Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex Book

This is a big book and not an easy read. Breggin states he is writing for professionals, although he hopes the book is clear enough for non-professionals to understand. Party due to the technical difficulty, I only read the first and last sections, along with the brief conclusions in the middle sections. This was still enough to convince me that of the 15 or so professional psychology books I've read in recent years this one is the most exciting and the one that did the most to change my thinking on mental health treatment.

Breggin, age 79, has been a practicing psychiatrist in upstate New York for over 40 years. He claims he has never prescribed medication and has never lost a person to suicide. His credentials and clinical experience make it hard for me to dismiss him as a quack, although many have tried and continue to do so.

He disagrees with the biological model for mental illness and avoids labels such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His approach is to listen to a patient's life story. That is, to treat him or her as a person and not as a problem to fix.

The part that threw me the most is Breggin's belief that psychiatric drugs are not only ineffective, they are harmful and work against recovery by impairing mental and emotional function. People's belief these medications are helping them are due to the drugs' spellbinding effect, much like the belief that you are witty and in control when you're drunk.

I was moved by the final section of his book, where he outlines his 20 tips for an empathetic psychiatry. He notes these guidelines could also be used in our everyday lives with colleagues and friends, and insists they have worked in his psychiatric practice, even with the most difficult and psychotic cases.

Psychosis, he says, is a "loss of connectedness to other human beings. The individual who withdraws into a fearful, self-protective, irrational fantasy responds best to being treated with kindness, respect, and the gradual building of rapport."

I found many of Breggin's comments spellbinding.