By Ronald Bassman PhD, NCIL Mental Health Subcommittee and Mindfreedom International
By way of introduction, I am a person who spent his 23rd birthday locked in a seclusion room of a mental hospital diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Not responding to massive doses of Thorazine and Stelazine and considered hopeless, I became one of the last of the patients (prior to its being banned) to be subjected to insulin coma therapy along with electroshock. Five times a week for 8 weeks, I was strapped down and injected with enough insulin to put me into 40 comas. The “treatments” resulted in memory loss, blunted emotions, and an inability to concentrate enough to read. I was discharged and advised that I would have to take psychiatric drugs for the rest of my life and to abandon any hope of using my Master’s degree in psychology.
My story is long with twists and turns, so I will simply mention a few highlights. Despite all the dire predictions and the assault on my body and spirit, I did recover, return to university and became a licensed doctoral level psychologist. I have had no therapy nor taken any psychiatric drugs for more than 40 years. The more complete story can be found in the book I wrote, A Fight to Be: A Psychologist’s Experience from Both Sides of the Locked Door. Since my healing/transformation, I have devoted my life and work to changing a health care system that crushes the spirit and too easily and too often randomly violates the rights of those who are labelled “others.”
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