Anti-psychiatry activists respond to media reports that use of ECT is increasing
The Canadian Psychiatric Association recently issued its first position paper on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) since 1992, saying that ECT “should remain readily available as a treatment option.” The position paper was followed by a major article carried by Canwest newspapers across Canada, suggesting that electroshock therapy is experiencing a comeback. Activists and groups, such as Mind Freedom International, are alarmed by the position paper. Canadian anti-psychiatry activist Bonnie Burstow says that, at a minimum, ECT should be phased out [source: The Ottawa Citizen] due to its documented harms. (more…)
In Robert Whitaker’s Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill, “
Looking at obsessive compulsive disorder: From arbitrariness of diagnosis to roles of recovering patient, the use of creative nonfiction in research
Two of Clem Martini’s brothers have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. One is Ben, the youngest. The other is Olivier, or Liv, an artist. Olivier illustrates this graphic memoir with a subtle hand…his side in a long conversation, spanning some 30 years, with his brother Clem, a Calgary playwright.