THANK YOU FOR JOINING THIS GROUP!! *look*

Well, I have read some of your posts and I see that you are interested in where this group will go. I thought to myself, what better place to start then from the root! Because the root will tell you a lot about how the professions have grown into money making industries.

I'm sure that labelling has been around as soon as human beings could get words out of their mouths. But I want to talk about a certain kind of labelling, which is the "mental" health diagnoses of human beings. The main method of "mental" health diagnosing in North America, the Western World and some Eastern realms, is by the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, DSM for short (which is the thing that is burning in the group's picture). The DSM is pretty much a checklist of symptoms. So for example, if you have three of these five "symptoms", then you have "bipolar"! Uh oh!! (And this is not to take away from the "symptoms" [I'd rather call them feelings or behaviours] that occur because I do believe that these are very real for people, and that they can create difficulties and heartache; I just believe that the simple label of them, rather then exploring thoroughly where they came from, is extremely harmful as I have witnessed for myself).

So the first edition of the DSM, which was published in 1952 by the American Psychiatric Association, began with a bunch of white, wealthy, male psychiatrists (who probably teamed up with the Rockefeller Foundation which is the organization that funded psychiatry in the first part of the 20th century) who sat down and decided that they needed to classify human beings who did not fit their model of "perfection". Since that time, there have been five revisions of the DSM. Over the five revisions, "disorders" have been added and removed (goes to show that these supposed "disorders" are not real nor valid). Once upon a time, the DSM told us that homosexuality was a "disorder". And they also told us that a woman's natural menstrual cycle was considered a "disorder". And I'm sure there were "disorders" and may still be "disorders" that pinpoint certain peoples from various ethnic backgrounds, classes, and races.

Now this is the kicker... Conveniently, in 1949, just three years before the DSM was published, an Australian named John Cade discovered that lithium salts could control "mania" (which is a label that describes someone who is intensely happy, euphoric, outgoing, etc.) reducing the frequency and severity of "manic episodes". So it was realized that MONEY could be made from selling this drug. How was this realized? Okay this is where I come in... they found that certain drugs made people into these perfect little quiet, subduded beings (JUST like the psychiatrists do today with kids who are labelled with ADHD!!!). How could they sell these drugs they wondered? Well, make a system of classifications whereby we tell you that something is wrong with you inherently, something is wrong with you "in your brain", and this drug that you buy from me will work in your brain (which they are not even sure exactly HOW it works in your brain and body - but I'll get to that on a later date) and will take away those things that are wrong with you!! Perfect plan my fellow psychiatrists!! Perfect plan. You're making money while these peoples' natural processes are being shut down, and because their natural processes are shut down, you can control them too!! Something to really think about gals and guys, because this system is truly affecting all of you adversely in some shape or form.

I deeply encourage you to have a look at least at the first two posts on the group's billboard. At the very least, skim them. They provide excellent information about the harms and lack of truth in mental health diagnosis.

I hope you all enjoy learning from this group!! Please feel free to contact me at any time!!

Laura E. Kemp, MA counselling psychology

PS - I know I have not spoken about psychology or social work as of yet and the reason being is because the field of psychiatry is associated with the origins of the DSM. However, in present time, mainstream (and I use the term mainstream because I believe there are many wonderful, truly caring professionals in these fields who work beyond this limited system) psychology and social work base their practices on this labelling system. But, we will talk shortly!