Dave’s Blog
Curtailing the Corporatocracy
In 1995 I saved the life of my then 78- year-old mother-in-law. Before I discuss this further, some context is needed. In the introduction to my third book, Beyond Mental Illness, I state that I am not a PhD, or an MD, but merely a JSW (just a social worker), actually a retired LCSW who happens to know his way around the Internet. I define a class of citizen-empowered researchers, claim myself as one, and then introduce a model for reforming the prevailing mental illness paradigm, the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5). My authority is footnotes, not advanced degrees. So it is in that same spirit that I share some observations regarding advertised products...
Read MoreWe are the Radium Girls.
Little remembered snippets from our history provide illuminating insights for today. The calomel story is one example. From the 1890s to the 1940s, calomel or mercury chloride, was used in powders to ease the pain of teething in babies. The powders contained 0.21 percent mercury, a potent neurotoxin.
Read MoreEnemy of the People?
....We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.
Read More“Looking at all Avenues?”
A culture that ascribes homicidal ideation and behavior to “mental illness” and then fails to explore the biological avenues that contribute to these behaviors is a culture stuck in the past, incapable of accurately diagnosing and treating those whose brains are broken.
Read MoreDear President -Elect Trump
For those of you following this now occasional blog, note that the emphasis is changing from the small picture (my son) to the big picture, those institutional memes that prevent him and others from being treated for their diagnosable illnesses. For those wanting to know more about this I refer you to two books, both entitled “Beyond Mental Illness.” One, by academics, discusses the path of the typical “mental” patient from denial to regression to hospitalization and finally to acceptance that they have truly have a “mental illness.” The other, by me, advocates a path that is currently not taken or supported by most mental health care...
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