The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 01.31.18

Psychologist Howie Glasser created the Nurtured Heart Approach to therapy and education, and really to life.   Children, especially those with great perceptivity and energy, quickly discover that they get more time, attention, and intensive relating by being difficult than by being easy. Often we tend to ignore children until they do make trouble!  Howie’s approach is to help children to appreciate and expand  the good and even great things that they do routinely and often unknowingly in their relationships.   (It also works for adult relationships.)  Howie and I have known each other for years and the hour itself has a good energy you will enjoy. 

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 01.24.18

My guest, journalist MK Mendoza, provides one of the most heartfelt, original and important hours I have experienced on the air.  One year after her father’s death, she speaks out in public for the first time about what it is like to be a family member of someone labelled mentally ill who was then destroyed by psychiatric treatment.  From the age of ten until now, she has struggled with what was done to her father, to her whole family, and to herself by the lies and destructive treatments that are now all-too-familiar, including involuntary hospitalization, ECT and drugs.   More vividly than any I have known, she speaks about the toll within the family over conflicts about psychiatric treatment, choosing sides, scapegoating, and blaming, and finally guilt and shame.  MK is not complaining; she is planning—filled with ideas about actions to take.   Listen to MK, spread the word, take inspiration from her, and get in touch with her.    

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 01.17.18

Andrew Sercombe from Great Britain works outside the establishment in his own business as a “therapeutic coach.”  He brings enormous enthusiasm, spirituality, sound values and practical psychology to his high impact, short-term approach to helping people find and pursue what they want in life.  To those of us accustomed to a slower more leisurely pace, Andrew will be both challenging and inspiring.  Andrew destroys conventional ideas about psychotherapy in ways that I believe will encourage genuine progress.  At the same time, he applies and confirms sound  psychological insights.  I think this is the future of helping people—outside academia and professionalism where an enormous variety of approaches compete in an open marketplace.  I was provoked to rethink time-tattered concepts in this enjoyable conversation.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 01.10.18

Tony Stanton, MD is a child and adult psychiatrist who has been in the field almost as long as I have, and like me from the beginning knew that drugs were not the answer.  For more than two decades, Tony ran a program in California that took the last resort children of the state, those who had “failed” everywhere else, often in broken families with parents in jail.  He successfully helped them to come off their multiple medications and to gain a sense of worth and their place in the community.  Safety, engagement and predictability, along with empathic listening, are the principles Tony promotes.  Tony has transcended his profession to become a beacon of wisdom and understanding.  He can help you to have a more fulfilling start to your New Year.  

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 12.13.17

Probably the deepest, most far-ranging discussing on “personal responsibility” you will ever hear, beautifully shared with my guest in a single hour. Brian Russell, a lawyer and psychologist with wide-ranging interests, focuses with me on what it means to take responsibility for living a rich, full, principled and loving life.   Politics, religion, personal relationships—nothing is off bounds in our attempt to understand and apply this critical principle of successful living—that we must never flinch from being in charge of ourselves and the outcome of our lives, while doing so in a positive manner.   No more complaining, no more moaning, no more giving up!   No more eating ourselves up with hate and resentment!  Instead, we work to be grateful for life, while learning how to live by taking personal responsibility for ourselves. This hour can change lives.  

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 12.06.17

My guest Dr. Michael Corrigan is an extraordinary man in many ways.   He has a big heart and a giant brain!  And he devotes it to the task of advocating for children through scientific projects, educational campaigns, and whatever else is possible.   In a rousing discussion we talk about what in the world can we do to get our ideas across to the public!   This is one of the most important questions we can ask and we even come up with some new ideas.  We also hear about a project that could change how professionals view children.  A great show.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 11.29.17

My guest again is Peter Gøtzsche, MD, the remarkable Danish physician and researcher who has written the stunning book, Deadly Psychiatry and Organized Denial. Our theme is “How Psychiatry Uses Force Against Its Patients and Its Critics.”   This impassioned conversation will give you a deeper look into how the two of us think about our scientific and reform work; and about the real depth of the depravity expressed throughout the history of psychiatry right into modern times.   You will hear momentary silences as we struggle to find the words to explain the harm that psychiatry perpetrates against its patients and all of society.   This show moved me personally.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 11.22.17

James Moore has “lived experience” with the harm caused by antidepressants and the difficulties of withdrawing from them.   He reveals his own personal struggles in order to encourage and inform others.   James reminds us that doctors in the US or Great Britain know very little about the difficulties of withdrawal and instead blame these reactions on the patient’s “mental illness.”  James is finding ways to promote and empower projects that stand outside the current system.  He describes several useful resources for those who are trying to withdraw and for those who are trying to help them.   James gives us an excellent introductory hour for anyone interested in psychiatric drug withdrawal.   You can keep up with his great pod cast on MadinAmerica.com.   

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 11.15.17

According to my guest, investigative journalist Jon Rappoport, the opioid epidemic is much more than an epidemic--it is a criminal conspiracy.  

He describes how the US Congress, FDA, DEA and Justice Department have systematically refused or failed to deal with the sources of the flood of pain medications knowingly over-produced and misdirected into the addiction market by the Pharmaceutical Industry.   Listen to what Jon has to say and you will a better informed if even more disillusioned citizen.  The political and industrial behavior he describes fits the pattern that I am familiar with--a Pharmaceutical Empire and medical profession devoted to profits and not to people, and a government that aids and abets them.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 11.08.17

My guest Bonnie Burstow PhD is an amazing researcher and scholar, and one of the world’s leading activists against psychiatric abuse, including electroshock. Bonnie's creativity is boundless, and describes the courage it took to write her new novel about ECT called “The Other Mrs. Smith.” She does a reading from her book on the air that is incredibly moving. Bonnie will educate, inspire and stir you up. In another arena, for the first time ever, Bonnie has made “antipsychiatry” a legitimate field of scholarship at a university by establishing and personally endowing a scholarship for advanced studies in antipsychiatry at her University of Toronto. Being with Bonnie is a privilege you will enjoy.