the rise of coercive treatment in psychiatry and society

I never stop being aware of is how unsafe it is to be vulnerable in this society. The below book takes a magnifying glass to what is happening all over society, under our noses in the name of psychiatry. Coercive treatment in psychiatry is standard care. Anyone who doesn’t fit into the mainstream is vulnerable. Rob Wipond has written a book that takes a detailed look.

If you’re not aware of just how brutal and coercive psychiatry can be, it’s well worth understanding. Some of it is so extreme it’s hard for those uninitiated to conceive. It’s very common and that too is hard for a lot of people to understand.  The bottom line is psychiatry, in general, at best, is subtly coercive. Drugs are generally presented as necessary rather than one, often far less than ideal, possibility for treatment. This means one is made to believe through somewhat more subtle coercion that they have no choice but to take drugs with dangerous adverse effects that include disabling physical illness and early death.

At worst the force is violent and physically dangerous with bodies being tied up and brutalized by psych techs or police. It can happen to anyone and again, that’s hard for people to comprehend until it’s happened to them. The fact is cops and psych techs get triggered and can be the ones who are actually out of control.

So yeah, again, hard for a lot of people to appreciate. Please be willing to learn.

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Read: Your Consent Is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships

Update 2/14/2023 — Jim Gottstein wrote a synopsis for an email list. I asked to share it and so below are his words:

I just finished the new book, Your Consent is Not Required, by investigative reporter, Rob Wipond.  It is a comprehensive and authoritative report on unwanted psychiatric interventions in North America.   It is a fabulous, albeit frightening, analysis of the myriad ways people are forced to endure unwanted psychiatric interventions, from civil commitment and forced drugging to the way employers and schools also force people, to guardianships and the surveillance of social media. 

Part One is “The Expansive Reach of Psychiatric Power,” including such topics as “The Catch-22 of ‘Insight’ ” and “The Expanding Diagnostic Net.” 

Part Two is “Core Drivers of Civil Commitment.” Topics include: “Housing Fourth and the Myth of Dwindling Hospital Beds,” and “How Much is an Involuntary Patient Worth?” 

I am ashamed to admit I had bought into the oft-repeated pronouncements that “deinstitutionalization” resulted in far fewer inpatient beds.  Wipond obliterates that myth with the meticulous research characterizing his entire book, explaining that when one considers all the different types of beds now, it is several times the per capita number of beds in the 1950s.  “‘[D]einstitutionalization’ not only didn’t ‘fail’—it never really happened.”

Part Three is “Mass Funnels Into Psychiatric Incarceration.” This includes info about people getting scooped up when they call crisis lines that are promised to be anonymous and confidential.

Part Four is “Institutional Management, Profiteering and Political Oppression,” in which he reports on guardianships, employers and the military, etc., forcing people into unwanted psychiatric interventions.

Part Five is “Science, Lies and Other Possibilities.”   Included in this last part is the observation that there is no evidence unwanted psychiatric intervention improves people’s mental health and lots of evidence it is very harmful.  Psychiatry just makes up the justification that people are glad they were forced to undergo unwanted psychiatric intervention.  Such people are a miniscule percentage.  

I am collaborating on a paper about how to improve patient outcomes and related topics and a major thrust is if it isn’t voluntary it isn’t treatment.   We will be citing Your Consent is Not Required.   

Your Consent is Not Required should be required reading for anyone in the mental health field.

About the Author

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Rob Wipond is a freelance journalist who writes frequently on the interfaces between psychiatry, civil rights, policing, surveillance and privacy, and social change. His articles have been nominated for seventeen magazine and journalism awards.

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For more info on this site about coercive treatment in psychiatry see:

The Mental (Illness) system and thoughts on alternatives: a collection

Coercion, subtle or otherwise, is the rule in psychiatric care…