#we need psych reform not abolition

[despazito]

my hot take is that just because personality disorders shouldn't be pathologized as some incurable illness or Asshole Syndrome but instead should be viewed as the culmination of years worth of maladaptive coping mechanisms brought on by trauma there still needs to exist some form of nomenclature to categorize these states of being and you still most certainly should see a (trauma/systems informed) psych about them. i'm sorry but if these toxic behaviour patterns have been around for years especially decades i don't believe a supportive and understanding family/community is sadly enough to fix it, seeking professional help is the responsible thing to do if you have the self awareness to see the harm your actions cause to those around you

[ablednt]

Y'all before we can replace the police with mental health carers Y'all know we have to also completely reform the mental health care system or it's literally just going to be prison two right?

Just saw someone's dream scenario being seeing someone visibly unwell and alerting a mental health professional and they show up and pressure the person back to a group home to take their medication and it's like okay sure but most inpatient wards are run like prisons and also the idea that lethal force is not used is a goddamn insult to anyone who's been physically abused by mental health professionals (which is likely to be anyone visibly ill like the people you're talking about)

The scenario also just started with "this person looked [psychotic] or they're on drugs so you open your phone and call for emergency assistance and select mental health"

1. What fucking emergency? The point of police abolition is to also decriminalize public behaviors you dislike but aren't ultimately harmful. Is the person harming others or themselves? If not then leave them the fuck alone your utopic idea should not be to call someone to make them get rid of undesirables that's once again the cops 2

2. In the situation where u can alert mental health professionals to immediately come detain people to put in inpatient care that completely ignores the huge issue we have with racial profiling. Like great now instead of calling the cops for no reason white people can call whatever mental health responders and have all of the same goddamn problems we already cause but "progressive" now.

The point of abolition is actually abolition it's to free people incarcerated and psych wards play just as much of a presence in incarceration as prisons do the only difference is that nurses like to pretend their patron saints of kindness whilst people are getting overmedicated, physically/legally tortured, and sexually abused.

Instead why not consider non-systematic solutions that most people who can't rely on the cops or on mental health responders already do. We need to be building communities and trying to help each other not create some government power that can impose laws on us that's once again just going to lead to something virtually identical to the police.

[starblaster]

Hi so I saw your post talking about anti-psychiatry, it's ableist roots and how we should reasrch them. This is news to me and I was just wondering if you have any pointers where we should start? Totally okay if not, I'm sorry if I bugged you it's not your responsibility to educate me.

i have a very new tag for it here (link) containing an answered ask here (link) that will hopefully serve as a decent jumping-off point—make sure to read the “bad anti-psychiatry” collumn closely because there are an unfortunately high number of terfs who consider themselves ‘anti-psychiatry’ but their anti-psychiatry arguments tend to fall into the “bad anti-psychiatry” category.

i do also want to preface your self-education journey by recommending a book called crazy like us: the globalization of the american psyche by ethan watters; i’m presently working my way through the audiobook (i frequently find that i need to take breaks from it because i’m someone who is very easily triggered by mentions or discussions of medical abuse or topics which bring thoughts about those things to mind) and it covers the damage westernization has done to the treatment of neurodivergence around the world as the result of colonialism and imperialism. if you get the chance to read it, even just some chapter titles that strike you as interesting or important, it should lend you some useful information and perspectives.

i’ve said this before a few times but i’ll say it again here: i am anti-psychiatry for many of the same reasons i am a prison abolitionist and believe that abolition will do more good than reform ever could. reforming a broken system does little to help the people being harmed the most by it. the psychiatric system prioritizes functionality (for the sake of coercing people into a socially acceptable, labor-capable state of being) over a person’s general wellness.

every single time i have been involuntarily committed to a psych ward, it has traumatized me and i am probably going to be living with ptsd for the rest of my life, all because a handful of different psychiatrists thought my refusal to take medications needed correcting. they didn’t care that those medications made me physically ill all the time, they only cared about controlling me in a patronistic (read: condescending) manner. all my life, psychiatrists (and most of my therapists) have pathologized my queerness, tried to make me ashamed of my autism, tried to convince me that living as an unmedicated psychotic person would kill me, and undermined my overall happiness by forcing medications, therapies, and other treatments onto me, none of which have made me feel as healthy or happy as being voluntarily unmedicated has. and my story is not unique in the slightest; i have met dozens of other autistic and psychotic people who have had similar experiences and are now living with the effects of trauma because of the psychiatric system.

in my opinion, it also doesn’t matter that newer students of psychiatry are being taught marginally different things than older generations were. there are still centuries of ableist stigma (against psychotic people in particular) that have yet to be addressed. at this point, reforming the system is too little too late. abolition can and will save lives, and that’s why i’m anti-psychiatry.

[bonni]

Do you think you could explain what it means to be an anti psychiatry mental health activist? I guess I don’t really know what the alternate to psychiatry and therapy is for dealing with mental health issues. Like my ADHD is so bad that I wouldn’t be able to function in my career path of choice without it and idk what that would look like without psychiatry. I’m genuinely just curious and don’t mean to sound aggressive or anything like that

Yeah, no problem! The way I think about it is similar to police/prison abolition, in the sense that psychiatry is something we’ve been conditioned to think we need to have a functioning society, when that’s really not the case. Having community-based mental health resources is significantly more effective; in addition, without the pressures of things like poverty, far fewer mental health issues will exist, meaning that psychiatry won’t be as necessary if we reform the government. Plus, although we don’t like to admit it, a good chunk of psychiatric medication doesn’t work, mainly because the chemical imbalance theory of mental illness is bullshit. SSRIs are basically 90% placebo, and antipsychotics and stimulants have a history of capitalizing on moderate symptom improvement to justify dangerous side effects. For further reading, I highly recommend the following books:

Mad in America by Robert Whitaker (the author also runs a webzine with a lot of articles about psychiatric abuse)

Cracked: The Unhappy Truth about Psychiatry by James Davies

Madness, Distress and the Politics of Disablement ed. by Helen Spandler and Jill Anderson

Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters

Searching for a Rose Garden: Challenging Psychiatry, Fostering Mad Studies ed. by Jasna Russo and Angela Sweeny

And if you don’t want to read/buy entire books, here are some articles:

Psychiatric Diagnoses Found to Be "Scientifically Meaningless"

The Case Against Antipsychotics

Failure to Comply: Madness and/as Testimony

Postpsychiatry: a new direction for mental health

Abolition Must Include Psychiatry

Ex-patients Tell of Force, Trauma and Sexual Abuse in America’s Mental Hospitals

[khalilhumam]

Since George Floyd's murder, black Barbadians are becoming more openly vocal about racism

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Since George Floyd's murder, black Barbadians are becoming more openly vocal about racism

“…We were not passive then and we're not passive now!”

Protestors attend a solidarity march in Bridgetown, Barbados, on June 13, 2020, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States and opposing racism and police brutality in Barbados. Photo courtesy Bazodee Magazine, used with permission.

The killing of yet another African-American man, George Floyd, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota has triggered intense backlash worldwide. Far beyond America, protests exploded with the voices of those who had finally had enough, including the citizens of Barbados — an island still struggling with stark racial disparities rooted in its deeply-ingrained colonial history. Since the abolition of slavery across the British colonies in 1843, and independence from Great Britain in 1966, Barbados’ black majority has made undeniable progress economically, socially, and politically; however, during a study on white identity in the Caribbean some white Barbadians asserted that there is no such thing as white privilege. Despite this perception, the country's racial tensions have continued to fester, and in light of the international attention surrounding George Floyd's murder, can no longer be ignored. Social media in Barbados has become a crucial tool used by black Barbadians to speak out against the systemic and interpersonal racism that many attest have stained their psyche. Hashtags such as #ScreenshotARacist, #DoTheWork, #BlacketyBlackBlackBlack, and #SupportBlackBusiness all encapsulate the collective rallying cry of black Barbadians who are boldly speaking out against racial inequity.

The ‘People's Uprising’

Apart from the 1937 Barbados Riots, which some pan-Africanists argue should be referred to as the “People’s Uprising”, the country has seen little political and social unrest. However, these riots were pivotal: spurred by the deportation of Clement Payne, well regarded by black Barbadians as a labour leader who championed the formation of trade unions, the riots contributed to reform that would eventually lead to independence in 1966. In “Crisis of an Intellectual Tradition”, Professor Ian Boxhill posits that, as a result of being colonised solely by the British and having a relatively passive black populace, “countries like Barbados […] did not have enough turmoil in them […] They seemed too consensual oriented or just plain too quiet” — and in an article on race relations in Barbados, retired educator Ralph Jemmott suggested that “the black educated middle class, by and large, tends to stay away from mass civic engagement on issues of race”. This perception of Barbadians of colour upholding the status quo — despite the social and economic inequalities perpetuated by systemic racism — is a notion that has been eloquently dispelled by many, including activist Luci Hammans during the Black Lives Matter march in the capital, Bridgetown, on June 13, in which she proclaimed:

As we marched today, we took steps of resilience, because to protest in Barbados needs permission and requests […] the Public Order Act was created to stop Black Power protests in Barbados, and to appease the political and economic elite in 1937, because we were not passive then and we are not passive now!

Various levels of racism

Many black Barbadians have experienced first-hand the emotional ravages of interpersonal racism. Systemic racism, however, represents another level of pain and rejection, manifested by societal institutions that perpetuate racial injustice despite being established to serve all citizens. Characterised by the rules, codes and practices — both covert and overt — that create advantages and disadvantages based solely on race, systemic racism amplifies the challenges that people of colour experience. In Barbados, this is glaringly obvious when it comes to education, healthcare, social mobility, and crucially, intergenerational acquisition of wealth. While some social media users contributed to a resource list advising “ALL white or ‘pass-fuh-white’ Bajans, and other white people living in Barbados” how to be anti-racist, several white Barbadians took to social media to assert that black Barbadians were jumping on a bandwagon in the form of the Black Lives Matter movement, and that the American brand of racism had nothing to do with Barbados. On Facebook, Risée Chaderton-Charles responded:

It is quite fascinating to see white/white adjacent Bajans and those seeking the shelter of their privilege try to convince themselves and us that the real reason there is racism in Barbados is because “the blacks” just won’t play nice with them and simply ignore the things they say. Apparently racism was well on its way to being solved in Barbados until upstart activists—influenced by America and her completely unrelated racism of course—started “bullying” good, kind, decent people who “don’t see colour” and whose magically lily white circle of close friends was just a matter of happenstance. I swear this is PhD level gaslighting.

At the same time, however, many younger white Barbadians lent their support to the Black Lives Matter march in Bridgetown.

Insightful activism

Younger black Barbadians — educated, conscious, articulate and impassioned — did not respond with the passivity so often ascribed to previous generations. Instead, they galvanised their voices to express their sense of injustice, and began a deeply insightful and potent level of digital activism. Just as importantly, there were calls for the black community to recognise the power it has to influence the local economy. In response to suggestions that pledging to support black-owned businesses for a day in a show of solidarity was tantamount to promoting hatred of whites, Facebook user Shaka Mayers quipped:

This was said elsewhere but it bears repeating: White People: “Black people should show more unity amongst themselves and support one another.” Black People: “We're holding one day where we do nothing but support one another.” White People: “THAT'S RACIST!” Yuh can't ****ing win

Barbadian activists also took part in the international Blackout Day on July 7, and used Facebook to shine a spotlight on black-owned businesses as they pledged to “use economic power to fight racial injustice and economic disparity”. In response, some businesses notorious for valuing the tourist dollar over local spend suddenly seemed to recognise the economic sway of the black Barbadian majority, and quickly back-pedalled in an attempt to retain customers. One such establishment, which made an attempt to overhaul its social media image, swiftly met with a stunning digital rebuke — highlighting the fact that black Barbadian activists are not easily swayed by empty promises, and remain committed to the cause of dismantling systemic racism. Their message is clear: no longer will they tacitly accept the status quo — the unravelling of the racist tapestry of Barbadian society has begun, and it will not stop until they have woven a new reality of equality and equity for all Barbadians.

Written by Stacey Phillips · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit