"A front page article in The New York Times raises the long-overdue alarms about the forced drugging of American children--in particular poor children who are condemned to ingest toxic neuroleptics (a.k.a. 'atypical antipsychotics) at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance."
“A Biomedical Programme For Urban Violence Control In The US 1993" : (bottom pdf)
A Biomedical Programme For Urban Violence Control In The US: The Dangers Of Psychiatric Social Control
Peter R. Breggin and Ginger Ross Breggin
A storm of controversy has surrounded recent disclosures that the US Government is planning a massive programme of psychiatric intervention into the inner cities aimed at identifying and treating young children with presumed genetic and biochemical predispositions for violence. The programme, called the Violence Initiative, was first described and promoted by psychiatrist Frederick Goodwin, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). According to Goodwin (1992a), it is scheduled to become the number one funding priority for the federal mental health establishment in 1994. More recently, the overall biomedical thrust of the violence initiative received further support from a mammoth federally-funded study by the National Academy of Sciences, entitled Understanding and preventing violence, (Reiss and Ross, 1993).
While confined to the United States, and not yet fully implemented, the violence initiative exemplifies the political use of biological psychiatry, and has historical roots in past abuses in both the United States and Europe. If it fails to fully materialize, the violence initiative will stand as a warning about the dangers inherent in approaching social problems from a biopsychiatric, medical or public health orientation. Meanwhile, despite widespread public controversy, federal officials have thus far refused to withdraw their plans.
Racial Implications
Because most inner city children are African Americans, the violence initiative has been criticized as racist (Breggin, 1992a-f; Buttterfield, 1992a; Goleman, 1992; Leary, 1992; Wheeler, 1992). While Goodwin himself never specifically referred to black people, his repeated references to, “high-impact inner city” youth and urban poverty areas leave no doubt about the race of the proposed target population (Goodwin, 1992a, 1992b). The National Academy of Sciences report specifically refers to “ethnicity” (Reiss and Roth, 1993, p.14) as one of the major predictors of violence. Under “Research Priorities”, it lists “Key Questions”. Question number one is, “Do male and black persons have a higher potential for violence than others and, if so, why?” (p.380). While the study refers in passing to the possible social origins of black violence, its overwhelming emphasis is biologic and genetic.
In addition to its racist implications, the violence initiative also reflects the current dominance of biological psychiatry with its emphasis on genetic and biochemical theories of human conduct, and physical interventions, such as drugs and electroshock (Breggin, 1991).
The NIMH Violence Initiative
The violence initiative, as outlined in three speeches by Goodwin (II) (Goodwin, 1992a, 1992b; Herman and Newberger, 1992), plans to identify at least 100,000 inner city children whose alleged biochemical and genetic defects will make them violent-prone in later life. Treatment will consist of behaviour modification in selected families, special “day camps” for children with especially difficult backgrounds, and referrals to psychiatrists and neurologists (Goodwin, 1992b). Children between the ages of two and eighteen will be targeted, with the main focus on younger ones.
Since Goodwin emphasized presumed biochemical imbalances in potentially violent children, the major “treatment” inevitably will be drugs. This is consistent with the modern biological psychiatry establishment, as represented by the American Psychiatric Association, and its admitted “partnership” (Sabshin, 1992) with the pharmaceutical industry (for an analysis, Breggin, 1991). In a Washington Post article favorable to the violence initiative, government researchers openly discussed scientific findings that supposedly, “show there are specific biochemical derangements in the brains of certain kinds of violent people – exactly the same chemical imbalances found in violent monkeys – and that these can be corrected with drugs. The same drugs work in both species” (Rensberger, 1992).
The violence initiative ignores or minimizes environmental factors contributing to crime, as well as social, economic or political programmes to alleviate conditions within the inner city. Goodwin (1992a) argues that there is no political “leverage” (political clout) in focusing on broader issues.
In presenting the violence initiative to the National Mental Health Advisory Council on 11 February 1992, Goodwin, as the government’s highest ranking psychiatrist, compared the inner city to a jungle that is going backward in evolution. He further compared inner city youth to rhesus monkeys who only want to kill each other, have sex and reproduce (III). These seemingly racist comments led to considerable controversy in the press (Breggin 1992b; Isikoff 1992; Leary, 1992; Rensberger, 1992; Rich, 1992). His observations, it turned out, were inspired by current federal research comparing violent rhesus monkeys to delinquent children (Kreusi et al., 1992; Higley et al., 1992) with regard to presumed genetic factors, biochemical imbalances and responsiveness to drug treatment.
In his 5 May 1992 address to the American Psychiatric Association, Goodwin provided further details about potential plans for future interventions into the inner city. Elementary schools in “high impact urban areas’ will implement the first stage of a “triage” system for identifying children suspected of potential violence in later life. Goodwin believes that children as young as two or three may be selected on the basis of “ early irritability and unco-operativeness”.
Based on the principle of triage (IV), an elementary school teacher can cull 12 to 15% of each classroom for further psychiatric screening of the family via telephone with mental health officials. That the government has worked out the details was indicated by Goodwin’s observation that school screening will cost an estimated seven cents per pupil while the first telephone interview will cost seven dollars. A third triage level will require “structured interviews” with the family. He did not address formal enforcement of these procedures, or the ethical and constitutional issues at stake. Goodwin state that treatments will include teaching families how to implement behaviour modification techniques. Day camps for older children from “very disruptive environments” are mentioned, as well as referrals to psychiatrists and neurologists. He again set forth genetic abnormalities and biochemical imbalances as the major underlying causes of crime and violence. Without providing scientific sources, Goodwin stated that there is a genetic component to all antisocial behaviour. He does cite a study by Mednick and Hutchings (1984), stating that it shows a link between genetics and violent crime, although the study in fact concluded that no such link could be found. Meanwhile, based on the theory that a genetic link to crime exists, the Department of Justice through its Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is already creating a mammoth genetic data bank on the profiles of repeat offenders (Bielski, 1992).
NIMH is organized with the Department of Health and Human Services under the Secretary (Louis Sullivan) who was a member of the president’s cabinet. Under heavy criticism from the Center for the Study of Psychiatry and many members of the black community, Secretary Sullivan publicly rejected the idea that violence has significant genetic components (Butterfield, 1992a; Sullivan, 1992). However, Sullivan did not criticize Goodwin’s planned interventions into the inner city and did not address the claim that violence is caused by biochemical imbalances that can be corrected by drugs. Instead, Sullivan announced a plan, called “Youth Violence Prevention: A Proposed Initiative”, with a projected budget of $400 million over the next five years, mostly through the Centers For Diseases Control (CDC) and NIMH, both located within the Department of Health and Human Services (Butterfield, 1992a; Sullivan, 1992). Although the details are unclear, the plan seems to include NIMH’s biomedical initiative, as well as a variety of less menacing programmes.
Support For the Violence Initiative
Recently, fears concerning the violence initiative were confirmed by a much-anticipated report on violence in America by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. (V) Understanding and Preventing Violence (Reiss and Roth, 1993) is funded by three federal agencies, the National Science Foundation, the Justice Department and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). With a large board of research contributors, it purports to represent the latest in scientific research. It closely parallels Goodwin’s proposals, focusing on the inner city and recommending that even younger children, “as early as the age of four months” (p.160) be studied for potential violence. The report points to “ethnicity” and “poverty” as the major variables predicting physical violence, and brings a heavy biological and genetic emphasis to bear (Butterfield, 1992b).
The report discusses many supposed biological variables related to violence, including serotonin deficits and other “biomedical measures” (p.160) or ”neurological markers for violence potentials” (p.161). Its final recommendations for “Research, in Neglected Areas” uses the same language as Goodwin’s NIMH violence initiative, calling for “systematic searches for neurobiological markers for persons with elevated potentials for violent behaviour” (p.24). It also urges “systematic searches for medications that reduce violent behaviour without the debilitating side effects of chemical restraint” (p.24).
“Multi-community Longitudinal Studies” are proposed, including research on, “neurobiologic measures … as is ethically and technically feasible” (p.25) and, “interventions” at the “biological” level (p. 25). These are identical to Goodwin’s proposed interventions in the inner city. Their most innovative aspect is described as the, unparalleled opportunity to examine the relationships between biomedical variables and violent behavior” (p. 158).
No conclusive evidence for the role of genetics in violence is found by the report, which nonetheless proposes further genetic research. Since the report identifies the inner city as the main arena of violence, the research will focus on minority populations, mostly African-Americans. As noted earlier, the report openly declares that the number one research question for the future concerns whether or not black people are more violent than others.
Conference On Genetic Factors In Crime
As the result of a national education campaign initiated by the Center For The Study Of Psychiatry an a coalition of members of the African American community, the government terminated funding for a conference entitled “Genetic Factors In Crime” at the University of Maryland, sponsored by the Genome Project of the National Institute of Health (NIH) (Babington, 1992; Hilts, 1992; Wheeler, 1992). Since there are no known genetic factors in crime, critics of the conference felt it would give the misleading and potentially racist impression that genetic and other biological defects in black children and youth are responsible for crime in America’s inner cities (Breggin, 1992c, 1992e).
The brochure for the conference (Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, 1992) underscored advances in genetic research, noted the alleged failure of environmental approaches to violence, and suggested the possibility of drug interventions. As one of many ongoing projects anticipating the more massive proposed 1994 funding programme, the conference was but the tip of the violence initiative iceberg.
Operation Weed And Seed
Operation Weed And Seed (Department of Justice, 1992) is the official name of an ongoing Justice Department programme that parallels the proposed violence initiative (VI) It aims at intensively “weeding” selected areas of the inner city in order to arrest large numbers of criminals, especially those involved in the sale of drugs. It then proposes to introduce new psychosocial programmes, including business expansion, but most of the funding is devoted to the “weeding” part of the programme (Miller, 1992).
Meanwhile, vast numbers of young black men are already being processed or “weeded out” through the criminal justice system. For example, in a typical city such as Baltimore, 56% of black men, age 18 to 35, are involved in the criminal justice system on any given day (National Center for Institutions and Alternatives, (1992; Terry, 1992). Involvement in the criminal justice system means they were “in jail or prison, on probation or parole, awaiting trial or sentencing, or being sought on warrants for their arrest” (p.1). It is estimated that by age of 35, 75% or more of inner-city black men will haven arrested or jailed. These figures are probably typical of other American cities, and the rate for locking up young black men is escalating. Nowhere else in the world, including the old USSR and South Africa, is such a large percentage of people subjugated by a criminal justice system.
The Current Wide-Scale Drugging Of Children
The violence initiative ultimately puts children of all races in jeopardy. America’s children are already subjected to massive psychiatric interventions, with more than a million children, mostly boys, taking methylphenidate (trade name, Ritalin), and tens of thousands being hospitalized (Breggin, 1992). Despite widespread recognition that both the family and the schools are failing to meet the basic needs of children and youth, these societal problems are rejected in favor of subjecting young people to psychiatric diagnosis, drugs and hospitalization. If the violence initiative is fully implemented, America’s children will come under increased psychiatric pressure.
While the initial focus of the violence initiative is on inner city children, 25% of American children, most of them white, live in poverty (Breggin, 1992a). If the violence initiative is allowed to proceed, it will eventually extend to other poverty ridden populations, such as native American reservations and poor white communities. The National Academy of Sciences report advises extending its biomedical “intervention program to all children in a geographic area” in order to “broaden political support and to avoid stigmatizing high-risk children” (p.163).
An Earlier Federal Violence Initiative
In the wake of the black urban uprisings of the late 1960s, America became preoccupied with the threatening figure of the young black male as well as with the overall danger of rebellion and social chaos. Led by NIMH and the Justice Department, the federal government began to develop an overall programme for the biomedical control of violence that resembled the one proposed by Goodwin and the National Academy of Sciences. It included biological and genetic theories of violence, attempts attempts at early identification and prediction, claims for research breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment, and plans for behavior modification programmes in controlled facilities (Breggin, 1975; Chavkin, 1978; Scheflin and Opton, 1978). It too was inspired by fear of violence in the inner city and aimed at the control of young black males (Breggin, 1973, 1975, 1982).
Three Harvard professors (neurosurgeons Vernon Mark and William Sweet, and psychiatrist Frank Ervin) were leaders in this 1970s violence initiative. They made the startling proposal that psychosurgery (brain mutilation by means of electrodes) could be used to control not only urban rioters but some black leaders who allegedly suffered from brain damage (reviewed in Breggin, 1975). Their psychosurgery research project, which only operated on white patients, was jointly funded by NIMH and the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) of the Justice Department. The grant also supported their genetic research in a prison containing a predominantly black population. In addition, acting alone, a neurosurgeon at the University of Mississippi, O.J. Andy, was performing neurosurgery on “hyperactive” and “aggressive” black children as young as five years in a segregated institution for people with learning disabilities (Breggin, 1975). His method involved the implantation of electrodes, for multiple coagulations of brain tissue, on successive occasions.
During this time, proposals were made in Congress for funding a series of urban violence centres throughout the United States under the auspices of well-known medical schools. These centres would implement biomedical research and treatment programmes similar to those now being urged by Goodwin and the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, a new federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, was slated for development as a psychiatric behavior-modification facility.
Due to efforts by the Center for the Study of Psychiatry and a coalition of concerned people and organizations, all federal funding was eventually cut off for the 1970’s violence initiative, including psychosurgery for the control of violence, and the psychiatric behavior-modification programme at Butner. O.J. Andy was stopped from operating on children.
The Lessons Of Nazi Germany
It has been amply described how Nazi Germany provided the largest experiment in the use of biomedical theory and practice for social control (Breggin, 1992h; Meyer, 1988; Muller-Hill, 1988; Proctor, 1998). Hitler’s first legislation was aimed at the sterilization of a variety of individuals diagnosed as mentally ill. Eventually a scientifically and bureaucratically organized programme exterminated most of Germany’s mental patients before the Holocaust began (Breggin, 1992h; Muller-Hill, 1998).
The United States is not on the verge of becoming a totalitarian mental hygiene state similar to that of Nazi Germany. Nor is the violence initiative programme as extreme as proposals developed in Nazi Germany. But there are significant and threatening parallels in the proposed model for a state-controlled biomedical intervention into societal problems with focus on a feared and rejected racial minority. While the violence initiative would not, in the foreseeable future, lead to mass sterilizations or euthanasia, it would surely lead to vast encroachments on individual freedoms, to widespread psychiatric abuse, and to a great increase in racial prejudice disguised as medical science. If successful, it could open the way to further experiments in eugenics and social control.
University at California (Berkley) sociologist Troy Duster noted, “we will not see notions of Aryan purity and getting rid of whole populations of people. But we are in danger of returning to a kind of eugenics if we think of social issues like homelessness based upon their individual attributes. That’s where the slippery slope begins down the easy reductionist path. I call this the back door to eugenics” (Bielski, 1992).
The Biomedical Model For Social Control
The violence initiative expresses a number of principles that are common to biomedical programmes of social control, including the American violence initiatives and Nazi Germany.
The society is faced with economic hardship and some degree of social disintegration that inflames anxiety; the society must contain a minority population that can easily be identified, blamed, and subjected to special treatment. Goodwin made references to economic needs, to the need for financially feasible programmes, and to, “the loss of structure in society” (1992a, p.120). He repeatedly focused his discussions of violence on “high-impact inner-city youth”, that is, black people. The National Academy of Sciences report had similar emphases (Reiss and Ross, 1993, p.14).
The biomedical programme for social control offers an easy way to solve what society considers its most pressing or threatening problems. Goodwin and the National Science Foundation report have stressed America’s concern with urban violence and need for practical, immediate solutions.
Society finds it politically inexpedient to address the underlying cultural, social or economic causes of its problems. Instead, supposedly defective individuals are identified, blamed, and treated. Speaking of programmes to reduce urban violence, Goodwin said, “if you are going to leverage that at all, in my view, you are going to leverage it through individuals, not through large social engineering of society” (Goodwin, 1992a, p.116). The “focus” will be on “identifying individual vulnerability factors rather than large, rough cut, social demographic variance” (1992a, p.119). He claimed, “In NIMH we have excellent people who particularly can help us to focus on the issue of individual vulnerability … What we have as an agency [NIMH] that isn’t represented anywhere else in the Public Health Service is we have the expertise in individual vulnerability” (1992a p.116).
The social or political crisis is redefined as biomedical, typically by using the language of medicine and public health, and especially by claiming new advances in science. This justifies “treating” individuals. Since the 19th century, psychology and psychiatry have been invoked as the “sciences” that justify social control (Proctor, 1998). Goodwin made many references to new developments in the diagnosis, identification and treatment of violent individuals, including “measurements of behavior”, “diagnostic criteria”, “scales” and “advances in diagnostic precision” that can be used to identify potentially violent individuals (1992a, p.117). The National Academy of Sciences took a similar approach.
The supposedly defective individuals are said to be identifiable by experts on the basis of physical apprearance or biological attributes. Goodwin pointed to “biological correlates” (1992a, p.117) and “biological markers” (1992a, p.118). The individuals have defective brains, with detectable “prefrontal changes that may well be predictive of later violence” (1992a, p.118). These ideas were repeated by the National Academy of Sciences.
The supposedly defective individuals are viewed as a regression to more primitive forms of human life-evolutionary failures or throwbacks. According to Goodwin, “Now, one could say that if some of the loss of social structure in this society, and particularly within the high impact inner city areas, has removed some of the civilizing evolutionary things that we have built up and that maybe it isn’t just the careless use of the word when people call certain areas of certain cities jungles, that we may have gone back to what might be more natural, without all of the societal controls that we have imposed upon ourselves as a civilization over thousands of years in our own evolution” (1992a, p.120).
Often the allegedly inferior individuals are compared to monkeys, and often they are considered hyper-aggressive and hyper-sexual. In comparing inner-city youth to monkeys, Goodwin said, “If you look, for example, at male monkeys, especially in the wild, roughly half of them survive to adulthood. The other half die by violence. That is the natural way of it for males, to knock each other off and, in fact, there are some interesting evolutionary implications of that because the same hyperagressive monkeys who kill each other are also hypersexual, so they copulate more and therefore they reproduce more to offset the fact that half of them are dying” (1992a, p.119).
The supposedly defective individuals must be identified and “treated” as early as possible before they cause harm. According to Goodwin, there will be emphasis on “the earliest detection off behavioral patterns which have predictor value and … what do we know and what can we learn about preventative interventions” (1992a, p.117). As already noted, Goodwin claimed that detection of potentially violent people could begin at the age off two years (1992b), while the National Academy of Sciences mentioned the age of four months.
Special or extraordinary measures are seen as necessary to control ar render harmless the individuals, and at times this must be done against their will in highly controlled, long-term confinement. Goodwin observed, “because if you are talking about long-term intervention in a conduct disorder … NIMH is looking at whether highly structured environments with both clear positive and negative reinforcers [behavioral modification] are being very highly built in” (1992a, p.119). James Breiling, a psychologist with the Violence and Traumatic Stress Research Branch of NIMH, compared chronic violence to diabetes: “It’s a lifelong management problem; there will be a continuing propensity and likelihood for them to get into trouble. They’ll need intervention throughout their lives” (Sipchen, 1992).
The federal government must develop a national mandate for implementing the racial programme, involving many federal and state agencies, and bolstered through public education. The violence initiative will bring together many agencies, including NIMH, NIH, CDC, and the Justice Department. These federal agencies were also involved in the National Academy of Sciences report. That report was the first major step toward influencing the press and the public. The appointment of a “blue ribbon” panel by Secretary Sullivan to oversee the implementation of the violence initiative is another (Butterfield, 1992a; Sullivan, 1992).
Future Implications
The criminal justice system has already created a virtual institutional apartheid in which young black men are separated from their own communities and the remainder of America by the criminal justice system. This makes especially menacing the proposal to aim large-scale psychiatric interventions against the younger population of black children and youth, aged from two to eighteen years.
By itself, the proposed psychiatric screening of children is an unconstitutional federal encroachment upon schools, the privacy rights and well-being of children, and the integrity of the family. The current practice in which individual teachers voluntarily choose to refer large number[s] of students and their families for psychiatric treatment has already led to widespread illegal and abusive practices, such as pressuring and forcing parents to drug their children as a pre-condition for going to school. It has encouraged the massive psychiatric drugging of children.
It is Orwellian, totalitarian and racist for the federal government to set up a massive screening programme of all city children with the aim of winnowing out potential criminals for preventative treatment. Neither the screening net, the theories behind it, nor the proposed treatments have any scientific basis (Breggin, 1991, 1992a). The violence initiative is racially and politically motivated.
While Goodwin does not discuss drug interventions, he emphasizes serotonergic biochemical imbalances in the brain as “biochemical markers” and as causes for potential violence. These presumed biochemical imbalances can only be corrected by drug therapy. A considerable amount of federal research supports this approach, and some psychiatrists in the violence initiative network have advocated drugs for violence (Rensberger, 1992; see above). The National Academy of Sciences report promotes the search for new drugs for the control of violence. Drugs are the only feasible mass intervention, corresponding with the needs of the pharmaceutical industry which is currently pushing these same drugs, including fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft) and, forthcoming, paroxetine (Paxil) as their biggest potential money makers (Breggin, 1992). VII The schools, which already refer millions of children for psychiatric interventions, will become extensions of psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry, creating a vast “third world” market for proprietary drugs within America’s inner cities.
Politically, the violence initiative distracts society from the true causes of increasing violence. The fault lies not in individual biochemistry and genes, but in the failure of America to deal with its most pressing problems, such as white racism, poverty, unemployment, the degradation of the inner city, and the failure to provide in general for the needs of children.
The violence initiative gives an enormous political boost to biologically-oriented psychiatry, which has already become the dominant wing of psychiatry throughout the United States and Europe. Western society does not need psychiatry to solve its social problems; it needs renewed dedication to fulfilling the basic needs of children through improving family life, the schools, and society. The violence initiative is embedded in the federal bureaucracy and the scientific community, and therefore will not disappear on its own. Under the guise of science, it is likely to survive the current political transition in America, unless sufficient public opposition can be mounted.
References
Babington, C. (1992, 5 September) U-Md. Cancels conference on genetic link to crime:
NIH pulled funds over proposed content. Washington Post, A1
Bielski, V. (1992, 15 July) Mean genes. SF [San Francisco] Weekly, 12
Breggin, P. (1973) Psychosurgery. Journal of the American Medical Association, 226, 1121
Breggin, P. (1975) Psychosurgery for political purposes. Duquesne Law Review, 13, 841-862
Breggin, P. (1982) The return of lobotomy and psychosurgery. In R.B. Edwards (ed.)
Psychiatry and ethics. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, pp 350-388. Originally published in the Congressional Record, 24 February, 1972, E1602-E1612
Breggin, P. (1991) Toxic Psychiatry. New York: St Martin’s Press
Breggin, P. (1992a) Beyond Conflict: From self-help and psychotherapy to peacemaking. New York: St Martin’s Press
Breggin, P. (1992c, 31 August) The real crime is neglecting inner-city youth. Washington Post, A18
Breggin, P. (1992d, Summer) News and views on psychiatry: The “Violence initiative” – a racist biomedical program for social control. Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Rights Tenet (Newsletter of the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy), 3-8
Breggin, P. (1992e, 18 September) The U.S. hasn’t given up linking genes to crime. New York Times, A34
Breggin, P. (1992f, 23 September) Report from the Center for the Study of Psychiatry: The federal violence initiative. Bethesda, Maryland: Center for the Study of Psychiatry
Breggin, P. (1992g, 25 September) Testimony before the Violence Initiative Panel of the Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Weekend. Washington DC: Cenmter for the Study of Psychiatry
Breggin, P. (1992h) How and why psychiatry became a death machine. In C. Rolland, H. Friedlander and B. Muller-Hill (eds) Medical science without compassion. Past and present (Proceedings, Cologne, September 28-30, 1998), 389-426. Hamburg: Hambuerger Stiftung fur Sozialgeschichte des 20
Butterfield, F. (1992a, 23 October) Dispute threatens U.S. plan on violence. New York Times, A12
Butterfield, F. (1992b, 13 November) Study cites biology’s role in violent behavior. New York Times A12
Chavkin, S. (1978) The mind stealers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Department of Justice (1992) Operation Weed and Seed: “Reclaiming America’s neighborhoods” Washington, DC: Department of Justice
Goleman, D. (1992, 15 September) New storm brews of whether crime has roots in genes: Experts express doubt that any strong link exists. New York Times, C1
Goodwin, F. (1992a, 11 February) Partial transcript of address to the National Mental Health Advisory Council, pp115-120 (unpublished)
Goodwin, F. (1992b, 5 May) Conduct disorder as a precursor to adult violence and substance abuse: Can the progression be halted? Washington, DC: Address to the American Psychiatric Association. Recorded by Mobiltape Company, Inc., 25061 W. Avenue Stanford, Suite 70, Valencia, CA 91355
Herman, E. and Newberger, E. (1992, 11 March) Official letter from the American Orthopsychiatric Association to Louis W. Sullivan, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services concerning address by Frederick Goodwin to the Mental Health Leadership Forum on 25 February, 1992 (unpublished)
Higley, J., Mehlman, P., taub, D., Higley, S., Suomi, S., Linnoila, M. and Vickers, J. (1992) Cerebrospinal fluid monamine and adrenal correlates of aggression in free-ranging rhesus monkeys. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 436-441
Hilts, P. (1992, 5 September) U.S. puts a halt to talks tying genes to crime. New York Times, 1
Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy (1992) Genetic factors in crime: Findings, uses and implications. October 9-11, 1992 (a conference brochure). College Park, Maryland: University of Maryland
Isikoff, M. (1992, 22 February) HHS official apologizes for “male monkey” remarks. Washington Post, A5
Kruesi, M., Hibbs, E., Zahn, T., Keysor, C., Hamburger, S. bartko, J. and rapaport, J. (1992) A two-year prospective follow-up study of children and adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders: Prediction by cerebrospinal fluid 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, homovanillic acid, and autonomic measures? Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 429-435
Leary, W. (1992, 8 March) Struggle continues over remarks by mental health official. New York Times, 34
Leary, W. (1992, 8 March) Struggle continues over remarks by mental health official. New York Times, 34
Mednick, S.A. and Hutchings, B. (1984) Genetic influences in criminal convictions: Evidence from an adoption study. Science, 25 may, 891-893
Meyer, J-E. (1988) The fate of the mentally ill in Germany during the Third Reich. Psychological Medicine, 18, 575-581
Miller, J. (1992) Personal communication to Peter Breggin. (Miller is Director of the National Center for Institutions and Alternatives, Alexandria, Virginia)
Muller-Hill, B. (1988) Murderous science: Elimination by scientific selection of Jews, Gypsies and others. Germany 1933-1945. London: Oxford University Press
National Center for Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA) (1992, 17 April) Hobbling a generation: Young African American males in the criminal justice system of America’s cities: Baltimore, Maryland. NCIA, 635 Slaters Lane, Suite G-100, Alexandria, Virginia 22314
Proctor, R. (1998) Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Rensberger, B. (1992, 1 March) Science and sensitivity. Washington Post, C3
Reiss, A. and Roth, J. (eds) (1993) Understanding and preventing violence. Washington, DC; National Academy Press
Rich, S. (1992, 28 February) Federal health official resigns, citing controversy over remarks. Washington Post
Sabshin, M. (1992, 10 March) To aid understanding of mental disorders. New York Times, A24
Scheflin, A. and Opton, Jr., E.M. (1978) The mind manipulators. New York: Paddington Press
Sipchen, B. (1992, 24 April) A cure for violence? Los Angeles Times
Sullivan, L. (1992, 22 October) Remarks to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry annual meeting. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services
Terry, D. (1992, 13 September) More familiar, life in a cell seems less terrible. New York Times, A1
Wheeler, D. (1992, 24 July) An escalating debate over research that links biology and human behavior. Chronicle of Higher Education, A7
Notes
(i) italics added
(ii) The most recent speech is available in its entirety (Goodwin, 1992b), the original speech is available as a partial transcript of the relevant remarks (Goodwin, 1992a), and the third is described in a letter (Herman and Newberger, 1992).
(iii) The public outcry over these remarks came to the attention of the authors, leading them to obtain from US Congressman John Conyers the transcript (Goodwin, 1992a) that initially disclosed the existence of the violence initiative. Peter and Ross Breggin then mounted a campaign to inform the public and the professions (Breggin, 1992a-f).
(iv) Goodwin uses the word “triage” in his address to the Mental Health Advisory Council (1992a) and then elaborates on the concept in speaking to the American Psychiatric Association (1992b). Triage is the process of deciding who among the injured or wounded deserves or warrants treatment.
(v) The National Academy of Sciences is the parent group of the National Research Council. The National Academy of Sciences was chartered by Congress in 1863 as a, “private, non-profit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare” (Reiss and Roth, 1993, P.viii). Their final report indicates the dangers of applying a “scientific” and “engineering” mandate to social problems.
(vi) That the federal government officially chose to designate young inner city men as “weeds” suitable for “weeding” indicates how deeply racism pervades the American psyche. Otherwise, the racist implications of the unfortunate metaphor would have led to its expurgation.
(vii) In discussing the violence initiative, psychologist James Breiling of NIMH’s Violence and Traumatic Stress Research Branch has stated that there are children with behavioral problems linked to depression who should be given medications. He also stated that there is a genetic contribution to violence that demands study (Sipchen, 1992).
Now, ...... even IF this disgusting thuggery were LEGAL, and it WASN'T, ...... What kind of Success might these NIMH 'Researchers' have occasioned by poisoning/lobotomizing very young children?
How successful could they have been at achieving their purported goal, ..... , on PUBLIC MONIES, ..... of Reducing Violence?
If You Think that this reprehensible pile of Political-medical Tyranny is safely in America's rear view mirror, ...... we Must remind you, .....
"A front page article in The New York Times raises the long-overdue alarms about the forced drugging of American children--in particular poor children who are condemned to ingest toxic neuroleptics (a.k.a. 'atypical antipsychotics) at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance."
Neuroleptics/Antipsychotics CAUSING Violence, Again: Study
We offer a Solution. Either Amend the US Constitution to make Government Healthcare an actual Right, or cut 'Mental Health' Services on Other People's Money Out of the Federal Budget Completely, ...... and shut down the NIMH.
Observations in prison have also associated neuroleptic treatment with increased aggressive behaviour. Inmates were better able to control their aggression until they were prescribed neuroleptics and then the aggression rate almost tripled.12
We offer a Solution. Either Amend the US Constitution to make Government Healthcare an actual Right, or cut 'Mental Health' Services on Other People's Money Out of the Federal Budget Completely, ...... and shut down the NIMH.
Sorry to belabor the point, but, ...... See for yourself.
- Psychiatric Genetics: Another Empty Box Of Bio-$cience
- Serotonin & Depression: A Disconnect Between The Ads & Science
- Do Antidepressants Cure Or Create Abnormal Brain States?
- A Curious Consensus: Brain Scans Prove (Psychiatric) Disease?
- Ghostwriting At Elite Academic Medical Centers In The United States
- Antipsychotic Drugs For Children: Dr John Breeding Reads The Riot Act
TThank You Very Much, Drs. Peter & Ginger Breggin
1 comment:
Absolutely terrible.
Post a Comment