Posted by Eric on March 22, 2001, at 9:25:48
In reply to Re: Scientists test hallucinogens for depression » Cam W., posted by steve on March 22, 2001, at 2:17:19
> Cam,
>
> The only use of hallucinogens that I could sanction is the use of peyote by the Indians who have done so for thousands of years, and perhaps by others under their supervision.
>
> This whole article smacks of rich people wanting to play God. It is interesting that a Rockefeller is partly funding this work. As you may know, this is not the first time an organization associated with that family has funded psychiatric research overseas as it would have been inacceptable in the US. What I am referring to is the Reign of Terror by Cameron et al at the Allen Institute at McGill, your most acclaimed university.
>
> Unnecessary ECT on a daily basis, with the aim of "destroying" a person's personality, massive doses of needless neuroleptics, lobotomies for the heck of it, and more, supported by the US government and the Rockefeller Foundation. It's too bad I can't find a link about it, I read about it in some reputable history of psychiatry, but it seems that most of the websites that are obsessed by it are a little more paranoid than I would like. What was done cried to heaven, and I think that if organized psychiatry's main dedication had been to its patients (ha!) they would have arranged a Nuremberg style accounting.
>
> In any event I know that if was a Rockefeller (ha!) and was sincerely interested by such stuff, and had the interests of humanity at heart, I would not in any way associate my family name with such undertakings, because of the foul odor that surrounds the name in such aspects. Pace, U Chicago (dr.bob) To me this feels like the performing the Fiddler on the Roof at Bayreuth, an absolute abomination.
>
> One of the establishment newsmags, Atlantic Weekly, or the Nation, reported that Ted K, the Unabomber had probably been given LSD as part of the mind control experiments conducted on unwitting Harvard students. Whether that caused him to go nuts we'll never know, but I think it's a given that subjecting * anyone * to such tests should result in a life sentence, and LSD can seriously scramble people's brain.
>
> Since you pride yourself on your knowledge of and affiliation with psychiatry, let me ask you how familiar you are with Cameron's "work", and how it has affected your view of psychiatry. Do you think that any other branch of medicine would have gotten away with near as brutal "experiments," and why do you think that the guild let it be swept under the table?
>I agree with everything you posted Cam. LSD and similar such hallucinogenics have absolutely NO PLACE in modern day psychiatry. That is exactly the opposite sort of thing we need in psychiatry. Hallucinogenics are very unpredictable drugs and those with major mental illnesses already have brain chemistry that is scrambled enough as it is. Giving them hallucinogenics is the wrong thing to do, in many cases LSD would just scramble brain chemistry more. It might create perception problems(psychosis) where there was none before.
Instead of viewing mental illnesses as "psychological problems" we need to begin viewing mental illness as neurological problems and neuroendocrine problems. The psychological models of mental illness need to be destroyed as crude, backwards and dinosaur like. Just as epilepsy was viewed as "freakish" a hundred or more years ago, we now know much more and realize it is a genuine disease. A medical problem. Hopefully, eventually someday more people will begin to realize severe forms of mental illness are the same. Medical problems. Something is wrong with the old noggin and nervous system.
Would a doctor give LSD for any other medical problem? I think not and if you suggested it youd get laughed out of the office. It should be the same way for mental illness. Instead of playing games with hallucinogenic drugs for these illnesses, more money needs to be spent to overhaul psychiatry and research what actually causes major mental illness so it can be fixed better.
Hallucinogenics for mental illness makes me want to go vomit...just the thought of using LSD for depression is sick, twisted and warped.
Of course, we all know there is a small and vocal minority who enjoys experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs. I think that is what we have here in this study. Let them fry their brains on usesless hallucinogenic drugs, then throw them in jail is what I say. Its very sad that we as mentally ill persons must tolerate such research in the first place. It is insulting to us depressives to hear that "hallucinogenic drugs may someday help us." More like screw us up even more than we already are would be my assessment of it.
Eric
poster:Eric
thread:56948
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010319/msgs/57154.html