The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 08.16.17

I start this hour by describing an extraordinary attack on my free speech that is currently unfolding surrounding the Michelle Carter suicide-by-texting trial.   Please keep track on my Frequent Alerts on www.breggin.com.   Then Stefan Ecks, PhD, provides us with information that no one else in the world possesses.  It concerns the marketing and consumptions of medications, including psychiatric drugs, in India and other less developed societies. His fascinating information gives insight into the workings of Indian society and also into the dangers of free-for-all marketing almost without regulation.   For those of us believe in a relatively free market, it is a grim reminder of what happens when industries and “professionals” are controlled neither by shared ethics nor by regulation.  

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 08.09.17

Robert E. Wubbolding, EdD is a practitioner of Choice Theory and Reality Therapy developed by psychiatrist William Glasser, who was a close ally and a friend of mine in his later years.    Bob is doing a great job worldwide spreading Reality Therapy.  He shares with me his wisdom and experience about how to help people from coaching to intensive psychotherapy, and also about the personality of Bill Glasser.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 08.02.17

Marriage and family therapists Kermit Cole and Louisa Putnam  do a wonderful job sharing experiences as family therapists.  They have the unique perspective of a couple who works as a team in helping other couples.  They bring a broad social perspective.  They are also remarkable in their lifelong devotion to psychiatric reform and their leadership in key reform organizations such as Mad in American and The Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care.   Their way of life is informative, admirable and fulfilling. 

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 07.12.17

Kim Olver, psychotherapist and William Glaser Institute director, talks with us again and in more depth about psychotherapy—the basic principles, how to relate to people we are helping, and how to train people to help others.   Both of us believe that mental health services can be delivered better and much less expensively by training good people to be therapists without requiring extensive prior schooling and professional degrees.   By making training and certificates more easily available, many people could become fine therapists, providing services at much lower costs as trainers or coaches.  You can meet Kim Oliver, Bob Whitaker and myself at a Kim’s conference next week, July 26-July 28, 2017 in Raleigh, North Carolina.   Our Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy is cosponsoring.   For more information, go to www.breggin.com and click on Upcoming Events on the drop-down menu.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 07.19.17

Terry Lynch is an Irish GP who became a psychotherapist and now devotes himself to helping people through his practice, his books, and his courses for professionals and the public.  On the air on my radio show today, I listened to him amazed at how similarly we see the human struggle and how to help people with it.  He puts important ideas into words that mirror my own thoughts, only said more clearly, and with a lovely Irish accent.  If you care about people and about understanding their struggles, this show will inspire, entertain and educate you. Thank you, Terry!     

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 07.05.17

My guest Dr. Michael Guy Thompson is creating a radically innovative home for people with serious emotional suffering in San Francisco.  Called Gnosis Retreat, it breaks completely with the medical model and views distress as a part of being human.   Michael and I talk about friendship and love in recovery and in life.  We examine the necessity of helping people “off the grid” to  avoid government and psychiatric interference.  The problem is not the “high cost” of good approaches because some of the best like Michael’s are the least expensive.  The best help often requires relatively little professional involvement and no expensive options like doctors, drugs and hospitals.  The supposedly high costs of mental health care are not about the services needed by struggling people.  The high costs are about feeding the bloated Pharmaceutical and Medical Empires.  

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 06.28.17

A wonderful hour with psychotherapist Michael Cornwall as we talk about helping people in “extreme states.”   These are people, in Michael’s words, who get “medically cursed” instead of helped.   We explore the true nature of extreme states and helping these people without diagnosing and drugging them.   Extreme states can lead to new growth and learning.  But artificially inducing them with psychoactive drugs like LSD, in my view, is too dangerous an approach; and I emphasize the risks of treating them with marijuana or its active substances.   Michael is so experienced, so dedicated, and so genuine, it is a pleasure to share him with you. 

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 06.14.17

My guest is British Aristocracy. Luke Montagu is the heir to Mapperton, the finest manor house in England, and is slated to one day become the Earl of Sandwich. But it has not been a charmed or fairytale life and antidepressants almost destroyed him. Instead of retreating into dreams of becoming an Earl, Luke has become one of the most compassionate and caring people I have had the honor to interview on the Dr. Peter Breggin Hour. He puts efforts in supporting the spirituality of the Dali Lama and in developing and distributing programs to teach compassion and forgiveness in schools. Beyond that, he manages to devote himself to the seemingly diverse task of bringing scientific sanity to psychiatry and mental health. I enjoyed and benefitted from having an hour with Luke Montagu. You will, too.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 06.07.17

Kim Olver is a coach, counselor and director of the William Glasser Institute.  My organization is cosponsoring a great conference with her July 26-29, 2017, including a full-day workshop on July 26 with me and Bob Whitaker (www.breggin.com, click on Upcoming Events).  The show with Kim focuses on what people really need to have good lives and then progresses to how a person can become a well-trained certified counselor or coach without going through too much unnecessary and often corrupting education.  Training counselors and coaches is basic to delivering decent drug-free mental health services.  What is a counselor? What is a coach?  Do they need any advanced education other than a certificate from a good training program?   All this is basic to the directions we must take to provide relatively inexpensive, high quality emotional and psychological help.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 05.31.17

My guest Pam Popper, PhD, ND, believes in informed medical decision making and this has led her to partner with me in delivering educational materials and now clinical services aimed at making science-based nutritional, mental health, and medical services widely available.  Together, we aim at vastly increasing the available of both the information and the services that people need for healthier minds and bodies.  We also preview our upcoming joint conference on nutrition, medicine and mental health November 10-12, 2017.  For those of you who know me, this must sound like a major expansion of my interests and purposes—and it is!  Come along with me and Pam on this adventure!