Psych Rights, Soteria, & Standing up to Big Pharma: A Conversation with Jim Gottstein

Oddball Show

Check out Jason's interview with Jim Gottstein, lawyer, writer and a longtime advocate for the rights of people diagnosed with serious mental illness.
This episode contains discussions of mental illness, homicide, and psychiatric treatment that may be upsetting to some listeners.
Show Notes
Jim Gottstein's The Zyprexa Papers can be found here.

In the interview, Jim argues that people with serious mental illness were no more likely to commit violence than the general population prior to the introduction of antipsychotic drugs. To learn more about this claim, check out Robert Whitaker’s Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill (New York: Basic Books), 186-187. Whitaker writes:

“Before 1955, four studies found that patients discharged from mental hospitals committed crimes at either the same or a lower rate than the general population. However, eight studies conducted from 1965 to 1979 determined that discharged patients were being arrested at rates that exceeded those of the general population. And while there may have been many social causes for this change in relative arrest rates (homelessness among the mentally ill is an obvious cause), akathisia was also clearly a contributing factor.”

You can also read L.A. Teplin’s article “The criminality of the mentally ill: a dangerous misconception” in the American Journal of Psychiatry (1985 May; 142(5):593-9. doi: 10.1176/ajp.142.5.593. PMID: 3985198.
To learn more about Soteria-Alaska, check out these resources:

Lessons from Soteria-Alaska by Jim Gottstein, Mad in America, June 29, 2015.

Soteria-Alaska, psychiatrized.org.

Schizophrenic sentenced to 60 years for clinic murder by Jerzy Shedlock, Anchorage Daily News, published November 1, 2013 (updated September 28, 2016.)

Mentally ill man to be sentenced for murder of Anchorage psychiatric patient by Jerzy Shedlock, Anchorage Daily News, published October 31, 2013 (updated July 7, 2016).
Other Concepts and Resources Mentioned

• The Zyprexa Papers by Jim Gottstein
• Soteria Houses
• Peer Respite Houses
• Hearing Voices Network
• Open Dialogue
• Healing Homes
• David W. Oaks
• MindFreedom International
• Judi Chamberlin
• Wildflower Alliance
• Certified peer specialist model