The Wellbeing Foundation
Healing Depression
Without Drugs or Electric Shocks
The First Annual Conference
was held on
Saturday 21 October 2006
at the
Burlington Hotel | Upper Leeson Street | Dublin 4 | IRELAND
Healing Depression
Without Drugs or Electric Shocks
The First Annual Conference
was held on
Saturday 21 October 2006
at the
Burlington Hotel | Upper Leeson Street | Dublin 4 | IRELAND
Programme
| Official opening and welcome |
| Soul
Interrupted A documentary film presented by Dr Michael Corry, featuring service users |
| Dr
Peter Breggin "Trust me I'm a doctor": Is psychiatry doing more harm than good? |
| Dr Pat Bracken From Dogma to Dialogue: Has the disease model of depression passed its sell-by date? |
| Dr Aine Tubridy Fear and Depression: Two Sides of the Same Coin |
| Lunch |
| Across The Dark Wave A performance questioning the validity of psychiatry's stance on depression |
| Dr Michael Corry What Goes Up Must Come Down: Understanding manic depression |
| Dr Peter Breggin Healing Depression Without Resort to Psychiatric Drugs or ECT |
| Summary and Close |
About the speakers
Dr Peter R Breggin is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and the author of many ground-breaking books including Toxic Psychiatry, Talking Back to Prozac, The Ritalin Fact Book and The Anti-Depressant Fact Book. As a critic of psychiatric drugs, electroshock (ECT) and lobotomy, and as an advocate of patient rights, Dr Breggin's reform work spans 50 years. His efforts have affected government policies, have led to modified drug labels, and have changed how the public views psychiatry and how the profession views itself. He is the founder of the International Centre for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (www.icspp.org) and the peer-reviewed journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. His website is www.breggin.com
Dr Patrick Bracken
is a consultant psychiatrist and Clinical Director of Mental Health
Services in West Cork. He is the author of Trauma: Culture,
Meaning and Philosophy, and Postpsychiatry: Mental
Health in a Postmodern World, and is co-editor of Rethinking
the Trauma of War.
From 1987 to 1991 he worked in Uganda for the Medical Foundation for
the Care of Victims of Torture, and subsequently worked for the
Foundation in London. He was awarded a doctorate for research with a
rural village in the notorious 'Luwero Triangle' of Uganda. His
interest in the psychological effects of violence has continued: he has
carried out a number of consultancies for Save The Children in West
Africa and most recently with refugees from Bhutan living in Nepal. Dr
Bracken is also interested in conceptual aspects of psychiatry and
completed his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Warwick in
1999.
Dr Aine Tubridy
works as a
psychotherapist in the Institute of Psychosocial Medicine, having left
general practice to complete a Masters degree in psychotherapy at
University College Dublin in 1990. She is the co-author of Going
Mad? Understanding Mental Illness and Depression:
An Emotion not a Disease, and the author of When
Panic Attacks.
She specialised at the Menninger Centre in Kansas, USA, in the
management of anxiety and panic incorporating biofeedback technology
and relaxation training, and brought this expertise to the cardiac
rehabilitation programme at St Vincent's Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin.
She is involved in running training courses for therapists and
sufferers.
Dr Michael Corry works as a consultant psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychosocial Medicine and Clane General Hospital, and is the co-author of Going Mad? Understanding Mental Illness and Depression: An Emotion not a Disease. After qualifying he worked as a volunteer doctor in Uganda. On his return to Ireland he began his training in psychiatry and completed a Masters degree in psychotherapy. Dr Corry's interest in psychosis developed from his work in St Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital, Dublin, where he directed the Demonstration Re-socialisation Pilot Project of Europe, focussing on the rehabilitation of long-stay, institutionalised patients. In July 2004 he commenced a series of ongoing monthly public meetings called Depression Dialogues from which evolved the web site www.depressiondialogues.ie and the concept for this conference.
Dr Michael Corry works as a consultant psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychosocial Medicine and Clane General Hospital, and is the co-author of Going Mad? Understanding Mental Illness and Depression: An Emotion not a Disease. After qualifying he worked as a volunteer doctor in Uganda. On his return to Ireland he began his training in psychiatry and completed a Masters degree in psychotherapy. Dr Corry's interest in psychosis developed from his work in St Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital, Dublin, where he directed the Demonstration Re-socialisation Pilot Project of Europe, focussing on the rehabilitation of long-stay, institutionalised patients. In July 2004 he commenced a series of ongoing monthly public meetings called Depression Dialogues from which evolved the web site www.depressiondialogues.ie and the concept for this conference.
Art and artists
Soul Interrupted
Across the Dark Wave is a collaborative performance piece which, through drama, storytelling, song and dance, looks behind psychiatric labels to explore the human encounter with suffering and potential for transformation. The play is based on ideas that emerged improvisation within the company. In the process of devising the work, the cast looked both inwards, rooting the performance in experience, and outwards, exploring the theme through research and discussion. One important source of inspiration and artistic influence was Cois Ceimm's show Knots, a highly stylised piece in which language is transfigured through embodiment.
The Open Heart Theatre Company brings together a diversity of talents:
Celine Mullins' stage appearances include Laundry and Bourbon and Boy's Life. Feature film work includes Speed Dating and Double Take and the forthcoming Memoria.
www.celinemullins.com
Paul Gosker played Pedro in the Cork Opera House Revival of Man of La Mancha. TV work includes appearances in Fair City and Art Lives. He played the groom in the feature film Inside I'm Dancing.
www.paulgosker.com
Aoife Moore has appeared on stage in Three Sisters and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Feature film credits include Northanger Abbey and Becoming Jane.
www.theatticstudio.net/atticprofiles/aoife_moore/
Ailbe Collins is a Dublin-based visual artist with a number of exhibitions to his credit and several pending. As a set and production designer and founder member of Off Your Trolley Theatre Company, his film and theatre experience has until now been behind the scenes. This is is first time in the light.
www.ailbe.com
Ruth Jacob's plays include Between Two Setting Suns and, co-written with Ena May, That Fine Line. She has been deeply influenced by the marriage of narrative and drama in the work of Storytellers Theatre Company. This is her first outing as a director.
In the summer of 2006, during a series
of trips to the four corners of Ireland, film maker Jonathan Woods and
consultant psychiatrist Michael Corry met and interviewed a cross
section of users of the public psychiatric services. Whether you are a
'service user' or a 'service provider', a sceptic towards or an
advocate of ECT and antidepressant drugs, their self-narrated emotional
testament provides compelling insight into the experiences and views of
those on the receiving end.
Says Jonathan Woods: “I've been involved in documenting the lives of many people in extreme circumstances. In Thailand, I witnessed the distress of countless survivors of the Asian tsunami. Closer to home I've been immersed in the explosive sectarian hatred in Northern Ireland. Working on Soul Interrupted has had just as deep a personal impact. Where Michael and I went in the course of the production there was no high drama, no danger. Instead, on our doorstep we found people struggling to raise their voice against their treatment by a quietly immovable, powerful, often care-less medical and psychiatric force. In the area of mental health there is clearly a huge gulf between the needs of the patient and the provisions of the medical and psychiatric professions in whom they have placed so much trust. It is my privilege to play a part in bringing their plight to the fore.”
Here’s just a little of what one of those interviewed in the documentary has to say about her experiences at the hands of psychiatry and psychiatrists.
“It’s slavery — it’s modern-day slavery and for slaves to be free we have to speak about it. Others have to know what’s going on, they have to realise we are the people who are the most downtrodden in society. What does psychiatry do, what does the ‘helpful person’ do? Downtrod them more. Keep them down there more — and that is disgraceful.
“Psychiatrists often tell us people who are psychiatrised that we have a chemical imbalance in our brains and that this chemical imbalance is a ‘mental illness’ to be treated with drugs for the rest of our lives. In my case, it was the drugs that gave me the chemical imbalance and made me their mental patient for as long as they wanted me to be that.”
Jonathan Woods is an independent film maker who works both inside and outside of the broadcasting arena in the production of issue-based documentary films. He has worked internationally as a lighting cameraman (cinematographer) and editor in news, documentary and feature film production. With his company, Little Pain Productions, he is currently working on a half hour documentary with Kids In Control, a Belfast physical theatre company.
Says Jonathan Woods: “I've been involved in documenting the lives of many people in extreme circumstances. In Thailand, I witnessed the distress of countless survivors of the Asian tsunami. Closer to home I've been immersed in the explosive sectarian hatred in Northern Ireland. Working on Soul Interrupted has had just as deep a personal impact. Where Michael and I went in the course of the production there was no high drama, no danger. Instead, on our doorstep we found people struggling to raise their voice against their treatment by a quietly immovable, powerful, often care-less medical and psychiatric force. In the area of mental health there is clearly a huge gulf between the needs of the patient and the provisions of the medical and psychiatric professions in whom they have placed so much trust. It is my privilege to play a part in bringing their plight to the fore.”
Here’s just a little of what one of those interviewed in the documentary has to say about her experiences at the hands of psychiatry and psychiatrists.
“It’s slavery — it’s modern-day slavery and for slaves to be free we have to speak about it. Others have to know what’s going on, they have to realise we are the people who are the most downtrodden in society. What does psychiatry do, what does the ‘helpful person’ do? Downtrod them more. Keep them down there more — and that is disgraceful.
“Psychiatrists often tell us people who are psychiatrised that we have a chemical imbalance in our brains and that this chemical imbalance is a ‘mental illness’ to be treated with drugs for the rest of our lives. In my case, it was the drugs that gave me the chemical imbalance and made me their mental patient for as long as they wanted me to be that.”
Jonathan Woods is an independent film maker who works both inside and outside of the broadcasting arena in the production of issue-based documentary films. He has worked internationally as a lighting cameraman (cinematographer) and editor in news, documentary and feature film production. With his company, Little Pain Productions, he is currently working on a half hour documentary with Kids In Control, a Belfast physical theatre company.
Form: Documentary film
Directors: Jonathan Woods and Michael Corry
Duration: 43 mins
Format: Widescreen
Directors: Jonathan Woods and Michael Corry
Duration: 43 mins
Format: Widescreen
Across the Dark Wave
Across the Dark Wave is a collaborative performance piece which, through drama, storytelling, song and dance, looks behind psychiatric labels to explore the human encounter with suffering and potential for transformation. The play is based on ideas that emerged improvisation within the company. In the process of devising the work, the cast looked both inwards, rooting the performance in experience, and outwards, exploring the theme through research and discussion. One important source of inspiration and artistic influence was Cois Ceimm's show Knots, a highly stylised piece in which language is transfigured through embodiment.
Director: Ruth Jacob
Cast:
Celine Mullins
Paul Gosker
Aoife Moore
Ailbe Collins
Cast:
Celine Mullins
Paul Gosker
Aoife Moore
Ailbe Collins
The Open Heart Theatre Company brings together a diversity of talents:
Celine Mullins' stage appearances include Laundry and Bourbon and Boy's Life. Feature film work includes Speed Dating and Double Take and the forthcoming Memoria.
www.celinemullins.com
Paul Gosker played Pedro in the Cork Opera House Revival of Man of La Mancha. TV work includes appearances in Fair City and Art Lives. He played the groom in the feature film Inside I'm Dancing.
www.paulgosker.com
Aoife Moore has appeared on stage in Three Sisters and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Feature film credits include Northanger Abbey and Becoming Jane.
www.theatticstudio.net/atticprofiles/aoife_moore/
Ailbe Collins is a Dublin-based visual artist with a number of exhibitions to his credit and several pending. As a set and production designer and founder member of Off Your Trolley Theatre Company, his film and theatre experience has until now been behind the scenes. This is is first time in the light.
www.ailbe.com
Ruth Jacob's plays include Between Two Setting Suns and, co-written with Ena May, That Fine Line. She has been deeply influenced by the marriage of narrative and drama in the work of Storytellers Theatre Company. This is her first outing as a director.