LAW PROJECT FOR PSYCHIATRIC RIGHTS, INC.
(PsychRights)
(907) 274-7686 Phone ~
(907) 274-9493 Fax
CONTACT:
Jim Gottstein
907 274-7686
Doctors and Other Scientists Signing On Against American
Psychiatric Association
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The American
Psychiatric Association (APA) found itself under siege today as fallout
continues from its inability to back up its claims of a "neuroscientific basis of many mental illnesses." A
courageous band of “psychiatric survivors” are into their ninth day of a
liquids only hunger strike -- the “Fast for Freedom in Mental Health” --
challenging the Mental Health Establishment to back up its scientific claims
justifying forced drugging. Only the APA
of the three challenged by the Hunger Strikers has responded substantively,
saying the answers were in specified textbooks and psychiatric journals. A Scientific Panel of 14 internationally
recognized experts appointed to review responses to the challenge, on August 22nd, turned those
sources on the APA, citing chapter and verse where the purported support for
APA’s position was exactly the opposite.
Since then doctors and other scientists have been “signing onto” the
Science Panel’s report slamming the APA.
See, http://psychrights.org/education/HungerStrike/drs4freedom.htm#Other.
While cyberspace has
been buzzing with the controversy, mainstream media has largely yet to pick up
on these dramatic events. Nicholas Regush, editor of Red Flags Daily has been running daily
stories and most recently challenged the Medical Director of the APA to a
debate. The National Alliance for the
Mentally Ill, one of the two others challenged by the Hunger Strikers failed to
provide any substantive response and are not expected to do so since they rely
on the APA for their information. The
other one challenged, the Surgeon General of the
This may seem an
esoteric question about the origins of mental illnesses, however it is anything
but that because the false claim of biologic origin has been used to justify
the mass chemical lobotomizing of hundreds of thousands of psychiatry’s victims. To the Hunger Strikers and their supporters
around the world, this is a true struggle for freedom – the freedom to have
one’s very mind. Their complaint isn’t
against allowing people to choose the medications, but the right to choose
whether to take them or not. The entire
community of people who have been caught up as psychiatric patients at one time
or another is united against forced drugging.
Jim Gottstein, COO of
the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights)
says, “The courts have been duped by the psychiatric establishment into
thinking they are helping people, when the opposite is true.” PsychRights,’ formed
just under a year ago, has a mission to conduct a calculated series of legal
cases challenging the science behind the current scourge that is forced
medication. “We have dropped everything
else we can to support these brave and courageous Hunger Strikers as much as
possible,” said Psychrights’ President Don Roberts. “Luckily the timing was good as we just filed
our brief to the
Alaska Supreme Court in our appeal challenging the way forced drugging is done
in
# # #