So
why have so many former “personality traits” been transformed into
symptoms of mental illness? One major reason is money. Here are a few
data points that shed light on the monetary side of the psychiatry
business; the data are by now slightly dated, but they suffice to get
the point across. As of 2010:
Global sales of anti-depressants, stimulants, anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic drugs had reached more than $76 billion per year.
Globally, 54 million people were taking anti-depressants that are known to cause addiction, and often violent and homicidal behavior. In the US, 20% of all women were taking mental health medication in 2010. Essentially every fourth female is prozac’d into quietude.
20 million children worldwide had been diagnosed with mental disorders and were prescribed stimulants and/or powerful anti-depressants. In 2002, more than 100 million prescriptions were written for anti-depressants alone (cost: $19.5 billion nominal)
“Albert Einstein, as a youth, would have likely received an ADHD diagnosis, and maybe an ODD one as well. Albert didn’t pay attention to his teachers, failed his college entrance examinations twice, and had difficulty holding jobs. However, Einstein biographer Ronald Clark (Einstein: The Life and Times) asserts that Albert’s problems did not stem from attention deficits but rather from his hatred of authoritarian, Prussian discipline in his schools.
Global sales of anti-depressants, stimulants, anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic drugs had reached more than $76 billion per year.
Globally, 54 million people were taking anti-depressants that are known to cause addiction, and often violent and homicidal behavior. In the US, 20% of all women were taking mental health medication in 2010. Essentially every fourth female is prozac’d into quietude.
20 million children worldwide had been diagnosed with mental disorders and were prescribed stimulants and/or powerful anti-depressants. In 2002, more than 100 million prescriptions were written for anti-depressants alone (cost: $19.5 billion nominal)
“Albert Einstein, as a youth, would have likely received an ADHD diagnosis, and maybe an ODD one as well. Albert didn’t pay attention to his teachers, failed his college entrance examinations twice, and had difficulty holding jobs. However, Einstein biographer Ronald Clark (Einstein: The Life and Times) asserts that Albert’s problems did not stem from attention deficits but rather from his hatred of authoritarian, Prussian discipline in his schools.
Einstein said, “The teachers in the elementary school appeared to
me like sergeants and in the Gymnasium the teachers were like
lieutenants.” At age 13, Einstein read Kant’s difficult Critique of Pure
Reason—because Albert was interested in it. Clark also tells us
Einstein refused to prepare himself for his college admissions as a
rebellion against his father’s “unbearable” path of a “practical
profession.” After he did enter college, one professor told Einstein,
“You have one fault; one can’t tell you anything.” The very
characteristics of Einstein that upset authorities so much were exactly
the ones that allowed him to excel.”
The
psychopathologizing of anti-authoritarian behavior is yet another step
on what looks like an increasingly slippery slope and it strikes us as
especially harmful....
zerohedge.com
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