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DSM as junk science

“I resigned from those committees [DSM IV] after two years because I was appalled by the way I saw that good scientific research was often being ignored, distorted, or lied about and the way that junk science was being used as though it were of high quality, if that suited the aims of those in charge. I also resigned because I was increasingly learning that giving someone a psychiatric label was extremely unlikely to reduce their suffering but carried serious risks of harm, and when I had reported these concerns and examples of harm to those at the top, they had ignored or even publicly misrepresented the facts.”

Dr. Paula Caplan. The late Dr Caplan was a former professor of psychology, assistant professor in psychiatry and director of the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of Toronto.

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"What the DSM lacks is evidence"

“Given its importance, you might think that the DSM represents the authoritative distillation of a large body of scientific evidence. It is instead the product of a complex of academic politics, personal ambition, ideology and, perhaps most important, the influence of the pharmaceutical industry. What the DSM lacks is evidence.

“The problem with the DSM is that in all of its editions it has simply reflected the opinions of its writers. Not only did the DSM become the bible of psychiatry, but like the real Bible, it depends on something akin to revelation. There are no citations of scientific studies to support its decisions. That is an astonishing omission, because in all medical publications, whether journals or books, statements of fact are supposed to be supported by citations of scientific studies”.

From: Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption by Maria Angell MD, former Editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Senior Lecturer, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School. 2009.

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DSM, an 'absolute scientific nightmare.'

Regarding Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders V:

"Steven E. Hyman, the former director of NIMH condemned the whole enterprise. It was, he pronounced, ‘totally wrong in a way [its authors] couldn’t have imagined. So in fact what they produced was an absolute scientific nightmare. Many people who get one diagnosis get five diagnoses, but they don’t have five diseases – they have one underlying condition."

S E Hyman. Director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Director of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) 1996 – 2001. From A Scull. Mad Science: The Treatment of Mental Illness Fails to Progress [Excerpt] Scientific American. 2015.

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Is the DSM based on science?

To support psychiatry's push for psychotropic drugs, the world is being subjected to the largest-ever attempt to classify populations into ever-expanding categories of “disorders” or undesirable states.

This is being done through the similarly ever-expanding categories of disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) since DSM III. (Published 1980 and III is the basis for all later versions.)

This activity which has subjected millions of people to these questionably effective drugs with often appalling side-effects should undoubtedly be based on science. But is it?

“[As] psychiatry is unable to depend on biological markers* to justify including disorders in the DSM, we looked for other things – behavioral, psychological – we had other procedures…. Our general principle was that if a large enough number of clinicians felt that a diagnostic concept was important in their work then we were likely to add it as a new category. That was essentially it. It became a question of how much consensus there was to recognise and include a particular disorder.” Robert Spitzer. DSM III Task Force Chair.

“There was very little systematic research, and much of the research that existed was really a hodgepodge—scattered, inconsistent, and ambiguous. I think the majority of us recognised that the amount of good, solid science upon which we were making our decisions was pretty modest.”Theodore Millon. DSM III Task Force.

(*biological markers are any objectively observed biological sign that indicates a medical condition, where that indicator can be measured accurately and reproduced. As DSM III was said to bring about the return to 'biological psychiatry', that there were no biological markers should have been seen as the first sign that something was very wrong.)

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"Is psychiatry a hoax - as practiced today?"

The late Dr Loren Mosher resigned from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 1998 in protest over the collusion between the association and the pharmaceutical industry and the resultant misuse of psychotropic drugs.

Dr Mosher was the head of the Center for Studies of Schizophrenia at the US National Institute of Mental Health from 1969 to 1980.

"This is not a group for me. At this point in history, in my view, psychiatry has been almost completely bought out by the drug companies. The APA could not continue without the pharmaceutical company support of meetings, symposia, workshops, journal advertising, grand rounds luncheons, unrestricted educational grants etc. etc. Psychiatrists have become the minions of drug company promotions. APA, of course, maintains that its independence and autonomy are not compromised in this enmeshed situation. Anyone with the least bit of common sense attending the annual meeting would observe how the drug company exhibits and “industry sponsored symposia” draw crowds with their various enticements, while the serious scientific sessions are barely attended. Psychiatric training reflects their influence as well: the most important part of a resident’s curriculum is the art and quasi-science of dealing drugs, i.e., prescription writing...

"Is psychiatry a hoax — as practiced today? Unfortunately, the answer is mostly yes."

The resignation letter by Dr Mosher remains a most concise and accurate statement of the corruption of mental health by psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry then and now.

The full text of the letter can be found here: https://perlanterna.com/mosher

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Rape and sexual assault in UK mental health

More than 26,000 sexual abuse incidents over 5 years found in UK mental health facilities. 2,500 alleged incidents of sexual violence and misconduct AGAINST PATIENTS

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2. Rockefeller Foundation and the failure of psychiatry as a science

The Rockefeller Foundation foisted the unproven theory of ‘biological psychiatry’ on the medical profession by attempting to stage-manage psychiatry into the scientific activity it thought it should be. This attempt to transform psychiatry into a vaguely valid science failed and was abandoned by the foundation.

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1. The beginning of ‘modern’ psychiatry – a descent into hell

This examination of the beginnings of modern psychiatry well into the first half of the 20th century does not provide us with momentous breakthroughs and heroic efforts to assist mankind. What we find instead is a subject based on speculation rather than science, unable to establish causes of mental illness and whose primary solution was to murder the very people it should have been caring for.

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0. The really simple story of psychiatry

No psychiatric treatments have ever been based on any scientific discovery of the cause of anything psychiatry calls “mental illness” and no causes have ever been found.

Treatments are entirely based on hiding symptoms, with the underlying conditions never addressed.

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Kraepelin bears responsibility for and helped set the stage for the mass murders of Aktion T4 and through his proteges provided the rationale and ‘scientific foundation’ for what became The Holocaust.

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Any research or investigation where 35% or more of the results were due to a factor that one did not fully understand is surely incomplete. Whether one is a psychiatric researcher, investigator or consumer, the placebo effect is a ‘mystery’ variable and the size of the effect demands attention.

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Ms Barr worked as a hospital aid at Lake Alice Hospital. She started work in the geriatric villa before moving to the acute villa and then the Child and Adolescent Unit. Ms Barr gives evidence about her perspectives on the Lake Alice staff, the use of electroconvulsive therapy without anaesthetic on children and her experiences while working in the Child and Adolescent Unit.