Furious Seasons

June 26, 2006

What TAC Won't Correct, I Will

Last week, I noted that the fine folks at the Treatment Advocacy Center--aka Fuller Torrey's political SWAT team--had posted a delusional item dissing the P & As for fighting to get patients out of lousy state hospitals, nursing homes and so on. I called on TAC to issue a correction, because their item failed to acknowledge that P & As sometimes fight to get state hospital beds expanded and also failed to incorporate the US Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling of 1999 into its analysis.

To date, TAC has failed to issue a correction. I pointed out the other day that if they didn't, then I would issue one for them. The correction follows:

"Recently, in a post to our blog, we at TAC attacked the P & As and failed to acknowledge that, under Supreme Court rulings, psych patients have an absolute right to freedom from state hospitals and other mental health facilities once they are stable. What can we say? We're sorry, but when a storyline fits our political agenda, we have a bad habit of ignoring context and all other countervailing evidence in order to get the word out that we think that anyone with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder needs to be forced to take massive doses of meds and, maybe, locked up too. OK, it's not a bad habit--it's the kind of delusional thinking you might find somewhere in the DSM. And, um, TAC regrets the error."

Way to go guys. I knew you could do it.

And speaking of Fuller Torrey, at some point this week I am going to make reference to, and discuss, the ideas of the other super-controversial psychiatrist in America, Thomas Szasz. He's the anti-Fuller Torrey, but also an ally of the Scientologists. All the same, his ideas are interesting and, in some cases, dead-right. But that's for another day.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at June 26, 2006 12:03 AM

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Comments

Hi, Philip. Check out my my take on Szasz-Cruise at:

http://www.mcmanweb.com/cruise_szasz.htm

Posted by: John McManamy at June 26, 2006 01:24 PM

Head Hunter= Torrey

These articles just makes me sick. I am not quite sure Torrey should be touted as a leading expert, on anything, and I'm pretty sure he must truly smoke crack. He really is a dangerous public figure.

Head HUnter Torrey

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/specialrpts/braindonors/050409brain.shtml

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/specialrpts/braindonors/050924brain.shtml

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/specialrpts/braindonors/050322brain.shtml

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/specialrpts/braindonors/050113brain.shtml

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Tissue bank also sent Maine brains to lab

"Tissue Banks International was paid a $1,000 service fee for each of eight brain shipments to the Bethesda, Md.-based Stanley Institute in the late 1990s, said Gerald Cole, the tissue bank's president and chief executive officer.......

Matthew Cyr, the former Maine funeral inspector whose efforts to solicit brain donations are now at the center of federal and state investigations, was involved in seeking consent in one or two of the eight cases, Cole said..........
On July 8, 1998, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, then the Stanley Institute's executive director, sent a letter to Cyr at the Eye & Tissue Bank's office in Portland.

In the letter, Torrey proposed that Cyr begin collecting brains for the Stanley Institute, which needed the specimens for research on mental illness. He sent the letter at the recommendation of Maine Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Margaret Greenwald, who worked for Torrey's lab before coming to Maine, when she worked in San Diego."..(more).......

Posted by: Stephany at June 27, 2006 02:42 PM

Stephany just sent me the link to this post since I inquired on my blog about what the TAC's "beliefs" are. While I think they make some good points, they're not tactful and really go about it the wrong way. This post made me upset: http://psychlaws.blogspot.com/2007/04/classic-case-of-shooting-messenger.html

Care to issue a correction for that?

Posted by: Marissa Miller at May 1, 2007 10:23 AM