Psychiatrist Peter Breggin on the Texas, Fort Hood Shooter “Let’s also see through yet another media smoke screen”

cchrint — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:41:52 +0000

Dr. Peter Breggin
The Huffington Post
Nov. 8, 2009

Before I begin to look at his role as a psychiatrist, I want to confirm that Major Nidal Malik Hasan was driven by religious ideology. For years he openly claimed that the War on Terror is a war on Muslims. He announced on the Internet and to his fellow soldiers in a course on public health that a Muslim suicide bomber should be praised for killing a hundred soldiers. It’s reported that fellow soldiers warned his superiors that he was a ticking time bomb.

One wonders how and why the army failed to relieve him from active duty. One ridiculous explanation is that they had a lot invested him–his complete medical and psychiatric training. Much more likely, the army was hamstrung by the political correctness that’s been imposed upon it.

Let’s also see through yet another media smoke screen–that Hasan was more a crazy person than a terrorist. During the American revolution Samuel Adams pointed out that he’d never seen a man commit treason without first losing his moral footing in his personal life. As for being a victim of prejudice, Hasan was instead a provocateur whom the army tried to ignore. Hasan is not only a terrorist, he’s a traitor–a man who turned on his nation; on the army that nurtured, educated and paid him; and on his comrades in arms.

Not Surprised He’s a Psychiatrist
Some in the media have expressed surprise that a man whose profession is about caring would turn to violence. According to one theory, poor Dr. Hasan was driven to the breaking point by the stress of counseling returning soldiers and having to listen to their horrific stories. Totally false. Psychiatrists are no longer trained to listen to or to counsel their patients. Nor do they care to.

I’ve given seminars to the staff at both hospitals where Hasan was trained, Walter Reed in DC and the national military medical center in Bethesda, Maryland. The psychiatrists had no interest in anything except medicating their patients.

Modern psychiatry is not about counseling and empowering people. It’s about controlling and suppressing them, and that’s a dismal affair for patients and doctors alike. The armed forces have been taken in by the false claims of modern psychiatry.

Read entire article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/the-fort-hood-shooter-a-d_b_349651.html

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A FAN, AN ACTIVIST OR A STALKER? Psychiatry blurring the lines

admin — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:51:43 +0000

By Cerise Fukuji
May 17, 2009

We live in a culture filled with celebrity news and sightings. We can’t get away from it – it’s on television 24-7, in magazines, newspapers, online, everywhere and, of course, we all have our favorites. Imagine that your favorite celebrity is coming to town, performing a concert and doing a book signing. Now imagine that you decide to attend the concert, buy a t-shirt with her on it, buy her book and then decide you’ll go down to the bookstore to get her to sign it.

And, you should be able to do this and not think twice about it. After all, you’re just acting like any normal fan might. Right?

Now imagine that after you see your favorite celebrity, wear your t-shirt proudly and find out the latest news about her life, you get a loud knock on your door. You answer. It’s the police and a psychiatrist trained in recognizing potential killers and stalkers, those fixated on public figures. You are accused of being a stalker for doing the above actions and taken into custody for further investigation. No evidence. No trial.

Sound far-fetched? It shouldn’t because it is already starting to happen. The lines between what constitutes a fan and a stalker are being increasingly erased. Many governments around the globe have already established specialized units to target individuals who may be deemed “stalkers” and pose a direct threat to VIP’s, including celebrities, Royal Families and government officials. These teams are made up of police, as well as psychiatrists and psychologists who have been given the authority to evaluate, accuse and detain you against your will. This is all done under the guise of “anti-terrorism.”

According to the UK’s Daily Mail, specialized units that have been cropping up around the globe, like the Fixated Threat Assessment Center (FTAC) there and the countless Counter-Terrorism Bureaus set up around the United States, have been created to identify and track individuals who are involved with terrorist activity. However, more and more, the definition of what terrorism is and what constitutes an act of terrorism has broadened to include those arenas which may not have applied in the past. For example, when did stalking begin to be classified as a terrorist activity? How might a psychologist accurately determine if one were a stalker or just merely an adoring fan?

Don’t get me wrong – I realize that there is a need for protective security services and measures. In fact, a very good friend of mine owns an agency that does just that for some of the most famous celebrities in the world. He works very hard to make sure that his clients are safe wherever they go in the U.S. or abroad. However, I fear that because the medical evaluations of these special units can lead to the “legal” detainment of individuals without criminal charges or even a trial, then our civil liberties are in grave jeopardy. When the lines between government and medical evaluation get crossed, something is very wrong in society.

Personally, as a producer and writer myself, I like keeping abreast of the things that other celebrities are doing artistically. That certainly doesn’t classify me as a stalker, but if these lines get increasingly more blurred, it just might.

About the Author:

Cerise Fukuji is a writer and producer with over eighteen years of experience in the entertainment industry. She has produced and written over 100 hours of television for various networks including: Discovery Channel, Lifetime, Animal Planet, MTV, Turner Broadcasting Systems and Fox and has also worked in various consulting, development and production capacities at several major production companies and film studios.

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Psychiatrist Peter Breggin on the Texas, Fort Hood Shooter “Let’s also see through yet another media smoke screen”

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A FAN, AN ACTIVIST OR A STALKER? Psychiatry blurring the lines

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