Psychiatric Labeling: The APA’s Fast Track from Cradle to Grave
What “mental problems” require detection and “treatment”? How are these “illnesses” researched and defined? “Mathematics disorder,” “attention –deficit/hyperactivity disorder” — all the various problems the screenings purport to detect — essentially are voted into existence by a show of hands at the American Psychiatric Association conventions. (See “
Manufacturing ‘Madness.’”)
There are no medical criteria to measure or establish exactly what these “illnesses” supposedly are. It is a completely subjective process. Compiled into a hefty tome, the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), these questionable labels buttress the efforts of the mental health establishment to categorize millions of normal children as disordered, defiant, and mentally ill. Psychiatric intervention in all cases requires heavy drugging and may also involve custodial care.
Fred A. Baughman Jr., M.D., a pediatric neurologist and Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, characterizes these disorders as “100 percent fraud.” It is, however, extremely profitable fraud, pouring billions into the pockets of the mental health practitioners and the drug manufacturers.
What percentage of the population do these “experts” expect to find “in need of treatment”? A recent U.S. Surgeon General’s report asserts that 50 percent of the population will require mental treatment at some point in their lives. Different estimates peg the figure at 20 percent to 50 percent.
As one can clearly see, these disorders are defined and described with all the scientific credibility of a Salem witch-hunt. The “mental health professionals” would be expected to “discover” at least 9 percent — more likely 20 percent to 50 percent — of the minors interviewed or observed “in need of mental treatment.” Those conducting the screenings would have virtually absolute authority to dictate any treatment of whatever nature they desired.
Jane came to Freedom with her story, as she says, “because it gets a load off my chest. I feel better if people aren’t in the dark about things, if they can read one thing that’s not fake. I know what I’m talking about. I got away. I’ve been given this chance and I’m not going to blow it. I want to get custody of my younger brother and sister and help them. I want to let parents know that the system is not a safe place for kids. I want people to know what goes on in there. I really think that people should keep their kids close to them and deal with the problems, not put them on drugs. That would be stupid. People have died on those medicines. Psychiatry never helped anyone I saw. It made them worse.”
Those labeled “mentally ill” have no civil or human rights. The list of qualifications for this label is growing longer and the reasons for avaricious claims of “threats to life and limb” know no limit.
Before screening populations and gouging even more from the state’s taxpayers, we would do well to consider what pain and suffering it buys for all our children like Jane.
