Dr. Peter Breggin's Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, Education & Living Newsletter Special Edition |
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| 10/20/2010 - Volume1, Issue 10 |
| Special Edition In This Issue Meet LAP--The Danish (Ex-) Users of Psychiatry Do You Know that Psychiatric Drugs Can Kill? Thanks to Peter Breggin: Denmark Now on the Right Trail LAP Expose': Dead In Psychiatry Poster, Campaign Dr. Breggin to do Special Radio Interview with Danish Protesters Empathic Therapy EmpathicTherapy.org 1-607-272-5328  Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy Attention: Ginger Breggin 101 East State St #112 Ithaca, NY 14850 Register NOW! for our Empathic Therapy Conference, April 8-10, 2011 Register Here |
Dear [Contact.First Name], We have received tremendously inspiring reports from the Danish "(Ex-) Users of Psychiatry" movement in the last couple of weeks. With courage and planning and lots of communication, the anti-psychiatry movement in that small country is exposing the alarming numbers of deaths resulting from exposure to psychiatry. A great number of young Danish citizens are being disabled and then pensioned due to psychiatric exposure and this issue has also been revealed. As a result, Danish government officials are actually cutting funding for psychiatry. The story is brought to us by citizen reporter Elsebeth Halckendorff. We are devoting this issue to full coverage of the courageous Danish psychiatric reform movement and the impact that their work is having on curtailing psychiatric damage in Denmark. Very best, Ginger Breggin, Editor Meet LAP--the Danish (Ex-)Users of Psychiatry  LAP is a national organization, founded in 1999, of Danish (Ex-) Users of Psychiatry. The LAP website states: “We have some views and opinions concerning the treatment we are exposed to – and these opinions may very well differ from the ones of our relatives or doctors. We want to get influence on our own lives and treatment. We want to support each other, make initiatives in common, formulate policies and make demands regarding our own interests. The organization is independent of political, financial, medical and religious interests. For further information please contact us at lap@lap.dk." Image:The campaign group from Lap in the walking street of Aabenraa, a town in the south of Jutland at the German border. The man in the foreground to the right is the campaign leader Paul-Bjergager Nielsen.Do You Know that Psychiatric Drugs Can Kill?  The Danish organisation LAP – with about 2000 members, made 40,000 copies of this postcard and distributed it to coffee shops, restaurants and in the streets of Denmark. This postcard and posters were distributed for months before the LAP group went on their bus tour protest. The text on the backside reads: “do you know that psychiatric drugs can kill” and mention some of the names of young Danes who received the deadly cocktail. Thanks to Peter Breggin: Denmark Now on the Right Trail by Elsebeth Halckendorff On October 10th on the International Day of Mental Health a big demonstration was held in the city of Copenhagen, when a campaign bus from Lap returned after a tour around Denmark. Lap is an organisation of present and former users of psychiatry and for two weeks they drove through the country placing white crosses everywhere as a protest against the many dead in psychiatry. The arrangement was made together with another organisation, the very new, “Dead in psychiatry”, for families who lost a beloved one in psychiatry. Paul Bjergager Nielsen, the leader of the campaign, and his group planned the demonstration half a year ago. Beforehand the Lap members put posters in the 13 major cities of Denmark and had 40,000 postcards printed which were distributed to coffee shops and restaurants all over the country and handed out to people in the streets in the major cities of Denmark. The campaign group received television coverage during their travels, primarily in the western part of Denmark, called Jutland. A spot can be watched at Danish TV coverage of LAP Protest. In Denmark the conditions of psychiatry are very different from those in the States. This is thanks to the Danish healthcare system, which means the Danes have free healthcare. If a problem was a small one like stress, sorrow or even headaches the easy solution was to hand over the person to psychiatry. For years psychiatry has had free rein in Denmark and nobody asked for evidence of results. On the contrary, psychiatry ran big advertisements in Denmark, telling how good and clever they are, that their drugs did miracles and were “harmless and with almost no side effects.” Nobody questioned these statements. However, many Danes have died from psychiatric treatment, nobody knows how many. Unofficial figures cite 5 – 6 deaths a day, but the Danish National Board of Health states around 3,000 a year or over 8 deaths a day. Even these last figures are very unreliable and probably too low, because the statistic material is insufficient, which is easily proved. Also the psychiatrists have resisted having their victims investigated by forensic doctors, so it has been possible for psychiatry to cover up the causes of death. As we say in Danish, psychiatry freewheeled for years. Nobody demanded anything in return for the 100 billion psychiatry cost the Danish society and taxpayers yearly. People that psychiatry hurt and disabled were put away on a pension that was paid for by the state, as was the healthcare they had received. Nobody cared about these pensioners because they were labelled by psychiatry as being mentally sick and therefore unreliable, even through the person’s problem from the beginning was an ordinary problem like loosing a lover or another problem that could hit anybody. This means that 10.27% of the Danish population of total 5.534.738 people of which 90,5% are ethnic Danes are on drugs. Psychiatrists were emperors and they ruled in absolutely monarchy, distributing their “harmless” drugs to anybody entering their door. The influence on the brain of these drugs remained a big secret. But thanks to Dr. Peter Breggin and his books, explaining what the drugs do to the brain, the picture has now changed. Several big Danish media outlets have started calling the drugs “brain medicine”, and finally the Danes have started opening their eyes to the side effects and other former secrets of psychiatry. Also the Danish government has opened their eyes to all the pensioners that psychiatrists are creating. According to the Danish Ankestyrelsen, a public organisation taking care of statistics and development, 22 people a day or 7,985 persons a year are put on a social pension because of psychiatric treatment, many of those below the age of 40. On the opening of the parliament on October 12th, 2010 , the prime minister of Denmark in his opening speech said that this has to come to an end. Also the Danish minister of health has shown he has read the work of Breggin. In a recent TV interview he asked where this growing number of mentally sick come from. In the new government budget, which is right now negotiated, psychiatry is not included. They’ll have to ask for money from a so-called Satspulje, which is a fund. In this fund psychiatry will have to share money with other organisations. Further, mental hospitals are shut down and beds to the growing amount of mental sick Danes are being closed. Forensic doctors are now demanding investigations into the deaths of psychiatric patients. Our military is changing, too, concerning psychiatry. Before when traumatized Danish soldiers returned from war in Iraq or lately Afghanistan, they were handed over to psychiatry, where they got drugs, making them crazy, which cost some very heartbreaking incidents in Denmark. But today, October 13th, the Danish minister of Health and minister of Defence were on the news, presenting proposals for a new veteran policy, supporting the soldiers in the right way, which does not include psychiatry. So in Denmark Peter Breggin has had a big influence by drawing the attention to the facts about what the drugs can do to the brain. Things have started moving. Denmark is now on the right trail, and sooner or later the whole truth will be revealed…  A handful of the campaign group from LAP, driving through Denmark from north to south protesting against the many dead in psychiatry. LAP Expose': Dead In Psychiatry Poster, Campaign  This poster telling about th4e LAP campaign ”Dead in psychiatry” was put in 13 major Danish cities, several months before the LAP protest that took place from September 25th to October 10th, 2010. As a result of the advance preparation through distribution of this poster, the 40,000 postcards, and other communications, Danes, national media and Danish political leaders have been very responsive to the LAP campaign against deaths from psychiatry.  The wife of the campaign leader and a LAP group member in front of a Danish mental hospital. The campaign was especially covered in the part of Denmark called Jutland. The poster is a copy of the front page from the Danish newspaper, Nordjyske, that says: “poisoned by antidepressives”. Dr. Peter Breggin to Interview Danish Protest Leaders Join Dr. Peter Breggin for his weekly Monday evening radio show. Elsebeth Halckendorff and Jan Andersen, a leader of the Danish (Ex-) Users of Psychiatry will be Dr. Breggin's special guests on November 22nd, 2010. Go here to Dr. Breggin's website to connect with his radio show. You can listen to the show, live, via the internet and you can listen to earlier shows with Dr. Breggin that have been archived. ~
Thanks for reading about the exciting developments and the brave individuals in Denmark who are helping to protect and save lives. Remember to join our Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy and join in our growing efforts to encourage empathic, ethical human services and sciences in our culture. Very best regards, Ginger Breggin, Executive Director Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy www.empathictherapy.org
Peter R.
Breggin, MD is no longer affiliated with the Center for the Study of
Psychiatry, informally known as International Center for the Study of
Psychiatry and Psychology, which he founded and led from 1972-2002,
and Dr. Breggin is no longer involved in its conferences. Copyright 2010 Peter R. Breggin, MD |
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