Scientology-Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toronto

[CommunicatorIC]

Scientology-Backed ‘Anti-Psychiatry’ Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toronto

Heat Street: Scientology-Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toronto

https://heatst.com/culture-wars/sci...arship-raises-fears-at-university-of-toronto/

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Scientology-Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toronto

By Ian Miles Cheong | 11:13 pm, January 12, 2017

Scientology-Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toronto

By Ian Miles Cheong | 11:13 pm, January 12, 2017

The University of Toronto is supporting a striking new scholarship that has met with no small amount of controversy from the medical community. The scholarship is administered by Professor Bonnie Burstow and helps fund graduate students pursuing the nascent field of “anti-psychiatry.”

Burstow argues that there is no such thing as mental illness, and does not see evidence that psychiatric problems stem from chemical imbalances in the brain. She does not believe in the potency of anti-psychotic and mood-altering drugs, which have improved the lives of numerous sufferers alongside psychotherapy.

Facing challenges in getting the scholarship funded, Burstow put up $50,000 of her own money, and successfully convinced her University to endorse it. The University of Toronto defends the grant under the aegis of academic freedom, but its decision to do so has raised objections among academia and practitioners in the field of psychiatry.

Burstow’s grant is supported by donors who have matched her own contributions, some of whom she says are “survivors” of psychiatric treatments or their parents who claim to have been hurt by the medical practice. The scholarship has also won the support of an organization founded by the Church of Scientology, notorious for its opposition to the fields of psychiatry and psychology.

The University’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) is defending the scholarship, saying it’s the right of academics to study unpopular ideas like hers.

Other academics disagree. “This is a case where academic freedom should be quashed,” said Edward Shorter, a professor and expert in the history of psychiatry at the U of T. Speaking to the National Post, Shorter said the scholarship lends credence to anti-scientific views, and has the potential to mislead the public into refusing psychiatric help. Others in the field are echoing his concerns.

“We don’t have an anti-neurology scholarship or an anti-hepatology scholarship. Psychiatry is the only specialty that has people trying to abolish it,” Dr. Joel Paris, a psychiatrist at McGill University, told the Post. “This doesn’t make sense.”

Paris added that while there is much to learn about psychiatry, its scientific foundations are without question. He is ashamed that the institution would back a scholarship dismissing the entire profession.

While the OISE defends her research on the grounds of academic freedom and suggests that no field of science should be off-limits to scientific analysis or concerns over validity, Burstow herself disagrees. She flat out says that mental illness does not exist, and does not entertain any suggestions to its merit.

“Psychiatry’s tenets and claims do not stand up to scrutiny. We do not have to begin by trying to prove that,” said Burstow. “I am saying these are not diseases … There is not a single proof of a single chemical imbalance of a single so-called mental illness.”

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[CommunicatorIC]

Re: Scientology-Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toro

Scientology backed U of T ‘anti-psychiatry’ scholarship is affront to science and could hurt mentally ill patients, critics say.

National Post: U of T’s ‘anti-psychiatry’ scholarship is affront to science and could hurt mentally ill patients, critics say

http://news.nationalpost.com/health/u-of-ts-anti-psychiatry-scholarship?__lsa=803a-3e77

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U of T’s ‘anti-psychiatry’ scholarship is affront to science and could hurt mentally ill patients, critics say

Tom Blackwell | January 10, 2017 6:05 PM ET

More from Tom Blackwell | @tomblackwellNP

As Bonnie Burstow sees it, there’s no such thing as mental “illness,” no evidence that psychological problems stem from physical imbalances in the brain, and even less that treatments like anti-psychotic drugs actually help people.

But PhD students who follow the University of Toronto professor’s radical ideas have a tough time winning financial support: arguing that mental health care as we know it should be abolished can be a hard sell.

So Burstow has put up $50,000 of her own money and convinced the U of T to back a striking new scholarship – for studies in “anti-psychiatry.”

The university defends the grant as an embodiment of academic freedom, but the controversial initiative is raising questions about just how far that freedom should extend.

[SNIP]

Indeed, the scholarship has won support from an organization founded by the Church of Scientology, zealous foes of psychiatry.

[SNIP]

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[CommunicatorIC]

Re: Scientology-Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toro

More information from The Internet on WWP.

https://whyweprotest.net/threads/sc...at-university-of-toronto.132525/#post-2600735

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Bonnie makes good money so I can see how she could put up a scholarship.
University of Toronto BURSTOW BONNIE Senior Lecturer, Education
salary:$102,088.02 taxes paid: $249.96
http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/salarydisclosure/2012/univer12g.html

Good article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/marvin-ross/u-of-t-antipsychiatry-scholarship_b_12473034.html

I liked this bit:

Hamilton psychiatrist, Dr David Laing Dawson had this to say:

Bonnie Burstow, your sniping from the sidelines does far more harm than good. Your university has a Faculty of Medicine and a Department of Psychiatry. You are already on salary I presume. Why don't you offer to participate in Faculty of Medicine seminars and lectures and workshops to promote your ideas and opinions? In that forum, to the extent any are valid, they would have an influence.

I know there are lots of problems with mental health care in the US and probably in Canada, too. I have no problem with anyone talking about things that could be done better. But no wants anti-psychiatry because that kind of thing will hurt people.

U of T spokesperson, Althea Blackburn-Evans however , told me over the phone that open debate is a fundamental mandate of a university and the university has no problem with such a scholarship. Each department within the university, she added, has jurisdiction over what they decide to fund. This scholarship is supported by the dean of OISE.

Oh boy false balance. You can't have a debate between a fact based person and a crank. All that does is make crankery seem legit. Instead you have to have rules. Then the people who follow those rules can argue stuff productively.

Anti-vax does not help make vaccines safer. Anti-global warming does not make climate scientists more honest. And anti-psychiatry doesn't help mentally ill people get better care. Gotta be reality based to make a contribution to human understanding.

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[CommunicatorIC]

Re: Scientology-Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toro

The Truth Behind U Of T's Scientology Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship

Don't worry, scholarships in anti-vaccination and anti-evolution are next.

Huffington Post Living Canada: The Truth Behind U Of T's Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/marvin-ross/u-of-t-antipsychiatry-scholarship_b_12473034.html

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The University of Toronto, ranked as number one in Canada, 16th worldwide with the 12th ranked medical school internationally, has just established a scholarship for anti-psychiatry.

Called the Bonnie Burstow Scholarship in Antipsychiatry, it is being praised by Scientology. As a graduate with two degrees from the U of T, I'm offended as are many others.

What next, a scholarship to study anti-evolution or anti-vaccination?

[SNIP]

I did say that Scientologists are ecstatic, and they are.

The Canadian chapter of the Citizens Commission of Human Rights (CCHR) announced on their facebook page "some very, very good news" and that Burstow is "a rock star."

CCHR was first established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Thomas Szasz (The Myth of Mental Illness) to promote its anti-psychiatry agenda.

Another ecstatic supporter of the scholarship is controversial psychiatrist, Dr Peter Breggin. He stated:

As a professional long heralded as the conscience of psychiatry, it is my pleasure to endorse the newly formed Bonnie Burstow Scholarship in Antipsychiatry. Science is demonstrating that psychiatric diagnosis and drugs, electroshock, and involuntary treatment are doing much more harm than good.

Breggin admits to having worked with Scientology in the early 1970s but states that he left. He did write a lengthy defence of Tom Cruise's anti-psychiatry rant according to a Huffington Post biography of him.

That article points out that Breggin "is not certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, which is the recognized agency for certifying psychiatrists."

Breggin also appears as an expert witness in trials involving medications. In one trial, the judge has this to say of his testimony:

Dr. Breggin's observations are totally without credibility. I can almost declare him, I guess from statements that floor me, to say the he's a fraud or at least approaching that. He has made some outrageous statements and written outrageous books and which he says he has now withdrawn and his thinking is different. He's untrained. He's a member of no hospital staff. He has not since medical school participated in any studies to support his conclusions except maybe one. . . . I can't place any credence or credibility in what he has to recommend in this case.

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[The Anabaptist Jacques]

Re: Scientology-Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toro

Well, I support academic freedom of inquiry.

A year or two or three ago I watched Charlie Rose's show that had prominent neurologist. There were about three or four shows.

What surprised me was that at the end of each show he asked each neurologist what they would like to see in the profession.

In at least two shows one or more of the neurologists said they would like to see psychiatry take a more scientific footing instead of the way it exist now.

so the field can improve.

The problem with this is that the scholarship is anti something, which is not exactly academic reasoning.

If it wants to add to the academic thought it can propose an anti-thesis but by being anti-something is just obstruction, not constructive thought.

For example, Michele Foucault's work is studied everywhere (although Scientologists ironically never heard of him).

So I think perhaps the university should take a closer look at what is being offered.

The Anabaptist Jacques

 

[AngeloV]

Re: Scientology-Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toro

More information from The Internet on WWP.

https://whyweprotest.net/threads/sc...at-university-of-toronto.132525/#post-2600735

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Bonnie makes good money so I can see how she could put up a scholarship.
University of Toronto BURSTOW BONNIE Senior Lecturer, Education
salary:$102,088.02 taxes paid: $249.96
http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/salarydisclosure/2012/univer12g.html

Good article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/marvin-ross/u-of-t-antipsychiatry-scholarship_b_12473034.html

I liked this bit:

Hamilton psychiatrist, Dr David Laing Dawson had this to say:
I know there are lots of problems with mental health care in the US and probably in Canada, too. I have no problem with anyone talking about things that could be done better. But no wants anti-psychiatry because that kind of thing will hurt people.
Oh boy false balance. You can't have a debate between a fact based person and a crank. All that does is make crankery seem legit. Instead you have to have rules. Then the people who follow those rules can argue stuff productively.

Anti-vax does not help make vaccines safer. Anti-global warming does not make climate scientists more honest. And anti-psychiatry doesn't help mentally ill people get better care. Gotta be reality based to make a contribution to human understanding.

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Bold mine. Thank you for that. Quackery is not a 'valid point of view' that should be debated or given credibility in the name of 'academic freedom'. One does not have the freedom to posit an idea based on belief, not science, and demand to be taken seriously.

If you have an alternative to established psychiatric treatment that you have studied using scientific methods, then you have credibility.

Burstow argues that there is no such thing as mental illness, and does not see evidence that psychiatric problems stem from chemical imbalances in the brain. She does not believe in the potency of anti-psychotic and mood-altering drugs, which have improved the lives of numerous sufferers alongside psychotherapy.

Argues? Believes? There is no room in science for 'beliefs'. She doesn't believe in the potency of anti-psychotic drugs. So exactly what studies has she done to determine the correct potency?

And with what would this professor replace current psychiatric treatment and drug therapy?

The number of anti-scientific ideas going around these days is stunning and shows a degradation of basic education and rational thought.
Frightening, really.

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Re: Scientology-Backed Anti-Psychiatry Scholarship Raises Fears at University of Toro

Story made the "front" page of Fox news.