The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

If you come upon the unconscious victim of a car wreck who suddenly awakens in a panic, what should you do? If you're sitting beside a loved one or patient coming out of anesthesia and he or she becomes violent... or if your friend, parishioner or patient threatens suicide... how should you respond? What can any of us do if someone we care about starts acting very disturbed or "crazy" in our presence? My guest Doug Bower is well-qualified to talk about this with me. He's a PhD counselor, an ordained Methodist minister and a registered nurse. We focus on how to handle emergencies without resort to psychiatric drugs.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

My guest is Dr. Gerald Porter, Dean of the School of Natural Arts and Sciences at the renowned Bastyr University. Dr. Porter is one of the most thoughtful persons I know. Join the two of us as we talk about "what helps us to heal ourselves and others," "embracing human spiritual diversity," and encouraging alternative or complementary health practices. As these radio discussions often do, we move easily from the theoretical to the practical in regard to living life to the fullest.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

My guest Jon Rappoport and I start out talking about how psychiatric diagnoses and drugs suppress human beings, and then we look deeper into what’s essentially good and important about all of us—our spiritual nature, individuality, imagination, free will and personal freedom. These are not existential abstractions; they are the essential stuff of our lives, to be protected, nurtured and shared with others. 

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

Descend into mental health hell with me and my companion psychologist Ty Colbert, PhD as he works under surrealistic conditions with violent and seemingly deranged prisoners locked in cages and wearing plexiglass masks for their therapy hour.  This is empathic therapy at its most challenging--and potentially at its most rewarding.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

If all of psychiatry's false and damaging assumptions about "schizophrenic" homeless people are discarded and a fresh start is made, what do you get? One of the most innovative programs in the history of our field! My guest is psychiatrist Alberto Fergusson from Columbia, South America, and his program or movement is called Accompanied Self-Rehabilitation. This hour is a major educational experience for anyone interested in offering genuine help to all people who are struggling with their lives.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

Bob Brewin, investigative reporter, provides the data and I provide the outrage and the analysis on the extraordinarily abusive psychiatric drug practices involving our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as afterward in the VA.  The drug companies found the ideal top-down market for their drugs: Get the army to give them to active duty combat soldiers--a mind-boggling 20% of them.  Unsupervised young men and women carry into combat 90-120 day supplies of all the most dangerous drugs: benzos like Xanax, stimulants like amphetamine; antidepressants like Paxil and Prozac; and antipsychotic drugs like the old Trilafon and the new Seroquel.  Hear an in depth expose and examination of the Psychopharmaceutical Complex at its worst and the irresponsible psychiatrists who so eagerly enforce it.  A tour de force of psychiatry at its worst. 

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

This show starts on deep into spirituality as my guest Barbara Whitfield with elegant passion describes her near death experience. Then the hour goes yet deeper when we both speak honestly about love and God in our marriages. Listeners have said they want to hear more about my views. In this show, I am very open about the importance of love, God and my marriage to Ginger. Join me and Barbara as we share with each other and with you about the making of a good life. 

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

I present the hazards of so-called antipsychotic drugs including Zyprexa, Risperdal, Abilify, Seroquel, Geodon and Invega. Learn about their disastrous and even fatal effects, and their lack of efficacy.  Learn about tardive dyskinesia, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, and the metabolic syndrome.  And discover that there are far better empathic approaches to helping people who are deeply disturbed and labeled schizophrenic.  Also a warning:  Withdrawing from these drugs can be dangerous as well, and requires caution and good clinical supervision.  This hour could save your life and the lives of your patients or clients.  

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

My guest, Major Maria Kimble, LCSW, opens up a world that few of us in the field of mental health can imagine.  Learn what it's like doing psychotherapy in intensive combat zones under fire in outposts in Afghanistan.  Hear why she became a parachutist in order to bring out the best in herself as a therapist in the 82nd Airborne Division. Find out what it's like to be what she calls "a petite woman" in the army and in combat.  Learn, once again, how empathic therapy is the best therapy under any and all conditions.  Major Kimble is an inspiring combination of wisdom, care and courage. 

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

What can you do as an individual to encourage empathic therapeutic approaches and relationships, while warning people about the dangers of psychiatric drugs and diagnoses?  Listen to my guest Dorothy Cassidy, MEd from North Carolina.  She has worked within the educational system, and outside the system as well, for more than thirty-six years promoting what's really good for children and adults while speaking out courageously about the harm caused by psychiatric drugs and diagnoses.  Be inspired!