Out of dr Caroline Blatt: “In this podcast, I speak with bestselling author, journalist and mental health advocate Robert Whitaker about the myth of chemical imbalance, the politics of psychiatry and big pharma, and why we need to change the way we think about mental health issues think and speak health. Whitaker sees his role as a science writer as someone who is an honest communicator. Science journalism is a public service – it’s about bringing real, evidence-based science to the public, not marketing. This role as an honest communicator shaped Whitaker’s work as director of public relations at Harvard Medical School, eventually leading him to investigate how medical professionals can be deceived, how money and business corrupt medical practice, including psychiatry, and the myth of the chemical can imbalance.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
- Why Robert Whitaker is so passionate about mental health
- The need for a real science of mental health, not marketing
- The myth of the chemical imbalance
- Whitaker’s amazing book Crazy in America & the many delusions of psychiatry
- How psychotropic drugs can affect people over the long term
- The latest scientific article that everyone is talking about
- We’ve all been lied to and it’s time to act
- Debunking the myth of progress: the WHO study
- There is hope!
- Why Whitaker founded his organization Mad in America
- The pathologization of childhood
- The disease model has made things worse
- Effects of medication on patients in the real world and how psychotropic drugs can affect the brain
- How our experiences can affect us mentally and physically
- What is wrong with the DSM
RW: The message I want to give people is that if we can actually have an honest paradigm, then we can have hope again. And we can find solutions again. And we can create better environments. So this is not a pessimistic story, this is an optimistic story. And it’s one that celebrates within us, within humans, those extraordinary abilities we have to overcome terrible setbacks. But also to understand the obligation we have to build societies that are all more empowering. So that’s, I think, the final message – if you’re criticizing this, say, well, what are you offering — in return for that criticism, well, what’s out there in nature is an incredibly optimistic story — if we can just grab it – about how extraordinarily resilient and adaptable humans are and how responsive they are to the environment.”
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