Every year at this time, from Canada to
Ireland, from Turkey to South Africa both determined and not-so-determined folk
make a very unusual list, known traditionally as New Year's resolutions. They
make resolutions about how to assert themselves at work. They make resolutions
about how they will treat others, about doing something about their ever
growing heroine use, about returning to school, about standing up to the class
bully, about spending quality time with their loved ones. All good. This
notwithstanding, although there are now a fair number of folk with a high degree
of antipsychiatry knowledge and commitment, only but rarely do such factors
figure in anyone’s New Year’s resolutions.
Aimed precisely at this population, this article
is intended to help remedy that oversight. What follows, accordingly, are
antipsychiatry resolutions -- ones that
people may borrow from at will.
More specifically, below are three sets -- 1)
a general set for everyone with a critique; 2) a set for survivors and “users” of
psychiatry; and 3) a set for “mental health professionals”. Of course,
everyone's situation is unique (one size does not fit all). Accordingly, this is
a pick-and-choose situation. If there
are any that you find yourself wanting to include in your own Resolution List,
with or without modification, just feel free.
A caveat: It is hardly a secret that the
vast majority of New Year’s resolutions are never kept -- or even seriously
adopted. This is probably because they are vague inclinations to which people
have no special relationship, with the making of them primarily a feel-good
custom that people are following. I am hoping that we can do better with the
antipsychiatry ones. My invitation, accordingly, is to thumb through the list
and, insofar as you pick any, pick only ones that fit you, that are timely for
you, that so resonate with your sense of yourself and your trajectory that you genuinely
will be “resolved”.
That said, read, enjoy, and use at will.
General
Antipsychiatry New Year’s Resolutions for All Critics of Psychiatry
I will worry less about damaging my
credibility by endorsing an abolitionist position. Rather I will aim at mustering up the courage
to say what I know.
This year, I will stop just yakking about
antipsychiatry activism and start putting it into practice (translation: “walk
the walk”).
I will familiarize myself with social
movement theory and become more strategic as an activist.
For every hour I spend responding to posts
on the Internet, I will spend a comparable amount of time “doing antipsychiatry”
in the material world. More specifically, I will do at least one of: a) spearhead
a demonstration; b) respond to problematic legislation; c) create a new
antipsychiatry organization; d) join Tina Minkowitz’s campaign for the absolute
prohibition on nonconsensual psychiatry.
I will stop using “mental health” language
entirely -- will not use words like “medication”, or even ones like “symptoms”
and “mental health” --for as Audre Lorde (1984) so astutely put it years ago,
“the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
I will work with others at rewriting the
woefully inadequate description of antipsychiatry found on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Anti-psychiatry).
Minimally, I will correct the conflation between the mad and the antipsychiatry
movements, and I will ensure that the entry is far less American-centric (oh
yes, that is a problem).
I will do my homework, and by September, I
will be able to distinguish effortlessly between “antipsychiatry” and “critical
psychiatry”, between Thomas Szasz and R.D. Laing. I will likewise familiarize
myself with the attrition model of psychiatry abolition (see Burstow, 2014),
get a feel for how it works.
Whenever faced with a new initiative, I
will automatically ask: 1) if successful, will the actions or campaigns that we
are contemplating move us closer to the long range goal of psychiatry
abolition?; 2) Are they likely to avoid improving or giving added legitimacy to
psychiatry?; and 3) Do they avoid “widening” psychiatry’s net?
I will adopt at least one of the book activism
strategies outlined in “Getting Our Anti/Critical Psychiatry Authors Read: A
Case for Book Activism” (https://www.madinamerica.com/2015/04/getting-anticritical-psychiatry-authors-read-case-book-activism/). The point is, we need our authors to be read.
I will stop holding my peace when people
mention that a loved one is considering starting a psychiatric “treatment”.
I will demonstrate for a total ban on ECT --
I mean, shooting electricity through a person’s skull -- like, what the fuck?
When asked for my advice regarding a
psychiatric “treatment” that someone is considering, I will do everything
possible to avoid falling into either of these common errors: a) soft-peddling
what I know and b) being insensitive or disrespectful.
I will pay more attention to the plight of
families.
I will be conscientious in my attempt to
integrate feminism, antiracism, anti-ageism, etc. into my antipsychiatry work.
I will stop treating critics of psychiatry
whose analysis differs from mine as THE ENEMY.
If I find myself acting like a troll on an anti/critical
psychiatry site, I will cease and desist
-- then send myself to bed without supper.
I will prioritize infusing kindness into
the antipsychiatry and mad community -- for when “push comes to shove”, besides
that infighting is counterproductive, it matters how we treat one another.
At least once a month, I will tell
antipsychiatry warriors like Lauren Tenney, Don Weitz, Celia Brown, and Mary
Maddock what wonderful work they do.
I will inject far more fun into my antipsychiatry
activism, for to quote Emma Goldman, “If there won’t be dancing at the
revolution, I’m not coming.” (see https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman).
Early in the year, I will form an
antipsychiatry think tank which examines each situation for political leverage,
for what pressure can be brought to bear.
If I happen upon a “mental health”
professional snickering at the tenets of antipsychiatry. I will chime in with
what I know, scrupulously remaining factual, clear, and logical, irrespective of
how he comports himself. Though in
extremis, under my breath, I just might mutter, “May you laugh so hard that
your anus turns inside out.” Oh what a joy it is to curse now and then!
I will critique Bonnie Burstow a whole lot
less -- I duly swear it!
I will critique Bonnie Burstow a whole lot
more -- I duly swear it!
If at any time I see an opinionated shrink coming
my way, I will spit three times, throw salt over my shoulder, hightail it out
of there -- then treat myself to the yummiest schnitzel in town.
Antipsychiatry
Resolutions for Survivors and/or “Users” of Psychiatry
If taking on antipsychiatry in its fullness
feels like more than I can do, I will figure out one baby step -- then act on
it.
I will remind myself regularly that I
deserve a full life, whether or not that means being “psychiatry-free”, which I
suspect that it might.
I will stop waiting for recognized leaders
in the movement to initiate action. Where
I feel strongly about an issue, I will myself assume a leadership role.
I will continue to tell the story of my
psychiatrization, as helpful -- and personal stories are without doubt vital to
our movement and to me. At the same time, should at any point such sharing leave
me feeling in a rut, I will give myself permission “not to go there” or to
contribute in a different way.
If like last year, I again find myself
wondering whether I have a mental illness after all, I will reach out to fellow
survivors who are likewise antipsychiatry. Who better than my brothers and
sisters who have also “been there”?
Antipsychiatry
Resolutions for “Mental Health” Professionals
Instead of dismissing them as impractical, I
will make an effort to learn from the various survivors and
critical/antipsychiatry professionals who venture further than me, for deep
down I know that here is where hope lay.
Bit by bit, I will sever my connection with
institutional psychiatry.
I will stop pretending that the “system”
can be “fixed”.
For every year in which I was silent about
what I knew about psychiatry, I will donate $100.00 to a worthy antipsychiatry
project -- and which of them aren’t worthy?
Whatever the personal cost -- and I am well
aware that the cost will be high -- I will publically declare myself
antipsychiatry -- and explain why.
I will use the credibility bestowed upon me
as a professional to add to the credibility of survivor knowledge.
I will stop charging when I contribute to
the antipsychiatry cause. If others give of their labour freely, why not me?
I will add institutional ethnography to my
repertoire and start mining the everyday “work” with which I was once associated for entries into critical
understanding.
I will forgive myself for the mistake of ever
buying into psychiatry, realizing that I too am a product of socialization.
Counterintuitive though this is for me, I
will stop trying to increase the number of professionals – even empathic ones.
Enough is enough!: I will become a
“whistle-blower”.
I will take as one of my primary responsibilities
transferring my skills to the community, in essence, doing myself out of a job.
More and more, I will challenge my
colleagues -- doctors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists especially -- to
face what they know about psychiatry, indeed, what on some level, the whole world knows -- then to act accordingly.
Closing
Remarks
Hopefully, a few of the resolutions in the
medley above speak to you. If not, by all means, invent your own set from
scratch. What is important here is having a plan and going about the work of
antipsychiatry strategically, reflectively.
In ending, wishing one Donald Trump Esquire
a new calling -- perhaps used car salesman. Wishing “zei gezunt” (be well) to those
who “walk the walk”, whether your social movement be antipsychiatry, feminism,
or environmentalism. Wishing for an end to racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism,
etc. Wishing that psychiatry starts being widely seen for what it is -- a
“pseudo-science” on a par with blood-letting. Wishing for peace in the world. Wishing
for love, kindness, wisdom, community, and revolution.
And wishing everyone everywhere, whatever
your lot in life, a good and “psychiatry-free” year.
References
Breggin, P. (1991). Toxic Psychiatry. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Breggin, P. and Cohen D. (2007). Your Drug May be the Problem: How and Why to
Stop Psychiatric Medication. New York: DeCapo Press.
Burstow, B. (2014). The withering of psychiatry: An attrition model
for antipsychiatry. In Bonnie Burstow, Brenda LeFrançois, & Shaindl Diamond
(Eds.), Psychiatry Disrupted: Theorizing
Resistance and Crafting the (R)evolution (pp. 34-51). Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Lorde, A. (1984). Sister Outsider. Berkeley: Crossing Press.
Szasz, T. (1970). The Manufacture of Madness. New York: Harper and Row.