Summary Of Challenges To Psychiatry By Gabriella Coleman

Psychiatric Survivors Challenges to Psychiatry by Gabriella Coleman In this article, Gabriella Coleman will go over cases in which survivors have challenged psychiatric facilities and practices. The consumer, survivors, and ex-patient movement also known as c/s/x was where these consumers, survivors, and ex-patients got together to practice their right to self help/advocacy from psychiatry. During this movement, c/s/x wanted everyone to hear about their survival from these psychiatric facilities. The things that they had to go through, putting trust into psychiatrists only in the end they were the ones they needed saving from. In 1973, the survivors organize their first conference what was called the “Committee of Human Rights and Psychiatric Oppression” in which started to really introduce the pictures of the survivors being an oppressed group. They challenged legal regulations in order to paint their picture. For example, the mad liberation movement allowed these survivors to stand up for themselves when it came to their treatment and care
The unethical part of it was the medical “professionals” who were treating these survivors knew that they were indeed tranquilizers and were not therapeutic at all, so the survivors ended up abusing/getting addicted to drugs of the like. In addition, a major problem that the medical professionals practiced was not getting appropriate consent for the treatments they were going to attempt, and because of that highly addictive tranquilizers and antidepressants were being administered. Patients wanted the choice to either take a drug or to not take a drug, not to be taking eight different drugs just because. For example, in Massachusetts the medical professions believe in pro choice and not brainwashing them into picking a medication, without appropriate information on the drug like side effects and