SOWK 2035-Group assignment. Analysis/examination of a community organization.

1. Dr. Peter Breggin's
Center for the Study of Empathic
Therapy, Education & Living
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“The original international voice for
genuine reform in psychiatry and mental health
since 1971”
Mariah Madigan, Jelaine Thomas, Cassandra Sunderdas

2. Empathy
• Empathy is the ability to see beyond outward behaviour in
the experience of understanding another person’s situation
from their perspective.
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• Empathy recognizes, welcomes and treasures the
individuality, personhood, identity, spirit or soul of the other
human being in all its shared and unique aspects.

3. !
Through understanding the client’s thoughts and feelings, the
practitioner:
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• Offers a caring, understanding, and empowering attitude toward
emotional struggles, aspirations, and personal growth.
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• Promotes the client’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.
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• Respects the autonomy, responsibility, and freedom of the client.
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• Encourages growth in self-appreciation and ability to respect,
love and empathize with others.
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What Is “Empathic Therapy”?

4. “I am best known from my critiques of biological, mechanistic psychiatry with its cookie-
cutter diagnoses and brain-disabling drugs and shock treatment. Establishment and
institutional psychiatry can be like a dark shadow that crowds out the light. Even as we
grow in awareness of the harm perpetrated by biological psychiatry, we need more
focus on the light -- on the life-giving principles that have moved me and so many
others to take up the cause of reform in psychiatry and psychotherapy.”
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“We are establishing a growing membership of concerned mental health and education
professionals as well as families, advocates, and individuals who have been exposed
and wounded by psychiatry and are seeking better approaches”.
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-Dr. Peter R. Breggin, Founder.
Dr. Breggin’s Center for the Study of Empathetic
Therapy, Education & Living
Purpose/Role

5. Mandates/Founding Guidelines
• Basis in relationships, trust, honesty, and caring.
• Treasure those who seek help.
• Mutual respect, understanding, and confidentiality
between client and practitioner.
• Safe space for self-exploration towards building a
self-determined life.
• Identify self-defeating patterns and offer new
perspectives.
“Bring Out the Best In Yourself!”

6. Function of the Organization
• Raise ethical and scientific standards in psychology and
psychiatry.
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• Examine false theories and dangerous practices of biological
psychiatry, encouraging their replacement with more humane,
caring approaches.
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• Develop activities for both the general public and concerned
professionals to become involved, converse, and gain
information on creating more empathetic focused
approaches/resources for mental health issues.

7. Differences from the Psychiatric System
• Engage in authoritarianism, coercion, or
manipulation.
• Treat individuals against their will.
• Reduce individuals to the label of their diagnosis.
• Falsely attribute suffering to specific qualities of
genetics, biochemistry, or psychological
helplessness.
Empathetic Therapy DOES NOT

8. • Believe a drug free mind is best for personal growth.
• Reassure individuals to recognize and embrace the depth, richness, and
complexity of their lives.
• Consider that psychiatry is NOT a medical practice.
• Protect all individuals, especially children, from psychiatric diagnoses and
drugs.
• Apply its guidelines to ALL therapeutic relationships, regardless of the
circumstance.
• Believe that individuals who are mentally, emotionally, and physically fragile
are especially vulnerable to injury from psychiatric drugs and authoritarian
therapies, and are in need of the best one can offer as an empathic therapist.
Empathetic Therapy DOES

9. “Empathy lies at the heart of the best
therapeutic and educational approaches.”
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A broad spectrum of therapeutic and educational approaches
can draw upon and express empathy; but conventional
psychiatric diagnosis, medication, electroshock, and
involuntary treatments suppress the individuality and the
empathic potential of both the provider and the recipient.
!

10. Historical Significance & Contributions to the
“Mad Movement”
• A social change initiative that accelerated in the early 1970’s, led by
psychiatric survivors and mental health consumers against biological
approaches to psychiatry and the widespread use of prescription drugs
for mental health.
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• Dr. Breggin himself has a long standing history of challenging and
creating change in the psychiatric system. Recently, with his newest
organization, he and his associates are aiming to create an
“empathetic therapy movement” in efforts to combat biological
psychiatry treatments that remain in existence.
What is the Mad Movement?

11. Dr. Breggin’s Contributions/Accomplishments
• Radcliffe Mental Hospital Volunteer Program
-Founder and co-director from 1954-1958 while in college. Therapeutic volunteering interventions led
to many patients being released.
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• Stopped the worldwide resurgence of lobotomy and psychosurgery
-Ran a successful international campaign in the 1970’s that resulted in psychosurgery no
longer being carried out in state or federal institutions in the U.S., and ECT research
confirming that the “treatment” causes long-term brain dysfunction and widespread mental
deficits.
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• NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health)
-Spent two years working on educating, building, and staffing mental health centres.
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• Founded the Center for the Study of Psychiatry
-His first reform organization consisting of mental health professionals, lawyers,
consumers, and members of the U.S. Congress.
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• Dr. Breggin’s Center for the Study of Empathetic Therapy, Education, & Living
-Founded in 2010 to continue his reform work.
“Education, Advocation, Participation”

12. • Stopping the Federal Violence Initiative
-Managed campaigns that led to the cancellation of federal programs that preform
dangerous experiments on children
-Exposing the focus of drug company funds
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• Disclosing the Role of Psychiatry In Nazi Germany
-Discovered that German biological psychiatry developed the theory of practise of
mass “scientific” murder through exterminating mental patients as a step
towards exterminating the Jews.
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• Alerting the Dangers of SSRI Antidepressants
-First psychiatrist to confront the profession and the public about the risks of
violence and suicide from SSRI’s, starting with Prozac.
-Began documenting findings and publishing research to the FDA.
Dr. Breggin’s Contributions/Accomplishments

13. • The Brain-Disabling Principle of Psychiatric Treatment
-Developed the theory that all physical treatments in psychiatry—drugs, electroshock,
psychosurgery—disable the brain, none improve brain function.
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• Defining/Examining the Psychopharmaceutical Complex
-Through writing Toxic Psychiatry in 1991, he coined the term “psychopharmaceutical complex.”
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-Aim to demonstrate how the pharmaceutical industry dominates all psychiatric research, the
American Psychiatric Association, the Food and Drug Administration, NIMH, medical education,
insurance providers, and basically the whole system of psychiatry and psychiatric drugs.
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• Informing and Working with the Military
-Addressed the Annual International Military & Civilian Combat Stress Conference (largest in the
world) to encourage focus on psychosocial and educational alternatives to drugs for military stress.
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• Runs a Private Practice in Ithica New York
-Treats adults, children, and families. Specializes in assisting with the withdrawal from
psychiatric drugs and educating on replacement methods.
Dr. Breggin’s Contributions/Accomplishments

14. • Author of dozens of scientific articles and more than twenty
books including:
-“Electroshock: Its Brain-Disabling Effects” -1979 (The first and only medical book
devoted to a critical analysis advocating against electroshock therapy).
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-“Psychiatric Drugs: Hazards to the Brain”-1983 (The first and only medical book wholly
outlining the dangers of psychiatric drugs to the mind).
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-Bestseller “Talking Back to Prozac”- 1994
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-“Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and
Crime” -2008
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-“Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and Their
Families” -2013
Dr. Breggin’s Contributions/Accomplishments

15. Examples of Precedent-Setting Legal Outcomes
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• Below is a small sample of positive legal results involving Dr. Breggin’s
testimonies acting as the psychiatric expert:
• $1.5 million awarded in child tardive dyskinesia case (Feb 2014)
• $700,000 settlement in tardive dyskinesia (TD) case in Mass. (May 2014)
• Jury Awards $1.5 million for suicide involving antidepressants (Nov 2012)
• Judge concludes Prozac caused teen to murder (Sept 2011)
• Medical expert in first ever electroshock (ECT) malpractice trial victory (2005)
• Medical expert in first ever psychosurgery malpractice trial win ($7.5 million
against the Cleveland Clinic) (2002)
Dr. Breggin’s Contributions/Accomplishments

16. Website Analysis
• Clear structure of sub-headings for
ease of navigation
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• Layout allowing for quick reference
and location of desired information
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• Coherent, academic writing styles
portraying an impression of accurate,
trustworthy, up to date information
Organization/Structure

17. • Free monthly newsletter and social media connections access.
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• Free PDFs of peer reviewed scientific articles organized by subject and date of
publication.
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• Comprehensive list and details of Dr. Breggin’s involvement and precedent-
setting contributions in legal cases, as well as other accomplishments.
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• Dozens of archived radio and TV appearances, as well as personal video’s.
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• Access to Dr. Breggin’s many books, and others he recommends.
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• Outline of therapy options and residential treatment centres broken down by
country/area.
Resources

18. • Information on past, present, and future conferences/events pertaining to the
empathetic therapy/mad movement.
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• Weekly live internet radio show with Dr. Breggin and expert guests from around the
world.
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• Dr. Breggin’s Huffington Post blog
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• ToxicPsychiatry.com, a daily updated news and library project created to provide
critical information concerning the damaging effects of biological psychiatric
treatments.
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• Memberships to the organization allowing individuals from all over the world to
participate in the empathetic therapy movement.
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• Links to websites/organizations recommended by Dr. Breggin.
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• Contact information for Dr. Breggin himself and for his personal website http://
www.breggin.com
Resources

19. “Many consider Dr. Breggin's professional
site to be one of the most informative in
the field of psychology, psychiatry, mental
health, and psychopharmacology”
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-William Glasser, MD, psychiatrist, internationally known therapist and
theorist, and author of Reality Therapy

20. • Harvard College
• Case Western Reserve Medical School
• Psychiatric Residency
• Harvard Medical School teaching fellowship.
• Johns Hopkins University Department of Counselling
teaching fellowship
• Appointment at the National Institute of Mental Health
(NIMH).
• Dozens of endorsements from individuals, institutions,
and other organizations for his work.
Dr. Breggin’s Credentials

21. • 86 member advisory council consisting of MD’s, PhD’s, RN’s,
lawyers, and other healthcare professionals from varying fields,
as well as psychiatric survivors.
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• Detailed biographical information is available for each member.
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• Sub-specialties include: Psychology, Social Work,
Psychiatry, Medical Ethics and Law, Neurology, Chronic
Pain, Drug Safety, Education, Radiology, Human services,
Addictions
Advisory Council Credentials/Information

22. Testimonials
“Much of today’s psychiatric science is based on wish, myth,
and politics. Breggin addresses this self-serving
pseudoscience head on.”
-Loren Mosher, Former Chief of the Centre for Studies of
Schizophrenia, the National Institute of Mental Health
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“Dr. Breggin passionately captures the heart of
psychotherapeutic healing. A prolific and provocative writer,
his thoughts are powerful, imaginative, inspirational, and
wise.”
-Clemmont Vontress, PhD, George Washington University Professor and ACA
Counsellor of the Year
“Many patients rave about the doctor. “He’s a wonderful person,” says one satisfied
customer. “He cares so much about his clients. He gave me the will to get better.””
-Time magazine profile of Dr. Peter Breggin
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“Peter Breggin is the leading voice in this country exposing psychiatry’s betrayal of the
fundamental essence of what it means to be human.”
-Eileen Walkenstein, MD, psychiatrist and author of Beyond the Couch and Your -Inner Therapist

23. Future
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• Dr. Breggin’s scientific and educational work has provided the foundation
for modern criticism of psychiatric drugs and biological treatments, and
leads the way in promoting more caring and effective therapies.
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• Founded 5 years ago in 2010, the non-profit organization is in its infancy.
However, Dr. Breggin’s work began and was monumentally successful long
before his most recent project in The Centre for the Study of Empathetic
Therapy, Education & Living.
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• Going forward, we can expect the same trends in contributions to reform
work in psychiatry to continue, and accomplishments to be added to the
lists shared with you today.
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• Dr. Breggin is a passionate, relentless pioneer in his field, dedicated to
continuing his empathetic work with the goal of disclosing and spreading
the truth about biological psychiatry, and dedication in informing people
how to be fully involved in the emerging field of Empathetic Therapy.

24. For your information!
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-This brief presentation was not nearly sufficient to convey the full extent and significance of Dr.
Breggin’s organization, and of himself personally, in contributing to the Mad movement.
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-Accomplishments and contributions listed here only touch the surface of the magnitude of his
involvements.
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-Below are some key links for anyone who wishes to learn more about this wonderful emerging
organization and the impressive history of the man that founded it all!
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• Dr. Breggin’s complete resume: http://www.breggin.com/resume.pdf
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• Video and TV archives: http://breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=101&Itemid=95
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• Books :http://breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=15&Itemid=42
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• Scientific papers: http://breggin.com/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=37
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• Listen to Dr. Breggin’s radio talk show on:
www.prn.fm
Every Wednesday at 4 PM
East Coast time, U.S
Call In Live:1-888-874-4888
Listen to archived shows at http://prn.fm/category/archives/dr-peter-breggin-hour/
Be part of the future of Empathic Therapy!

25. References
•Dr. Peter Breggin’s Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, Education & Living
http://www.empathictherapy.org
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•Peter R. Breggin M.D. ECT Resources Center
http://www.ectresources.org
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•What your doctor may not know: Psychiatric Drug Facts with Dr. Peter Breggin
http://www.breggin.com
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•The “mad movement”: Win Human Rights in the Mental Health System
http://www.mindfreedom.org
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•Mad Pride Toronto
http://madpridetoronto.blogspot.ca
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•Toxic Psychiatry News and Resources
http://www.toxicpsychiatry.com/about/
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