The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 02.21.19

My guest is Los Angeles psychiatrist Judith Orloff and as I predicted in my Frequent Alert before the show, it was an astonishingly inspiring and educational hour about the empathic side of us human beings, and especially about those of us who are empaths and who very deeply experience the people and the environment around us.  I talked more than usual about my wife Ginger, who is a profound empath, or "highly sensitive person," and continued to understand her better through Judith's words.   What better endorsement can I give to Judith and to her work!  I spoke about the special dangers of psychiatry and psychiatric drugs to highly sensitive, empathic people.   We also had great callers, and at one point my connectivity to my own show broke down for several minutes, but Judith and the caller stayed engaged on the continuing live show without noticing my absence.  Exciting!  One of the best programs we've had.

 

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 02.13.19

My guest Andrew Thibault is the film maker who made Speed Demons, one of the best documentaries ever on how psychiatric drugs drove a real-life highly intelligent, kind and caring young man into a violent killer.  Unlike most of these films, Andrew gives us a sympathetic close-up, personal look into the life of the medication victim who then becomes a psychotic perpetrator.  Andrew Thibault is also an independent researcher into the relationship between psychiatric drugs and violence, and has made himself into a fountain of interesting and exciting information.  If you have any interest in these topics, you are guaranteed to learn from this episode of the Dr. Peter Breggin Hour.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 02.06.19

Between Terry Lynch MD and me, I think we have a hundred years of experience working with patients or clients, and that is what our show is about.  Terry, who lives and works in Ireland, began as family physician and became disillusioned with the psychiatric approach being taken to people with emotional suffering.  He bypassed psychiatry completely-an act of wisdom and courage-and became a psychotherapist.  He is a leader in the field of how to help people and I always find it useful and inspiring to talk with him.  Join Terry and me for a discussion that begins with a focus on love and moves on to broader issues in psychology and psychiatry, with many practical suggestions about how to help oneself and others live a more fulfilling life.  I benefitted and I think you will, too.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 01.30.19

This was such a great show, I had to reassure my wonderful audience that every single caller was spontaneous and as surprising to me as it was to them.  This was Open Mic Wednesday, which occurs every last Wednesday of the month.  Topics covered were successful psychiatric drug withdrawals, building relationships when you feel emotionally unstable and lacking in confidence, handling anger, and brain nutrition.  For me, it was an spontaneously delightful and informative hour.   The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour is every Wednesday 4-5 pm NY Time.  Calls can be taken during the live hour itself at 888 874 4888.  The archives are on www.breggin.com<http://www.breggin.com>.

 

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 01.16.19

Repeat of 04.12.17. Robert Whitaker calls himself a journalist but I believe he is one of the most important scientists in the world today based on his scientific analyses of the flaws in what passes for research in psychiatry. He is also an insightful social critic. More than that, he is a major figure in the promotion of genuinely therapeutic approaches. For this hour, Bob and I especially examine the larger psychological, moral and social damage done to individuals and institutions, and to society itself, by what Bob calls “the psychiatric narrative.”

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 01.16.19

My guest Kim Witczak represents consumers on the FDA committee that makes recommendations to the agency about drug approval.  Kim lost her husband to suicide while he was taking the antidepressant Zoloft.  She is a remarkable example of surmounting tragedy to make a real contribution to society.   Kim is also a fountain of information about shenanigans and trends at the FDA and its partners in the pharmaceutical industry.   She has genuine insider information.  One striking new phenomenon at the FDA is fast-tracking drugs for “treatment-resistant” depression.  In other words, after patients have been poisoned with neurotoxic drugs and made worse, the FDA will help industry come up with new and more neurotoxic drugs to further overwhelm the already injured patients.   This is apparently an agency-wide trend at the FDA, which has recently approved ECT for “treatment-resistant depression.”  Instead of “First, do no harm,” the new motto of psychiatry, the FDA and the drug companies has become “Do more harm!”  You can keep up with many of these issues by subscribing to my free Frequent Alerts on www.breggin.com.  And remember you can call into my program to make a comment or to ask a question by phoning 888 874 4888 every Wednesday live at 4 pm NY Time.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 01.09.19

My guest Michael Fontaine is a Professor of Classics who, every time he comes on my radio show, creates an hour of conversation that is incredibly interesting and closely related to modern life.  He informs us about homosexuality in ancient times on the part of both adult males and females and about the segregation of the sexes that made romantic love difficult.  He describes what Plato’s Symposia were really like (drinking parties).  He briefly reads an amazing theory presented by a comedian at the Symposia about the theory of human split-aparts searching for wholeness.  We talk movingly about dogs and faithfulness in ancient and modern times.  As he does every time he is on my show, Michael came up with a new example of ancient literature ridiculing psychiatric pretensions.   He joins me in talking about romantic love in our time and the loneliness of young people on college campuses, something he is trying to create solutions for.  Michael Fontaine is a fountain of kindness, wisdom and intellectual entertainment.  For background on the show, see my website, www.breggin.com, the section on Frequent Alerts, for my two new blogs on love, “How Love Can Reformat Our Lives” and “Are Emotional Disorders Really Disorders of Love?”  Remember, 4-5 pm on Wednesdays, you can listen live on www.prn.fm and call in live at 888 874 4888.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 01.02.19

This January 2, 2019 “Dr. Peter Breggin Hour” is one of my shows I most wish everyone would hear.  It’s about “Love in the New Year.”  I talk about what love is and what it is not: How love “Wipes clean the slate” and “Reformats our lives.” How “Love centers our mind and heart as one” and how “Love obliterates the familiar limits and restraints within which we have lived and imagined.”  Those were snippets I read briefly from an essay which I will be putting up on www.breggin.com in my free Frequent Alerts within the next few days.  

My final unexpected caller was my friend Pinar Miski, a psychiatrist who helps to teach my most intensive course.  On the air, she added her own marvelous perspective on expanding love beyond personal relationships to creativity, nature, art and basically all of existence.  From every caller, we get the message not to confuse love with lost or painful relationships, or with the corruption of too many institutions that claim to promote love.  You can make love the center of your life. 

Please give this show a chance to improve your life.  Listen to it on the archive.  And remember, you can call in and talk with me live every Wednesday 4-5 pm New York time at 888 874 4888 while you simultaneously listen to it live on www.prn.fm.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 12.26.18

The last show of 2018 was amazing.  Although it was Open Mic Wednesday (the last Wednesday of the month), it became focused on the FDA’s recent rescue of electroshock (ECT) by declaring it so safe that the agency approved it without testing for “drug-resistant depression.”  This is a catastrophe, as one of my callers noted, because it unleashes the treatment on so many more people.  Currently given to hundreds of thousands, ECT can now be given to tens of millions of people struggling with grief and hopelessness (“depression”) who get worse rather than better on psychiatric drugs.  

But why would the federal government through the FDA save such a horrendously damaging treatment?  The explanation, I suggest on the air, may be found in an astonishing new movie, The Minds of Men, which examines the history of federal support for “treatments” such as electroshock and lobotomy.  The movie by two young filmmakers, Aaron and Melissa Dykes, presents a huge amount of information that was previously unknown to me about government and foundation involvement in funding mind control over many decades. We already knew that the CIA had funded horrendous ECT experiments on unknowing patients in Canada and we already knew about my discovery of Justice Department funding psychosurgery experiments.  But the Minds of Men researches far more deeply into this dark past which surely remains with us in the present—maybe even driving the FDA’s rescue of ECT.  The covert government did it before—why would it stop supporting ECT now?

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 12.05.18

My guest Sarah Price Hancock survived more than 100 ECT and dozens of psychiatric drugs as well as psychiatric hospitalizations to go on to become a certified rehabilitation counselor.  She is an inspiration to the millions of people who have been damaged by psychiatry and need to recreate productive, satisfying lives for themselves.   I cannot exaggerate my appreciation of her courage, determination, and intellect, and the spiritual strength demonstrated by her recovery.   Of course she still has injuries, but they have not stopped her from having a good life and, indeed, from fighting back effectively as a reformer in the field of mental health.   This is a favorite show of mine, made so by the wondrous Sarah Price Hancock, who shows us how to surmount some of the worst trauma routinely inflicted on Americans--psychiatric treatment.