Why Occupy Wall Street Should Support Occupy the
American Psychiatric Association
May 5th, 2012, in Philadelphia, PA
PDF "One Pager" Version
On May 5, 2012,
people who care about human rights will gather in Philadelphia for an event
called Occupy the American Psychiatric Association (Occupy
the APA).
They are gathering to protest the approval of the latest version of psychiatry's
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the
DSM-5, which
will label many more, often normal, human experiences and emotions as a "mental
illness." They will also protest the way in which these labels are the
springboard for human rights violations.
The Occupy movement
seeks to help people regain control of their lives, which have been undermined
by corporate domination. In the framework of conditions that make corporate
abuse possible, the alliance between the psychiatric and pharmaceutical
industries (PsychoPharmaceutical Complex) plays a key role.
As a participant in
Occupy Sacramento said, “Why is this important to the 99%? The inordinate
influence of Big Pharma in orchestrating decades of campaigns to expand force
and coercion in mental health care is a high-profile example of how corporations
continue to undermine democracy, human rights and dignity in their pursuit of
ever-increasing profits.”
Since the mid-20th
century, in order to increase psychiatric and pharmaceutical profits, there has
been a growing trend to medicalize and pathologize an ever wider range of human
experience through ever more expansive editions of the
DSM, and using these diagnoses to
justify prescribing very harmful drugs. The result has been that people in the
public mental health system are now
dying 25 years earlier on average than the rest of the population.
Put simply, the psychiatric industry, led by the American Psychiatric
Association, has teamed up with the pharmaceutical industry to sacrifice
people’s lives on the altar of profits. As reported by Fortune magazine,
in one recent year 12 pharmaceutical companies made almost 64 billion
dollars! Psychiatric drugs are
leading these profits. This is done through pharmaceutical industry-funded,
dishonest research that is accepted by the American Psychiatric Association to
further its own agenda to increase its members’ wealth and power.
If medications are
not effective, or if a person does not want to take medications, more
restrictive, invasive, and expensive measures may be taken, often against the
will of the person supposedly being treated. At the same time, there are many
individuals who find psychiatric medications helpful and make an informed choice
to take them. We support everyone’s right to make their own treatment choices.
The criteria for
mental illness are detailed in the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and, with the 5th
Edition about to be rubber-stamped by the American Psychiatric Association, many
people who thought that they were just “having a hard time” may now be told that
they have a serious mental disorder and will need to be medicated – like it or
not. Everyone in the 99% is a
potential victim because anyone can have experiences that get labeled as a
mental illness. The 1% have the money to resist; the 99% do not.
This is why, on May
5, 2012, we will gather in Philadelphia to Occupy the APA! Join us!