Since my last post on this thread, I've learned more about him. He's gone on the talk show circuit, giving biased presentations that are misleading at best. He's also gone on the right wing shows including the Savage Nation giving a psychiatric assessment on the "liberal" movement that is not based on accepted objective data.
e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u16OFyXSYE4
While he does bring up some good points, a even a broken clock is right twice a day.
A psychiatrist has every right to have extreme and very one sided political viewpoints, even broadcast them with the disclaimer that the views are not medical (unless he could somehow show they are), but to use his profession to support his findings, as if it's medical and scientific goes way way way over the line. There's no excuse from that.
My view of him has gone from a guy on the extreme that I disagreed with on many points, but who may have been sincere, to one where I seriously question WTF is going on with him.
And don't immediately think that his viewpoints are selfless. He's made quite a bit of money being the contrarian.
IMHO, since Breggin has gone too far off the deep end, some of his good points he has brought up should still be brought up in a psychiatry program, but not from him, but from other critics from our own field and others who have not punched below the belt.
No offense, but sounds like you've seen some poor examples of psychiatry. Although my experience is limited to my medical school, I've never seen a psychiatrist just give a pill for suicide without trying to address the underlying reason and emotional/psychology motivation
No offense, but I have, and it was actually quite common. The problem here is not specific to psychiatrists. I've noticed all doctors perform practice that could be balked at, but they have no one to answer to other than a patient who can't tell the practice is poor.
In medical school, and (hopefully) residency, you are in an educational environment, filled with medical doctors who could've likely made much more money doing private practice. Being a professor in a medical curriculum usually doesn't make money, and those that do it either do it for academic/intellectual prestige/entitlement, a sense of self satisfaction in teaching the next generation, love of reseaerch or because it may advance their career in private industry (e.g. drug companies love to hire the high ups in the academic world).
The point being that in academia, you're more likely to get an M.D. who actually has a brain on his head devoted to correct practice, either because he enjoys it, his sense of pride is too high to do poor practice, or he wants to gain from it.
But in the "real" world, you'll more likely have doctors that see patients for just a few minutes and give a pill without explaining what's going on and why.
Academia, Henry Nasrallah, M.D. saw a case that had dozens of doctors stumped. He critically reviewed it and we were all in awe with his findings. A few days later, he's talking to residents on dealing with the emotional trauma of having a patient who commits suicide. He's a doctor at the top of his game--> and he teaches in a medical school and residency.
Real world: I 'm working in a group home where the PCP is giving all the wrong meds out to the patients. It puts me in an awkward position because my insurance company informed me I am not supposed to practice outside the psychiatric. I've gotten some of the patients successfully off of benzos that they were abusing, then the PCP puts them back on it. I call the PCP and he does not answer my calls. After months of informing what was going to the people who ran the group home, they finally got rid of the PCP and replaced him with a new one.
The prior one was there for years and did what he did--the nursing staff hated it. The previous psychiatrists either didn't care or just ignored it.
