Hi Craig

I don't have enormous faith in the BPS or Psychology/ists. Psychology
has never made any sense to me in isolation from politics anthropology
philosphy economics etc. But I don't know how you make sense of them
without psychology? You are right I am over extrapolating from my own
experience of applied psychologists to the whole gang. A lot of people
are trapped in systems of care that are intrinsically problematic and
damaging. Working to change them from the inside is exhausting often
dispiriting and at the moment additionally stressful. It is good to be
out the NHS and you are right it is easier to see things for what they
are from the outside. I am clear however clear that I have not left
behind a load of money grabbing ECT promoting people who are more part
of the problem that the solution. Psychology and Applied Psychology is
a bound to be caught up in the dominant narratives and lunacies of the
time? The branding and marketing of the psychological therapies is as
crass as the marketing of drugs. Healy has also got me interested in
the corruption of academia and science in psychology. How did the EMDR
brand get Nice approval?

Our collective failure to understand the inherently social nature of
despair disappointment and maddening care or abuse is disappointing
and some many disastrous. Big Psy has quite a case to answer here.
Little Psy maybe needs to sharpen its act?

I am saying to my mates I am fed up with swimming against the tide. I
may be barking but I do sense the tide is turning. Critical/Community
psychology could and should be playing a key role in hammering home in
the inherently social and justice foundations of good enough and great
individual and community life.

I am for my sins running for DCP Chair. The ballot is going to have to
be rerun. I don't think psychology is the answer and am not putting
all my eggs in the BPS basket. There are however loads of good people
many of whom you know and have influenced who can help move things on.

I think you got out too early and should think about rejoining!

Richard Pemberton


On 3/19/12, CRAIG NEWNES <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Richard, I have no idea how you know what the "vast majority" of
> psychologists want but I do know that the DCP tried to question editorial
> independence of Forum when I published my own critique of their non-existent
> stance on ECT in ECT the DCP and ME. That was 20 years ago - if they
> couldn't speak out then when the evidence was overwhelmingly against
> electrocuting people, why should they now? You have an interesting faith in
> the BPS which I don't share. I think we would have to ask - if it's taken 50
> years for the BPS to make a cautious critique of the harm that so called
> services do, why should we expect the organization to speak out about
> contemporary concerns like the promulgation of computer based CBT, logically
> impossible links between cognition and neurology and the rest?
> Craig
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: richard pemberton <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Monday, 19 March 2012, 17:42
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] the corruption of medicine
>
> Craig
>
> I am out of the NHS and am not looking for salvation. Thats best left
> to the religious amongst us. I am looking for some serious political
> alliances of liked minded people to break down the conspiracy of
> silence about some or all of this. It will of course take years.
> Healys book is significant because it also pulls in physical health
> and the extent to which physical health guidelines and nice
> recommendations have also been cooked. I don't believe in depression
> and abhor ECT. The BPS has also recently spoken out questioning the
> use of ECT. I don't think that ever happened in your day. The BPS
> supported the recent attack on DSM5. This also wouldn't have happened
> five years ago. It got copy all round the world.
> Once applied psychologists become aware of how dire the evidence base
> for psychotropic drugs are and how they are implicated in the greatly
> reduced life expectancy of many people they won't be rushing for the
> prescription pad!
> The question is why did your work and others not impact more on
> practice and public consciousness. The drug companies are all rowing
> back from mental health research. The survivor/peer movement is
> maturing and gathering strength. I think with some serious planning
> and use of the media a tipping point could well be in sight. I am not
> naive. The tobacco companies faught tooth and nail to carry on killing
> people and we should expect something similar but the evidence is
> starting to be heard?
> There are loads of good psychologists critical and acritical working
> hard to provide decent and non oppressive care in what you call a pig
> sty. Just insulting them/dissing them by suggesting that they are just
> there for the money is really unhelpful and counterproductive? A few
> are but the vast majority are not.
>
> Richard Pemberton
>
> On 3/19/12, CRAIG NEWNES <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Richard, I am not dissing Healy - his two volume biog The
>> Psychopharmacologists is brilliant. But claiming that anti-depressants are
>> harmful while recommending ECT for a non-entity called "depression"
>> doesn't
>> seem that radical to me. I don't read Forum but if Tony wants to look back
>> about five years he'll find an article by Guy Holmes and myself reporting
>> on
>> some Prescribing Rights seminars we held for qualified Clin Psychs. The
>> majority wanted to be able to prescribe and 5 said, matter of factly, it
>> was
>> to "get drug co freebies." You can't build a palace from a pig-sty - just
>> a
>> nicer place for pigs to live in. I am well aware of many psychs who have
>> found theselves in a position where their salaries pay the rent but
>> disagree
>> with what they or their colleagues are asked to do. Understandably they
>> try
>> to "change" the system from within, not unlike the Psychotherapy Section
>> me
>> electing me their Chair to follow David Smail as a token radical. I was
>> saved
>>  by a car accident - let's hope your salvation is less troublesome.
>> C
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: richard pemberton <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Monday, 19 March 2012, 15:27
>> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] the corruption of medicine
>>
>>
>> Craig
>>
>> I was well aware of that and he is overly defensive about medicines role
>> but
>> his book is really really important and backs up a lot of what you have
>> been
>> saying for years but it is coming from a respected professor in a serious
>> medical school who has been part of the drug trial industry. I think the
>> tide is turning and this scandal is starting to break out into the
>> limelight. I have managed to get Whitaker doing the public lecture at the
>> Division of Clinical Psychology Conference in Oxford in December and he is
>> staying on for the symposium on medication and psychosis.He will also be
>> doing a more survivor orientated event in Sussex. If you still have access
>> to Forum you may have seen Wainwrights Ethics column on all this and its
>> implications for the practice of psychologists who are sitting in mulidis
>> teams and are hence party to the drugging of people with very expensive
>> ineffective and dangerous drugs. The science and the data according to
>> Healy
>> has all
>>  been systematically cooked.
>> Your post is like Davids about Seligman. Its another dissing of people
>> because they are doing things that add to the problem or whose value base
>> is
>> problematic/different. They both however have within their work
>> contributions that point to the sorts of solutions that I thought critical
>> psychologists are all about. Having probably the worlds best known
>> psychologist saying we have screwed up in our obsession with
>> psychopathology
>> is remarkably helpful in my book. I could discount it because he became
>> famous by doing horrible things to dogs or because his relationship with
>> the
>> American military or because there is a statue of Winston Churchill on the
>> Penn State Campus but he is opening an important door. He clearly doesn't
>> know how to go through it though.
>> No wonder critical psychology/community psychology has sadly had little
>> influence in the UK?
>>
>>
>> This is
>> good http://my.psychologytoday.com/blog/dsm5-in-distress/201203/am-i-dangerous-man
>>
>> Hope you are well
>>
>> Richard Pemberton
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 2:52 PM, CRAIG NEWNES <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> David Healy is currently promoting ECT
>>>C
>>>
>>>
>>>From: richard pemberton <[log in to unmask]>
>>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>>Sent: Sunday, 18 March 2012, 12:21
>>>Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] the corruption of medicine
>>>
>>>
>>>http://davidhealy.org/we-need-to-talk-about-doctors he can be found on
>>> twitter
>>>
>>>Pharmageddon is a very good and disturbing book. His twitter address
>>>is @DavidHealey
>>>
>>>Richard
>>>
>>>___________________________________
>>>There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK (to post contact
>>> Grant [log in to unmask]
>>>To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list,
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>>>
>>>___________________________________ There is a twitter feed:
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>
> ___________________________________
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