Bruno Bettelheim and "mental disorders"

Because I am tied up with preparations for our seminar, to be held on the weekend of 11-12 March, I decided to reprint our article from the May 2005 Journal from our website. See www.consciouslivingseminars.com

"Bruno Bettelheim and the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School of the University of Chicago: A personal view (continued from Volume 5, Number 2)

The decade following the death of Bruno Bettelheim has been called 'the roaring nineties' by Joseph Stiglitz, author of Globalization and its discontents (2002). His book of the same name – The roaring nineties (2003) is subtitled 'A new history of the world’s most prosperous decade' (New York: W W Norton & Company, 2003). And the most prosperous industry in the 1990s was the pharmaceutical industry. The degree to which it was able to colonise our consciousness, through its influence in the mass media and the publishing industry – not to mention its control of governments, the medical profession and so-called 'scientific' research, together with professional journals – is nothing short of breathtaking.
By the end of the decade, the old orthodoxy with which I had grown up in the 1940s and ’50s and which I had naively assumed to have been displaced during the late 1960s and 1970s had been firmly re-established. The mass media carried the message into every home: we are ruled by biology; genes determine everything about us. Where the sixties and seventies had revealed the role of the environment – economic, legal, political, social, cultural and familial – the nineties was formally declared 'the decade of the brain'. Depression, as well as psychiatric “disorders” like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, together with the developmental disorders of childhood and adolescence, such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), anxiety disorders – including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – conduct disorders, learning disorders like dyslexia, and autism, all these, not to mention violence, suicide and delinquency, were due to 'brain chemistry, not bad parenting' [Editorial Review of It’s nobody’s fault (1996), by Harold S Koplewicz, MD. 'For the guilt-ridden parents of nearly 7.5 million children living with mental disorders such as ADD' (amazon.com) the book “offers new hope”].
As Marcia Angell explained in her book on the pharmaceutical industry last year (see CLS Journal for August, 2004, Volume 4, No 8) the real story of the rise of the industry began during the 1980s, beginning with the watershed year, 1980, when legislation was passed by Congress that set the scene for what was to follow – not merely obscene wealth, but almost unlimited power. Several other things happened during the 1980s, however. One of the most important, from the point of view of biological psychiatry at any rate, involved Chestnut Lodge, made famous during the 1940s and ’50s by Frieda Fromm-Reichmann.
In 1982, Raphael Osheroff, who had spent six months at Chestnut Lodge in 1979 and had been discharged after being unsuccessfully treated for depression, filed a malpractice suit against the clinic. Osheroff, who was successfully treated with medication at a psychiatric hospital called Silver Hall, in New Canaan , Connecticut , after leaving Chestnut Lodge, claimed that the latter had been negligent because its choice of treatment, intensive psychotherapy, was inappropriate. Had he been given drug treatment, as he was subsequently at Silver Hall, he would not have deteriorated the way he did at Chestnut Lodge.
Osheroff won the case. Chestnut Lodge appealed and, after several years of legal argument, the case was finally settled out of court in late 1989. Because both parties had been enjoined from disclosing the terms of the settlement, endless debate followed.
One of the features in the seven-year legal battle had been what some called the “defection” of some prominent psychiatrists to the Osheroff side. One of these was Gerald Klerman, a psychiatrist at Cornell University Medical School , a long-time advocate of drug treatment (Gail A Hornstein, To redeem one person is to redeem the world: The life of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann. New York: The Free Press, 2000: 386). The following year – 1990, the year of Bettelheim’s death – Klerman wrote about the case in the American Journal of Psychiatry ('The psychiatric patient’s right to effective treatment: Implications of Osheroff v Chestnut Lodge', AJP, 1990, 147: 409-418). 'The psychiatrist has a responsibility to use effective treatment', Klerman stated; equally, the patient had a right to expect it. The argument was, simply, that when the scientific evidence was clear that medical treatment with antidepressants was more effective than psychotherapy the latter was not justified. When physicians in a given specialty had reached agreement on how to treat a given illness, this meant that there was an agreed-on way to treat that particular disorder – a 'standard of care' had been established. Physicians are expected to adhere to these standards. The cardiologist, for example, administers a routine set of tests and medications. Anything outside this standard of care is unwarranted. Fromm-Reichmann’s biographer concluded: 'Klerman’s attempt to make Chestnut Lodge look like the last vestige of an unscientific psychiatry was just one of many efforts to portray biological methods as the new standard' (Hornstein, 2000: 389).
It worked. Virtually the entire profession was intimidated into submission. Chestnut Lodge, where severely distu rb ed patients were once healed by the gifted Fromm-Reichmann, capitulated. Ann-Louise Silver, then director of Chestnut Lodge, wrote an article about the inclusion of medications in the treatment of patients, in 1997 ('Chestnut Lodge, then and now. Work with a patient with schizophrenia and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder'. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 1997, 33: 227-250). Over a twenty-year period her work evolved, she wrote, from one based on Harry Stack Sullivan’s (and Frieda Fromm-Reichmann’s) approach to something she called, in 1997, 'an assertive ‘psycho-biosocial’ strategy of treatment for schizophrenia' (cited in Joseph Schwartz, Cassandra’s daughter: A history of psychoanalysis in Europe and America. London : Allen Lane , the Penguin Press, 1999: 183). This evolution had not taken place in a vacuum, but 'under the pressures of managed-care approaches to mental distress dominant in the United States since the 1980s' (Schwartz, 1999: 183). In the 1997 article, Silver described her work, over a nine-year period, with a 44-year-old woman who had suffered several schizophrenic breakdowns since adolescence. In addition to psychotherapy, the following drugs were used: atenol, divalproex, clomipramine (Anafranil), clozapine, fluoxetine (Prozac), lerothyroxine, lorazepam and thiothixene. These were used 'to moderate her depression, anxiety, her obsessive behaviour and the effects of the drugs themselves' (ibid). Schwartz explains: 'Mainly acting on the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, these pharmacological agents are now considered by staff at Chestnut Lodge to be necessary to help make patients psychologically available for psychotherapy' (ibid).
Without someone like Fromm-Reichmann and, more to the point, bullied into submission by the combined weight of the medical profession, the legal system and, most important of all, the pharmaceutical industry with its representatives dominating government agencies like the FDA, CDC and NIMH, Chestnut Lodge now uses the above mentioned expensive and dangerous drugs to treat mental disorders. So, too, does the Orthogenic School , presumably for the same reasons. In January of this year, I wrote to the School’s director and asked: 'On the school’s website there are references to pharmacological treatments. Can you tell me what these are – that is, what conditions does the school treat with medications and which ones (eg does the school use, or has it used the SSRI antidepressants to treat depression, OCD or anxiety disorders?' The director wrote back with the following response: 'We use all available pharmacologic agents for psychiatric illness. This includes SSRI’s for depression and anxiety disorders as well as stimulants, mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics'.
Part of the 'colonisation of consciousness' I mentioned earlier involved, during the nineties, a strategy to discredit non-medical approaches to dealing with human suffering, including not only non-biological techniques – such as psychoanalysis – but the practitioners themselves. Concurrently with a highly visible campaign to discredit psychoanalysis during the nineties (much of which was well-deserved), there was an equally public campaign to discredit those who had been the most successful in healing people without using medication, such as Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Bruno Bettelheim and even Virginia Axline.
A spate of books appeared during the nineties, denouncing psychoanalysis, psychoanalysts and, in particular, the 'mavericks' like Fromm-Reichmann and Bettelheim. The internet, too, was flooded with caricatures of these practitioners, some even thinking that Virginia Axline, a Rogerian who founded non-directive play therapy with children, was a psychoanalyst. Books like Edward Shorter’s A History of psychiatry: From the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac and Edward Dolnick’s Madness on the couch: Blaming the victim in the heyday of psychoanalysis (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998) – and, in 2002, Matt Ridley’s Nature via nurture, mercilessly caricatured both psychoanalysts and psychoanalysis as well as all non-medical approaches to 'mental disorders'. Similarly, a spate of books on autism, while purporting to be personal accounts of the experience of autism, went out of their way to heap scorn on people like Bettelheim, Fromm-Reichmann and Virginia Axline, often taking a swipe at several earlier practitioners along the way (eg Clara Claiborne Park’s The siege, 1967 and 1995; Judy and Sean Barron’s There’s a boy in here, 1992 and 2002; and Catherine Maurice’s Let me hear your voice, 1993 and 1994).
The so-called 'memory wars' need to be seen in the same context (Frederick Crews et al, The memory wars: Freud’s legacy in dispute. London: Granta Books, 1995 and 1997; Mark Prendergrast, Victims of memory: Incest accusations and shattered lives. New York: Upper Access Books, 1995 and 1996; London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996; Frederick Crews, editor, Unauthorized Freud: Doubters confront a legend. New York: Viking, 1998).
It is absolutely crucial to understand that Richard Pollak’s biography of Bruno Bettelheim, first published at the beginning of 1997 and reprinted the following year, is part and parcel of this phenomenon. This is irrespective of whether it is part of a calculated, deliberate campaign or not, as I mentioned in February. A book that is so full of inaccuracies and written with so little compassion for its subject would not have had the same impact had it appeared ten years earlier.
It is therefore important to discuss the whole issue of Bruno Bettelheim and his work at the Orthogenic School not as one that is merely interesting and valuable in itself but as a phenomenon that is inextricably bound up with the rise of the pharmaceutical industry and its attempt to redefine what it is to be human. That is to say, while Bruno Bettelheim the person is obviously important to the people who have known him personally, such as former students and counsellors at the Orthogenic School, his children and former friends and associates, his relevance for the rest of us is what he stood for and the forces that opposed him (and continue to oppose him). From that point of view, it does not take exceptional perceptiveness to see that, if substantial numbers of severely disturbed or distressed young people were rehabilitated without medication then the entire edifice constructed by the pharmaceutical industry and the psychiatric profession over the past two decades collapses. It is therefore essential that Bruno Bettelheim be discredited or, failing that, that both he and 'his school' be forgotten. The medical profession, the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry, the institutions of scientific research and their professional journals, government agencies, the mass media and the publishing industry has done – over the past two decades, what it needed to do to survive as an obscenely wealthy and powerful set of interconnected structures. It has redefined our understanding of human nature, health and illness (although this meant little more than simply reverting to a conception that has been popular for several centuries) using every means at its disposal.
The publication of books and newspapers and the promotion of television programs aiming to discredit successful healers like Bruno Bettelheim, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann and Virginia Axline was one important part of the strategy. Marketing sickness (eg depression, OCD, ADD, ADHD and panic disorders and social phobia) and drugs to treat them has been another important element in the strategy. For example, in 1989, Judith Rappaport made OCD a household name with the publication of her bestselling book The boy who couldn’t stop washing (New York: E P Dutton, 1989). As a result, OCD, virtually unknown prior to 1989 because it was such a rare “disorder” became, overnight, a disease afflicting millions. By 1997, when David Healy published The antidepressant era, it was thought to afflict up to 3% of the American population, meaning that some seven million people in the USA were said to have this disorder. The most common medical treatment for it involves the SSRIs like Prozac, Zoloft, Luvox and so on. A similar story can be told for ADD and ADHD (and the successful marketing of Ritalin), as well as depression (and the incredibly successful marketing of SSRIs, especially Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil [Aropax]).
Yet another crucial component in the strategy was the necessity of hiding the truth, both concerning the ineffectiveness of these so-called wonder drugs and, equally, their well-documented (though secret) side effects, such as the tendency to make their users agitated, manic, suicidal and/or violent. By the time Prozac came onto the American market in 1988-1990, for example, both the manufacturer and government agencies in countries such as Germany already had scientific evidence, from clinical trials, about these side effects. These were not made public. Then, pretty much as soon as people began taking Prozac (and the other SSRIs), several highly publicised events began to occur.
The manufacturers of the SSRI antidepressants like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil (Aropax), Celexa and Luvox survived a series of high profile murder-suicide incidents through a clever manipulation, not only of the mass media, government agencies and the medical profession (as well as the scientific community) but even the legal system.
On 3 August, 1989 , Joseph Wesbecker was prescribed Prozac for depression. Five weeks later, his psychiatrist, Lee Coleman, noticed that Wesbecker had become very agitated and much more nervous and anxious and angry than he normally was. He suspected that Prozac was the cause, told Wesbecker to stop taking it and urged hospitalisation. Three days later, on 14 September, 1989, still with a high level of Prozac in his blood, Wesbecker walked into his former workplace, a printing plant in Louisville, Kentucky, with an AK-47 assault rifle, killed eight people and wounded another twelve and then turned the gun on himself (Peter R Breggin and Ginger Ross Breggin, Talking back to Prozac: What doctors won’t tell you about today’s most controversial drug. New York: St Martin’s Press, June, 1994/St Martin’s Press paperback, September, 1995: 148-150).
Prozac horror stories flooded the media and, by the end of 1992 no fewer than 170 lawsuits were filed against its manufacturer, Eli Lilly. Reports linking Prozac to violence appeared in the media and in Talking back to Prozac the authors document dozens of cases of violence or a preoccupation with violence by people taking Prozac. These cases take up five pages of print. Most of the dozens of incidents related to suicide or homicide. In September, 1991, the FDA held a public hearing to examine the issue, listened to several heartrending stories and decided Prozac was safe. By March, 1994, Bonnie Leitsch, director of the national Prozac Survivors Support Group, had documented over 1000 cases of individuals who had had 'adverse reactions' to Prozac, the vast majority being related to violence against self or others – including both murder and suicide (Breggin and Breggin, 1994/1995: 159).
A large number of the surviving families of the victims of Wesbecker took Eli Lilly to court. Peter Breggin was their chief medical expert witness for the Plaintiff. Amongst other things, he testified that Eli Lilly had withheld information from the public, the medical establishment and the FDA, namely that they had conducted clinical trials which showed that Prozac could increase the rate of suicide attempts and lead to very high rates of agitation and could even cause psychotic mania (Peter R Breggin, The anti-depressant fact book: What your doctor won’t tell you about Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa and Luvox. Cambridge , Massachusetts: Perseus Publishing, July, 2001: 174-175).
The jury came back with a 9-3 verdict in favour of Eli Lilly. The mass media gave wide coverage to the drug company’s victory. Then something extraordinary happened. Prior to the commencement of proceedings, Breggin had found that Paul Smith, the attorney for the litigants, did not seem to be interested in his testimony, had put him in a hotel several miles removed from the legal team and had even hidden evidence from him. They’d had several heated confrontations over what Breggin saw as Smith’s obstructionist tactics. Indeed, Breggin had to write out his testimony in the form of dozens of prepared questions for Smith to ask him and only after yet another confrontation did Smith agree to ask some of the questions – but not all. He refused, for example, to ask Breggin about some of the most important discoveries he’d made (Breggin, 2001: 176). 'Increasingly I felt like I was being set up, but why or to what end?'
Soon after the trial, presiding judge John W Potter concluded that Eli Lilly and Co had fixed the trial. Even though, toward the end of the trial, he had asked both sides if they had made a secret settlement, and both sides had denied it, the judge concluded that an agreement had, indeed, been reached between the parties: in return for the drug company paying a large, undisclosed amount to the plaintiffs (hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Breggin’s estimate), Smith agreed to present a watered down case as well as to discredit Breggin as an expert witness for future Prozac suits (Breggin, 2001: 177). The trial was rigged.
Judge Potter threw out the jury verdict and changed it to a settlement with prejudice (ibid) by Eli Lilly and Co. Eli Lilly – as well as Paul Smith – appealed the judge’s decision to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which concluded, in May 1996, that the drug company had manipulated the judicial system and may even have committed fraud. Although Potter wanted to disclose the amount of money that had been paid, a new judge concluded that the amounts were so large that their disclosure would harm the drug company. 'The case ended with the invalidation of the jury verdict and the open admission that the Wesbecker trial had been rigged' (Breggin, 2001: 178). The mass media failed to report the reversal against the drug company, with one exception (the British news agency, Reuters). 'As a result of the media silence, the fake trial was a massive legal, public relations and political victory for Eli Lilly & Co' (ibid).
Peter Breggin summed it up like this: 'The Wesbecker trial indicates the degree to which a powerful drug company can and will influence American society, including the courts and the media. This influence reaches into the very heart of organized psychiatry and medicine' (Breggin, 2001: 179).
William Forsyth was diagnosed as being depressed in December 1992, by Dr Riggs Roberts, a Hawaiian psychiatrist in private practice. It was not a serious depression. He was not suicidal and did not require hospitalisation (David Healy, Let them eat prozac: The unhealthy relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and depression. New York: New York University Press, 2004: 91). The psychiatrist prescribed Prozac. Two days later, he felt so bad he had to go to hospital. Ten days after going on Prozac he left the hospital, went home, had a meal with his wife, stabbed her fifteen times and then 'fixed a serrated kitchen knife to a chair and impaled himself on it' (Healy, 2004: 93).
The case went to court, after almost seven years, in March and April, 1999. The jury found in favour of Eli Lilly. On 20 April, 1999 , the plaintiffs appealed. The case was settled out of court in 2002! Once again, as Healy (2004: 129-149) describes, there were strange goings-on, this time in the jury room, which was why the plaintiffs appealed the verdict.
The decade of the nineties rolled on, producing unprecedented profits for the pharmaceutical industry. Prozac made, not millions, but billions of dollars for the manufacturer (the other SSRIs were not far behind). In spite of both scientific evidence that ALL the SSRIs, including Prozac, had deadly side-effects including homicide and suicide, and in spite of regular murder-suicides which received huge publicity, the thought processes of the average American and Australian citizen remained unresponsive. The combined weight of the pharmaceutical industry, the medical profession, the professional scientific community, government agencies, the mass media and the publishing industry deadened our cognitive abilities.
On 21 May, 1998, Kip Kinkel, who 'had been receiving psychiatric treatment that probably included his taking Prozac sometime in the past and Ritalin at the time of the shooting', killed his parents and opened fire at Thurstone High School, in Oregon, wounding a 17-year-old student in the chest (Peter R Breggin, Reclaiming our children: A healing plan for a nation in crisis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Books, 2000: 10, 19).
On 16 April, 1999, Shawn Cooper, a fifteen-year-old student at Notus Junior-Senior High School in Notus, Idaho, fired two shotgun rounds, narrowly missing students and school staff. He was taking Ritalin at the time (Breggin, 2000: 19).
On the morning of 20 April, 1999 , eighteen-year-old Eric Harris and his friend, seventeen-year-old Dylan Klebold, killed or wounded 35 students and one teacher at Columbine High School, in Littleton, Colorado. They then killed themselves. Twelve students and one teacher were killed, that is, there were fifteen deaths, with another 23 injured. Eric Harris had been receiving 'medical treatment' for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) with the SSRI, Luvox (fluvoxamine).
On 20 May, 1999 , exactly one month after the shootings at Columbine High School, a fifteen-year-old student, Thomas (“T J”) Solomon, fired on his classmates at Heritage High School in Conyers, Georgia . T J Solomon entered the school carrying a .357 magnum revolver and a .22-calibre rifle. He shot and wounded six students before being persuaded to hand his weapons over by Assistant Principal Cecil T Brinkley. At the time of the shootings, T J had been receiving treatment, supposedly for depression, with Ritalin.
The response of the United States Government was swift. On 7 June, 1999 , President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and their wives, Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore, opened the high-profile White House Conference of Mental Health in Washington, DC. Hillary Clinton introduced two psychiatrists (both biological psychiatrists) at the opening session. One was Steven Hyman, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The other was Harold S Koplewicz, author, in 1996, of the book I mentioned earlier, It’s nobody’s fault (Koplewicz has, since then, published another book, called More than moody: Recognizing and treating adolescent depression. New York: G P Putnam & Sons, 2002; First Pedigree, paperback, edition, September, 2003. Bennett L Leventhal, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics and the current director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, called it 'an outstanding book', while Tipper Gore wrote: 'I hope every family with teenagers reads it'). Peter Breggin takes up the story: 'First one and then the other doctor informed us that our children suffer from genetic and biological brain diseases that cause many millions of them to be mentally distressed and potentially violent. The child psychiatrist (Harold Koplewicz) specifically rejected any possibility that ‘bad childhood traumas’, ‘inadequate parenting’ or even ‘absent fathers’ could be at the root of the suffering displayed by so many of our 70 million infants, children and youths under eighteen, including 52 million school children' (Breggin, 2000: 2-3).
Already before the conference, both Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore, using the President’s weekly radio address, had promoted the conference and its 'central theme' – that mental disorders are physical diseases of the brain that are best treated with medication (Breggin, 2000: 18). Mrs Gore – who had the previous month publicly stated that her 'clinical depression' in 1989 had been helped by antidepressants, estimated that “more than one in five Americans experience some form of mental illness every year, from depression to 'schizophrenia' (quoted in Breggin, 2000: 18). 'Many mental disorders are biological in nature and can be medically treated', she added. At the conference there were repeated references to the shootings at Columbine High School , but none to the fact that Eric Harris was taking medication at the time – as was the case for T J Solomon when he had become violent the previous month. Ignoring the role of drugs like the SSRI antidepressants and Ritalin in dozens of high profile shootings, President Clinton announced a new multi-agency Federal initiative aimed at providing training programs to all American schools and communities in order to 'identify troubled children' and 'provide them better school mental health services', that is, more medication!
Peter Breggin summed up one of the main themes like this: '(A)s parents and interested adults, we have nothing whatsoever to do with our children’s suffering … We do not contribute to or cause any of their more serious emotional, psychological, or social difficulties – and there’s little we can do about our children except hand them over to the experts for psychiatric diagnosis and drugging' (Breggin, 2000: 18-19).
And again: 'The psychiatric/drug company public relations campaign has been so successful that many people, including otherwise devoted and sensitive mothers like Mrs Clinton and Mrs Gore, have failed to appreciate the inherent destructiveness of attributing all personal suffering and misconduct to genetics and brain disease. Biological psychiatry disempowers parents while sapping family life of meaning. It reduces our own suffering and misconduct and that of our loved ones, to mechanical breakdown in brain chemistry' (Breggin, 2000: 20).
The power of the pharmaceutical industry to manipulate both public opinion and officialdom is evident in several ways. First, in spite of all the evidence, all the SSRIs are still legal and readily available, as are stimulants like Ritalin, so-called 'mood stabilizers' and anti-psychotics. Millions of people are being prescribed these medications daily, even as reports of suicide, murder and other “adverse reactions” continue unabated. Secondly, when these side effects are being publicised, such as the stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post during the past year-and-a-half, they are done so in a misleading way (see, for example, CLS Journal for April 2004). No one reading the New York Times last year could possibly realize that all the “latest revelations” have a history that predates the licensing of the SSRIs. There is nothing about the scientific evidence that has been readily available in professional journals for almost twenty years. The hundreds of settled cases against the drug companies, as well as the legal and illegal manoeuvrings are simply invisible.
In Australia, things are even worse. Our mass media have a virtual ban on discussing the issue. There have been rare exceptions, such as the Four Corners program on 28 April, 2003 and an article in the Sydney Morning Herald last year. These are, as I say, extremely rare. When a popular children’s magazine published a one-sided article on OCD last year and Ha rb ans and I wrote a reply, attempting to warn parents about the real – and well-documented – dangers of the SSRIs used to treat OCD, our letter was not published (see CLS Journal, Volume 4, No 8). In the recent spate of murder-suicides (and in the most recent high profile suicide of René Rivkin) the mass media have remained silent about the possible role of Prozac and other SSRIs, even though these drugs have been involved in nearly all cases, especially the shootings at the Red Lake Indian reservation in which 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed nine people before committing suicide. Relations wondered whether the ever-increasing levels of Prozac he was taking may have affected him (see New York Times, 27 March, 2005 ).
In this entire public non-debate, virtually the only point of view heard is that of biological psychiatry. The issue of 'mental disorders', of depression, of 'OCD', of ADD and ADHD, of the orgy of suicide and homicide – the whole issue has been medicalised, with governments again announcing increased expenditure for so-called “mental health services”. There is one issue that has been virtually banished. That is the way we treat babies and children. The question of natural, drug-free childbirth, not in a hospital but at home or in a birthing centre, of the importance of mother-child bonding and attachment, of the importance, for the baby and toddler, of staying with the parents rather than being placed in so-called 'day care' (or “childcare”) during the first three years, of breastfeeding for at least two years if this is possible, of picking babies up when they cry in order to comfort them, of sleeping with them and carrying them on our bodies – these matters have been relegated not to the unimportant but to the nonexistent. The idea that what happens within the family during a child’s first three years might have anything to do with whether they develop so-called 'mental disorders' or not has been banished into oblivion. So, too, it seems, the idea that, even when things go wrong we should look at the child’s environment (home, childcare centre, preschool, school, for example) or consider some form of healing that does not require medication.
Bruno Bettelheim, in his numerous publications, had a great deal to say about many of the above 'non-issues'. That is the reason for the incredibly successful public campaign to discredit him. In the long term, his work will endure because it represents an enduring wisdom. A counsellor at the Orthogenic School put it this way, in correspondence with me last December: 'The positive in what he wrote and practised is valid because of its inherent validity'. What he wrote is that the environment in which babies and young children live is a crucial determinant of both physical and mental health; that whatever it is that we inherit in terms of our genetic makeup cannot, in itself, make us ill, but requires an environment of some sort to determine health or sickness; that the EARLIEST interactions between baby and care giver, usually the mother, form the most important elements in the baby’s environment. And, finally, he wrote – and dedicated his adult working life to demonstrating – that the effects of the baby’s and young child’s experiences are reversible, even when severe damage has been done. The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School of the University of Chicago – or, rather, the so-called 'milieu therapy' it practised for several decades – was the creation of Bruno Bettelheim. While there were clearly exceptions, the numerous people whose lives it profoundly touched are testimony to the validity of 'what he wrote and practised'.
Andrew Reiner 18 May, 2005 "

Actually, I think it may be relevant to republish the editorial in the CLS Journal for May 2005, as well:

"Editorial (Wednesday, 18 May, 2005)
Yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald put the launch, the previous day (Monday, 16 May), of Growing up in Australia by Kay Patterson, the (Commonwealth) Minister for Family Services, on the front page, under the headline: 'Back-to-work mothers hail the new era'. The first sentence of this disheartening story reads: 'Two out of five mothers return to work by the time their child turns one and nearly 70 per cent are working at least part-time by the time their children turn five, research into the lives of 10,000 Australian children shows' (Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday, 17 May, 2005 , p1).
The research, conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, was commissioned by the Commonwealth Government and cost $20 million. The Minister is quoted as saying: 'I have consistently said that children are better off in a household where parents have a job'. The study also found that 'only about half of infants were still being breastfed at six months' (Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May, 2005, p4) and that over 20% of four-to-five-year-olds were 'overweight or obese'. The majority of parents with obese children actually believed their children were 'a healthy weight'.
This comes less than a week after the unveiling by the Government of its $3.6 billion 'welfare-to-work strategy', aimed at forcing single parents, mostly mothers, 'to work', as government spokespeople quaintly put it.
This is all extremely disheartening stuff. Even conservative professionals are now recommending breastfeeding for at least twelve months; the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a minimum of two years. For a government Minister to state publicly that children 'are better off in a household where parents have a job', without saying anything about the critical importance of the first three years – but in particular the first year – is tantamount to encouraging mothers to abandon their babies.
Below [see above] I conclude the article on Bruno Bettelheim and the Orthogenic School. As I explain, something has happened during the past 15-20 years to make the kind of 'discussion' represented by the Herald article possible. Nowhere in the current 'debate' does anyone challenge either the vocabulary (full-time mothers, apparently, do not 'work') or the lack of research into the connection between these appalling statistics and the epidemic of depression and other 'mental disorders'. I put the vilification of Bettelheim and the attempt to discredit his work into this context. That is, in order to have this mind-boggling discussion at all, it is essential to eliminate people like Bruno Bettelheim and discredit the activities of the Orthogenic School first. What we read in our newspapers or watch on our television sets is so out of touch with reality and so bizarre that we simply no longer notice it. The important thing is to ensure that whatever we do as parents and whatever we do as a society, we must deceive ourselves into believing that our babies and young children will not be harmed. This was a point of view Bruno Bettelheim challenged and, in death if not in life, he has paid the price for revealing important truths about our society".

The depression epidemic - Part X (Personal experience; Conclusion)

When I decided to try something different (Self Transformation Seminars - or ST) in November 1984, I had recently (September 1984) graduated with a PhD in Psychology. I "understood" how depression and other kinds of suffering happened and, in particular, I thought I understood how my own depression had been a response to my mother's suicide. I had devoted 13 years of my life (from the beginning of 1971 to October 1983) to the formal study of Psychology. When I submitted my PhD thesis during the first week of October 1983, I walked away from academia, from my children (who'd decided to live with their mother full time) and from the Yinbilliko school community that had been a vital part of my life for the previous eight years, without a job, without any idea what do with my life, feeling a total failure. I fell into a deep depression lasting four months, began driving cabs seven days a week, emerged from my depression, fell in love again and began a new life with my new partner. During 1984, small bouts of depression still plagued me, as well as issues that began to emerge in my new relationship - and I still could not find a job, though I wrote out dozens of applications! My self esteem had not improved in spite of academic success and I found that, in response to even small criticisms or slights from my partner (and, at times, my children), I would alternate between going cold or numb and exploding with violent rage.

I agreed to try ST even though I was convinced that I was incurable, for one reason and one reason only - I felt desperate. I had had a couple of unpleasant experiences with Clinical Psychologists as well as a couple of pleasant ones with counsellors which did not, however, lead anywhere at the time. Earlier in 1984, in January, when I had still been feeling depressed, I had two sessions with a gifted NLP therapist. In one session, a spontaneous memory-image appeared from my adolescence (I was 15 years old), one that I recalled consciously and had even recorded in a diary I kept at the time. I had unexpectedly returned early from school because sport had been cancelled. I found my mother unconscious on the floor of the bathroom, in a pool of blood. She had taken an overdose of sleeping pills in yet another attempt to kill herself. In her groggy state, she had fallen and banged her head on the bathtub as she fell - hence the blood. At the time - and whenever I happened to recall this particular event in later years - I felt sorrow and helplessness. Now, after more than 20 years, I suddenly felt rage. This was totally new. The therapist did not believe that any good would come from dwelling on this and brought me out of my process (He had not intended to "regress" me, as he did not believe in the value of unnecessarily experiencing pain). Yet, on the next occasion, I went even deeper - again spontaneously, again without any encouragement from him. This time, an image of myself in what appeared to be the first few days of life formed (Coincidentally, if anything is coincidental - five years after this therapy session, during a talk with my uncle and aunt, they spontaneously mentioned this very event, which they recalled as having taken place on either the day I was born or the following day). At the time (January 1984) I had no way of knowing whether the image was real or fantasy. It was a very private experience and I feel no need to go into the details, other than to say that the feeling I experienced was the terror of dying, darkness, emptiness, nothingness. The therapist again brought me out of this, but not without first creating a positive feeling-state. I only just realised that it must have been shortly after this that I emerged (temporarily) from my depression.

During ST I in November/December 1984, I had a couple of similar experiences, some from very early childhood (ie during the first year of life) and some from later childhood (ages 2-9) and adolescence. Some of them, especially in relation to my father, were unexpectedly positive. I had an incredibly moving (but painful) experience on the Saturday morning of the workshop (1st December) when I allowed myself to re-experience the moment of learning that my mother had died. This time, in contrast to 21 years earlier, when I had gone numb, I allowed myself to feel, fully, the almost unbearable grief and pain and to express these feelings fully. Later the same day I had my first experience of "transcendence" - even though I did not believe in such things - during which I communicated with my mother and we said good-bye properly.

I also learned to meditate, a practice I kept up for many years, as well as a new approach to life based on Jung's concept of synchronicity. As conceptualised by ST, this meant that there was a meaningful correspondence between "inner, subjective" experience and "outer, objective" reality. In practical terms, this meant that if we changed our thoughts, beliefs and intentions the external world would automatically change as well. The was how we literally created our own reality. It made sense to me, I applied it and found it to work - the only test of the validity of any concept as far as I am concerned. I also absorbed something of the Hindu cosmology (though it wasn't called that - in fact it wasn't called anything) in which we are all connected, there is no individual, separate self (our experience of separateness is an illusion) and our (Higher) Self exists in neither time nor space, but is temporarily embodied in a human form in order to play the game of life, before dying again and returning home. This was not a new belief I acquired - It was something I FELT (at least for a few months!).

As I described in my "story" (www.consciouslivingseminars.com/andrews_story.html ), the following year, when I moved to Canberra to join the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA) , was the first full year I spent free from depression. My next personal crisis came about because of the three months I spent at Kempsey (on the New South Wales mid-north coast). The period of intense contact with Aborignal people stirred something witjin me, something I found difficult to articulate. Its positive aspect was a loosening of my attachment to my own culture and a growing pull towards Aboriginal values (Something within me had "recognized", connected with and responded to something I only vaguely recognized as "Aboriginal"). Its negative aspect was the anger I felt at the injustices I had learned about. The scale of the injustices threatened to overwhelm me and I lost the faith in a benevolent and purposeful universe I had acquired on ST I. The universe had again become cold and empty, without purpose, without divinity or spirit. These feelings affected my relationship and that was the reason for both my wife and myself enrolling in the six-month course called "Being of Service (BOS)" - which later became BEST. Again, I have written about this course in my "story".

In the October 2003 Journal, in an article on healing, I wrote that the first step in the healing process is the recognition that we are hurting in some way. "What is the next step?" I asked. Here is what I wrote (I include it here because I believe that the reason I was able to heal was because of something I did at this point, before the BEST course began):

"The next step is more difficult, indeed it is the most difficult step in the whole healing process, one which very few people take, skipping it and taking the next step. This does not work. If you skip this next step, healing is unlikely to occur. Ideally, this next step will arise spontaneously, from an awareness of something we might call your 'life-force', your 'life energy' or your powers of self-healing. That is to say, some part of you recognises the 'biological wisdom' within you. There are many, many names for this: Abraham Maslow called it the 'self-actualising tendency'. Some 'Eastern' traditions call it 'self-realisation'. For me, it is simply some part of our essential human nature, that longs to LIVE and is characterised by passionately saying 'YES' to life. It is a part of us, an essential part of our being that WANTS TO GROW (and which wants OTHERS to grow, as well – it is INCLUSIVE). Yet another way to say this is that we need to have an awareness of – perhaps merely a momentary glimpse of or connection with – our 'Higher Self'. We need not recognise it as our 'Higher Self'. We need not articulate it at all. We need no more than a momentary awareness of something stirring within us – a power or a force or an energy – that has compassion for us, that is interested in our wellbeing and wants us to heal ourselves and grow to our full potential. If we can recognise some such force or power, then the next step is easy. We make a simple commitment to heal ourselves, no matter what obstacles we may encounter.

Why is commitment essential? Before I began the "Being of Service" (B.O.S.) course with the Self Transformation Centre in Canberra in February, 1986, the following quote (attributed – wrongly, I think – to Goethe) was sent to us as part of our pre-course reading:

'Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no-one could have dreamed would have come his way.'

I had read these words, in January, 1986, at a time when I had no such belief. Yet, without the intervention of any rational thought process, I instantaneously recognised the truth of these words. I believe that, at that moment, I made a temporary connection to my Higher Self (even if aided by some words on a piece of paper).

So, whether one has such an awareness spontaneously, or whether the awareness is mediated by what someone says, or writes or does, it will commence the process of healing. I am convinced that the reason so many people can spend years in therapy without healing is that they have never taken the step of committing themselves to health. The commitment can be made in the form of one or more INTENTIONS. The intention can be as vague as 'to heal myself' or 'to attain total health'. It can also be specific, such as an intention to heal a specific trauma or to experience feelings of joy and vitality (instead of depression and fatigue, for example).

Provided only that the commitment is genuine (and not merely a form of words), 'Providence' will, indeed, move. Things will, indeed, begin to occur to support you 'that would never otherwise have occurred' – or perhaps, having made the commitment, you will NOTICE, rather than ignore, such occurrences. Unforeseen 'incidents and meetings and material assistance' will, indeed start to happen – or again, you will BE AWARE of them and PAY ATTENTION TO THEM. The assistance can come in an infinite variety of forms, some of them apparently negative. For example, someone close to you may fall ill or even die. You yourself may fall seriously ill. You may be the apparent victim of some tragedy. You may become unemployed, or your partner may leave you or your business may collapse. Equally, you may meet someone special and form a close friendship or an intimate relationship. Or you may look for and discover an exceptionally gifted therapist or counsellor or a personal growth organisation whose programs are tailor-made for you. This is what Self Transformation Seminars (ST) called 'the law of synchronicity', a concept borrowed from Jung.

When your intention is clear, when your commitment to growth or healing is genuine, you will recognise when a person or a program or process is not in your best interests. You will also 'make a virtue of necessity' so that, for example, if you have chosen a therapist who proves inappropriate, or who does something that is potentially harmful, or you participate in an experiential process that is poorly run, you will CHOOSE TO GROW ANYWAY, rather than engage in fault-finding (and using the faults as an excuse NOT to grow). A commitment to your wellbeing will sensitise you to characteristics in a therapist you may otherwise have missed, for example, whether this therapist needs his clients to need him, or whether he is likely to support the growth of independence and autonomy".

The following 18 months were a continuous demonstration of this principle. First, we discussed, over several hours, a set of agreements and commitments that we eventually signed, the essence of which was our personal commitment to growth and healing, no matter what obstacles came up and no matter how crippling we believed our past experiences to have been. Next, we each, individually, wrote out, clearly and concretely, what our issues were (our "problems" as we once would have said), what the intended outcome was and what concrete, tangible steps we were intending to take, over the duration of the course, to achieve the outcome we sought. I included several "results" that I at that time believed to be impossible to achieve.

Over the next 18 months, I completed BOS, went overseas, experienced the collapse of my marriage , entered therapy (for want of a better word) and enrolled in BOS (renamed BEST) once again, completing it in June 1987. As I think about this process, I realise that I will once again have to summarise. Only a full-scale book could do justice to the events as I experienced them. In a nutshell then, the first six months consisted of several spontaneous processes of re-experiencing events from my past. Some of these were from my teenage years, some from early childhood, including my birth and one even earlier! When I went overseas to visit my native Hungary (July to October 1986), relatives and former friends of the family were able to fill in many missing details. One of these had been my nanny during the first three years of my life. Another had been my mother's closest friend and our neighbour. We visited Gyongyos, the village where my mother had grown up. I met and had lengthy conversations with two of my mother's cousins in London. When one of them took me to visit a synagogue on Yom Kippur, I was overcome with emotions I did not then understand.

The first six months of 1986 (BOS) had been a journey into the unknown, into my unconscious if you like. The following three months overseas had continued this process. Back in Canberra, I had three sessions of counselling, a dozen sessions of deep tissue massage and started BEST. I continued my inner journey, aided by the collapse of my relationship, which brought up even more feelings. I often felt as if I could not go on (either with the healing or with life). Throughout this period, we were continually encouraged to examine our "list" (the one containing descriptions of our issues and goals) and to focus on the intended outcome, rather than merely indulging our pain. Toward the end of March 1987 I reached rock bottom, felt unable to continue with the course and advised the course teacher I was pulling out. She encouraged me to stay. I recommitted. Over the next six weeks a series of events I could not possibly have predicted occurred, leading me to a crisis. I had two more counselling sessions during one of which I spontaneously relived an event that had occurred some time during the first year of my life (actually, it turned out to have been an event that occurred several times), the one that was the real source of my "depression" (I put the word in inverted commas to indicate that it is only a summary-word for the full complexity of the painful feelings I experienced) . Eventually, on the weekend of 23-24 May, during a weekend workshop I experienced a moment of magic and emerged feeling joyful and at peace. I will one day describe this experience (and what led to it) fully. A "blog" no longer feels like an appropriate place to do so.

As I go on to describe in my "story" I did not "live happily ever after". Life continued to pose new challenges and continues to do so. But I have been free of depression since April/May 1987.
I certainly have my ups and downs, but nothing that compares with how I used to feel. When I do feel down, it passes quickly. It goes without saying that there are other issues that have not been quite so magically healed.

I have gone into so much detail as a way of saying that, contrary to the uninformed statements we read daily in our newspapers (eg the ones described in Part I), depression is neither something that "can strike anyone" (that is, it has causes), nor is it incurable, requiring dangerous medication, nor is it something which requires us to talk about a "chemical imbalance" in the brain. With regard to the latter, it is more than likely that the consequences of painful experiences are reflected in our brain chemistry. It's just that it is unhelpful to talk about them (and dangerous, because it implies, to some, a need for drugs to "fix" the chemistry). We can be quite sure that the experiences of healing described above also alter our brain chemistry! There is, in fact, "scientific" evidence demonstrating such changes as a result of psychotherapy, not surprisingly.

I hope you have enjoyed this very lengthy ten-part series on depression and I hope it has answered some of your questions - or at least led to questions you can explore for yourselves. We do not need to suffer endlessly. Healing is possible. More important, we can prevent not only depression but other so-called "mental disorders" by examining some of our social arrangements and priorities. Wherever we are on our journey at this moment, whatever has happened to us up to this point in time, whatever we, ourselves have done before, we can begin the process of healing right now, for ourselves primarily but also for our children if we have any. I wish you well on your journey.

The depression epidemic - Part IX (Personal experience; Conclusion)

[Note: There are various sources for what follows - oral testimony of elderly relatives, recollections of what had been told to me by my parents, taped interviews, a few scattered documents and, especially for some of the early history, several books on the history of Hungarian Jewry, as well as the following two : AJP Taylor (1948) The Habsburg monarchy, 1809-1918 (Penguin, 1985); Miklos Molnar (1996) A concise history of Hungary (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001). Some of the material comes from my own memories, including a few that resulted from my personal healing. These were not what are sometimes derisively called "recovered memories" but, rather, a reliving of early childhood experiences, ones in which "the past" literally became, for a short time, "the present"]. My mother was born during the dying days of both World War I and the Habsburg Empire, in what was then (August 1917) a part of Austria-Hungary and which is now Slovakia. The family moved south to (the north-eastern part of modern) Hungary soon after, part of large scale moves by Hungarians, including Jews, to relocate before the creation of the "successor states" of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and (German) Austria. She was barely one when the world-wide flu pandemic (which my parents referred to as "the Spanish flu") wiped out entire villages (in late 1918), including her own father. At around the same time, her father's parents, that is, her paternal grandparents, also died (I was told but no longer recall the cause of death). Not long after this, on 21 March 1919, when my mother was 18 months old, the revolution brought a Communist government into power, under the leadership of a Hungarian Jew, Bela Kun. It was the only successful revoluton in Europe outside Russia, but would last a mere four months (133 days) before being toppled. The fall of the Kun government, which contained an unusually high percentage of Jews, brought a period of both anti-communism and anti-semitism (under the fascist dictatorship of Miklos Horthy). There were also massacres of both suspected Communists and Jews during this period - as well as socialists and democrats (1919 to the early 1920s). My mother lived - throughout her childhood and adolescence - with her mother and grandmother, that is, her mother's mother. Although the inter-war period, during which my mother experienced both her early childhood and her adolescence, was one in which there was little political freedom and was characterised by anti-semitism, it was also a period of political stability. My mother had the security of a closely-knit family enriched by Judaism and spirituality. Her world must have felt secure and appeared permanent (Putting together everything I have been told by relatives - who do not agree with each other, even about such basic facts as the existence of anti-semitism, which clearly existed - and what is available as recorded history, it is clear that the sense of security and permanence experienced by my mother and some of our relations was based on a large measure of self-deception. This became evident soon after the outbreak of war in 1939).

As a child born soon after the end of World War II, I was told next to nothing about the war, my parents' experiences, or even about our Jewish roots (even though I would eventually discover that both my parents grew up in strict, Orthodox Jewish families). Occasional references would be made to "the war" and to the fact that my mother had "lost her entire family" (which proved to be only partially true - she still has relatives living in New York, London and other places). It was clearly implied that she had been affected, but this was not spelled out and I don't recall her being referred to as "sick" or "ill". I have a vague recollection of words like "sensitive" and "weak" being used to refer to her and of my being characterised in a similar fashion. I would eventually learn - after she had died - that, after the German army invaded in March 1944, the Jewish population of Gyongyos, where she grew up, was deported to Auschwitz (in June 1944) and that this included both her mother and grandmother and several aunts, uncles and cousins. The few who survived, like herself, lived in the capital, Budapest. Although as a child I assumed she was normal, it is clear that her spirit had been broken and that she had given up on life. If she were living today it is probable that she would be diagnosed with depression.

Like my mother, I, too, was born into a world that was about to disappear - my parents' world, although that had really disappeared in 1944. The Russian army, which had liberated us from the Germans and from Nazism towards the end of 1944 (continuing into early 1945), stayed on and, at the time of my birth in September 1947, was on the verge of imposing a Communist dictatorship. My early childhood was spent under this regime, until the outbreak of revolution.
Soon after the outbreak of the Hungarian revolution in October 1956, we became refugees, fleeing across the border into Austria, eventually migrating to Sydney, Australia (We arrived in Sydney at the beginning of February 1957).

From the time we became refugees, a kind of mist descended on my early childhood, so that I remembered virtually nothing of our previous lives, except that it had been a time of security, comfort and happiness. I experienced a very definite rupture with something I had assumed to have been permanent. There was a sense of my life beginning in Sydney, of there being nothing before. For a long time I felt like an alien in a foreign world and tried to assimilate, forgetting as much as possible of the Hungarian culture, including the Hungarian language.

Although a letter written by my mother within weeks of our arrival (which I discovered on my third trip to Hungary in 1986) makes it clear that she fell into a depression almost immediately, I was unaware of it at first. I also have no idea whether she received any treatment at this time (1957-1958). However, soon after my eleventh birthday she began to make several attempts on her life and this continued for the next five years. During this time she received regular treatment from a Psychiatrist and was in and out of hospital. During this period she not only became more and more depressed, she also became more and more "crazy" (I can't think of a better word). By the time of her eventual, successful suicide in November 1963 she was behaving in a way that can only be called "mad", in particular the way she related to me and to my father.

At first I went numb. Then I felt relief. The next three months were a time of rebellion and happiness, a time during which, for the first time, I started a relationship and even found that I was popular with girls. Then, at the beginning of February 1964, I left Sydney and moved into a boarding school in the New South Wales Highlands, to do my final year of High School. Again I felt as if I'd lost my bearings. My girl friend ended our relationship and I fell into a devastating depression lasting almost 18 months. I spent the next three years at university studying Philosophy, Politics and French literature, started a new relationship with a woman whom I would marry in 1968 but found that I was still haunted by feelings of deep sadness and grief, anxiety and self-contempt. Much of this I have already related at www.consciouslivingseminars.com/andrews_story.html

A series of poor decisions led to my failing uni and being out of work, feeling even more of a failure than before. By the time I returned to uni at the beginning of 1970, to complete my studies in Philosophy, at the age of 22, I felt totally worthless, was filled with guilt, anxiety and rage and was finding life almost unbearable. The story of the period between 1971 - when I discovered Psychology and when my baby daughter was born - and 1984, when I began my personal growth experiences with Self Transformation Seminars (ST) has been told elsewhere and I will not repeat it here. Suffice it to say that, even after graduating with First Class Honours (1974) and then with a Doctorate in Philosophy, in spite of a loving relationship with the woman who would become my second wife and in spite of having gained considerable intellectual insight into my depression, anxiety, self-contempt and fits of rage, I continued to feel all these feelings, found it impossible to hold a job and saw my relationship deteriorate.

As I related it on the CLS website at www.consciouslivingseminars.com/andrews_story.html I thought I had freed myself from depression as a result of my (1984) seminar experiences (in paricular, a very moving weekend workshop in the course of which I mourned my mother's death), only to find it return with a vengeance at the end of 1986, when my second marriage came to an end. What I feel is worth doing here is something I didn't go into on the CLS website, namely, describe my healing journey, leading to what appears to be permanent freedom from depression (I have now been free of depression for almost 19 years) (To be concluded).

The depression epidemic - Comments

For those of you who may have missed it, I would like to encourage you to read the following moving account of one person's experience with what the medical profession would call a psychotic breakdown - and her personal way of dealing with it, without medication, doctors, psychiatrists, or psychotherapy. PTSD, Psychosis and Story as a Vehicle of Healing (See also
http://spiritualemergency.blogspot.com )

The depression epidemic - Part VIII (Personal experience)

I would like to think that what I have written to this point is persuasive on its own merits. Nothing is gained by thinking and writing about human distress in medical or quasi-medical terms and considerable pitfalls (dangers) follow from such an attitude. No psychiatrist, doctor, or scientist has ever made out a cogent case for such a conceptualisation of human pain. If it makes any sense whatsoever to talk about "mental illness" at all, then thinking, writing and talking this way surely constitute symptoms of mental illness or disorder. These are crazy ways of thinking about the human condition, totally out of touch with the reality of human pain and distress. I suggest that anyone who has actually experienced the "conditions" that these doctors, psychiatrists, scientists and government officials are attempting to describe knows, without any need for scientific research, that they are talking nonsense. Just listen to them discussing depression, for example. The fact that so many readers of our newspapers do not seem to see through the mystifications is a testament to the power of the industry to take over our very minds and literally to define our thought processes.

I believe that even an elementary philosophical analysis or examination of the science leads naturally to a recognition that what is being presented (the mecical model, for simplicity) is nonsense. I ought to call a spade a spade, however and say that in my own case, my recognition of the irrationality of this psychiatric discourse preceded any such analysis. Rather, the nonsensical nature of the entire medical model is seered into the very cells of my being, as a result of bitter (but also some incredibly empowering and life-affirming), first-hand experience. I lost whatever faith I might once have had in the psychiatric profession in my teens, during the 1960s. What follows is a summary of this experience.

Personal experience with depression and mental illness
As I wrote at http://www.consciouslivingseminars.com/andrews_story.html , I suffered from depression for 23 years, from the age of 16 to the age of 39 (1964 -1987). I also suffered from a condition which today would be diagnosed as a severe "anxiety disorder". I began to experience what psychiatrists (and most clinical psychologists) would call "symptoms", three months after my mother committed suicide on 4 November 1963 (My initial reaction to my mother's death was one of relief). It was mid-February 1964 and I had only been enrolled as a border at St Patrick's College Goulburn, in the NSW southern highlands, for two weeks. Although there appeared to me, at the time, to be no single event that set off the feelings of despair, loneliness and meaninglessness, these feelings followed (and, in retrospect, were clearly triggered by) my receiving news from Sydney that my girl friend (my first real girl friend) had decided to break off our relationship. My depression lasted 18 months and, from that time on, until my experiences with Self Transformation Seminars during 1984-1987, returned every year on at least one or two occasions. Winter always brought on a spell of depression. So, too, did each and every ending of each and every relationship, including those with each of my first two wives (I married three times). So, too, did every experience that I regarded as a failure, including failing at uni, giving a paper that failed to meet my expectations, failure as a husband, lover and father, as well as world events like the Vietnam war and conscription. Throughout this time I experienced intense, free floating anxiety and nervousness, feelings of emptiness, loneliness and lovelessness, self-contempt and worthlessness and, from time to time, fits of almost uncontrollable rage. I often felt alone in an empty, meaningless universe, in despair, utterly without hope.

In the CLS Journal for February 2003 I described the processes of, first, succumbing to depression and then attempting to understand and come to terms with it, as a process of awakening from a slumber:

"On waking up.
Becoming conscious – or waking up – can begin at any time. Alternatively, we can remain unconscious – or asleep, that is to say, normal. This is the safest bet of all. The security that comes from remaining in our normal, everyday hypnotic state is comforting. Safe, secure and comfortable. This is 'the unexamined life'. It may lack the 'highs', but it also lacks the lows. We give up passion, vitality and joy, but we gain peace, security, safety and comfort. My own awakening began relatively early, at the age of sixteen. Twenty-odd years of turmoil followed. Then, some extraordinary experiences, a brief period of magnificent illumination and, after that, the return of normal life, but with heightened awareness. Between the ages of 11 and 16, with my mother’s so-called '(mental) illness', I lived a nightmare existence. With her death in November, 1963 came peace – a calmness I had never known. Then, out of the blue, the sudden awareness of death and mortality. Depression. I was in my final year of high school, attending boarding school in a town in the NSW Southern Highlands. This was during 1964. Out of despair, I discovered the nineteenth century Romantic poets, especially Shelley and, through Shelley, I fell in love with philosophy (I also came to understand and appreciate my first Shakespearean play – Macbeth). Spurred on by a desperate need to discover the meaning of life – but especially to solve the riddle of God’s existence – I enrolled at uni the following year to study Philosophy. For the next three years (1965-1967) I pursued my questions about life, falling in love with existentialism, evolving a rather shallow understanding of Marxism and psychoanalysis and settling on the British empiricists, especially David Hume and the utilitarians, especially John Stuart Mill. And, it goes without saying, I loved the works of Rousseau. From a love of philosophy – after failing and dropping out of uni (end of 1967), marrying (1968) and then returning to my studies (1970) – I fell in love with Psychology (1971), pursuing this passion for the next 13 years".

I described these "next 13 years" in "Andrew's Story"
(See www.consciouslivingseminars.com/andrews_story.html ):

"When I enrolled in first year Psychology at Sydney University at the beginning of 1971, I was 23 years old, married for three years and expecting our first child. I had been suffering from severe depression since the age of 16, something I had managed to keep hidden from virtually everyone who knew me. The first episode had occurred three months after my mother had committed suicide, following a lengthy battle with depression, including several episodes of hospitalisation and ECT treatment, beginning when I was ten years old. I also suffered from anxiety and nervousness, as well as feelings of guilt, worthlessness and self-contempt. I turned to the study of Psychology to fill a desperate need to understand what had happened to me. Though I held out some hope of finding a way to alleviate my many symptoms, I basically considered myself incurable.

I had left university studies three years earlier (at the end of 1967), having failed my second year in Arts without even attempting my exams (after passing first year at my second attempt). So my feeling a failure was justified - though not the associated feeling of worthlessness. I had met my first wife, on a blind date, at the age of seventeen (in June 1965). She was sixteen. After a stormy and passionate three-year romance, we had married in early 1968, after I had abandoned my studies. I found that I was unable to hold a job for more than a couple of months, borrowed a huge amount of money from my father and bought a business (end of 1968) which ended in near bankruptcy. Hence my return to uni, feeling a total failure at life and determined to find out how I came to be such a hopeless case.

Four years of total commitment to my studies followed (1971-1974), leading, at last, to academic success. I graduated with First Class Honours in Psychology, winning several prizes along the way, including the Australian Psychological Society Prize for coming equal top in my Honours year. Along the way, I also completed a major in Philosophy (in 1971), coming second in the “Pass” course in Philosophy III. My first daughter was born in 1971, my second in 1973. I experienced the birth of each of my children, as well as their growth and development, as a miracle. They evoked in me a feeling of wonder about the magic of childhood and, indeed, of life itself. Now, feelings of elation came to be mixed with those of despair, depression and worthlessness on a regular basis.

By the time I graduated, in early 1975, my marriage had deteriorated to near-breaking point. An overseas trip confirmed the diagnosis, we separated (late 1975), moved together again and separated again (end of 1976), divorcing twelve months later (June 1977). A failed marriage did not enhance the way I felt about myself, academic success notwithstanding. I took up a position as Tutor in Psychology in the School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University, at the beginning of 1976 and became a full-time postgraduate student the following year. Although I had gained an enormous amount of theoretical knowledge, including some intellectual understanding of my condition, my depressions continued, together with the other symptoms of anxiety, poor self-esteem and a variety of emotions that constantly threatened to overwhelm me".

The next nine years (beginning of 1976 to November 1984) were extremely important to my gradual understanding of myself and my world. I became an academic, tutoring in Psychology, then becoming a full-time postgraduate student, reading widely in the fields of psychology, psychiatry (and anti-psychiatry), education (especially progressive education), sociology and history. I became a single father, as well as a parent at Yinbilliko School, where I also became an involved participant (Yinbilliko became the subject of my research for my Phd as well). But my depressions continued unabated, as well as my anxiety, feelings of failure, self contempt and worthlessness and, in between relationships, feelings of intense loneliness and lovelessness, despair and hopelessness. None of this was to change until my involvement with Self Transformations Seminars.

Here is how I described what happened (in CLS Journal, Volume 3 Number 2):

"I described the process in my “story”. When I reached the end of my attempts to understand both myself and my world through this intellectual or rational process (1971-1984), I began my inner journey (November, 1984), a process, again, described in my “story”. This period of self-discovery (1984-1987) involved considerable pain. It also resulted in a period of joyful living. Then, back to the real world and, with that, more learning, more – and deeper – understanding. Unfortunately, more pain, too. But, unlike the pointless, needless, unnecessary suffering of the past, this was the pain that results from learning profound truths about the nature of life on our planet. I would say that this kind of pain is an essential component of growth on planet earth. And, throughout these past 15 years, moments of peace, moments of extraordinary connection and communion and occasional glimpses into the indescribable. I don’t know whether I would want to “prescribe” this for everyone, or even anyone. It is one way to awaken, to grow to consciousness. I’m quite sure there are other ways. But, so far as I am able to determine, they all involve some level of discomfort, some degree of dissatisfaction with our normal, everyday existence. And my experience – as well as what I have observed of others – leads me to believe that the idea that the process of waking up can be achieved “easily and joyfully”, without pain, is a dangerous illusion".

Before going on to describe the process of healing, I would like to write briefly about the context in which first, my mother, and then I, succumbed to the curse of depression.

The historical and personal context

Everyone in our extended family understood that my mother was "sick", without anyone ever specifying what that meant, other than the fact that she was constantly seeing "the doctor", taking a variety of pills, including sleeping pills to which she became addicted and, in 1958 or 1959, two years after we had arrived in Australia from Hungary, making some dozen odd attempts on her life. During the period 1959 to 1963 she received treatment for depression consisting of, among other things, Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT - or, as we called it, "shock treatment"). I have no idea whether she received antidepressants or not, although it is almost inconceivable that she would not have. Because these episodes began when I was 10 or 11 years old, my adolescence up to the age of 16 was a nightmare, filled with fear and anxiety (about when she would eventually succeed), recriminations and guilt - and, occasionally, rage, when I would finally snap after endless sessions with my mother trying to extract professions of love from me.

In my conscious, adult recollections, my mother had been "normal" until we arrived in Australia at the beginning of 1957 (when I was nine years old). In these recollections, I had had a normal, indeed, happy childhood, until we had left Hungary. In these recollections my mother had become "ill" only when we arrived in Sydney, as a reaction to starting a new life in a foreign country. It was only several years after she had died that I began to discover the truth, through visits to the country of my birth, talking to and, later, interviewing elderly relatives and others who had known us before we immigrated and through my own personal explorations in the context of my own healing (To be continued).

Modern medicine, science and education - Paul Feyerabend

I have to interrupt my discussion of depression and antidepressants to say a few words about an amazing book (now out of print, like so many worthwhile books) that just arrived from the US - Paul Feyerabend's irreverant Science in a free society, published in 1978 and last reprinted in 1987 (London: Verso,1987). My first contact with Feyerabend's playfully irreverant (but scholarly in the best academic tradition) approach to science was in 1976, when I was a tutor and postgraduate student in the School of Behavioural Sciences at Macquarie University. His then recently (1975) published Against method was the first required reading in a Sociology seminar I attended. It was this seminar which first introduced me to the important field of "the sociology of knowledge" [A better translation of the original German "Wissenssoziologie" would be "the sociology of consciousness" or, even "the sociology of science", depending on context; "sociology of belief" would also be a possible translation. See Karl Mannheim, Ideology and utopia: An introduction to the sociology of knowledge (1929, 1931, 1936) London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960 and 1968]. The basic idea expressed within the field of the sociology of knowledge is one that derives from Marx and Engels, an idea they put forward as early as 1845 in The German ideology, viz that what we think, believe and claim to know (including scientific theories, law, morality and religion, as well as our "common sense", or everyday beliefs) depend, not on rational argument or neutral, value free scientific evidence, but on the economic structure of the society in which we live and the propaganda of those with the power to define reality for citizens.

While it is impossible to do justice to the basic thesis of Against method in a few words, I would summarise it with Feyerabend's own formulation of the only principle that does not inhibit progress in science, viz., "anything goes" (Against method: Outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge. London: NLB, 1975, Page 23). According to Feyerabend, an examination of the history of science as actually practised by the best practitioners (as opposed to the the mystifications called "philosophy of science" and "methodology") reveals that the best scientists follow such a principle unconsciously anyway! They also lie, cheat and deceive the scientific community regularly - including the very best of them, such as Galileo. In Science in a free society, published a mere three years later, Feyerabend continued the attack on modern science (including modern medicine), as well as modern education and the unreasonable power held by these institutions in the modern world. He was also replying to his many critics. Contrary to what many of these critics ascribed to him, Feyerabend was not anti-science. He was only against scientific arrogance and dogmatism, which he compared to the excesses of religion as an institution during the Middle Ages (and even during the 19th century). The power of priests, he said, had been replaced by the power of scientists. The medical profession came in for particular scorn - again, not because he did not think doctors had anything valuable to contribute, but because of their unreasonable attitude to alternatives, such as acupuncture and, more generally, eastern and "tribal" medicine. In a free society, all approaches would have equal power to put their case to the public, including equal access to the media. This is neither the time nor the place to examine this wonderful book. But anyone who wishes to understand what today passes for science and especially modern medicine (including the "new psychiatry") or, rather, the myriad ways in which these institutions limit our freedom - in particular our freedom of thought - will benefit by reading it. Becoming (and then remaining) conscious requires discipline. Personal growth in the form of healing (in particular, the healing of old wounds) is one prerequisite. Leaving social arrangements (families, relationships, places of employment) that are disempowering is another. Learning about how the institutions of our society (the mass media, modern medicine, government agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, corporations involved in the manufacture of military equipment and the powerful institutions of science) function in the real world is another prerequisite. As I pointed out in the discussion of depression - and as Feyerabend argues far more eloquently - there are alternatives to the (scientific/medical) model presented on TV, in our newspapers and so-called "educational" establishments. Not that the model presented by biological psychiatrists is scientific, in any but the most trivial sense.

Further reading:

John Preston et al (eds) (2000) The worst enemy of science? Essays in memory of Paul Feyerabend. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000;

Paul Feyerabend (1987) Farewell to reason. London: Verso, 1987 (reprinted 2002);

Posthumously published autobiography (completed about two months before his death; he died on 11 February 1994), Killing time. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995;

Also posthumously published: Conquest of abundance: A tale of abstraction versus the richness of being. Edited by Bert Terpstra. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1999; Paperback edition, 2001.

The depression epidemic - Part VII

In the last post I mentioned the work of Dr Peter Breggin and his non-medical approach to what are nowadays called "mental disorders". What I didn't say is that, in spite of his humanity, erudition and massive contributions to the field, his name is never mentioned in the Australian media (at least, I have never heard or seen his name in the numerous public "discussions" of depression, ADHD - about which he has also written exhaustively - or other "mental disorders"). This is all part of the way the mass media select and edit our news for us. When a popular children's magazine featured an article on "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)" during 2004 (right in the midst of the world-wide SSRI controversy) in which readers were told that the SSRIs were used to treat children suffering from this disorder, we wrote to the magazine warning parents about the dangers and mentioned Dr Breggin's work. Our letter was not published.
Articles like the ones we referred to in Part I (17 January 2006) simply do not make any attempt to advise readers that there are alternative ways to think about depression (and other "mental disorders") or that there are serious academics and practitioners who think, feel and act differently. Nor do the mass media mention that there was a time, during the 1960s and 1970s, when dissatisfaction with the medical model was widespread. The media do not, ever, mention the names of R D Laing, David Cooper, Aaron Esterson or Thomas Szasz, for example (See www.consciouslivingseminars.com/nov03_journal.html ; www.consciouslivingseminars.com/dec03_journal.html ; and www.consciouslivingseminars.com/jan04_journal.html ). Nor do they mention Bruno Bettelheim, except when they wish to discredit him, or Harry Stack Sullivan. When was the last time you heard the names of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Erich Fromm, Wilhelm Reich or even Carl Rogers? When have the media mentioned existentialism, existentialist psychotherapy or existentialist psychiatry? These are just some of the approaches (and practitioners) that have been banished into oblivion by the deafening silence of the mass media. These approaches - and many others - have not fallen into disrepute because of research demonstrating their ineffectiveness. They have simply been declared null and void by the modern priests of medicine and psychiatry, without any discussion. We once thought these things, they say, but thanks to modern science, we now know better. Modern science - and in particular, modern medicine - is nothing more than a new religion. Here is how one modern guru (who actually claims to be a proponent of the concept of experience shaping development) expressed it: "One factor turning some mental health care providors' attention away from the role of experience in human development may be our attempt to avoid some of the devastating errors of the past. Not so long ago, the mothers of children with autism were accused of being 'refrigerators'; the families of patients with schizophrenia were said to be giving 'double binds'; individuals with bipolar disorder were given thousands of hours of therapy, in search of the 'psychological cause' of their mood swings; and people with obsessive-compulsive disorder were thought to be repressing some early trauma that may have produced their worries. In each of these painful examples, we as professionals looked toward experience to explain the causes of our patients' anguish and dysfunction. Despite the goodness of our intentions, these views were misguided and not helpful to our patients. They produced accusations of blame and a sense of guilt that were unfounded. They did not lead to growth or healing in our patients or their families." The author continues: "Many people have been spared devastating amounts of pain and suffering because of our modern understanding of psychiatric illness and the approriate use of pharmacological agents. Psychiatry has had to embrace the notion that the brain contributes to mental dysfunction, in order to pursue these extremely important avenues of medical care" [Daniel J Siegel (1999) The developing mind, "Preface", Page xiii)].

The above , remember, comes from a psychiatrist who actually believes in the role of the environment, particularly the earliest relationship between mother and baby, in shaping the human mind. The subtitle of the above-mentioned book is: "How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are"!!! Most of what these "experts" declare to be the truth is nothing more than biobabble. There are alternative ways to conceptualise human experience, including the myriad ways we suffer discomfort, distress, pain or despair.

In September 2004 I concluded an article in the CLS Journal by considering an approach called the "Uplift program", created by Bob Murray and Alicia Fortenberry, authors of a relatively recently (2004) published book, Creating optimism. This is what I wrote: "A book – one among many – that was published earlier this year, takes a less pessimistic line (than that of modern mecicine and modern psychiatry - the 'new psychiatry', also called biological psychiatry). Written by Bob Murray, a Clinical Psychologist who seems to live in both San Francisco in the USA and in Sydney, Australia and his partner Alicia Fortinberry, a Psychotherapist, writer and Feldenkreis practitioner, the book is called Creating optimism: A proven, seven-step program for overcoming depression (McGraw-Hill, 2004). They write about their 'revolutionary new approach to overcoming depression' (the Uplift program) for which they claim a 94% success rate. This, they point out, is 'far more effective … than drugs, psychotherapy, or both combined'. Now I am just as sceptical of these kinds of claims as I am about the claims made for the 'magic bullets' (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil/Aropax/Seroxat, Celexa, Luvox, Effexor, etc). But wouldn’t you think that Psychiatrists, Psychologists and others in the so-called 'scientific' community, including those working in government agencies charged with looking after our health, wouldn’t you think that they would take an interest in books (and programs) such as these? Wouldn’t you expect some portion of the millions of dollars spent on research to be allocated to research into such approaches? Although we should feel sceptical about any claims using phrases like 'revolutionary new approach' (or, later, 'a unique, seven-step program') or claims about 'success rates' – whatever the percentage, I have to say that the authors’ approach makes a lot of sense to me. Many people, they write, become depressed because they are 'cut off from what makes us truly human – a network of supportive people, rewarding work, interaction with nature and a connection to the sublime'. The authors base their approach to healing on more than two decades of research and practice sponsored by the University of South Florida . From this experience they conclude that 'real change comes from building healthier relationships with others, our own bodies, nature (including other animals) and spirituality'. In their program they use 'new techniques and insights for mind/body healing, including movement exercises that significantly combat depression and anxiety by stimulating the brain to learn new ways of thinking'. Amongst other things, the authors claim to teach people 'ways to avoid the false values engendered by modern society', ways to create 'healthy interconnectedness' with family, friends and co-workers and 'how to prevent relapse, further expand your personal empowerment, achieve work success and continue to create a solid basis for happiness and healthy spirituality – the most powerful antidepressants known'.

William Glasser, an American Psychiatrist with over forty years in the game, offers a similar (and, in some ways, different) approach in his numerous writings on what he calls “Reality therapy” and “Choice theory” [eg Reality therapy: A new approach to psychiatry (Harper and Row, 1965; paperback edition, 1975); Choice theory: A new psychology of personal freedom (Harper Collins Publishers, 1998); and, more recently, Warning: Psychiatry can be hazardous to your health (Harper Collins Publishers, 2003) with an introduction by Terry Lynch, author of Beyond Prozac: Healing mental distress (Marino Books, 2001)].

For those who are willing to go even deeper, to the original source of their depression, there are approaches like primal therapy, gestalt therapy (which, though based on dealing with the present, often leads back to the past spontaneously), child regressions, hypnotherapy and so on. In addition, there are some fairly obvious remedies: exercise, for example; fresh air and sunshine; changes in nutrition and diet; fulfilling and satisfying sexual activity; making sure you nurture yourself and receive nurturing from others (eg massage; treating yourself to a bubble bath; even a visit to a beautician!); spending time with young children; spending time with special friends; participating in community activities; serving others in some way. The list is almost endless. For children, why don’t we try loving them, listening to them and treating them with dignity and respect before we reach for the medicine cupboard? Combine this with music, laughter, singing, dancing, story-telling and other family activities. Take them out of the childcare centre they attend, or the preschool, or the school for that matter and see if there isn’t some other approach that can work for everyone in the family. Involve grandparents or others in the extended family if this is possible and appropriate. But most important – I think it is worth repeating – LISTEN TO THEM!

As for prevention, the answer is really very simple, even if putting it into practice is not...Before you even have children, perhaps before you even create a relationship, do whatever it takes to heal yourself – to wake up and to become conscious. As you begin this journey you will want to create a conscious relationship, one based on love, honesty and intimacy. When the time comes, you will want to have your baby as naturally as possible, ideally without medical intervention, at home or in a birthing centre. You won’t need anyone to tell you about 'attachment parenting' or natural parenting because, being conscious, you will begin to develop a natural relationship with your baby. Unless there is some medical or other condition preventing you from doing so, you will breast-feed your baby and you will very likely continue to do so for a minimum of two to three years (yes, a minimum). You will stop when you and your baby are ready to move on to the next phase. Your baby will probably sleep with you and your partner (see Three in a bed, by Deborah Jackson). You and your partner will carry your baby, on your body, for at least the first year, but probably considerably longer. When your baby cries you will comfort her; you’ll pick her up, stroke her, rock her, sing lullabies to her, put her on the breast, walk around with her and comfort her in whatever way necessary – not because you’ve read this article but because of what your own feelings and instincts are telling you, pushing you even, to do. You will not put your child into childcare or day care unless financial, family, health or other circumstances make it impossible to find an alternative solution. You will think very carefully about preschool, school and their alternatives (such as 'homeschooling'). In all these matters you will listen to your child’s expressed needs. In addition to the above, you will do your best to protect your child from ingesting the numerous poisons and toxins in your environment. You will choose food carefully and, when it comes to sugars and other inappropriate foodstuffs, you will negotiate with your child, no matter how young, by providing information and by expressing your own feelings and values clearly, cleanly and powerfully. You won’t use force. You’ll protect her from TV advertising for as long as possible, recognising that you cannot compete with the multi-billion-dollar food industry. And, rather than forcefully imposing such intrusive 'preventative' measures as vaccination (and other medications and medical interventions), you will support your child to build up natural immunity by developing a healthy immune system, through all the measures listed above (natural birth, extended breast-feeding, carrying her on your body, co-sleeping, comforting when needed, natural foods, etc) and by minimising stress (this includes letting her cry, exposing her to noise, especially loud, sudden noise, forcing her to do things she doesn’t want to do, abandoning her to institutions like 'childcare, 'day care' and preschools, forcing her to sleep alone, in the dark, interfering with her natural rhythms or natural way of doing things and ignoring her attempts to communicate her needs). If you can find some way to create some version of the above, in some way that suits your own nature and circumstances, listening to your own needs, your own inner voice, your own inner guidance, then, with a modicum of luck, there is no need for your child to become one of the millions who are diagnosed with depression, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), childhood schizophrenia, autism, dyslexia, anxiety disorder, social phobia or any psychiatric disorder whatsoever. All of these 'conditions' are preventable. But you won’t read this in the mass media, including the dozens of parenting magazines now on the market. You won’t read it, because they refuse to print material that interferes with the profits of the companies who fund these newspapers and magazines. If you raise healthy children they will not need drugs. And if they do not need drugs, the companies who manufacture them will cease to exist".

Dorothy Rowe wrote in her Foreword to Terry Lynch's Beyond Prozac: "Lovelessness and loneliness can not be explained by chemical changes in the brain and cured by the ingestion of drugs. Lovelessness and loneliness, like anxiety and depression and all the ways of expressing distress which are called mental disorder, are part of what it is to be human, but a part that can be understood, diminished and banished from our lives simply by caring wisely for ourselves" (Page 2).

Those words are not unlike my own thoughts and feelings about depression and other "mental disorders". I would qualify the above, however, by pointing out that, "by caring wisely for ourselves" in infancy and childhood - or, rather, by having our parents care wisely for us - most of the anxiety, depression and distress that now seem so much a part of being human can be prevented. Most, but not all. The wider social context in which we live our lives can not be ignored. Wars, holocausts, racism, sexism, economic crises, poverty, environmental vandalism and corporate greed and crime all impinge on our lives. So, too, do schools, preschools and "childcare" centres, not to mention our places of employment, the medical profession and government agencies responsible for protecting us from harm and the mass media. In my concluding blog (Part VIII) I will attempt, not another scientific analysis, nor a scholarly treatment of the subject but, instead, a personal account of how I came to think and feel as I do about these things. Readers who are interested, might also wish to read www.consciouslivingseminars.com ("My Story"). In the meantime here is a list of references you will not find discussed in the mainstream media:

Books by Bruno Bettelheim on the work of the Orthogenic School and the results achieved:

1. Love is not enough: The treatment of emotionally disturbed children ( Glencoe Illinois: Free Press of Glencoe, 1950; New York: Avon Books, 1971 (paperback);

2. Truants from life: The rehabilitation of emotionally disturbed children Glencoe Illinois: Free Press of Glencoe, 1955; New York: The Free Press, 1964 (First Free Press Paperback Edition);

3. Paul and Mary: Two case histories from “Truants from life” New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday and Company, 1961;

4. The empty fortress: Infantile autism and the birth of the self New York: The Free Press, 1967; New York: First Free Press Paperback Edition, 1972;

5. A home for the heart New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1974;

Mary Boyle (1990; 2002) Schizophrenia: A scientific delusion? (Second edition, New York:Routledge,2002)

David Cooper (1967) Psychiatry and anti-psychiatry (London: Tavistock Publications, 1967; Paladin, 1970, 1972);

David Cooper (1968) (Editor) The dialectics of liberation (Penguin Books, 1968);

David Cooper (1971) The death of the family (Penguin Books, 1972, 1973, 1974);

David Cooper (1974) The grammar of living: An examination of political acts (Pelican Books, 1976);

David Cooper (1978) The language of madness (Pelican Books, 1980);

Aaron Esterson (1970) The leaves of spring: Schizophrenia, family and sacrifice; A study in the dialectics of madness (London: Tavistock Publications, 1970; Penguin Books, 1972);

William Glasser (1965) Reality therapy: A new approach to psychiatry (Harper and Row, 1965; paperback edition, 1975);

William Glasser (1998) Choice theory: A new psychology of personal freedom (Harper Collins Publishers, 1998);

William Glasser (2003) Warning: Psychiatry can be hazardous to your health (Harper Collins Publishers, 2003) with an introduction by Terry Lynch, author of Beyond Prozac: Healing mental distress (Marino Books, 2001)];

Joseph Glenmullen (2000) Prozac backlash: Overcoming the dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and other antidepressants with safe, efective alternatives (New York: Touchstone, 2001);

Joseph Glenmullen (2005) The antidepressant solution: A step-by-step guide to safely overcoming antidepressant withdrawal, dependence and "addiction" (New York: Free Press, 2005);

Richard Gosden (2001) Punishing the patient: How psychiatrists misunderstand and mistreat schizophrenia (Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2001);

Joanne Greenberg (1964) I never promised you a rose garden (New York: New American Library, 1964);

Gail A Hornstein (2000) To redeem one person is to redeem the world: The life of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (New York: The Free Press, 2000);

Lucy Johstone (1989;2000) Users and abusers of psychiatry: A critcal look at psychiatric practice (Second edition, London: Routledge, 2000);

Adrian Laing (1994) R D Laing: A biography (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1994, 1996);

R D Laing (1960) The divided self: An existential study in sanity and madness (London: Tavistock Publications, 1960; Penguin Books, 1965 [with new Preface, September, 1964);

R D Laing (1961; 1969) The self and others (London: Tavistock Publications, 1961; second edition [Self and others], Pantheon Books, 1969; Pelican Books, 1971, 1972 [extensively revised, with new Preface, May, 1969]);

R D Laing and Aaron Esterson (1964) Sanity, madness and the family: Volume 1: Families of schizophrenics (London: Tavistock Publications, 1964; second edition, Pelican Books, 1970 [with a new Preface, October, 1969]);

R D Laing (1964) “Violence and love”. Lecture given on 21 January, 1964 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Reprinted as Chapter 3 of Laing, 1967 under the heading “The mystification of experience”, pp49-64.

R D Laing (1964a). “Transcendental experience”. Paper delivered to the First International Congress of Social Psychiatry, London, in August, 1964. Reprinted as Chapter 6 of Laing, 1967: 108-119;

R D Laing and David Cooper (1964) Reason and violence: A decade of Sartre’s philosophy, 1950-1960 (London: Tavistock Publications, 1964; New York: Vintage Books, 1971);

R D Laing (1965) “A ten-day voyage”, Views, 1965, No 8; reprinted as Chapter 7 of Laing, 1967: 120-137;

R D Laing, H Phillipson and A R Lee (1966). Interpersonal perception: A theory and method of research (London: Tavistock Publications, 1966);

R D Laing (1967) The politics of experience and the bird of paradise (Penguin Books, 1967);

R D Laing (1969) " The politics of the family". Reprinted in The politics of the family and other essays (London: Tavistock Publications, 1971; Penguin Books, 1976);

R D Laing (1985). Wisdom, madness and folly (London: Macmillan, 1985);

Terry Lynch (2001; 2004) Beyond Prozac: Healing mental distress (Second edition - though not actually called "second edition", PCCS Books, 2004);

Lou Marinoff (1999) Plato not prozac: Applying eternal wisdom to everyday problems (Quill paperback edition, 2000);

Theron Raines (2002) Rising to the light: A portrait of Bruno Bettelheim (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2002). 518 pages.

Morton Schatzman (1973). Soul murder: Persecution in the family (Penguin Books, 1976);

Thomas Szasz (1960) "The myth of mental illness", The American Psychologist, February 1960, Volume 15:113-118. Reprinted in Szasz (1970);

Thomas Szasz (1961) The myth of mental illness: Foundations of a theory of personal conduct (Paladin paperback, 1972, 1973);

Thomas Szasz (1970) Ideology and insanity: Essays on the psychiatric dehumanisation of man (Penguin Books, 1974);

Thomas Szasz (1970) The manufacture of madness: A comparative study of the Inquisition and the mental health movement (Granada Publishing Limited, Paladin Books, 1973;1977);

Robert Whitaker (2002) Mad in America: Bad science, bad medicine and the enduring mistreatment of the mentally ill (Perseus Publishing, paperback, March 2003) (To be continued).