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Audio: Readings by the author
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Pins and Needles:
Psychiatry has a shameful history and deplorably it has carried many aspects of that past into the present. Modern day psychiatry is certainly more sophisticated, but it is not necessarily more sensitive. In the battle to rid the world of states of consciousness that dare to stray beyond the bounds of possibility, clinicians have incorporated into their armoury a weapon that is used routinely and without qualms. It is an implement that inflicts a high dose of trauma and leaves emotional scars that never quite heal. The needles that are forced deep into the buttocks of those dragged to the ‘Seclusion Room’, pinned to the floor, stripped naked and left in a locked cell to recede into unconsciousness, pierces not only the flesh of its victims, but also their hearts; hearts that bleed long after the Elastoplasts have been removed. For the countless individuals who do not survive psychiatric assault [fatalities are not uncommon] an epitaph awaits…
Rest in Pieces.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Psychiatry has a shameful history and deplorably it has carried many aspects of that past into the present. Modern day psychiatry is certainly more sophisticated, but it is not necessarily more sensitive. In the battle to rid the world of states of consciousness that dare to stray beyond the bounds of possibility, clinicians have incorporated into their armoury a weapon that is used routinely and without qualms. It is an implement that inflicts a high dose of trauma and leaves emotional scars that never quite heal. The needles that are forced deep into the buttocks of those dragged to the ‘Seclusion Room’, pinned to the floor, stripped naked and left in a locked cell to recede into unconsciousness, pierces not only the flesh of its victims, but also their hearts; hearts that bleed long after the Elastoplasts have been removed. For the countless individuals who do not survive psychiatric assault [fatalities are not uncommon] an epitaph awaits…
Rest in Pieces.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.