Info Electroshock, Oregon, mental health, and MindFreedom are all topics of a three-part interview with MindFreedom director David Oaks that was run in the Portland Examiner, on 19 January 2010. Reporter Jenny Westberg, who covers mental health for Portland Examiner. Reporter Jenny Westberg interviewed MindFreedom director David Oaks about a wide range of subjects: Part…
Info Thousands spoke out to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oppose their controversial proposal to approve devices used for electroshock — also known as electroconvulsive therapy or ECT — without any testing for safety and effectiveness. The deadline of 8 January 2010 has passed, but you can still speak out. [Update: 27…
Info Update Jan 2011: Brian Henley is freed. Brian Henley was a 34-year-old man held against his will, and forced to take psychiatric drugs, at Northeast Florida State Hospital in Macclenny, Florida. The town of Macclenny is 35 miles west of Jacksonville in northeast Florida. “I want my freedom so I can visit my mother…
Info Long-time MindFreedom member and supporter Al Siebert has died at the age of 75. Al was well known as a psychologist, author and lecturer on the topic of resiliency, and surviving even the most traumatic of events. His books on resiliency and mental health alternatives were very popular. What is less known is that…
Info MindFreedom member Godly Mathew won a prize on Facebook today 22 Sept. 2009. Nice end of his summer. In an unrelated victory, Godly vigiled this summer at least one hour each and every day, in front of a psychiatric facility where he said he was abused, Friends Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. In this…
Info A national USA television show is seeking individuals with diagnoses such as “schizophrenia” who have totally quit or are quitting all prescribed psychiatric drugs, for a show on Mad Pride. National USA TV show seeks individuals quitting their psychiatric drugs. by David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International At our protest last month in…
Info For years NAMI — the National Alliance on Mental Illness — has had an official secrecy policy on the amount of funds NAMI receives from psychiatric drug companies. Because of a US Senate probe in April 2009, NAMI has now disclosed that for the past five years a majority of their funds — 56%…
Info The most recent edition of a comprehensive bibliography on personal accounts of madness is now available. Gail Hornstein Professor Gail A. Hornstein at Mount Holyoke College has spent years creating a bibliography concerning personal accounts of madness written by survivorsthemselves or their family members, as well as anthologiesand critical analyses of the madness narrative…
Info Humorist Garisson Keillor has had to tangle with the American Psychiatric Association before. You can encourage this humorist, inventor of Lake Wobegone, to speak out again, this time about Raymond Sandford of Minnesota. Garrison Keillor has tangled with psychiatry before about Lake Wobegone (credit: UMN) Update: By coincidence, a Prairie Home Companion ongoing skit…
Info Hear the excitement as we broadcast from the “Rethinking Psychiatry” grassroots mental health justice fair held recently, 14 May 2011, in Portland, Oregon. Hear the latest news, interview participants at the conference, and take your calls. Three of the participants: Tom (founder of 1969 group Insane Liberation Front), Ron Unger (chair, MindFreedom Lane County),…