Iatrogenic Harm in Psychotherapy

Unlike psychiatric drugs, psychotherapy is generally assumed to be safe and has little or no harmful side effects. Iatrogenic effects of psychotherapy are, in fact, well documented and even include death. Potential sources of iatrogenic harm in psychotherapy are: medicalizing and pathologizing ordinary human emotions, altering a client’s beliefs about the nature of their suffering, and learned dependence on the therapist. If therapists wish to help clients deal with emotional suffering, they must be aware of the potential for unintended harm. Just as psychotherapists bring awareness to the negative forces affecting a client’s emotional state, so too therapists must be made aware of the negative forces affecting the practice of psychotherapy.

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Marcionite Christian Church and the COVID Scam

In this podcast, I talk with Darren Kalama of the Marcionite Christian Church. We talk about how the Marcionite Church is one of the only Christian churches to come out against the COVID insanity. We also discuss the history of the church and about Marcion of Sinope.

Links:

Podcast link: https://anchor.fm/free-thought/episodes/Marcionite-Christian-Church-and-the-COVID-Scam-e19gkuc

Church: https://www.marcionitechurch.org/

Marcionite Bible: https://www.theveryfirstbible.org/

Marcionite News Network: https://www.firstbiblenetwork.com/

Marcionite Podcast: https://therightbible.sounder.fm/

Remembrances of Thomas Szasz with Anthony Stadlen

I had the great opportunity to interview one of Thomas Szasz’s close friends, Anthony Stadlen. Anthony is a psychotherapist working in London. It was a great honor and privilege to talk with Anthony. He was a close friend of Szasz. He has an incredible depth of knowledge and understanding of Szasz’s ideas. Listen below.

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A Life Inside: A Memoir

I found out about the book, A Life Inside: A Memoir by Mindy Lewis, after reading a footnote about it by Thomas Szasz in his book, Words to the Wise. In Words to the Wise, Szasz says:

Upset by her teenage daughter’s rebelliousness, a New York mother commits her to Columbia University’s Psychiatric Institute (P.I.). In her memoir, the “patient” writes: “On my application for admission to P.I., asked to specify the reason for hospitalization, my mother had written: ‘Rebellious behavior.’ All my friends at P.I. were then diagnosed as schizophrenic…. I was never schizophrenic. Not then, not now. How could they possibly have interpreted my rage and confusion as schizophrenia?” The answer is called “standard of care.” Had one of the psychiatrists assigned to treat this young woman asserted that she did not “have schizophrenia” and set her free, and had she then killed herself (or injured her mother), the psychiatrist would have faced an unwinnable malpractice suit.1

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Thomas Szasz: Primary Values and Major Contentions

The above video is an interview with the author and editors of the book, Thomas Szasz: Primary Values and Major Contentions.

The book, Thomas Szasz: Primary Values and Major Contentions is a collection of Thomas Szasz’s best writing during the first three decades of his career as a psychiatrist. It is edited by two admirers of Szasz, Richard Vatz and Lee Weinberg. There is also a section of the book that includes questions from the editors and answers from Szasz. Even though I have read many of Szasz’s books, I found new insights from this one.

Download the first few pages of the book here as PDF.