How many psychiatrists does it take to hang a light bulb? That’s easy. None! You don’t need a psychiatrist to do that. You probably don’t need a psychiatrist for anything.
When I read the Dec. 9 article saying the Yukon has only two psychiatrists and we supposedly need four, I think back to a time when the Yukon had no psychiatrist at all. Some people were sure we needed one. But the Second Opinion Society was trying to persuade everybody that we are better off without any. Let’s have a psychiatrist-free zone!
Now I have no doubt that the two shrinks here are overworked. I also believe they are over-estimated.
I’ve been concerned with issues pertaining to this subject for most of my life, and I’m quite sure that psychiatry has done more harm than good. They have a lot to answer for because of their worse-than-useless treatments and their bad reputation for human rights abuses. And it’s a growing problem.
Who else gets away with subjecting anyone to forcible confinement and controversial treatment while remaining aloof from having to explain what they are doing or why?
The Second Opinion Society was formed by people who really knew directly how abusive these “authorities” can be and how hard it is to get anywhere when they try to press serious complaints against them. Any progress that comes from fighting back against psychiatric oppression ends up being too little and too late.
But when people get together to make a group effort, what do you think happens? The movement itself gets oppressed and pressured to function under the control of some other organization with totally different priorities.
Stewart Jamieson
Whitehorse