Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health

by William Glasser

Book Overview

As expose on how psychopharmacology has usurped the role of psychotherapy in our society, to the great detriment of the patients involved. In Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060538651
• ISBN13: 9780060538651
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book on choice theory

well recommended from councelor and great book on therapy without drugs.

One of my favorite self help books

This, along with "Choice Theory" by the same author are probably my favorite self help books. Do you want an alternative way of dealing with the problems in your life? Try these books. I read many self help books, primarily related to Adlerian Psychology, and these are my favorites.

Good insight into the sham of biological psychiatry

This book is a very good expose of the fraud of biological psychiatry and the alliance between psychiatry and the pharmaceutical companies to get as many people as possible on drugs for the longest possible time for the maximum profits. There is absolutely no science behind the idea of a biochemical imbalance which is nothing but a marketing device for drugs. Psychiatry used to be a noble profession with people such as Dr. Glasser but around 1980 when they saw their professional and financial existence threatened by the increasing number of nonmedical psychotherapists they decided to go with their unique market niche which was psychotropic drugs. They simply proclaimed without any scientific evidence whatsover and against all the accumlated knowledge and insights of the great psychiatrists that almost every mental disorder was caused by a biochemical imbalance in the drugs which they had available to prescribe. Then the pharmaceutical companies used their wealth to market this absurd idea to the public so as to convince people that they needed the "chemical balancer" that the company makes and that the psychiatrists have to prescribe. Other medical doctors who know nothing about mental disorders naively accepted this, and now they too can make money by including "mental health" in their practices.The public finds it inconceivable that such a fraud could have completely permeated the medical profession, since they understandably assume that their doctors would base their practices only on real science. So what is the result of this: Among other things preschoolers given multiple psychotropic drugs for nonexistent diseases to correct nonexistent biochemical imbalances with drugs which have no evidence of efficacy and no proof of their safety. The drugs may now cause real brain damage while the child is psychologically damaged by being labeled with a mental disorder. But each such child will provide years of profits or become what Glasser aptly calls "the geese that lay the golden egg". This whole thing is fraudulent and terribly damaging to so many people and to our society as a whole.

Great BOOK and a Great INTERVIEW

There is growing scientific evidence that happiness is directly related to our being mentally fit. So is it true that mental illness is caused by unhappiness, rather than chemical imbalances in our brains?Dr. William Glasser has devoted over 40 years of his professional life proving that so-called mental illnesses can be cured (or made healthy again) by having happy marital, family, teacher-student, and manager-worker relationships. He believes it's time to remove the plague of the old school of psychiatry, which actually causes a physical impairment of the brain (where there once was none) and then hinders a person's chance for true happiness and mental health. If you, or someone you know, have symptoms such as depression, attention deficit, anger, hyperactivity, migraine headaches, anxiety or panic attacks, then I urge you to get this book and read it.Dr. Glasser is an internationally recognized psychiatrist who is best known as the creator of Reality Therapy, a method of psychotherapy that is taught all over the world. His approach is considered non-traditional, because he does not believe in a person being labeled mentally ill unless something organically wrong with the brain.The major purpose of this book is to teach the world "Choice Theory," which is aimed at proactively creating mental health through happy human relationships. In a nut shell, Choice Theory says people can only be responsible for their own choices, and by forcing our choices on other people we cause a break down in the relationship, which in turn makes us very unhappy. In our unhappy state, our perfectly healthy brain acts in such a way as to try to regain control over the other person by inflicting symptoms that are commonly attributed to mental disease on ourselves. For instance, when someone is diagnosed with depression, they are choosing to depress (they are "depressing") so that they can gain the upperhand (its a form of getting bad attention). However, when choose to proactively control their own thoughts and actions in a mature way, thus gainning the respect and admiration of the people they love and care for, they will return to a very happy state and not need to use the external contol mechanism of "depressing." The same works for paining, panicing, angering, crazying, etc.Dr. Glasser points out there are "7 Deadly Habits" that lead to totally ineffective people. We use them to try to gain control over others, wrongly thinking that they will make us happy. They are:CritizingBlamingComplainingNaggingThreateningPunishing (Abusing)and BribingI interviewed Dr. Glasser on "The Inside Success Show" and he was inspiring! If I hadn't already believed in the power of great relationships to make people happy, I would after talking with him.Here's some other things I learned from Dr. Glasser:** How Dr. Glasser found out about the 'dark side' of Psychiatry** Why common brain drugs like Prozac and Ritalin make you ill** What 7 good habits help you to avoid anger, depres

A Real Prescription For Mental Health

Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous To Your Mental Health pulls back the sheeps clothing that currently cloaks the rabid pharmaceutical industry and the misdirected psychiatric profession. In place of these modern day snake charmers and their magical elixirs, Dr. Glasser offers a sound explanation for, and solution to, the epidemic of mental illness that we have allowed (our choice) to overrun us.Readers will learn why drug companies and current "mental illness providers" don't really want us to become healthy - Big Bucks! Rarely spoken of "mind drug" side effects (physical and mental) will also be discussed in detail, explaining why people on the current course of treatments seldom get better. And thankfully, Glasser offers a low-cost, no risk replacement remedy to help the millions of people out there, who are very unhappy and simply "mentally out of shape."People who do not want to take responsibility for their problems or who demand instant gratification (even when pain and suffering are the long term consequences) will not find this book helpful. Those of us who think in terms of "internal control" and realize that depression (we all feel its touch now and then) is really a valid sign and symptom that we are currently not meeting one of our "basic needs" or reaching our personal "wants", will be enlightened and filled with hope after reading Bill's recent work.Read it. Use it! Share It!!