3 ms·

James Knochel, 6/18/2022: "20th Century psychiatrists wrote manuals and procedures for the diagnosis of ‘mental disorders’. They order lab tests and undertake

James Knochel, 6/18/2022: "20th Century psychiatrists wrote manuals and procedures for the diagnosis of ‘mental disorders’. They order lab tests and undertake careful study of their patients’ symptoms, and they diagnose the conditions listed in their manuals. They seek regulatory approval of prescriptions to treat the diagnoses. They stopped doing psycho-surgery by mid-century, but still electrocute their patients’ brains when they think the patient will benefit. They have their own special hospitals, where troubled patients are sent to be stabilized on palliative prescription drugs. The psych wards have little areas for staff to sit in. The staff wear scrubs and badges, keep medical records, and some prescribe prescriptions—[s]he’s the doctor—and they wait for their patients to get better. They’re doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looks in the other medical specialties. But it doesn’t work. No patient recovers as a result of the allopathic drugs provided. Some patients get better anyways—perhaps because they’re fed, perhaps because they’re kept sober—compounding the profession’s confusion." It's true. People get better in psychiatric incarceration, because there is a predictable, regular daily schedule. There are meals on schedule. There are groups and stuff. You see the same people all the time. You're off TV and you're off the computer, so you need to face reality. You're relieved of burdens such as bill paying, cooking, cleaning, and running your household. You might color by the numbers or work a puzzle, but you've got reality, and it's stripped down and reduced to its essential components. You tend to get better and saner in this environment, if that's your baseline and that's where you tend to go. If your baseline is insanity, then all this regularity may not help.

Daub 3y ago
> the form [of their science] is perfect. The reason the British Houses of Parliament feature so many exterior and interior chimneys was to funnel so-called 'bad air' of the Thames away from the people who work inside the building. This was based on the newly acquired knowledge that some diseases are passed on via microbes. They wrongly assumed that most malicious microbes were airborne and that bad smells were an indication of their presence. The history of science is littered with such examples of 'good science/wrong conclusion'. We would be foolish to assume that this is not as true today as 100 years ago.
- nemo44x 3y ago
  I wonder if it had to do with tuberculosis, which is airborne? Tenements were designed with that in mind and in the USA houses built in the early 20th century often feature “sleeper porches”. Outside areas to sleep to get fresh air. This too was in part to avoid TB.
  - Daub 3y ago
    Maybe. Certainly TB was a major killer at that time: https://nonprofitupdate.info/2010/10/21/10-leading-causes-of-death-in-1850-and-2000-2/ https://nonprofitupdate.info/2010/10/21/10-leading-causes-of... But the idea of 'bad air' (miasmic theory)' though Informed by microbe theory, had its roots in Hippocratic thinking which was derived from the observation that swampy areas were generally unhealthy to live. This was attributed to their bad smell and not the preponderance of mosquitoes (malaria). Fyi... The same miasmic theory gave rise to toilets that were designed to flush away bad smalls with water.
- hliyan 3y ago
  If I remember correctly, malaria literally means "bad air".
  - Sharlin 3y ago
    Yeah, cf. Latin malus "unpleasant", "bad", "evil", "ill" and aer "air".
- raincom 3y ago
  Miasma theory ruled from 4 BC until 1800s. Miasmata (airborne vapors, noxious, polluted air) caused most diseases. This encouraged cleanliness. Germ theory of disease replaced it. "Malaria was prevalent in the Roman Empire, and the Roman scholars associated the disease with the marshy or swampy lands where the disease was particularly rampant.[13][14] It was from those Romans the name "malaria" originated. They called it malaria (literally meaning "bad air") as they believed that the disease was a kind of miasma that was spread in the air, as originally conceived by Ancient Greeks. Since then, it was a medical consensus for centuries that malaria was spread due to miasma, the bad air." [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito-malaria_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito-malaria_theory
tcj_phx 3y ago
Thanks for the quote. This was part of an essay, Cargo Cult Psychiatry, posted at the Mad in America Foundation's website: https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/06/cargo-cult-psychiatry/ https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/06/cargo-cult-psychiatry/ I found Robert Whitaker's books invaluable for helping me understanding the mental health industry's mindset. Mad in America covered how the Quakers got much better results with their Asylums (safe place with 4 meals a day & activities) than modern techniques of lobotomy, ECT'ers and palliative prescriptions. Anatomy of an Epidemic makes the case that palliative psychiatric prescriptions take an episodic condition and make it chronic. Psychiatry Under the Influence chronicles how psychiatry got captured by the prescription drug cartel. Highly recommended. The good news from the mental health world is that Chris Palmer, M.D. published Brain Energy [0] last year. I haven't read more than excerpts from google books [1]. My understanding is Dr. Palmer was a conventional palliative psychiatrist, then he had a patient whose schizophrenia improved on a ketogenic diet. The patient was able to discontinue antipsychotics: Dr. Palmer's mind was blown. Then he discovered the 70+ years of research establishing that mental health conditions are metabolic problems, and wrote a book. Perhaps the most bold and disruptive aspect of Brain Energy is understanding precisely how and why medications that harm metabolism might reduce mental health symptoms. The long-term consequences are of great concern and require the urgent attention of the psychiatric community. -Chris Palmer, MD - https://twitter.com/ChrisPalmerMD/status/1687850270602981376 https://twitter.com/ChrisPalmerMD/status/1687850270602981376 Dr. Palmer recommends a ketogenic diet. I think most of the benefit of 'keto' stems from avoiding fortified flour: https://twitter.com/JamesKnochel/status/1595562197412851712 https://twitter.com/JamesKnochel/status/1595562197412851712 A lot of people are harmed by folic acid, and the iron and lack of fiber in fortified white flour is harmful for almost everyone, in that they disrupt the microbiome. Most people get adequate iron, and don't actually need iron filings ("reduced iron"); the fiber in whole wheat fiber feeds bacteria that make short-chain saturated fatty acids [2]. [0] https://brainenergy.com/ https://brainenergy.com/ [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=FoxlEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT233&dq=Brain+energy&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj87vb21u_8AhWWLkQIHdSMB2AQuwV6BAgJEAc#v=onepage&q=Brain%20energy&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=FoxlEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT233&dq=B... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4756104/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4756104/ (edited to add [2] and some speculations on the mechanisms of harm of fortified white flour)

Daub 3y ago

> the form [of their science] is perfect. The reason the British Houses of Parliament feature so many exterior and interior chimneys was to funnel so-called 'bad air' of the Thames away from the people who work inside the building. This was based on the newly acquired knowledge that some diseases are passed on via microbes. They wrongly assumed that most malicious microbes were airborne and that bad smells were an indication of their presence. The history of science is littered with such examples of 'good science/wrong conclusion'. We would be foolish to assume that this is not as true today as 100 years ago.

nemo44x 3y ago
I wonder if it had to do with tuberculosis, which is airborne? Tenements were designed with that in mind and in the USA houses built in the early 20th century often feature “sleeper porches”. Outside areas to sleep to get fresh air. This too was in part to avoid TB.
- Daub 3y ago
  Maybe. Certainly TB was a major killer at that time: https://nonprofitupdate.info/2010/10/21/10-leading-causes-of-death-in-1850-and-2000-2/ https://nonprofitupdate.info/2010/10/21/10-leading-causes-of... But the idea of 'bad air' (miasmic theory)' though Informed by microbe theory, had its roots in Hippocratic thinking which was derived from the observation that swampy areas were generally unhealthy to live. This was attributed to their bad smell and not the preponderance of mosquitoes (malaria). Fyi... The same miasmic theory gave rise to toilets that were designed to flush away bad smalls with water.
hliyan 3y ago
If I remember correctly, malaria literally means "bad air".
- Sharlin 3y ago
  Yeah, cf. Latin malus "unpleasant", "bad", "evil", "ill" and aer "air".
raincom 3y ago
Miasma theory ruled from 4 BC until 1800s. Miasmata (airborne vapors, noxious, polluted air) caused most diseases. This encouraged cleanliness. Germ theory of disease replaced it. "Malaria was prevalent in the Roman Empire, and the Roman scholars associated the disease with the marshy or swampy lands where the disease was particularly rampant.[13][14] It was from those Romans the name "malaria" originated. They called it malaria (literally meaning "bad air") as they believed that the disease was a kind of miasma that was spread in the air, as originally conceived by Ancient Greeks. Since then, it was a medical consensus for centuries that malaria was spread due to miasma, the bad air." [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito-malaria_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito-malaria_theory

tcj_phx 3y ago

Thanks for the quote. This was part of an essay, Cargo Cult Psychiatry, posted at the Mad in America Foundation's website: https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/06/cargo-cult-psychiatry/ https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/06/cargo-cult-psychiatry/ I found Robert Whitaker's books invaluable for helping me understanding the mental health industry's mindset. Mad in America covered how the Quakers got much better results with their Asylums (safe place with 4 meals a day & activities) than modern techniques of lobotomy, ECT'ers and palliative prescriptions. Anatomy of an Epidemic makes the case that palliative psychiatric prescriptions take an episodic condition and make it chronic. Psychiatry Under the Influence chronicles how psychiatry got captured by the prescription drug cartel. Highly recommended. The good news from the mental health world is that Chris Palmer, M.D. published Brain Energy [0] last year. I haven't read more than excerpts from google books [1]. My understanding is Dr. Palmer was a conventional palliative psychiatrist, then he had a patient whose schizophrenia improved on a ketogenic diet. The patient was able to discontinue antipsychotics: Dr. Palmer's mind was blown. Then he discovered the 70+ years of research establishing that mental health conditions are metabolic problems, and wrote a book. Perhaps the most bold and disruptive aspect of Brain Energy is understanding precisely how and why medications that harm metabolism might reduce mental health symptoms. The long-term consequences are of great concern and require the urgent attention of the psychiatric community. -Chris Palmer, MD - https://twitter.com/ChrisPalmerMD/status/1687850270602981376 https://twitter.com/ChrisPalmerMD/status/1687850270602981376 Dr. Palmer recommends a ketogenic diet. I think most of the benefit of 'keto' stems from avoiding fortified flour: https://twitter.com/JamesKnochel/status/1595562197412851712 https://twitter.com/JamesKnochel/status/1595562197412851712 A lot of people are harmed by folic acid, and the iron and lack of fiber in fortified white flour is harmful for almost everyone, in that they disrupt the microbiome. Most people get adequate iron, and don't actually need iron filings ("reduced iron"); the fiber in whole wheat fiber feeds bacteria that make short-chain saturated fatty acids [2]. [0] https://brainenergy.com/ https://brainenergy.com/ [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=FoxlEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT233&dq=Brain+energy&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj87vb21u_8AhWWLkQIHdSMB2AQuwV6BAgJEAc#v=onepage&q=Brain%20energy&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=FoxlEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT233&dq=B... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4756104/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4756104/ (edited to add [2] and some speculations on the mechanisms of harm of fortified white flour)