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Peter Roger Breggin
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Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry" Paperback – August 15, 1994

by Peter R. Breggin M.D. (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 225 ratings
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Prozac, Xanax, Halcion, Haldol, Lithium. These psychiatric drugs--and dozens of other short-term "solutions"--are being prescribed by doctors across the country as a quick antidote to depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other psychiatric problems. But at what cost?

In this searing, myth-shattering exposé, psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, M.D., breaks through the hype and false promises surrounding the "New Psychiatry" and shows how dangerous, even potentially brain-damaging, many of its drugs and treatments are. He asserts that: psychiatric drugs are spreading an epidemic of long-term brain damage; mental "illnesses" like schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety disorder have never been proven to be genetic or even physical in origin, but are under the jurisdiction of medical doctors; millions of schoolchildren, housewives, elderly people, and others are labeled with medical diagnoses and treated with authoritarian interventions, rather than being patiently listened to, understood, and helped.

Toxic Psychiatry sounds a passionate, much-needed wake-up call for everyone who plays a part, active or passive, in America's ever-increasing dependence on harmful psychiatric drugs.

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  1. Print length
    480 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    St. Martin's Griffin
  4. Publication date
    August 15, 1994
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.07 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780312113667
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0312113667
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Dr. Breggin is the conscience of American psychiatry. The truths he tells are important not only for patients and professionals, but also for the general public. Definitely a 'must read'; even more important, a 'must think about.'” ―Bertram P. Karon, Ph.D., author of Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia

“Much of today's psychiatric science is based on wish, myth, and politics. Breggin addresses this self-serving pseudoscience head-on.” ―Loren Mosher, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Former Chief of the Center for Studies of Schizophrenia, The National Institute of Mental Health

“Peter Breggin is the leading voice in this country exposing psychiatry's betrayal of the most fundamental essence of what it means to be human. In this Drug Age, read this book before your next dose.” ―Eileen Walkenstein, M.D., psychiatrist and author of Beyond the Couch, Don't Shrink to Fit, and Your Inner Therapist

About the Author

Peter R. Breggin, M.D., is a psychiatrist and expert in clinical psychopharmacology. A former teaching fellow at Harvard Medical School and full-time consultant at the National Institute of Mental Health, he has written dozens of scientific articles and more than twenty books, including the bestsellers Toxic Psychiatry and Talking Back to Prozac. He has served as a medical expert in criminal and civil cases involving psychiatric drugs, including product-liability suits against drug manufacturers. Dr. Breggin founded the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, taught at universities, and is on the editorial boards of several scientific journals. He lives in the Finger Lakes region with his wife, Ginger, and practices psychiatry in Ithaca, New York.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0312113668
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (August 15, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 480 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780312113667
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312113667
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.07 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 225 ratings

About the author

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Peter Roger Breggin

Peter Roger Breggin

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Peter R. Breggin MD is known as “The Conscience of Psychiatry” for his many decades of successful reform work in the mental health field, but has now turned his attention to the misuse of science surrounding COVID-19 and its origins in what he and his coauthor Ginger Breggin are calling "global predators." He is currently the medical and psychiatric expert for an injunction against the governor of Ohio for oppressing the citizens with unending emergency decrees related to COVID-19. Dr. Breggin and his wife Ginger R. Breggin have written COVID-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey.

Dr. Breggin is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former full-time Consultant at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and part-time for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He has been approved as a medical expert in over 100 legal cases in state and federal courts on issues relating to adverse drug effects, drug approval, the pharmaceutical industry, and the FDA. He is the author of two dozen medical, scientific, and best-selling popular books, as well as dozens of scientific articles.

Peter R. Breggin, MD, is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former full-time consultant at NIMH. He is in private practice in Ithaca, New York, and is the author of dozens of scientific articles and more than 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. His most recent publications include Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide, and Crime (2008) and Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex, Second Edition (SPC, 2008). His two newest psychiatric books are Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families (SPC, 2013) and Guilt, Shame, and Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming Negative Emotions (Prometheus, 2014). Dr. Breggin is the founder and director of The Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, Education and Living (www.EmpathicTherapy.org) His professional website is www.breggin.com.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
225 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lorey D. Sullivan
5.0 out of 5 stars The last time was the worst. The police shot me down with four tasers
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2015
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This book saved my life! Thanks to Dr. Breggin, I cured myself from being bipolar and have now been normal and creative without going crazy for twenty-five years. The problem was when I would write I would spiral into a manic high, then become psychotic. The next thing I knew, I was being picked up by the police and put in the proverbial rubber room. The last time was the worst. The police shot me down with four tasers. When I got out of the hospital that time I said, "Never again." I was told I was bipolar.

I examined my life for the beliefs I had (the problem stemmed mostly from my religious beliefs and brainwashing growing up) and a combination of circumstances that caused me to have problems. (Divorce, job losses, etc.) I took charge of my life without doctors, and without drugs. I started directing myself doing what I loved so I could be creative as a writer and normal without going crazy. Psychiatrists were not helpful, drugs were not the answer (lithium to stay down, and Prozac when I got so far down I wanted to commit suicide). Now days I think people are better off having a coach to focus on what one wants and taking steps to achieve one's goals. I didn't have help being on a poverty income. However, I did write and I would write my "Dear God Letters," and from that got answers.

Well, this is long, but I hope it helps anyone who is interested to know that no matter who you are, you have everything you need to thrive as you. That's basically what its all about. Be the great creative you. Find your voice, and a way to express all the beauty of who you are. I believe everyone has something special to contribute to this world. Basically, your job is to be you and make your love visible through who you are and what you do.
107 people found this helpful
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Ragnarok
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic review of the dangers of psychiatric practices
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2011
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I've only recently received my copy of Toxic Psychiatry, and as yet not finished the whole book, but the information within is very informative and well researched. Psychiatry is a plaque on Mankind. Psychiatric medications frequently cause more damage than they help, and often produce the very symptoms of the 'illness' they are supposed to treat.
There are much more effective means of helping individuals experiencing emotional or mental distress. Psychology for example uses the same research, yet offers non-drug treatments that are often more effective than the drug treatments, and come with less withdrawal symptoms or relapse.
I've not yet read the section on autism but have read several negative responses from people about this particular section. While my own personal knowledge surrounding autism is limited, there has been a vast increase in those diagnosed as autistic. I will not comment on if I believe this to be a physical brain dysfunction or mental dysfunction, the increase in autism has been linked to vaccines containing mercury (under the name Thimerisol/Thimerosal, a mercury derivative).
The modern mental health system is soon to change. The truth of what these 'mental illnesses' are is soon to come to light, and they are not, nor ever were diseases. I personally experienced more than a dozen of these so called 'illnesses' for a period of over 10 years, so I understand what they feel like, and I have recently become interested in the research so also have the scientific data (which includes a vast amount more than just Breggin's research alone).
I applaud Dr. Breggin for his many years of working with people to help them heal, for his many years of intensive research, and his unwavering drive to expose the dangers of the menace that is biological psychiatry.
10 people found this helpful
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Nancy E. Macdonald
5.0 out of 5 stars An extremely important book for anyone today.
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 1999
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This is an extremely important book for anyone seeking mental health services, for anyone who knows someone doing the same, or for anyone working in or planning a career in mental health; i.e., for anyone today. I teach undergraduate psychology, and plan to increasingly incorporate this book and its information into my courses.
The trends observed by Breggin in this 1991 book, toward the dominance of mental health by biopsychiatric views, have increased during the 1990's, as Breggin's more recent books (e.g., Talking Back to Prozac, and Talking Back to Ritalin) attest. Toxic Psychiatry is a more comprehensive work, providing evidence that both mild and severe psychosocial problems may in fact be exacerbated by the biopsychiatric approach. Details of specific drugs and their effects, as well as alternative theoretical and treatment perspectives round out this book. Breggin possesses the expertise to discuss these issues in depth and specificity, but also the clarity of writing to make this information accessible to the general reader.
While making no pretense of presenting a "balanced view" in itself, this book provides the necessary balance in a culture where media and political forces so strongly promote the other side. Breggin's extensive inside knowledge of the political and economic forces driving the mental health "industry", and his documentation of those forces, should command everyone's attention.
42 people found this helpful
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Adam Chornesky
4.0 out of 5 stars A close look at the how Big Pharm gets psychiatric drugs to market, influences the Psychiatric community, and more.
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2016
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A revealing look at the Psychiatric Pharmicological Complex, how each supports the other. Still, if you have a relative who is in need of treatment, the alternative to not using medications is not a very pretty one. Your relative can be on medications, be able to function as a normal part of the community, drive a car, keep a job, rent or own your own home. Or your relative can refuse to take medication, live in the street, get mugged, assaulted, or worse because they cannot effectively operate in the real world. Avoid the use of Haldol. It is the worst! Latuda seems to be the best.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Niamh
5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth and Reality about the Psychiatry Profession and their Medications and Methods
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2024
Verified Purchase
Excellent History of the abuse of people by the psychiatry profession over the past century. Each page has horrifying details and personal stories from an author who had the integrity and wisdom as a young man to question what was being done to individuals in 'asylums'. We are going to look back in ten years time and be appalled by allowing people to be lobotomised with chemicals. The author quotes Thomas Szaz who said 'Restraint by chemical means does not make us guilty; herin lies the danger to the patient' . A lobotomy by any means is, in my opinion, evil. How individuals are still able to do this to vulnerable people is incomprehensible. This book also offers an insight into alternative strategies which help individuals without harming them.
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Jay
5.0 out of 5 stars There is Hope.
Reviewed in Canada on February 20, 2021
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It's good to see that there are other options, that are less toxic and drug free, but take work effect change. This books sheds light on what is not being told, and that the "cure is worse than the illness". Is it coincidence that the DSM symptoms for mental illnesses match up to most Psychiatric drugs side effects?

Unfortunately, we live in a quick fix society primed to believe medical professionals, and these "Doctors" are influenced & educated by Big Pharma on so many levels it is scary. I am grateful that Dr. Peter Breggin did not allow his Ego to get in the way of truly trying to help patients, and to "do no harm" first.

It makes me question who is actually insane and who really needs a Psychiatrist?
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Rajeshwari
5.0 out of 5 stars God bless Peter for Exposing the 'Half Truths' so BOLDly...
Reviewed in India on July 21, 2018
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This book contains facts and bitter truths that psychiatry has buried for soo long...no frills attached.This book is for keepsakes.
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Ella Akehurst
5.0 out of 5 stars Its very well writen and nice to be thought off as not as mad as a fruitcake ..
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 16, 2018
Verified Purchase
Have wanted this book for so long ,reading or trying to very slowly as had the works ECT-Neuroleptic Mallignant Syndrome -Got me nowhere other than Epilepsy and nearly killing me off ...Anyone thinking off going into the buisness off being any kind off Dr (Should read this sometimes you wrongly diagnose we are humans not experiments ,and you should be responsible for your Actions ....We have names are diagnosis should apparently not define us (Wise Words from a nice RMN)However he did not carry the 55 Diagnosis given to me and as none off the treatments worked -just caused more problems ...I think that everyone should read this ..
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dr myke
5.0 out of 5 stars peter breggin is not light reading.
Reviewed in Canada on November 28, 2013
Verified Purchase
because of my work, it is a sobering look
at the world I live in. I love the work of Breggin
but he is very real in the unreal and unkind
world of mental illness.
if you need to look further into the world of
abandonment and pain just read Thomas Szasz
and CRUEL COMPASSION (also available
through AMAZON).
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