The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

My guest is Cris Rowan from British Columbia, the author of “The Virtual Child,” who calls herself “an impassioned occupational therapist.”  Cris helps parents to wean their children from addiction to technologies like TV, social networking, cell phone texting and videogames.  She believes that many childhood diagnoses in reality reflect a combination of addiction to technology and a corresponding lack of meaningful relationship and personal engagement in the family.  Cris’s observations will make you think more critically about childhood immersion in technology and how to overcome it.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

If you want to be inspired to change your life into what you’ve always wanted or if you want your loved ones, friends and clients to find the courage to pursue their dreams, this is the place to start. If you want to turn your experiences of abuse and disappointment into the energy of your creativity, listen to this hour. I interview Pamela Glasner and we focus on how in her mid-fifties she transformed her life to become a novelist, screenwriter, and public speaker--and a woman of unanticipated courage and determination. Learn what it means to feel “the cosmic boot.”

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

Today’s guest was Robert Foltz, PsyD, a psychologist in private practice and professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Bob and I describe the specifics of what’s needed to help children and families come back together to create responsible, respectful and loving relationships. The focus starts with the child and then encompasses the family. This hour is a must for parents, older children, teachers, therapists—anyone with a stake in improving the lives of children through their lives in the family. It's basic lessons in living can help adults, with or without children, to improve their relationships and their lives.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

My guests are Tom and Diane Vande Burgt. If you want a vivid real-life introduction to what’s the matter with biological psychiatry and better alternatives, this is it. In the first half hour Tom describes what happened to him when he came back from Iraq with “PTSD” and was immediately put on four psychiatric drugs at once and thrust into a downhill course of medication spellbinding. In the second half hour, his wife Diane describes how she developed a family-oriented alternative called Lest We Forget, a PTSD support group. The show dramatizes what’s wrong and provides a model for what’s needed.

December 6, 2010

November 29, 2010

Dr. Breggin’s outstanding guest is Charles L Whitfield, MD, a physician, psychotherapist and expert both in addiction and in childhood trauma and abuse. In private practice in Atlanta, Georgia, he is the author of the best-selling book Healing the Child Within and many others worth reading. Dr. Whitfield delves deeply with Dr. Breggin into the nature and impact of childhood abuse, the role of the 12 Steps in recovery, and the importance of ethics and spirituality in living a successful and rewarding life. This hour should inspire anyone interested in therapy and personal growth.

November 22, 2010

November 15, 2010

Dr. Sarton Weinraub hosts the show for Dr. Peter Breggin who was away at the time testifying in a criminal trial on behalf of a victim of medication of madness.  Dr. Weinraub is joined by this week’s guest, Melanie Sears, RN, MBA.  She is the author of a very good book, Humanizing Health Care: Creating Cultures of Compassion with Nonviolent Communication. Melanie specializes in Nonviolent Communication, a partnership approach to solving conflict that is applicable to every level of relationship from our personal lives to drug-free counseling and even world politics.  It’s an interesting and wide-ranging show.    

November 8, 2010

The show opens with Dr. Breggin’s vivid description of his participation as a medical expert in the infamous trial of mass murderer Joseph Wesbecker in 1994. Drug company Eli Lilly fixed the trial in order to stem the tide of product liability suits for violence and suicide induced by Prozac. Today’s guest is Dr. Ed Pigott, a Maryland psychologist in private practice who has helped develop and evaluate effective alternative approaches including “mobile intensive crisis intervention” through which teams of professionals respond to emergencies without resorting to psychiatric hospitalization. Dr. Pigott also discusses his soon-to-be published “deconstruction” of the famous Star*D study in which the federal government wasted millions on one more flawed and manipulated attempt to show that antidepressants work.

November 1, 2010

Today’s guest is Brian Kean, PhD, professor of education at Southern Cross University in Australia. Dr. Breggin and Dr. Kean describe why parents, educators and healthcare providers should avoid using diagnoses like ADHD and stop using medications to treat this mythical disorder. Then they talk about the real needs of children and how they can be fulfilled in a rational and caring manner.