When Bob Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic, was “unconfirmed” as a speaker of the federally-funded Alternatives 2010, MindFreedom International sent out a “What About Bob?” alert on 21 July. Immediately many MindFreedom alert readers responded, and a number of those comments to President Obama and SAMHSA Director Pamela Hyde are copied below.
To read about the “What About Bob” Campaign Victory, here.
Support for Bob Whitaker Keynoting Alternatives 2010
What About Bob Comments
Public comments to President Obama and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration Director Pam Hyde:
From: Don Karp
Subject: keynote speaker
Dear President Obama: You are a community organizer. Did you know that mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors have also done community organizing for decades? Please ask your agency SAMHSA to support their choice of journalist Robert Whitaker to be keynote speaker at the annual Alternatives 2010 conference. The Alternatives conference is about alternatives, so… WHAT ABOUT BOB? Bob’s book Anatomy of an Epidemic is an important warning about problems with the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry.”
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From: Linda Mulvey
Subject: My Letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama,
Seeing that you have been a community health organizer yourself, I’m sure you are aware that mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors have also been involved in community organization for decades. Please ask your agency, SAMHSA, to support their choice of journalist Robert Whitaker to be keynote speaker at the annual Alternatives 2010 conference. The Alternatives conference is about alternatives, so… WHAT ABOUT BOB?
I believe that Bob’s book, “Anatomy of an Epidemic”, is an important warning about problems with the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry. In it he states that “even as our society has embraced the use of psychiatric medications during the past two decades, the number of people receiving government disability due to mental illness has more than tripled, from 1.25 million people to more than 4 million people.” How can we, in today’s economy, afford to continue creating people with disabilities such as tardive dyskinesia, diabetes, and heart disease that stem from the use of these kinds of drugs?
I speak as a psychiatric survivor myself who has been free of psychiatric drugs now for over 26 yrs., but who still suffers from the permanent injury they’ve done to me.
https://www.youtube.com/user/LindaKay1948
Respectfully, Linda Kay
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From: Loretta Wilson
Subject: WHAT ABOUT BOB?
Letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama: I understand that you are a community organizer. Are you aware that mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors have also done community organizing for decades? Please ask your agency SAMHSA to support their choice of journalist Robert Whitaker to the keynote speaker at the annual Alternatives conference. The Alternatives conference is about alternatives isn’t it? So, “WHAT ABOUT BOB?” Bob’s book “Anatomy of an Epidemic: is an important warning about problems with the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry. I implore you to take immediate action and get “BOB back on the schedule as keynote speaker. He is very qualified and because of his qualifications we need to hear what he has to say!
Thank You,
Loretta
(Information included with the message to President Obama)
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On 22 Jul 2010, at 1:16 PM, Judy wrote:
Copy to SAMHSA Director Pam Hyde
July 22, 2010,
Dear President Obama,
Much needed and deeply appreciated, is your personal example and support of community organization. Mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors have been advocating to improve these services for decades.
The ever-growing number of people using these services, have a right to Informed Consent, which includes facts concerning the risks, benefits and alternatives in treatment options.
The conference empowers people to take responsibility as an active, knowledgeable participant in their own health. It should be supported to the fullest extent as a unique opportunity to lessen the enormous burden of the current and impending Health Care Crisis. This benefits us all.
Organizers of the Alternatives 2010 conference choose acclaimed journalist Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic, an important book warning about problems with the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry, to be their keynote speaker.
Mr. President, please ask your agency SAMHSA to support these organizer’s choice, to present Robert Whitaker as their keynote speaker.
No voice, no research, no effort to empower personal responsibility should ever be censored.
Sincerely and with great faith in your support of this fundamental public right.
Judy Gayton
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From: “Judy”
Subject: President Obama RE: Robert Whitaker to SPEAK
Copy to SAMHSA Director Pam Hyde
July 22, 2010, Dear President Obama, Much needed and deeply appreciated, is your personal example and support of community organization. Mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors have been advocating to improve these services for decades. The ever-growing number of people using these services, have a right to Informed Consent, which includes facts concerning the risks, benefits and alternatives in treatment options. The conference empowers people to take responsibility as an active, knowledgeable participant in their own health. It should be supported to the fullest extent as a unique opportunity to lessen the enormous burden of the current and impending Health Care Crisis. This benefits us all. Organizers of the Alternatives 2010 conference choose acclaimed journalist Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic, an important book warning about problems with the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry, to be their keynote speaker. Mr. President, please ask your agency SAMHSA to support these organizer’s choice, to present Robert Whitaker as their keynote speaker. No voice, no research, no effort to empower personal responsibility should ever be censored. Sincerely and with great faith in your support of this fundamental public right.
Judy Gayton
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From: “Dr. Lloyd Ross”
Date: 22 July 2010 11:35:20 AM PDT
Subject: Robert Whitaker &Alternatives 2010 Conference
Lloyd Ross, Ph.D., FACAPP., P.A.
Ridgewood, New Jersey
July 22, 2010 Honorable Barak Obama
President of the United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC. Dear President Obama: Award winning journalist Robert Whitaker was disinvited as keynote speaker at the Annual Alternatives 2010 Conference run by SAMHSA. His new book, “Anatomy of An Epidemic” sends a research based warning about the problems with the psychopharmaceutical industry and for that reason, the SAMHSA director, Pam Hyde, disinvited Whitaker. As a clinical psychologist with 35 years of experience, I find this caving into the pharmaceutical companies abhorrent. Please ask your agency, SAMHSA, to support everyone else’s choice of investigative medical journalist Robert Whitaker as keynote speaker. The Alternatives Conference should be about just that, alternatives.. My original vote for you centered around your message of hope. Please don’t allow that to be taken away from mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors. Please restore Robert Whitaker as keynote speaker at the Alternatives 2010 Conference. Thank you. Sincerely, Lloyd Ross, Ph.D., FACAPP.
Ridgewood, New Jersey
From: Linda Mulvey Subject: My Letter to the President
To Whom it May Concern: Below is a copy of the letter I wrote today to President Obama. If you would like to publish it, please omit my full name as it is written at the bottom. Thank you so much for what you are doing. Sincerely, Linda Kay July 22, 2010
Dear President Obama, Seeing that you have been a community health organizer yourself, I’m sure you are aware that mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors have also been involved in community organization for decades. Please ask your agency, SAMHSA, to support their choice of journalist Robert Whitaker to be keynote speaker at the annual Alternatives 2010 conference. The Alternatives conference is about alternatives, so… WHAT ABOUT BOB? I believe that Bob’s book, “Anatomy of an Epidemic”, is an important warning about problems with the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry. In it he states that “even as our society has embraced the use of psychiatric medications during the past two decades, the number of people receiving government disability due to mental illness has more than tripled, from 1.25 million people to more than 4 million people.” How can we, in today’s economy, afford to continue creating people with disabilities such as tardive dyskinesia, diabetes, and heart disease that stem from the use of these kinds of drugs? I speak as a psychiatric survivor myself who has been free of psychiatric drugs now for over 26 yrs., but who still suffers from the permanent injury they’ve done to me. https://www.youtube.com/user/LindaKay1948 Respectfully,
Linda Mulvey
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From: “Toby Watson PsyD – Office”
Date: 22 July 2010 9:50:22 AM PDT
To: Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov
Subject: [ICSPP] APHS & ICSPP Supports Robert Whitaker as Guest Speaker at Alternatives 2010 Conference
Dear Dr. Pam Hyde, I am requesting SAMHSA please reconsider it’s invitation to Robert Whitaker to be the featured guest speaker. Mr. Whitaker’s latest book, Anatomy of an Epidemic, clearly documents research consistent with an alternative approach to mental well being. As clinical director of a doctoral training program here in Sheboygan, WI, as well as, International Executive Director of ICSPP (International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology), I am continually searching for a breath of new information and research that can be integrated into our treatment planning and educational seminars. Mr. Whitaker was an excellent candidate, and I have had numerous requests to contact you and urge you to re-invite Mr. Whitaker again as a featured guest speaker. Should he not be allowed to present, this surely will look poorly on SAMHSA when the media and other journalists begin to probe the reason for the change of heart. Thank you for the consideration and work, and if I can be of any assistance in the future please do not hesitate to call us.
Kindest regards,
Dr. Toby Watson, PsyD
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From: “Toby Watson PsyD – Office”
Date: 22 July 2010 9:50:22 AM PDT
To: Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov
Subject: APHS & ICSPP Supports Robert Whitaker as Guest Speaker at Alternatives 2010 Conference
Dear Dr. Pam Hyde, I am requesting SAMHSA please reconsider it’s invitation to Robert Whitaker to be the featured guest speaker. Mr. Whitaker’s latest book, Anatomy of an Epidemic, clearly documents research consistent with an alternative approach to mental well being. As clinical director of a doctoral training program here in Sheboygan, WI, as well as, International Executive Director of ICSPP (International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology), I am continually searching for a breath of new information and research that can be integrated into our treatment planning and educational seminars. Mr. Whitaker was an excellent candidate, and I have had numerous requests to contact you and urge you to re-invite Mr. Whitaker again as a featured guest speaker. Should he not be allowed to present, this surely will look poorly on SAMHSA when the media and other journalists begin to probe the reason for the change of heart. Thank you for the consideration and work, and if I can be of any assistance in the future please do not hesitate to call us.
Kindest regards,
Dr. Toby Watson, PsyD
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From: Chelsea Bagias
Date: 22 July 2010 9:48:01 AM PDT
To: pam.hyde@samhsa.hhs.gov
Subject: Please re-invite Robert Whitaker as keynote speaker
Below is a copy of a letter sent to President Obama regarding an interest in re-inviting Robert Whitaker to be keynote speaker at the 2010 Alternatives conference in CA. I greatly support Whitaker’s attendance and the open communication surrounding a sensitive subject in the mental health field. Please help to keep all alternatives available to the public. Thank you, Chelsea B
President Obama. I am writing to ask that you or your staff step in to aid in a Mental Health concern that impacts millions of American citizens. Any help you could give to re-invite Robert Whitaker to be the keynote speaker at the annual Alternatives 2010 conference in CA would be so greatly appreciated. As a worker in the mental health field I feel his recent book and the message behind it is information that all mental health recipients need. Also it has the potential of reducing national budgeting costs for mental health treatment by millions of dollars annually. Thank you for taking an interest in the American people and for all the good you have done,
Chelsea Bagias
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From: Erik Boneff
Date: 22 July 2010 9:22:30 AM PDT
Subject: Letter re: Whitaker for public use
I have inserted below my letter to Pam Hyde and President Obama regarding Robert Whitaker’s censure for public use.
Thank you,
Erik Boneff
Dear Ms. Hyde,
As I’m sure you’re aware, since 1985, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has funded a conference- ‘the Alternatives Conference’- designed to bring together both consumers and survivors of the American mental health system with the hopes of encouraging discussion and widespread peer-support activity.
As its keynote speaker for the 2010 conference, SAMHSA had originally booked widely acclaimed medical journalist Robert Whitaker, a former writer for the Boston Globe and a best-selling author with an interest in the American mental health system and its possible shortcomings. In the wake of his latest book, “Anatomy of an Epidemic,” however (which is, incidentally, an amazingly thought-provoking read), the powers-that-be at SAMHSA decided to pull Mr. Whitaker’s speaking engagement, citing “objections” from U.S. Government officials who claimed that he was an outspoken critic of high-level government agencies.
Although the same thing could be said, likely to a greater degree, of many of the former keynote speakers at SAMSHA’s ‘Alternatives’ conference- including MindFreedom International President David Oaks- the most important issue lies elsewhere. Mr. Whitaker is a passionate and honest thinker who is not afraid of confronting controversial issues in his search for truth and human dignity, and I am personally outraged that his appointment should be called into question because his work displays a trait that I believe is both fundamentally American and fundamentally human: the constant questioning of received wisdom.
Rather than resting on the authority of the scientifico-medical complex that is so powerful in this country, Mr. Whitaker has dedicated himself to honest inquiry, and has come up with shocking and deeply important answers to extremely pertinent questions regarding the treatment of the mentally ill in our country and the ethical status of the link between the pharmaceutical industry, the U.S. Government, and academic medicine.
I ask that you please reinstate Mr. Whitaker as the keynote speaker for its 2010 Alternatives conference.
Thank you,
Erik N.G. Boneff
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From: Peter Tannenbaum Date: 22 July 2010 8:39:29 AM PDT
To: Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov
Subject: Alternatives in Mental Health
Dear Pam:
The number of mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors in increasing faster the ever. Big pharmaceutical companies are deceiving medicaid and medicare to pay for poisonous drugs. Please ask our agency SAMHSA (US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) to support journalist Robert Whitaker to be keynote speaker at the annual Alternatives 2010 Conference.
The Alternatives Conference is about alternatives in mental health. Whitaker’s book ,Anatomy of an Epidemic, is an important warning about problems with the psychiatric/ pharmaceutical industry and suggesting alternatives to psychiatric drugs. The Alternatives Conference may suggest alternatives to psychiatric drugs and alternatives to blackmail by the pharmaceutical industry .
Peter Tree
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From: val barnes
Date: 22 July 2010 8:45:39 AM PDT
To: Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov, news@mindfreedom.org
Subject: SAMHSA/SUPPORT/Robert WHITAKER
“Dear President Obama: I am sure you have meet people in your days of community organizing that was committed to community work and yet they had many challenging personal issues. The Alternative Conference Speaker Robert Whitaker will give voice to many people in our community who love volunteering and giving back to community and yet struggle with Mental Illness. Its always nice to know and see and hear people who are learned who believe another way is possible. Drug medication is not the only way to Positive Mental Health. I am sorry we have come to believe that is the only alternative. PLEASE ENCOURAGE SAMHSA TO SUPPORT ROBERT WHITAKER AS KEYNOTE SPEAKER. THANK YOU.
Val Barnes
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From: Jennifer Thompson
Date: 22 July 2010 7:15:28 AM PDT
To: Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov, news@mindfreedom.org
Subject: Email to Obama re: Whittaker Keynote
I read about the controversy below in the blog If You’re Going Through Hell Keep Going; per instructions from Mind Freedom International, I’m forwarding the text of my email to President Obama:
“SAMHSA recently rescinded its invitation to medical journalist Robert Whittaker to appear as a keynote speaker at its 2010 Alternatives conference. (You can read my review here: http://revoltandresignation.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/read-robert-whitakers-anatomy-of-an-epidemic-do-not-stop-do-not-pass-go-do-not-collect-200/). Whittaker’s study of psychiatric medication in the U.S., Anatomy of an Epidemic, provides a desperately needed critique of the poor science used to treat people with serious mental illnesses. Please ask SAMHSA to re-invite Whittaker. His message is crucial to open dialog surrounding psychiatric treatment.”
I am a member of MFI, and I believe that your work is critical. Keep it up, and let me know how I can help!
Best regards,
Jennifer Thompson
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From: “Richa”
Date: 22 July 2010 5:14:59 AM PDT
To: Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov
Cc: news@mindfreedom.org
Subject: censorship of alternatives
Reply-To: richa@dod.net
Dear Pam Hyde:
Copied below is a message i just sent to the White House. I hope that you will take action on this matter directly, starting with an apology to the organizers of the upcoming “alternatives” conference and to Bob Whitaker, along with a reversal of the decision to disinvite him. That should be followed by a careful review of who within SAMHSA was responsible for the disinvitation and why, and making sure such a thing does not happen again. I also suggest inviting Whitaker (and others who have the courage to criticize mainstream psychiatry and mental health practices) to address mainstream gatherings under your auspices. When the “alternatives” are known to be more effective than the entrenched status quo, you should be doing all you can to help them BECOME the mainstream.
Peace,
Richa
I have personally been threatened with psychiatric drugs (on one occasion had a major psychiatric drug forcefully injected into my body) – never to help me, but to control and intimidate me.
Some years ago my partner and i took in a friend who had been given a diagnosis of schizophrenia and who had become homeless. She had gone into a psychiatric hospital every year for several years and been given psychiatric drugs, which she hated. What she wanted was support to see her through.
We gave her that support. For the first time, she was able to get through one of her episodes without going into the hospital and without drugs. After a year with us she went on to purchase a home which became the original site for a homeless shelter that became one of the most respected in our area (it has now morphed into permanent supportive housing). She even won a national (Jefferson Award) award for her work. We and others continued to support her for the remaining 20 years of her life, during which she never again used psychiatric drugs or felt the need to be hospitalized.
I recount this story to inform you that i am one of thousands, if not millions, who know first-hand the importance of providing REAL support to those who undergo mental/emotional crises.
Now i hear that Bob Whitaker, who has documented the science behind the long-term deterioration often CAUSED by psychiatric drugs, is being censored as a speaker by SAMHSA – and this, no less, at the annual “alternatives” conference that is supposed to be organized and run by those who have used (or been used by) the mental health system! SAMHSA’s credibility is obviously compromised by such an action. This should be a wake-up call for you to look into who is making such a decision, and what other decisions they may be making that are not in the public interest.
Thank you.
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From: Kalma Kartell White
Date: 22 July 2010 5:13:27 AM PDT
Cc: Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov, news@mindfreedom.org
Subject: Please Address this Injustice
Dear President Obama: As a strong proponent of community organization, are you aware that consumers of mental health services and psychiatric survivors have also done community organizing for decades? The need to address the social justice/stigma/safety issues faced by persons with serious persistent mental illness in terms of jobs, education, treatment and self-determination has long been recognized by SAMHSA.
Robert Whitaker was confirmed, then “un-confirmed” as keynote speaker for the SAMHSA-funded annual Alternatives 2010 Conference, This conference is organized and run by consumers of mental health services and psychiatric survivors. The reason given was that federal higher ups were concerned regarding Whitakers book and its criticism of the pharmaceutical industry.
Please ask SAMHSA to support conference organizers’ choice of journalist Robert Whitaker to be keynote speaker at the annual Alternatives 2010 Conference. Whitaker’s book Anatomy of an Epidemic is an important warning about problems with the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry. Many of these problems arose prior to your administration but need to be disclosed and addressed to inform and protect persons with mental illness.
Thank you.
Kalma Kartell White
Behavioral Health Training and Education Network
Philadelphia, PA
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From: Jeanne Smith
Date: 22 July 2010 3:21:13 AM PDT
To: “Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov” Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov
Subject: Robert Whitaker
Hello, Below is the message I sent to the White House:
Robert Whitaker, a medical journalist who writes about the psychiatric drug industry, has been cancelled as keynote speaker at SAMHSA’s Alternatives Conference on 9/29. Mr. Whitaker has vital research to present about why we need alternatives to drug therapy in mental health care. Please have Mr. Whitaker reinstated as keynote speaker. Jeanne A. Smith
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From: Peter Johnston
Date: 22 July 2010 12:26:21 AM PDT
To: Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov
Subject: Re Request to hear Robert Whitaker
Copy
Dear President Obama:
It has been said you used to be a community organizer. Did you know that mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors have also done community organizing for decades to try to humanize mental health care in this country?
Many, many, people, including me, have suffered brain damage as a result of long-term use of psychiatric drugs prescribed as “medicine,” which have destroyed my life. My memory and emotional stability have been destroyed by these toxic chemicals pushed as “medicine.”
I was a working, functioning taxpayer for 30 years until I was started on antidepressants and tranquilizers. Now 12 years later I am collecting Social Security Disability, unable to function in society. There are hundreds of thousands like me.
Please ask your agency SAMHSA to support their choice of medical journalist Robert Whitaker to be keynote speaker at the annual Alternatives 2010 conference.
The Alternatives conference is about alternatives, so… WHAT ABOUT BOB?
Bob’s recent book, “Anatomy of an Epidemic,” is an important warning regarding the immoral and unethical treatment of victims of the Psychiatric and Pharmaceutical industries.
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From: “Ann Hubbird”
Date: 21 July 2010 10:22:10 PM PDT
To: Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov
Subject: Bob Whitaker as SAMHSA speaker?
Today I sent the following email to President Obama. Please keep me posted on this issue, as I think Bob Whitaker’s voice is one that needs to be heard. “I appreciate the hard work you are doing for the American people, and your attempts to free our political processes from domination by the big corporations. I understand that recently, Bob Whitaker, a medical journalist who writes about the mental health industry, was disinvited to speak at the SAMHSA meeting, which considers alternative treatments for mental illness. He has done careful research and writing about some of the unfortunate consequences of the takeover of the mental health field by the big pharmaceutical companies. As the mother of a son with mental illness, I think it is vitally important for all alternatives to be considered. A responsible and intelligent voice like Bob Whitaker’s needs to be heard. Please do what you can to be sure he is reinstated to speak at the conference. Thank you.”
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From: Ted Chabasinski
Date: 21 July 2010 10:06:47 PM PDT
To: pam.hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov
Subject: SAMHSA blacklisting of Robert Whitaker
Dear Ms. Hyde,
I am an attorney, and someone who has been, as a child, on the receiving end of a lot of very unhelpful psychiatric interventions.
I am deeply troubled by the order SAMHSA gave to the organizers of “Alternatives 2010” to withdraw their invitation to Robert Whitaker to speak at the conference. Your action makes it very clear that the real purpose of your agency’s funding of the conference is not to support the self-determination of mental health consumers/psychiatric survivors, but to silence any criticism of the abuses of the mental health system.
I believe that your agency’s actions are a gross misuse of public funds, and I have written the below letter to President Obama expressing this opinion.
Sincerely,
Ted Chabasinski, J. D.
Now an attorney, when I was a child, I was locked away and abused in a state mental hospital for many years. I have been active in the movement for psychiatric patients rights for almost forty years.
In 1985, SAMHSA, a branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, began funding a national conference, known as “Alternatives,” for survivors of the mental health system. This replaced a similar conference that had been run and controlled for many years by activists in our movement.
Not surprisingly, SAMHSA demands that the conference be as uncritical as possible of the present system for mental health care.
Last week, SAMHSA ordered the organizers of Alternatives 2010, to be held in September, to retract their invitation to Robert Whitaker to be keynote speaker. Whitaker is the award-winning author of “Anatomy of an Epidemic,” which examines the scientific literature which documents that the present practice of drugging people with mental problems appears to do more harm than good.
Mr. President, as a former community organizer yourself, I am sure you can see the danger of federal money being used like this to restrict the freedom of speech of an abused social group and its supporters. I urge you to have your staff look into this.
Public funds should not be used by the mental health system and the drug companies to silence their critics.
From: Ted Chabasinski
Date: 21 July 2010 9:43:10 PM PDT
Subject: my letter to President Obama
Now an attorney, when I was a child, I was locked away and abused in a state mental hospital for many years. I have been active in the movement for psychiatric patients rights for almost forty years.
In 1985, SAMHSA, a branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, began funding a national conference, known as “Alternatives,” for survivors of the mental health system. This replaced a similar conference that had been run and controlled for many years by activists in our movement.
Not surprisingly, SAMHSA demands that the conference be as uncritical as possible of the present system for mental health care.
Last week, SAMHSA ordered the organizers of Alternatives 2010, to be held in September, to retract their invitation to Robert Whitaker to be keynote speaker. Whitaker is the award-winning author of “Anatomy of an Epidemic,” which examines the scientific literature which documents that the present practice of drugging people with mental problems appears to do more harm than good.
Mr. President, as a former community organizer yourself, I am sure you can see the danger of federal money being used like this to restrict the freedom of speech of an abused social group and its supporters. I urge you to have your staff look into this.
Public funds should not be used by the mental health system and the drug companies to silence their critics. — “I belong to a class who have been robbed, exploited, and plundered down through many long centuries, and because I belong to that class I have an instinct to go and break the chains.”
Mary “Mother” Jones, Labor Organizer 1830-1930
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From: Texan
Date: 21 July 2010 8:44:17 PM PDT
To: pam.hyde@samhsa.hhs.gov, news@mindfreedom.org
Subject: My letter to Obama
I am commenting on the decision to exclude journalist Robert Whitaker, whose book “Anatomy of an Epidemic”, received glowing reviews in Time Magazine, among other outlets, from the 2010 Alternatives Conference. Whitaker was chosen by the Alternatives organizers to keynote the Conference, due to his fine journalism that exposed corruption in the pharmaceutical industry. I am concerned that SAMHSA’s decision to exclude him might have been due to his courageous and outspoken exposure of psychiatric,government,and pharmaceutical corruption over the years.
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From: Dorothy Dundas
Date: 21 July 2010 8:47:15 PM PDT
To: news@mindfreedom.org
Subject: Robert Whitaker
Dear President Obama,
Robert Whitaker was issued an invitation to speak at the SAMHSA-supported Alternatives Conference in Los Angeles in September 2010. I now understand that his invitation has been taken away due to higher government disapproval. I have read his book, “Anatomy of an Epidemic.” It is a very important medical/political book which speaks the truth about the sometimes- negative influence of the drug companies on the lives of millions who suffer from various emotional distresses.This conference is attended by hundreds of people from across this nation who have been community organizing on behalf of people who have suffered in the mental health system. Many of us have long ago recovered from our emotional distress and are now working to help others. I urge you to please reinstate the invitation to Robert Whitaker so that the many who attend this conference can benefit from hearing his important speech.
Sincerely,
Dorothy W. Dundas
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From: Paula Caplan
Date: 21 July 2010 8:36:28 PM PDT
To: Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov
Subject: restore Robert Whitaker as keynote speaker for Alternatives conference for mental health consumers
Please take the above-described action. I have just sent the White House a message to say that Robert Whitaker is scrupulous about representing accurately the scientific data related to the mental health system. I have been familiar with his work for many years and am co-author of a textbook about research methods. It is appalling that the federal government would bow to the power of Big Pharma by rescinding Whitaker’s invitation.
I would appreciate your notifying me of any action you take in this regard.
Thank you.
Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D.
Associate, DuBois Institute, Harvard University
and
Fellow, Women in Public Policy Institute, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Cambridge, MA
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