Behaviorism and Mental Health

Alternative perspective on psychiatry's so-called mental disorders | PHILIP HICKEY, PH.D.

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You are here: Home / Archives for A Behavioral Approach to Mental Disorders

Dr. Pies’ Non-Apology

February 5, 2021 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

INTRODUCTION On June 23, 2020, Awais Aftab, MD, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Case Western, interviewed Ronald Pies, MD, also a psychiatrist, and a professor at Tufts and SUNY. During the interview, Dr. Aftab stated: “I have followed the controversy surrounding ‘chemical imbalance’ with some interest over the years, including the multiple articles you… Continue Reading

Dr. Pies and The Chemical Imbalance Deception

January 21, 2021 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

INTRODUCTION For the past several years, the eminent and scholarly Ronald Pies, MD, psychiatrist, of SUNY Upstate Medical and Tufts Universities, has labored the point that psychiatry has never endorsed the simplistic chemical imbalance theory of “mental illness”.  As various anti-psychiatry bloggers, including myself, began to accumulate a great many instances of prominent psychiatrists doing… Continue Reading

Don’t Believe Everything You Read: Words Matter Desperately

January 19, 2021 By Guest | Leave a Comment

  This article was originally published on January 12, 2021 on Mad in the UK.   by Paula J. Caplan, PhD The seed for this essay is the way that the use of five words has skyrocketed in print, in media, and among both professionals and laypeople, and this is causing harm. The overuse of… Continue Reading

Is Anti-Psychiatry Harmful?

January 13, 2021 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

INTRODUCTION On September 9, 2020, Jonathan Stea, PhD, Tyler Black, MD, and Joseph Pierre, MD, published a piece on MedPage Today.  The article is titled Why Anti-Psychiatry Now Fails and Harms. Dr. Stea is a clinical psychologist and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Dr. Black is the psychiatric medical director of British… Continue Reading

Celebrating the Anti-Psychiatry Movement

December 31, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

Say not the struggle nought availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been, they remain.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [But] not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light,… Continue Reading

Dr. Pies:  Still Going Wrong

December 15, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

“For e’en tho’ vanquished, he could argue still;” From The Deserted Village (1770) by Oliver Goldsmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On June 23, 2020, Awais Aftab, MD, psychiatrist, published an interview with Ronald Pies, MD, also a psychiatrist, in Psychiatric Times.  The interview… Continue Reading

A Psychiatrist Critiques Psychiatry, And Does A Great Job!

November 24, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

Overland describes itself as Australia’s only radical literary magazine.  It was founded in 1954, and publishes a quarterly print journal (essays, stories, and poetry) and an online magazine (cultural commentary). In the current issue, Winter 2020, there is an excellent article by Samuel Lieblich, a consultant psychiatrist working in the Greater Melbourne Area.  The essay… Continue Reading

Dr. Aftab Interviews Dr. Pies

November 5, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

On June 30, 2020, Awais Aftab, MD, psychiatrist, published an interview with Ronald W. Pies, MD, also a psychiatrist, in Psychiatric Times. As an interview, the piece is somewhat unusual in that Dr. Aftab, as interviewer, does not confine his role to asking questions, but actually contributes substantially to the dialogue.  So the piece is… Continue Reading

Is Psychiatry Dangerous?

September 22, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

On August 26, Shayla Love, senior staff writer, published a piece on VICE, an online magazine.  The article is titled The Movement Against Psychiatry: The contentious debate of whether to fix—or completely overthrow—the way we treat mental illness. In her article, Ms. Love provides abundant quotes from people on both sides of the issue, including… Continue Reading

Deep Sleep “Therapy” in Australia in the 1960’s and 70’s. Could Something Like This Happen Today?

August 27, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

Here’s an interesting story from Australia, recently back in the spotlight. From 1962 to 1979, psychiatrist Harry Bailey, MD, serving as chief psychiatrist at Chelmsford Private Hospital in New South Wales, practiced “deep sleep therapy”, which involved keeping people in barbiturate-induced comas for days or even weeks.  Twenty-four of the individuals who received this “treatment”… Continue Reading

Drs. Pies and Ruffalo Still Rattling Their Wooden Swords

July 28, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

Ronald Pies, MD, and Mark Ruffalo, D Psa, were busy in June.  They published two papers in defense of psychiatry:  What Is Meant by a Psychiatric Diagnosis? (“Psychiatric diagnoses are not merely descriptive; they reflect genuine illness”); and Psychiatric Diagnosis 2.0: The Myth of the Symptom Checklist (“More on the meaning of psychiatric diagnosis”).  Both… Continue Reading

Allen Frances: Still Spinning the Story

April 24, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

On March 4, 2020, the very eminent Allen Frances, MD, published an article in Aeon, which according to its About page is “a digital magazine, publishing some of the most profound and provocative thinking on the web. We ask the big questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on science,… Continue Reading

The Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression: Where Is It Going?

February 13, 2020 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

The spurious chemical imbalance theory of depression is arguably the most destructive thing that psychiatry has ever done.  Worldwide, millions of individuals are taking antidepressants, often with a cocktail of other drugs, because they have been told the blatant falsehood that they need the pills to combat a brain illness – a “real illness just… Continue Reading

Dr. Huda Has Written His Book

December 11, 2019 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

Samei Huda, MD, is a consultant psychiatrist with the British National Health Service.  He has written a book called The Medical Model in Mental Health, An Explanation and Evaluation.  It was published by Oxford University Press earlier this year. BASIC THEME In his preface, Dr. Huda tells us that he wrote the book to “explain… Continue Reading

The Chemical Imbalance Theory.  Dr. Pies Returns, Again

July 22, 2019 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

On April 30, 2019, the very eminent and learned psychiatrist Ronald Pies, MD, published a piece in Psychiatric Times titled Debunking the Two Chemical Imbalance Myths, Again. Here’s the opening paragraph: “Like the legendary Count Dracula, who could be killed only by driving a stake through his heart, some myths seem almost immortal. For more… Continue Reading

In Defense of Anti-psychiatry

April 25, 2019 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

On August 19, 2018, an article titled The Reality of Mental Illness was published on Psychology Today.  The authors were Ronald Pies, MD, and Mark Ruffalo, LCSW.  Dr. Pies is a professor of psychiatry at Tufts and at SUNY.  Professor Ruffalo has a private psychotherapy practice in Tampa, Florida.  He is also an instructor of… Continue Reading

Allen Frances and the Increasing Use of Antidepressants

October 30, 2018 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

On May 16, 2018, the prestigious and venerable psychiatrist Allen Frances, MD, gave an interview to Christiane Amanpour on CNN.  You can see the video here.  It’s titled How Antidepressant Withdrawal “Can Trap People”. Here’s how the interview opened: CA:  “So you know, I just wanted to start by saying that who knew that antidepressants… Continue Reading

The “Essential Principles” of Psychiatric Practice: More Psychiatric Cheerleading

June 20, 2018 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

In the May 2018 issue of Current Psychiatry, there’s an editorial by Henry Nasrallah, MD.  Dr. Nasrallah is a highly renowned psychiatrist, and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal.  He is also chair of the St. Louis University Department of Psychiatry. Here’s the opening paragraph of the article. “As the end of the academic year approaches,… Continue Reading

“The Power Threat Meaning Framework”: A New Perspective on Mental Distress

May 1, 2018 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

In January, 2018, the clinical psychology division of the British Psychology Society published a very important paper.  The document is titled The Power Threat Meaning Framework and is subtitled: “Towards the identification of patterns in emotional distress, unusual experiences and troubled or troubling behaviour, as an alternative to functional psychiatric diagnosis”. The term functional psychiatric diagnosis… Continue Reading

“How Long a Time”.  A new song by Richard Lewis

April 9, 2018 By Phil Hickey | Leave a Comment

Psychiatry is a hoax.  The “mental illnesses” that it invents with increasing frequency are not illnesses in any ordinary sense of the term.  Its “diagnoses” are destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing; and its “treatments” (drugs and electric shocks) always do more damage than good, especially in the long term. In our struggle against this destructive travesty,… Continue Reading

Dr. Pies Defending Psychiatry’s Position on Auditory Hallucinations

February 23, 2018 By Phil Hickey | 2 Comments

On September 4, 2017, the very eminent and prestigious psychiatrist Ronald Pies, MD, published an article on Psychiatric Times.  The piece is titled: Hearing Voices and Psychiatry’s (Real) Medical Model.  Dr. Pies is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Psychiatric Times and a professor of psychiatry at SUNY and Tufts.  He has written extensively on psychiatric and other… Continue Reading

Speaking Out Against Electric Shocks

January 10, 2018 By Phil Hickey | 10 Comments

“…they’re human beings, for God’s sake!  In the name of everything holy, how can they do that to them?” (p 108) The Other Mrs. Smith, by Bonnie Burstow, 2017   In the March 2017 issue of the Journal of ECT, there was an editorial titled:  Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) in the News: “Balance” Leads to Bias…. Continue Reading

Rebranding Psychiatry

November 28, 2017 By Phil Hickey | 8 Comments

Or, how to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. INTRODUCTION In November 2017, the British Journal of Psychiatry published a guest editorial titled Shrink rethink: rebranding psychiatry.  The authors are Scottish psychiatrists Jim Crabb, MD and Neil Masson, MD, and Lee Barber, an advertising and marketing strategist.  Both Drs. Crabb and Masson practice… Continue Reading

Mental Illness Vs. “Bad” Behavior

November 7, 2017 By Phil Hickey | 6 Comments

On February 14, 2017, the very eminent psychiatrist Allen Frances, MD, published a letter in the New York Times.  The main points of Dr. Frances’s letter are:  that, contrary to some speculations and assertions, Donald Trump, President of the USA, does not meet the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder “because he does not suffer from… Continue Reading

Elimination of the Bereavement Exclusion:  History and Implications

October 5, 2017 By Phil Hickey | 2 Comments

INTRODUCTION The bereavement exclusion was formally eliminated in the spring of 2013, with the publication of DSM-5.  The exclusion was a provision in earlier editions, that a “diagnosis of major depressive disorder” could not be assigned to a bereaved person, even though he or she met the criteria, unless certain additional considerations were met.  The… Continue Reading

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Recent Articles

  • Dr. Pies’ Non-Apology
  • Dr. Pies and The Chemical Imbalance Deception
  • Don’t Believe Everything You Read: Words Matter Desperately
  • Is Anti-Psychiatry Harmful?
  • Celebrating the Anti-Psychiatry Movement
  • Dr. Pies:  Still Going Wrong
  • A Psychiatrist Critiques Psychiatry, And Does A Great Job!
  • Dr. Aftab Interviews Dr. Pies
  • Is Psychiatry Dangerous?
  • Deep Sleep “Therapy” in Australia in the 1960’s and 70’s. Could Something Like This Happen Today?

The phrase "mental health" as used in the name of this website is simply a term of convenience. It specifically does not imply that the human problems embraced by this term are illnesses, or that their absence constitutes health. Indeed, the fundamental tenet of this site is that there are no mental illnesses, and that conceptualizing human problems in this way is spurious, destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing.

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The purpose of this website is to provide a forum where current practices and ideas in the mental health field can be critically examined and discussed. It is not possible in this kind of context to provide psychological help or advice to individuals who may read this site, and nothing written here should be construed in this manner. Readers seeking psychological help should consult a qualified practitioner in their own local area. They should explain their concerns to this person and develop a trusting working relationship. It is only in a one-to-one relationship of this kind that specific advice should be given or taken.

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