Comments: Making Sense Of "The Infinite Mind" Mess
This is the same white supremacist social engineer who compared ghetto blacks to monkeys running loose in the jungle, and proposed a "violence initiative" to control their behavior, including "hypersexuality" with psychotropic drugs. No sympathies for him, for any of these awful people, but especially this genocidal piece of shit.
Posted by flawedplan at November 24, 2008 01:22 AM
Yes, Goodwin's endorsement of Prozac on NPR was a mortal sin, especially since he knew of Prozac's propensity for causing suicide, violence, etc. as did most of the docs who were all aware of the 1991 FDA Advisory Committee meeting on the subject.
People like Dr. Martin Teicher were hushed up back in 1991 and this was well known in psychiatric circles.
Of course Goodwin was being paid by Pharma and who knows who else!! It is all about money.
There probably were some people who were helped by Goodwin. I am not saying he is a totally incompetent doctor. I am just saying he is unethical and he was bought----------
I am personally aware that Goodwin knew that Prozac could cause mania and ruin someone's life because I was privy to a lawsuit in Texas where Goodwin gave testimony to this effect - that Prozac had caused mania in a man and that this man's subsequent deeds had proved ruinous to him.
This was in 1994 - so Goodwin was aware that early.
"The Infinite Mind" needed to go - I am so relieved it exists no longer.
Posted by Rosie at November 24, 2008 07:28 AM
Thanks FP, I'd forgotten this was the same scumbag. He really believes that being a black person means being genetically inferior. Wonder what he thinks about women and the poor? Anyway,
here's a summary of his racist views which have no basis in science:
"WHO IS DR. GOODWIN REALLY?
Rhesus Monkeys and Inner-City Youth
At the head of now disbanded Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA), psychiatrist Frederick Goodwin was the federal government's highest ranking psychiatrist and one of the world's leading biological psychiatrists. He was thrust into the hot lights of national media attention in early 1992 after he allegedly made remarks that compared inner city youth to monkeys who live in a jungle, and who just want to kill each other, have sex and reproduce. The statements in question were made at a February 11 meeting of the prestigious National Advisory Mental Health Council. One person in attendance, an African American government employee, was offended enough to phone the Washington Post.5
Dr. Goodwin apology!
Ten days of escalating media debate and criticism ensued, at the end of which Goodwin issued an apology. On February 21, 1992 he said he had "learned all too painfully that the absence of malice or bad intentions does not excuse the insensitivity" of his comments, adding, "In an effort to shed light on the violence problem, I juxtaposed primate research to the problems in our cities in a careless way. I regret this insensitivity." http://blacktalkradio.ning.com/events/event/show?id=2203159%3AEvent%3A29658
If I believed in antisocial personality disorder, his apology would meet all of the DSM criteria for it.
Posted by Sally at November 24, 2008 07:41 AM
there's more on the so-called 'violence initiative' here:
http://www.breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=53
Posted by Philip Dawdy at November 24, 2008 08:57 AM
Brilliant, brilliant reporting, Philip.
But good luck putting the genie back in the bottle with those who throw the baby (outlawing psych meds) out with the bathwater (Big Pharma corruption).
Posted by Larry at November 24, 2008 09:06 AM
It was the Goodwin-Jamison Bible on bipolar that, by chance, saved my daughter's life from lithium toxicity. Her Hopkins-trained doctor didn't know what was going on (she looked liked she had ataxic CP, slurred speech) etc. and a neurology consult didn't help either. But I happened to be ruffling through this book and landed on the toxicity list of symptoms. This is really all I know of the man, but his other behavior seems to be "the way it is" with most psychiatrists these days, whether they are in academia or not. I say good riddance, Phil, now on to the next ones.
Posted by sorrowful at November 24, 2008 09:15 AM
Philip,
Here's another Breggin on Goodwin link that I like:
http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/ArchiveARCHIVE/BLACK--AFRIKAN%20AMERICAN/Blacks%20are%20Violent%3F.html
Larry,
I don't think there's any serious discussion about outlawing psych meds. Maybe you left the phrases safety, efficacy and effectiveness out of your sentence, as the serious discussion is about outlawing making false claims about the safety, efficacy and effectiveness of psych drugs.
Posted by Sally at November 24, 2008 10:16 AM
Outlawing is too strong a word, yes.
Mau-mauing those who take them, no.
Posted by Larry at November 24, 2008 01:58 PM
The argument that 'I consult for all the companies and therefore I have no conflict' does not wash as noted elsewhere as it doesn't apply to, say, drugs v psychotherapy. That infinite mind show on antidepressants was clearly biased as evidenced by the fact that one of the 'guests' worked for a PR firm with pharma clients but was introduced only as a 'former FDA official'. Also consider the fact that he was jetting around the country giving talks. Didn't any of the psychiatrists in the audience wonder who was paying for all of this? I don't really buy the noodling by NPR. As far as I am concerned it was an NPR show; I don't care about their evasive splitting of hairs. Here is another disclosure for them. $200 million donation from the heiress of the McDonald's cheeseburger fortunes, which are responsible for the world wide spread of type 2 diabetes, but we never hear about the health consequences of McDonalds on NPR, now, do we?
Posted by Doug Bremner at November 24, 2008 03:24 PM
from the producers of Infinite Mind in an email sent to their listeners:
November 24, 2008
To The Infinite Mind's listeners, supporters and affiliated stations:
On November 20, Lichtenstein Creative Media, producer of public radio's The Infinite Mind, first learned through a phone call from a reporter for the New York Times, that our program's host, Dr. Fred Goodwin, had accepted at least $1.3 million in pharmaceutical company speakers' fees, while he was hosting our series of programs.
In an unrelated decision, we had already ceased production of the radio show, and had notified radio stations that the program would be going off the air following its 10-year run. The internal decision to terminate the program was made in October, well before any of this information had emerged, and occurred in large part because of a lack of funding to support the show.
We learned about the full scope of Dr. Goodwin’s conflicts of interest with the print publication of the New York Times article on November 22. Senator Charles Grassley provided the New York Times with evidence that Dr. Goodwin had accepted speakers' fees from companies whose products included medications discussed on The Infinite Mind. (The Infinite Mind covered a broad range of topics related to the human mind, brain and spirit. Most of our programs, as regular listeners will know, dealt with subjects that did not include any discussion of pharmaceuticals or the pharmaceutical industry.)
Dr. Goodwin’s acceptance of these fees was in direct violation of his written contract with LCM, which states, in part: "Any conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest should be avoided at all costs. This means avoiding any situation where your role on the show as host could be influenced, or might come into conflict with your other professional or personal responsibilities or financial gain … To help insure that you are not involved in editorial material that presents a conflict with your work outside of The Infinite Mind, you agree to disclose to LCM existing and any new business relationships as they occur that could potentially be perceived as representing a conflict of interest with your role as a public radio commentator or journalist. You also agree to disclose to LCM any business relationships that existed during your time as host since 1997 which may have presented a conflict of interest as defined above.” (See www.LCMedia.com/agreement.pdf for a copy of the signed agreement in its entirety).
There was no gray area. Fred Goodwin was legally bound to inform LCM of any conflicts of interest. And he didn't.
In response to the New York Times article, National Public Radio announced it would remove the program, which is independently produced and distributed by LCM to 300 public radio stations across the country, from its Sirius satellite channel. (See NPR statement)
The New York Times article was devastating to a program that for 10 years had endeavored to maintain the highest levels of integrity. As the New York Times pointed out, LCM has received more than 60 major journalism awards, including a George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting, TV and radio's highest honor; a Media Award from the United Nations; six National Headliner Awards; four Gracie Awards from American Women in Radio and Television; and five Unity Awards in Media from Lincoln University of Missouri for coverage of minority issues.
We applaud Senator Grassley's diligent efforts to work toward transparency in pharmaceutical funding. We have contacted Senator Grassley’s office and offered our support in this work.
We can only apologize for this breach of trust with our loyal listeners, supporters and public radio stations.
Posted by Gianna at November 24, 2008 04:09 PM
This is all good but when will folks like McNammy finally begin to question their labels? When will AOT and the bogus labels end?
Posted by Sally at November 24, 2008 06:07 PM
Well Sally, one might wonder... when mcMan finally figures out he has been screwed by the pharma industry when he stops getting paychecks from pharma-funded websites for writing GARBAGE.
Posted by Stephany at November 24, 2008 06:40 PM