REMARKS BY GEORGE W. BUSH ON MENTAL HEALTH

[Guest guest]

Remarks by President George W. Bush on Mental Health

Albuquerque, New Mexico

April 29, 2002

with indented and italicized responses by Antipsychiatry Coalition

webmaster Douglas A. Smith (revised 5/24/2002)

 

BUSH: Millions of Americans, millions, are impaired at work, at school, or

at home by episodes of mental illness. Many are disabled by severe

and persistent mental problems. These illnesses affect individuals,

they affect their families, and they affect our country.

 

 

ANSWER: " Mental illness " is an erroneous concept, and not only because it is

a semantic impossibility. An " illness " or " disease " is

physical. " Mental " means non-physical. As psychiatrist E. Fuller

Torrey wrote in his book The Death of Psychiatry in 1974 (before he

joined the ranks of biological psychiatrists): " The very term

['mental disease'] is nonsensical, a semantic mistake. The two words

cannot go together except metaphorically; you can no more have a

mental 'disease' than you can have a purple idea or a wise space "

(Penguin Books, p. 36). Similarly, there can no more be a " mental

illness " than there can be a " moral illness. " The words " mental "

and " illness " do not go together logically. Mental " illness " does

not exist, and neither does mental " health. " These terms indicate

only approval or disapproval of some aspect of a person's mentality

(thinking, emotions, or behavior).

 

 

BUSH: As many Americans know, it is incredibly painful to watch someone you

love struggle with an illness that affects their mind and their

feelings and their relationships with others. We heard stories today

in a roundtable discussion about that -- what the struggle means for

family.

 

Many if not most people forced into psychiatric " treatment " (or

mistreatment) are forced by others in their family. The notion that

families necessarily do what is best for their " loved ones " is a myth.

Remarkable treatments exist, and that's good. Yet many people -- too

many people -- remain untreated. Some end up addicted to drugs or

alcohol. Some end up on the streets, homeless. Others end up in our

jails, our prisons, our juvenile detention facilities.

 

 

ANSWER: Psychiatry's treatments are indeed remarkable - remarkably bad, and

remarkably harmful. Neuroleptics (also called major tranquilizers),

tricyclic and SSRI antidepressants, electric shock treatment, and

psychosurgery, all cause brain damage.

 

Many people don't behave as they are expected to and become homeless or violate

the law and are put in prisons of one sort or another, but none deserve the harm

inflicted on them by psychiatry's modern biological " therapies. "

 

 

BUSH: Our country must make a commitment: Americans with mental illness

deserve our understanding, and they deserve excellent care.

(Applause.) They deserve a health care system that treats their

illness with the same urgency as a physical illness. (Applause.)

 

 

 

ANSWER: Our country must make a commitment: a commitment to the liberty of

all law-abiding Americans. Americans who are called mentally ill who

do not violate the law in any way deserve liberty the same as

everyone else. We must stop using mythological conceptions such as

mental illness to justify incarcerating law-abiding but eccentric or

annoying people, or people who choose to live differently than we

would like them to, in the prisons we call mental " hospitals. " We

must begin a new era of tolerance towards people who are weird or

different or emotionally troubled or obnoxious but who do not violate

the rights of others.

 

 

 

 

BUSH: To meet this goal, we've got to overcome obstacles, and I want to

talk about three such obstacles this morning. The first obstacle is

the stigma, the stigma that often surrounds mental illness -- a

stigma caused by a history of misunderstanding, fear, and

embarrassment. Stigma leads to isolation, and discourages people

from seeking the treatment they need. Political leaders, health care

professionals, and all Americans must understand and send this

message: mental disability is not a scandal -- (applause) -- it is an

illness. And like physical illness, it is treatable, especially when

the treatment comes early.

 

 

ANSWER: The stigma that comes with receiving psychiatric treatment is a

legitimate and powerful reason everyone who wants to live a good life

in the future would be well-advised to avoid it. It also is a

legitimate and powerful reason we should not encourage other people

to seek psychiatric " help " and should not force it on them. Since so-

called mental illness has no biological cause and is not a true

illness, it cannot be " treated. " The assertion that early mental

health treatment is particularly effective is a myth that is used to

persuade people who are not in severe distress to nevertheless

patronize mental health professionals who need patients to earn

profits.

 

 

 

BUSH: Today, new drugs and therapies have vastly improved the outlook for

millions of Americans with the most serious mental illnesses, and for

millions more with less severe illnesses. The treatment success

rates for schizophrenia and clinical depression are comparable to

those for heart disease. That's good news in America, and we must

encourage more and more Americans to understand, and to seek more

treatment.

 

 

ANSWER: Today's psychiatric drugs are a disaster that have brought an

epidemic of neurological disease on psychiatric patients, including

dementia and movement disorders such as tardive dyskinesia and

dystonia and other consequences of their both neurotoxic and

generally toxic nature. Psychiatry's electroconvulsive " therapy " and

psychosurgery damage the brain even more quickly. The so-called anti-

anxiety drugs or minor tranquilizers (benzodiazepines) cause

addiction and severe withdrawal reactions without effectively

alleviating the emotional reactions such as anxiety that motivated

their use in the first place. Urging people to seek

these " therapies " is stupid and outrageous. Perhaps psychiatric

treatment is indeed as effective, or as ineffective, as treatment for

heart disease, since heart disease is the #1 killer of Americans,

which it wouldn't be if treatment for it were particularly effective.

 

 

 

 

 

BUSH: The second obstacle to quality mental health care is our fragmented

mental health service delivery system. Mental health centers and

hospitals, homeless shelters, the justice system, and our schools all

have contact with individuals suffering from mental disorders. Yet

many of these disorders are difficult to diagnose. This makes it

even harder to provide the mentally ill with the care they need.

Many Americans fall through the cracks of the current system. Many

years and lives are lost before help, if it is given at all, is given.

 

 

ANSWER: People who fall through the cracks of this system are the lucky

ones. Psychiatric " help " is not helpful - and when imposed

involuntarily is oppression disguised as benefaction.

 

 

 

BUSH: Consider this example -- and for the experts in the field, they will

confirm this is a story which is often times too true: a 14-year-old

boy who started experimenting with drugs to ease his severe

depression. That happens. This former honor student became a drug

addict. He dropped out of school, was incarcerated six times in 16

years. Only two years ago, when he was 30 years old, did the doctors

finally diagnose his condition as bipolar disorder, and he began a

successful program, a successful long-term treatment program.

 

 

ANSWER: A " diagnosis " of so-called bipolar disorder, also known as manic-

depressive illness, like most in psychiatry, is largely arbitrary.

In this case, it means someone's excitement or enthusiasm and, at

other times, sorrow exceed the range of emotions that is acceptable

to other people. As with all other psychiatric diagnoses, no

biological basis for so-called bipolar disorder has been found, and

there is no biological test for bipolar disorder or any other so-

called mental illness.

 

The most frequent treatment for this supposed disorder is

lithium. Lithium is a toxic chemical that slows all aspects of

thinking. It was discovered by accident in 1949 by psychiatrist John

Cade who found it made guinea pigs tame and docile and lethargic. He

experimentally found it has the same effect on people. Dr. Cade

didn't know why lithium works, and today we still don't know. Taking

lithium may impair a person's thinking enough to prevent him from

doing things he shouldn't, but this benefit comes at the expense of

the cognitive slowing and physical lethargy that is the primary

effect of the drug. It can be compared with keeping a person

chronically intoxicated. In psychiatry, keeping a person who tends

to behave in socially unacceptable ways on such a drug is called " a

successful long-term treatment program. "

 

 

 

 

BUSH: And to make sure that the cracks are closed, I am honored to announce

what we call the new Freedom Commission on Mental Health. It is

charged to study the problems and gaps in our current system of

treatment, and to make concrete recommendations for immediate

improvements that will be implemented -- (applause) -- and these will

be improvements that can be implemented, and must be implemented, by

the federal government, the state government, local agencies, as well

as public and private health care providers.

 

To chair the commission, I've selected Michael Hogan. Dr. Hogan, I appreciate

your coming, Michael. (Applause.) Dr. Hogan has served as the of the Ohio Department of Mental Health for more than ten

years, and is recognized as a leader in this profession. He has been

focused, as a state official, on how our mental health system works,

and how it doesn't work. I look forward to the Commission's

findings. I look forward to their proposals. I look forward to

making progress and fixing the system, so that Americans do not fall

through the cracks. (Applause.)

 

 

ANSWER: Calling this committee the Freedom Commission on Mental Health is

reminiscent of George Orwell's concept of newspeak in his novel 1984

in which words invert the truth. The job of this Commission will be

to study how to get more Americans into mental health care.

 

Current mental health care in America is a system in which those who don't

submit willingly are forced into " therapy, " including

involuntary " hospitalization, " forced drugging of hospitalized

patients (and of others through outpatient commitment laws) and

involuntarily administered electroconvulsive " therapy. "

 

Why call this committee the Freedom Commission on Mental Health? It is

unlikely this Commission will be studying ways to give people the

freedom to refuse so-called mental health care. The opposite is more

likely to be the case. This Commission, or committee, will no doubt

be composed of mental health professionals who will recommend

measures that will benefit them rather than people who become

psychiatric patients.

 

It's like appointing group of health care

quacks to study and report on health care quackery, or appointing a

group of businessmen to study how to get more people to patronize

their businesses - or, in this case, how to not only persuade but

when necessary force people to be customers whether they want to be

or not.

 

 

BUSH: The third major obstacle to effective mental health care is the often

unfair treatment limitations placed on mental health in insurance

coverage. (Applause.) Many private health insurance plans have

developed effective programs to identify patients with mental

illnesses, and they help them get the treatment they need to regain

their health.

 

But insurance plans too often place greater

restrictions on the treatment of mental illness than on the treatment

of other medical illnesses. As a result, some Americans are unable

to get effective medical treatments that would allow them to function

well in their daily lives. Our health insurance system must treat

serious mental illness like any other disease. (Applause.) And that

was Senator Domenici's message to me at the Oval Office.

(Laughter.) And it was Nancy's message when we had them up for

dinner. (Laughter.) And I want to appreciate the fact that they

have worked tirelessly on this problem. (Applause.)

 

I have a record on this issue. As the Governor of Texas, I

signed a bill to ensure that patients who critically need mental

health are treated fairly. Senator Domenici and I share this

commitment: health plans should not be allowed to apply unfair

treatment limitations or financial requirements on mental health

benefits. (Applause.)

 

It is critical that we provide full -- as we provide full

mental health parity, that we do not significantly run up the cost of

health care. I'll work with the Senator. I will work with the

Speaker. I will work with their House and Senate colleagues to reach

an agreement on mental health parity -- this year. (Applause.)

 

 

ANSWER: First of all, it is incorrect to refer to " mental illness and other

medical illnesses. " By " medical illness " what you really mean

is " physical illness " or " biologically caused illness. " There is no

convincing evidence any so-called mental illness is a " medical "

or " physical " or " biological " illness, so it is misleading for the

President of the United States to announce publicly that it is. See

Does Mental Illness Exist? for evidence supporting this argument.

Second, there is no such thing as people being " unable to get

effective medical treatments [for mental illness] that would allow

them to function well in their daily lives. " The reason is all of

psychiatry's " medical " treatments disrupt normal brain function

rather than promoting or improving it.

 

Psychiatric " treatment " is harmful except for common-sense counselling

(pretentiously called " psychotherapy " ) that can be done as well by sympathetic,

nonprofessional, untrained people as by

professional " psychotherapists " such as psychiatrists and

psychologists.

 

Laws forcing insurance companies and health maintenance

organizations (HMOs) to pay for so-called mental health care are

wrong for several reasons. First, such laws make more money

available for forced " therapy " and therefore promote the violation of

human rights in America. I recall more than 30 years ago when a

fellow involuntary patient who seemed entirely normal to me told me

he was convinced the reason he was being kept in the psychiatric ward

of the hospital against his will was his being there enabled his

doctor to get a check from his health insurance company every week.

 

Like many of us, he was probably subjected to involuntary commitment

until his mental health insurance benefits ran out and there was no

longer a financial incentive for the " professionals " to keep him in

the hospital. Equal benefits for mental health care will promote and

prolong such abuses of human rights. This should not be permitted in

a nation like the United States of America where freedom is touted as

the reason for American patriotism.

 

Second, health care insurance

companies and HMOs should not be forced to pay for health care

quackery, or harmful treatment. They should not be forced to pay for

anything that is not bona-fide health care. Psychiatry is not health

care; rather, it is social control disguised as medical treatment.

Psychiatry - particularly biological psychiatry - is health care

quackery, and it hurts rather than helps people.

 

Counselling ( " psychotherapy " ) about how to live one's life may be helpful but is

not health care.

 

The third reason is freedom of contract: Some

people - myself included - would like to be able to have health care

insurance that does not include psychiatry or any kind of " mental

health " coverage. We should not be forced to choose between buying

health care insurance that includes psychiatric coverage we do not

want or forgoing health care insurance altogether.

 

A fourth reason the proposed legislation is wrong is it is federal legislation.

The U.S. Constitution does not give the federal government authority in

this area. The Tenth Amendment reserves those powers not granted to

the federal government to the states or to the people as individuals.

 

 

BUSH: We must work for a welcoming and compassionate society, a society

where no American is dismissed, and no American is forgotten. This

is the great and hopeful story of our country, and we can write

another chapter. We must give all Americans who suffer from mental

illness the treatment, and the respect, they deserve. (Applause.)

 

 

ANSWER: For once, I agree. However, being a welcoming and compassionate

society where no American is dismissed or forgotten and in which so-

called mentally ill people are given the treatment and respect they

deserve means something different to me than it does to you, Mr.

President. To you these words mean subjecting every troubled or

troublesome American to psychiatric " therapy. " To me those words

mean respecting the right of all Americans, that is, all law-abiding

Americans, to freedom and autonomy, including those we (erroneously)

think of as mentally ill.

 

Yes, we do need to write another chapter

in American history, a new and very different one. The violation of

human rights in America goes all the way back to colonial times, for

example, the Salem witch trials in 1692, and the hanging of Mary Dyer

in Boston Common in 1660 because " She was caught preaching Quakerism

in Massachusetts " where that religion had been banned (according to

the State Library of Massachusetts web site) ; she is now considered

a martyr for religious freedom, and a statute of her sits in front of

the Massachusetts State House (the state capitol building) a short

distance from where she was executed.

 

The violation of human rights

in America continued with the kidnapping of black people in Africa

who were brought to America as slaves. It continued during World War

II when Japanese Americans were forced into concentration camps in

the U.S.A.

 

It continues today with the imprisonment

(forced " hospitalization " ) and forced drugging and involuntary

administration of electric shock treatment to law-abiding but so-

called mentally ill people, and the use of torture such as four and

five point physical retraints, which have not just tortured but

killed hundreds if not thousands of psychiatric patients in America's

mental hospitals and psychiatric wards.

 

Yes, we need a new chapter in American history in which we give real meaning to

our political rhetoric about America being a land of freedom. We need a new

chapter in American history in which we start living up to our image

of ourselves - our image of America - as a shining example of human

rights to the rest of the world.

 

 

 

The full text of the President's speech is available from

www.whitehouse.gov.