Dec 14, 2019
This week on MIA Radio, we
interview Drs. Peter Breggin and Michael Cornwall their new
initiative, Stop the Psychiatric Abuse of Children (SPAC!).
Peter Breggin, MD is a Harvard-trained
psychiatrist and a former consultant at the National Institute of
Mental Health who has been called "The Conscience of Psychiatry."
For decades, he has made successful efforts to reform the field,
including bringing a stop to lobotomy and psychosurgery. He has
testified before the FDA and Congress, been an expert witness in
many court cases involving the pharmaceutical industry and has
appeared on Oprah and 60 Minutes, among other
programs.
Dr. Breggin continues to criticize psychiatric drugs and
“electroconvulsive therapy,” and promotes more caring, empathic and
effective therapies. To that end, with his wife Ginger, he founded
the Center for the Study of Empathic
Therapy, Education and Living. He is the author of more
than 20 books, most recently Guilt, Shame and Anxiety:
Understanding and Overcoming Negative Emotions. Dr.
Breggin maintains a private practice in Ithaca, New York where he
treats adults, couples, and families with children.
Michael Cornwall, PhD has done
therapy with children, teens and families since 1980 as well as
specializing in therapy with people of all ages experiencing
extreme states. He completed doctoral research on medication-free
treatment of extreme states and is the editor of a two-volume
special edition of the Journal of Humanistic Psychologyon
extreme states. Dr. Cornwall has been a prolific MIA blogger since
2012 and a frequent Esalen Institute workshop leader on alternative
approaches to extreme states. He is the director of the SPAC!
project for Dr. Breggin’s Center for Empathic Therapy.
(audio)
We discuss:
- How SPAC was started in response to the introduction of the
Monarch eTNS, an electric stimulation device worn on a child’s
forehead at night that is touted as an alternative to ADHD
medication, which was fast-tracked by FDA with little testing
- The extensive, downplayed adverse reactions found in testing
the Monarch on children
- How the device is purported to work to target brain activity in
certain areas, but likely affects other important neural areas and
how this is likely to disrupt a child’s normal brain function
- Problems with the design of the studies on the Monarch and how
deliberate intrusions into brain function make an individual child
more docile but also more apathetic
- The potential widespread adoption of the Monarch device due to
a partnership between the manufacturer and a pharmacy chain, the
many uses for which it is being marketed, and anticipated
psychiatric prescribing of the treatment by primary care
doctors
- The nature and risks of ECT, another form of psychiatric
“treatment” that targets the brain with electricity, intentionally
causing a seizure and short- and long-term traumatic brain injury,
and where to find ECT resources on Dr. Breggin’s website
- Reframing “ADHD” behavior as a sign of deficiencies in the
teacher, classroom, or parenting approach rather than an illness in
the child. What might cause inattentiveness in a young student and
how doctors typically medicate the problem as a brain disorder
- Alternatives to high-tech interventions and drugs for helping
inattentive or severely troubled youth alike, including
modifications at school and entering family therapy. The importance
of parents’ expressing love and discipline to change problematic
behaviors, with examples from Breggin’s private practice
- How the medical model of psychiatry discourages identifying
unmet human needs in young patients and their families, and the
benefits of offering trauma-informed support and connection, with
examples from Cornwall’s work in the public mental health
system
- The importance of engaging children to identify what they need
from adults in their lives, arming parents with new attitudes and
communication tools for relating to their children, and the success
they have had with such approaches
- How listeners can learn more about SPAC! and get involved with
advocacy against conventional psychiatric treatment for children
and for more compassionate and commonsense alternatives. The
groundswell of interest they have received from parents and a
variety of online resources available on these topics
- The right of parents to say no to dangerous drugs or devices
doctors want to prescribe, and the importance of understanding the
risks of resisting a medical professional’s authority or
challenging a child’s school
- Reasons for parents and teachers be optimistic that even
seemingly incorrigible children can be reached.
Relevant Links
SPAC! webpage, part of Dr. Peter
Breggin’s Children’s Resource Center
ECT Resource Center
Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy,
Education, and Living
MIA blogs
Monarch eTNS Inspires “Stop the Psychiatric Abuse of Children!”
(SPAC!)
FDA Approves Using Electricity All Night Long on Children’s
Brains