Here is the text used for a keynote speech delivered by David W. Oaks on 7 May 2010 at the PsychOut Conference, in Toronto, Canada. The actual speech as delivered was a bit different and somewhat abridged. PsychOUT: A Conference for Organizing Resistance Against Psychiatry 7 May 2010 • Toronto, Ontario, Canada Planet…
On Saturday, 8 May 2010, at the end of the PsychOUT conference, participants worked on the wording of a resolution about electroshock. Electroshock: Position of the PsychOut Conference 1. WHEREAS research has established to a level of statistical significance that electroshock causes brain damage by causing seizure and through the electrical current, and indeed, that…
Every USA State must have a plan to show how they are helping people inside psychiatric and other institutions get integrated into least restrictive alternatives in the community. Here’s how to read Oregon’s latest draft. You may download a PDF of Oregon’s proposed “final draft” 2010 Olmstead Plan. Just the first 17 pages are the…
It’s been two years since Esmin Green’s death in a psychiatric emergency room in New York State was caught so vividly by a security camera, and made international news. What has changed? We The People is holding protest and vigil to speak out. MindFreedom New York supports this important event. what Protest when Jun 18,…
Working for human rights in mental health can have a lot of side effects. For instance, you can be named a “witch” publicly on a strange web site! Well, it’s finally happened. Someone has actually publicly claimed I’m a “witch.” First of all, I’m not. But what is strangest is that the individual making the…
The Wall St. Journal blog covered the news that US Senator Grassley is focusing on NAMI state chapters, and how many have received immense pharmaceutical corporation money without adequately disclosing their source of wealth the public. Biggest recipient of drug company money: NAMI California. Wall St. Journal Covers NAMI State Chapter Psychiatric Drug Money Donations…
Info Filed Under: activism Today, MindFreedom plans a skit because Sarah Palin is speaking at a hotel one block from our office in Eugene, Oregon. Just the plan itself is getting national publicty! Amazing how much interest just planning to speak out has gained… Time Magazine mentioned our plans today, 23 April 2010. You see,…
One year ago today, on 15 April 2009, Ray Sandford of Minnesota received what we at MindFreedom hope will be his last involuntary electroshock over his expressed wishes, on an outpatient basis. We asked Ray today how his one year victory anniversary feels. Ray said, “It feels great! I’m absolutely okay without the electroshock.” When…
Yesterday, I was invited by a psychiatric survivor to attend her meeting with mental health workers about her complaint that she was being forcibly drugged on an outpatient basis. We had some good conclusions from the meeting… now the evidence will be in the results. Each month, our MindFreedom office hosts a “First Wednesday Roundtable”…
The American Psychiatric Association is trying to update their “label bible” known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. But in this guest column op ed in the LA Times, the head of their fourth edition, psychiatrist Allen Frances, is basting the process leading to the fifth edition. He says, “This wholesale medical imperialization of normality…