Some interesting quotations (1)

You might find some (or all) of the following quotes interesting:

“… the heart of our work is the hurt in our hearts” – extract from CPCAB philosophy.

“Our selves aren’t just inside our heads- they’re spread throughout our bodies and beyond …” The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are, Prof. Alan Jasanoff.

“There is nothing worse that you can do to a human being in America today than give them a mental illness kind of label and tell them they need drugs … these children are 3, 4, … 8, 9 years-old” – Dr. Peter Breggin.

“The simplest answer to the question of ‘What do we do instead of diagnosing people?’ is ‘Stop diagnosing people’. … And the simplest current alternative is to ask people what their problems are, and start from there.” A Straight-Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Diagnosis, Dr. Lucy Johnstone.

“Throughout modern history, societal progress has been measured in terms of GDP. … Hence, over time, GDP came to be seen as a surrogate for societal wellbeing – something it was never designed to be.” Honourable Prime Minister of Bhutan, keynote address to the International Conference on Gross National Happiness.

“Mental health professionals like me suffer from a serious condition: most of us have never experienced the kind of agony and trauma we have just heard about.” On Not Having Had The Experience, Dr. Peter Stastny.

“Lots of people have beliefs that others may consider to be strange, unusual or not based in fact, and there are many people in society who are living successful independent lives who have beliefs that meet the criteria for delusions.” Beyond Belief: An interview with Dr. Tamasin Knight on alternative responses to unusual beliefs

“It seems to me that this coercive function is what society and most people actually appreciate most about psychiatry.” It’s the Coercion, Stupid!, Prof. David Cohen.

“… if we rethink illness, we can then more honestly describe “psychosis” as a spectrum of experience, not an either-or marker of the presence of some presumed but never-proven disease process.” A New Mental Health System? Interview with Jim van Os

“We must shift our focus to one that validates the lived experience of people who are suffering, however they choose to understand their pain” Is mental illness real? You asked Google – here’s the answer, Dr. Jay Watts.

“Doctors involved in assessing which drugs should be prescribed to NHS patients are receiving up to £100,000 per year from pharmaceutical companies.” The medical model and prescribed drugs, an article in The Daily Telegraph.

“My mental health profession wants people to be comfortable being diagnosed with a mental illness; however, at the same time, my profession embraces the societal status of having a unique weaponry to diagnostically take out those who create intolerable tension for ‘nice people’ …” Bruce E. Levine, Mental Illness Weaponry and Shrink Hypocrisy About Abolishing Stigma

You can find some additional interesting quotations here.