Customer Reviews

The War Against Children of Color: Psychiatry Targets Inner City Youth

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dr. Breggin once again challenges the authority of the "science" that pretends to understand brain chemisty, and has just the drug to fix our brains. In this book, Breggin ties in issues of race and class, which play a big role in how children are diagnosed and treated. Kids today, instead of working through their issues with mentoring, counselling, after school programs, or music (whose funds have been slashed) are now being pressured to take corporate drugs.
In some cases, corporate drugs have helped children. In other cases, the drugs have created problems, and alternative approaches to emotional problems have been ignored. This focus on brain chemistry diverts our attention from countless things that may be making us anxious, or sad, or angry - domestic abuse, environmental injustice Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, the violence and insecurity of extreme poverty, a media that seeks to frighten and confuse, and much else.

I was saddened to see that this book hadn't been reviewed. "Common Courage Press" is an invaluable small publisher, and this is among many books they offer that deserve a wide audience. People of relative privilege may want to consider making this sort of book available in places where poor people buy books; that is, second-hand stores like the Goodwill. It's a shame how many crappy books are made available at second-hand stores. We can make a difference in people's lives by putting good stuff like Breggin's books on the shelves.

Some other related items I'd recommend:
Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry"
Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications
Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients

It's a cruel irony that young people are condemned for using pot, and then so quickly prescribed the powerful pychoactives of the pharmaceutical industry. Big Pharma doesn't have a patent on pot, and sees it as a threat to their market and revenue growth. For those who want to explore cannabis for depression:
High Times
The Benefits of Marijuana: Physical, Psychological & Spiritual
Emperor of Hemp: Every Revolution Needs a Hero

Child and parenting resources:
Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves: Transforming Parent-child Relationships from Reaction And Struggle to Freedom, Power And Joy
D.I.Y.: Kids
The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections