---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 16:38:31 -0700 (PDT)


Subject: DENDRITE: Psychiatric Survivors "Strike Back"

DENDRITE

NEWS RELEASE
May 6, 1997 -- immediate release

          "Psychiatric Survivors *Strike Back*"
          says American Psychiatric Association
          official publication

          Controversy erupts in May issue of
          journal _Psychiatric Services_

          DENDRITE Internet mailing list breaks the silence!!

An official journal of the American Psychiatric Association,
_Psychiatric Services_, announced in their May issue that they
received an "all-time record" number of letters in response to a
controversial article in their February issue, attributing many of
these letters to an Internet campaign by Support Coalition
International (using this DENDRITE list).  

As one A.P.A. headline put it, "Survivors Strike Back."

The spark for the controversy was an angry February _Psychiatric
Services_ opinion piece by psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, who
denounced the use of the term "psychiatric survivors." Naming
individuals and groups in the psychiatric survivor movement, Torrey
claimed that this movement bore responsibility for 500,000 deaths by
helping to deny "mentally ill" forced psychiatric procedures. He
called for increased use of involuntary psychiatric drugging, and
involuntary commitment.

Support Coalition, an alliance of 50 human rights groups, alerted
people using the Internet. Psychiatric Services received 70 letters,
and printed 20.

In a joint response -- the first letter printed -- five leaders in
the psychiatric survivors liberation movement slam back at Torrey's
opinion piece. They recount their own personal experiences with
forced electroshock, solitary confinement, commitment, restraints,
forced drugging. They talk about deaths in the psychiatric system,
and note psychiatry's historic role in the roots of the Holocaust.
The letter concludes by pointing out that the psychiatric survivors
movement is actively involved in promoting and providing workable
alternatives to force in the psychiatric system.

Letter after letter pounds Torrey's position.

On Sunday, May 18, 1997, Support Coalition is holding a protest of on
many of these issues at the 150th annual meeting of the American
Psychiatric Association in front of the San Diego Convention Center,
starting at noon. E-mail Support Coalition for more info:

- end -

THREE WAYS TO GET A COPY OF THE "WAR OF WORDS" BETWEEN E. FULLER
TORREY AND PSYCHIATRIC SURVIVORS:

1. Major libraries may carry the journal _Psychiatric Services_.

2. In a few weeks, the letters should be on-line. This will be
   announced on the DENDRITE announcement list. If you are not
   on the DENDRITE announcement list, see bottom of this alert.

3. For a photocopy of the exchange, if you are in the USA, send
   a self-addressed-stamped business-sized envelope WITH AT LEAST
   FIFTY-FIVE CENTS postage on it, to the below address. Outside of
   the USA, include a US dollar bill, or check for $1. US. (For
   a sample of Support Coalition's publication _Dendron News_ include
   an extra $2.)

        Support Coalition
        PO Box 11284
        Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ABOUT DENDRITE: This is the Internet announcement list on human
rights in psychiatry that "broke the silence" inside of the A.P.A.'s
own publication!!!! Way to go team!!!! keep it up!!!!

DENDRITE is a free read-only low-volume Internet mailing list of
announcements about human rights in psychiatry which now directly
reaches more than 700 concerned people. Everyone who receives a
DENDRITE is encouraged to quickly copy this message to other
appropriate places on and off the Internet, reaching thousands more.

PLEASE SNOWBALL YOUR DENDRITE!

DENDRITE is a project of Support Coalition, an independent non-profit
which also publishes a print-based newspaper called _Dendron News_.
Support Coalition also sponsors a discussion mailing list HEALNORM.
Join Support Coalition, and ask about Internet member services.

http://www.***.com/ ~dendron

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