Watson writes about Peter Sedgwick’s book Psycho Politics, and reflects on his own thirty years of SWP membership, an organisation Watson left in 2009.
He and two other ex-SWP comrades have now formed the AMM (Association of Musical Marxists), hoping to contribute to the current dissolution/reconstruction of the SWP by being completely honest about its merits and faults.

 

http://www.eleusinianpress.co.uk/ben-watson-psycho-politics/

 

Wild Speech | Listening Through the Portal of Imagination

by Geneen Marie Haugen

 

https://medium.com/langscape-magazine/wild-speech-listening-through-the-portal-of-imagination-bf9154da911b

 

Rethinking Reality

Consciousness, Science-Research

 

http://ebenalexander.com/rethinking-reality/

 

Native Knowledge: What Ecologists Are Learning from Indigenous People

From Alaska to Australia, scientists are turning to the knowledge of traditional people for a deeper understanding of the natural world. What they are learning is helping them discover more about everything from melting Arctic ice, to protecting fish stocks, to controlling wildfires.

By Jim Robbins • April 26, 2018

 

https://e360.yale.edu/features/native-knowledge-what-ecologists-are-learning-from-indigenous-people

[cpuusage]

The independent review of
the Mental Health Act  
Interim report

 

[UK]

 

Thanks to pressure from campaigners, last autumn the Government set up an Independent Review of the Mental Health Act.

The Review has now published its interim report. It confirms what we have long known: that there are serious problems with the Mental Health Act. People who have been detained under the Act tell us that the law fails to protect their rights or dignity and excludes them from decisions about their care. The Review team has clearly heard the same message.

This is a landmark moment. We have a once-in-a generation opportunity to improve the Act, for those detained under it and those who care about them.

We need an Act that puts the person front and centre, ensuring they are listened to, informed and able to a have a real say.

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/703919/The_independent_Mental_Health_Act_review__interim_report_01_05_2018.pdf