Peter R. Breggin, MD, has been called "the conscience of psychiatry" for his efforts to reform the mental health field, including his promotion of caring psychotherapeutic approaches and his opposition to the escalating overuse of psychiatric medications, the oppressive diagnosing and drugging of children, electroshock, lobotomy, involuntary treatment, and false biological theories.
Dr. Breggin has been in the private practice of psychiatry since 1968, first in the Washington, D.C. area and now in Ithaca, New York. In his therapy practice, he treats individuals, couples and children with their families without resort to psychiatric drugs. As a clinical psychopharmacologist, he provides consultations and is active as a medical expert in criminal, malpractice and product liability lawsuits, often involving the harmful effects of psychiatric drugs. He has been an expert in landmark cases involving the rights of patients.
Since 1964 Dr. Breggin has written dozens of scientific articles and approximately twenty books. Some of his many books include Toxic Psychiatry, Talking Back to Ritalin, The Antidepressant Fact Book, and The Heart of Being Helpful: Empathy and the Creation of a Healing Presence, and with co-author Ginger Breggin, Talking Back to Prozac and The War Against Children of Color (Springer Publishing 1999, paperback 2006). His forthcoming book, in mid 2008, is Medication Madness: 55 True Stories About Mayhem, Murder and Suicide Caused by Psychiatric Drugs.
At various stages of his career he has been decades ahead of his time in warning about the dangers of lobotomy, electroshock, and more recently antidepressant-induced suicide and violence, as well as many other recently acknowledged risks associated with psychiatric drugs. From the New York Times and Wall Street Journal to Time and Newsweek, and from "Larry King Live" and "Oprah" to "60 minutes" and "20/20," his views have been covered in major media throughout the world.
In 1972 Dr. Breggin founded the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (www.ICSPP.org). Originally organized to support his successful campaign to stop the resurgence of lobotomy, ICSPP has become a source of support and inspiration for reformed-minded professionals and laypersons who wish to raise ethical and scientific standards in field of mental health. In 1999 he and his wife Ginger founded ICSPP's peer-reviewed scientific journal, Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry (Springer Publishing). In 2002 they selected younger professionals to take over the center and the journal, although Dr. Breggin continues to participate in ICSPP activities.
Dr. Breggin's background includes Harvard College, Case Western Reserve Medical School, a teaching fellowship at Harvard Medical School, three years of residency training in psychiatry, a two-year staff assignment at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and several teaching appointments including The Johns Hopkins University Department of Counseling and the George Mason University Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Dr. Breggin's website is www.breggin.com
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
