JULY Newsletter

Dear Friends,

We wish to send a reminder about F.E.E.L. monthly meeting as this is now due next week, on Monday the 20th of July.
Please join us as we will discuss last month events and the next one in programme, among other things.

June has resulted a very interesting and busy month following three major events dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of the start of RD Laing community experiment at the Kingsley Hall in Bow. The more arty one at Cafe Oto, the projection of the documentary Asylum and the reading of the play "The Divided Laing".

Wonderful to get to meet beautiful minds such as Dr Berke, Dr Ridler, Dr Shatzman, Adrian Laing and Francis Gillett and hear about the creation and early days of the Philadelphia Association and anecdotal stories of those days.

Reviews by Dr Woodhams of the first two events can be read in the following links:

-friends-of-east-end-loonies.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/asylum-reconsidered-by-dr-stephen.html
-friends-of-east-end-loonies.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/kingsley-hall-revisited-by-dr-stephen.html


We are now pleased to announce that F.E.E.L. Outsiders Poetry event will be taking part to the Shuffle Festival on Saturday the 1st of August. Opening their doors at the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in Mile End on Friday the 24th July until the 1st of August, the Shuffle will go on for nine days offering diverse opportunities for entertainment and be amused, included a tree house restaurant - that's right, people will have to climb up a tree for this! www.shufflefestival.com/2015-programme

On Sat 1st of Aug David Kessel will be running a poetry workshop with the Outsider Poets from 12pm. From 2pm the main stage will host the Outsider performance to which we have invited among other members of the Dragon Cafe', Core Arts, Deaf Poets, Eastbeat and Survivor Poets. There will be a ALL-DEAF show between 6 pm and 7:45pm

These events will be deaf accessible with the support of BSL (British Sign Language) interpreters and live captioning by STTR ( speech to text reporters). We take the chance to thank Arts Council England for offering us the opportunity to fund and make this event happen.



Have a look at the rich programme for the day and we hope you can join us for a fun day of free activities and entertainment that we wish to dedicate to all survivors, their families and friends. For one day let's celebrate lunacy, individuality and diversity looking at the bright side of Life www.shufflefestival.com/deaf-events

Please find to follow a series of events and news that might be of your interest.

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Trauma, Dissociation & Recovery: ​Working with Dissociative Identity Disorder and Complex PTSD

Central London, EC2A on Saturday 18 July 2015. Time 9.30 am — 5.00 pm

This is a new course and suitable both for people who have previously attended 'Living and Working with Dissociation' as well as people with no previous training or experience.
It will look at how to work in clinical practice with people who have suffered complex and chronic childhood trauma, resulting perhaps in a range of diagnoses such as Dissociative Identity Disorder, psychosis, complex PTSD or borderline personality disorder

Cost: £75.00 per person / £70.00 for 'Friends of PODS'
For more information and to book please go to: www.pods-online.org.uk/events

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East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) working in partnership with MIND, Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group,Community Options and Bow Haven, have set up the Tower Hamlets Recovery College for service users, carers and staff who use mental health services in the borough. The project aims to support the recovery and wellbeing of mental health service users and will deliver free courses led by individuals with a lived experience of mental health and recovery. The courses will also feature support from someone who is trained and works within mental health services.

The project is being piloted this month and classes will run from 13th to the 30th July 2015. Another pilot for the college will also commence in September 2015 and will end in November 2015.

For more information on the project, please contact Robert Pickard on 020 7426 2450 or 07908 459 239 or emailRobert.pickard@elft.nhs.uk

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Survivor History Group

The next meeting of the Survivor History Group will be on Wednesday 29.7.2015 at 1pm-4pm (ish)
Where? Together, 12 Old Street, London, EC1V 9BE
Food and drink to reward those who come.
Everyone is very welcome at meetings of the Survivor History Group.

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What is Talk for Health? The Talk for Health programme is run by Psychotherapist Nicky Forsythe. It trains people to be part of a peer counsellling group – a space to talk honestly and be accepted for who you really are. This is good for wellbeing and confidence.

Who is it for? Free for Islington residents Talk for Health is designed for everyone; we can all benefit from developing our communications and listening skills.

Programme 1: YMCA at the Drum TASTER: Monday 27th July 4pm to 6pm ADDRESS: 167 Whitecross Street, London, EC1 8JT TRAINING: Six Tuesday afternoons from 3pm to 6pm August 3, 10, 17, 24 September 7 & 14 ADDRESS: The Drum, 167 Whitecross Street , EC1 8JT

Programme 2: The Mind Spa at Islington Mind TASTER: Monday 7th September 4pm to 6pm ADDRESS: 35 Ashley Road, N19 3AG TRAINING: Two Mondays 11am to 5pm September 14th & October 12th Four Tuesday evenings 6pm to 8.30pm September 22nd, 29th, October 6th & 20th ADDRESS: 35 Ashley Road, N19 3AG

Your first step is to book a place on the taster. Email info@talkforhealth.co.uk, call us on 07826 148 461, or text ‘call me’ and we will get in touch with you.

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New Book: The Hidden Freud: His Hassidic Roots, by Dr Joseph H. Berke

What’s the connection between Jewish mysticism and Western psychoanalysis?

Freud’s ancestors were Hassidim going back many generations, and included the only Jewish King of Poland.

Freud was forced to deny these roots in order to be accepted as a secular, German professional.
However, his Jewish background also informed the development of his ideas about dreaming, sexuality, depression and mental structures, as well as healing practices.
/The Hidden Freud: His Hassidic Roots/ considers how the ideas of Kabbalah and Hassidism profoundly shaped and enriched Freud’s understanding of mental processes and clinical practices. The book is now on Amazon

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PSYCHOSES – the case for optimism

Saturday 10th October 2015, 1:30pm – 5:00pm
Venue: Bloomsbury Suite, Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ
Dr Bob Johnson & Peter Bullimore with National Paranoia Network Present a Half Day Panel Discussion

It’s time we
(1) reversed PSYCHIATRIC NIHILISM,
 
(2) stopped relying on MIND NUMBING DRUGS, &

(3) re-kindled the HEALING HAND OF KINDNESS
__

(1) DSM-psychiatry isn’t working – 1 in 50 deaths is SUICIDE [>800,000 of 56m in 2012. WHO]

(2) All psychiatric drugs work by ‘INTOXICATION’, like alcohol [Myth of Chemical Cure p 244]

(3) More psychoses were CURED 1796-1850 than ever since. [Mad in America p24]

Panel: Dr Bob Johnson, Dr Eleanor Longden, Oliver James(stc), Peter Bullimore.

Chair – David Brindle, the Guardian Saturday 10th October 2015, 1:30pm – 5:00pm Venue: Bloomsbury Suite, Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ

Rates: £15, concessions £5.00. Contributions/donations welcomed Email: lindawhiting54@yahoo.co.uk Tel 07763652490/ 07590837694 – www.DrBobJohnson.org/audio

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Revised Mental Health Code of Practice
A revised Mental Health Code of Practice came into effect on1st April, replacing the 2008 version. The Code shows professionals how to carry out their duties under the Mental Health Act 1983 and provide high quality safe care. The revised Code of Practice seeks to provide stronger protection for patients subject to the Mental Health Act and to clarify roles, rights and responsibilities.

Find out more about the Mental Health Code of Practice

Asylum Reconsidered, by Dr Stephen Woodhams

Review of: 
RD Laing 50 @ Kingsley Hall, 12th June 2015
 

Asylum by Peter Robinson is not set in Kingsley Hall, yet it was in keeping with the anniversary that this screening should take place there. The anniversary is that of the 'social experiment' begin at the Hall in 1965, which gave rise to the Philadelphia and Arbour Associations' community houses. Continuity from Bow up to Archway and elsewhere, was made possible when Joseph Berke Leon Redler and others carried forward their belief in asylum where deeply distressing experiences could be lived through without pressure to 'recover' or be inoculated by chemicals. The word asylum carries long held meanings referring to a safe place, a sanctuary, haven. Each term may convey the sense of protection from immediate external pressure, where by agreed respect for shared space, a person may do as they need to go through their experience.

 The film emanated from one of the community houses in Archway. Shot in 1971, Asylum attempts an anthropological recording, where the makers seek to be part of the household. The aim was to capture a lived experience of a therapeutic community where divisions of practitioner and patient were minimised, and governance arrived at by the will of those in the house. The use of a naturalist form for the film may of course be contended. The house as depicted, contained features recognisable as part of many households, together with scenes clearly belonging to this specific group of people.

Discussion after the film was chaired by Rebecca Greenslade of the RD Laing reading group that had been meeting with the support of the Claremont Project in North London. Over the previous year four of Laing's works had been read, and the screening of Asylum was the culmination of the venture. On stage three figures represented different relations to the film, which is should be stressed only featured Laing in passing. One reason for this, was Morton Shatzman who had been a regular psychiatrist at the house, and who on
the evening, conveyed intimately the atmosphere, daily life and success of the community. Offering a different experience was Francis Gillett who having previously been at Kingsley Hall, had been one of the longest resident participants. His account of another occupant, who had been significant in the film, conveyed the difficult balance between a person living out their experience of distress, and respecting the shared presence of others. Finally was Adrian Laing, who has recently completed a biography of his father. Perhaps not surprisingly for a Kingsley Hall audience, power in the house, and as portrayed on film, was the topic of several contributions as explanation for the ascription, nature and exercise of authority was offered and contested.

It was an evening where through the medium of film, experience and thoughts could be exchanged. Asylum offers insight in to how a therapeutic community can and does provide space where distress, disturbing to sufferer and others, can be lived through.

Kingsley Hall offered its own contribution as the ghost of the original 'social experiment' once more awoke. If that ghost were given voice, it might tell many things, and even a rhetorical question. It has always been easy to demand that 'alternative' approaches to psychological distress answer questions, yet were the pharmaceutical industry placed in the dock, what evidence can it provide for the claims made for the drugs it persuades psychiatrist they should use? At least Laing and others can truthfully say they would not have cost the NHS billions. Our ghost might add, if a fraction of that finance had been made available for asylums where love was the primary treatment, perhaps, as we saw and heard this evening, care may have been a richer experience.

Acknowledgements:
Rebecca Greenslade, Chair RD Laing Reading Group, Nat Fonnesu, Friends of East London Loonies (F.E.E.L.) and the Kingsley Hall commitee.

Kingsley Hall Revisited, by Dr Stephen Woodhams

Review of:
R.D. LAING 50 WITH LUKE FOWLER + DR LEON REDLER + DR JOSEPH BERKE + THE BOHMAN BROTHERS + I LOVE THEM, FOR THEY ARE MY FRIENDS
Sunday, 7th June 2015

If you went “mad” how would you want to be treated?

BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a series called 'The Reunion' and it was perhaps something of the kind that occurred at Café Oto* when two distinguished figures were brought together to recall memories and tell the story of a 'social experiment'. The story starts, and yet of course does not, in 1965, when Kingsley Hall was made available for a group of people at very different social­psychological points to live together in a non­hierarchical, non­divided manner. Two of the occupants of Kingsley Hall were Dr Joseph Berke and Dr Leon
Redler, and it was they who had been brought together to make this small yet significant piece of history at Café Oto on a Sunday evening in June fifty years later. Café Oto is not Kingsley Hall. Yet that Sunday evening those that packed into the bare surroundings of a once purpose­built C19 factory,** where seating could leave an impression on a backside and heat aided shedding weight in sweat, may have sensed something of a social experiment. In the gloom of the interior, organiser and anchor for the evening, Dee Sada took the stage to thank everyone for coming. Though Dee gave no indication and took no credit, the event had taken some three years to bring together. However none of this background was revealed, instead after her brief introduction, the stage was given over to film­maker Luke Fowler. What You See Is Where You're At was made, Luke told the audience, some fifteen years previous. Compose of exerts of interviews with past residents of Kingsley Hall and clips of footage shot during the occupancy, What You See Is Where You're At offered an insight to both context and lived experience of RD Laing's idea. The film is worth seeing, though it was perhaps after that understanding of some of what had been seen, became clearer when Leon Redler in conversation with Luke Fowler, explained his path to RD Laing and so Kingsley Hall.

Kingsley Hall is in Bow, an area of East  London which if marginalised from the outside by trunk roads, is yet home to vibrant populations. Among some local people, Gandhi Hall is the immediate and obvious description – the building's most famous resident having stayed there in 1931. Luke Fowler and Leon Redler offered a little of this history as setting for what took place there, though of course that was only one part, another being the circumstance of 'mental health' patients. Despite attempts to move practice forward,
and growing interest in psychoanalytic and other social­interpretive­communication based approaches, regimes involving forced drugs and electro­convulsive treatments were probably dominant in the NHS. The social experiment was to see what might happen when people lived together not as professionals and patients, but as a population seeking to understand diverse experiences and expressions of a circumstance commonly named 'madness'. Leon Redler's analogy with the previous night's Champion's League Final, was in answer to Luke Fowler's question as to difference between Kingsley Hall on film and as lived experience. In essence, just as the match produced 'highlights', so film captured perhaps moments to engage an audience. The lived experience however was very much more ordinary, the everyday routine and even dullness of life for residents. Yet that was perhaps the point – 'RD Laing's Kingsley Hall' has been mythologised to become something exotic. Perhaps a balanced record would read that it was a endeavour to seek more humane means of living with 'madness' and that what ever the realised short comings, the impulse behind the attempt remains valid.

Joseph Berke's presentation differed in style. Anecdotal in places, it revealed some of his experiences and memories. Perhaps best known was his long and at times suffering relationship with the later artist Mary Barnes. The material for her early work is well known and in the film, we see Mary and Joe Berke at perhaps an early stage, where physical interaction is to the fore. Eventually they were to write, Two Accounts of Madness, a title that captures perhaps the spirit of the Hall. Not the separate 'reports' of
patient and therapist, but two stories told of a process lived through together but experienced differently. Fire was a magazine produced at the Hall, and Joe Berke presented a copy to the audience, who may have regretted that images contained could not have been put on view. What was offered however were poems, Joe reading a small number accompanied by Dee. It was in the reading of these perhaps that the sense of
what Kingsley Hall had been about, gained immediacy. Recollections gave insight to the life and times of Kingsley Hall, the poetry portrayed its spirit. An aside admittedly, Joe Berke revealed how Mary Barnes Catholicism had led him to re­engage with his own Jewish heritage, yet perhaps the profession speaks something too of the spirit of the Hall, a sense of sharing and journeying on roads that may enable any participant to reflect on where roots to their own self may grow.

Laing at 50 was an evening made by people, a lot of people, crammed into a hot darkened room. On stage the Bohman Brothers ended the evening making music and poetry where the name RD Laing took on various connections and where ideas associated with him found expression. The social experiment at Kingsley Hall was of course of its time – when else could it have been? The New Left was as others like Stuart Hall have recalled, pervasive ­ RD Laing and David Cooper were contributors to the Dialectics of Liberation Conference at the Roundhouse in 1967. Organisations that have grown from Kingsley Hall, the Philadelphia Association and the Arbours Association are necessarily different from the original experiment, yet what came through from Leon Redler and Joseph Berke was a passion that the Flame, the impulse that gave birth to the Hall should live on. To borrow a term from Raymond Williams, a near cousin in more than age to RD Laing, the long revolution toward a humane psychiatry and beyond that a humane society has to be pursued. Both history marker and celebration, that Sunday evening in June reminds us that any road to social justice has to address despair, suffering, pain and loss as it can be experienced by any person and that love needs be at the centre of any response.

* https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/rd­laing­50/
** http://www.hackney.gov.uk/Assets/Documents/HT297.pdf

My thanks to Sally England of Hackney Archive for this information.

June Newsletter

Dear Friends,

We wish congratulate with musician Dee Sada for curating an awesome event last Sunday at Cafe Oto, Dalston, dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of the radical experiment at Kingsley Hall by RD Laing and colleagues. Wonderful contributions were shared by Luke Fowler, Dr Leon Redler, Dr Joseph Berke, The Bohman Brothers and a special "I LOVE them, for they are my Friends" performance with Dee Sada, Billy Steiger and an humorous Dr Berke. An excerpt of the evening can be viewed here www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1SLxTv6tZU

The conversation about the community of Bow will continue this Friday the 12th after the projection of the film/documentary Asylum, by Peter Robinson, at the Kingsley Hall itself. Confirmed guests for the panel discussion are Adrian Laing, Dr Shatzman and Francis Gillett. Doors will open at 6.30pm.

Also a gentle reminder for our monthly FEEL meeting, which is taking place next Monday the 15th.




I DOC Italy:

Screening of the documentary "The crazy woman next-door"
by Antonietta De Lillo. Introduced by poet and translator Cristina Viti

Date: Tuesday, June 09, 2015
Opening times: 6.30pm
Venue: Italian Cultural Institute
Organised by: Italian Cultural Institute
Free Event Booking Online

Poet Alda Merini tells her life in a personal and familiar narrative, fluctuating between public and private, lingering on the most significant chapters of her existence: childhood, womanhood, love, maternity and the relationship with her children, madness and the lucid reflection on poetry and art. The face of the poet and the details of her eyes, hands, and body create a portrait that does not hide the contradictions of one of the most important and renowned literary figures of the twentieth century. Alda Merini (Milan, 21 March 1931 – Milan, 1st November 2009) was a poet, writer and aphorist.

Cristina Viti's translation of Mariapia Veladiano's first novel (A Life Apart, MacLehose 2013) was the runner-up for the John Florio Prize. Other translations (including Elsa Morante, Erri De Luca, Amelia Rosselli) and poetry have appeared in a number of magazines and reviews. Her translation of the poetry of Gëzim Hajdari is forthcoming from Shearsman Press.

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DO WE NEED A CRITICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY?


Freud Museum and The University of Roehampton
20 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SX
Saturday 13th June 2015 Day Conference 9.30am - 5.00pm

Exploring the talking therapies in neoliberal society
Speakers from different theoretical perspectives address questions about the provision of talking therapies in contemporary society, and how it affects therapeutic practice.
-Is it important for psychotherapy to be 'critical' and socially engaged?
-Do psychotherapists do a disservice to their clients by not being so?
-Do psychotherapy trainings discourage critical thought and promote an other-wordly sense of psychotherapy and the ‘inner world’? -What models of 'mental illness' and 'mental health' are appropriate for psychotherapy in the 21st century?
-Have mental health services and the 'mental health agenda' become part of the ideological mechanisms of neo-liberal society?

This conference will be of interest and benefit to anyone involved in psychotherapy today.

Speakers include
Del Loewenthal, Julian Lousada, Ian Parker, Hugh Middleton, David Morgan, Adrian Cocking, Mari Ruti, Anastasios Gaitanidis, Julie Walsh, Tom Cotton, Jay Watts, Rai Waddingham.

For further information please click here
For online booking please click here
Registration: £60 / £45 concessions (£5 discount for members of the Freud Museum and students and staff of Roehampton University).

Pre-Conference Evening Symposium

The Many Faces of ‘Critical Psychotherapy': An evening of dialogue and debate
Thursday 11th June 2015
Time: 7pm – 9pm

Talks and discussion at the Anna Freud Centre exploring different notions of the term ‘critical psychotherapy’ and putting them into dialogue.

Del Loewenthal – Introduction
Michael Rustin – Work in Contemporary Capitalism
Steven Groarke – Psychoanalysis and Resistance
Andrew Samuels – The Activist Client

Registration: £12 / £8 concessions

For further information please click here
For online booking please click here

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The British Psychological Society is pleased to announce the publishing of the BPS Good Practice Guidance on Hoarding

We would like to invite you to join us at the launch of A Psychological Perspective on Hoarding:

On Tuesday 16th June 3pm -5pm at the British Psychological Society London Office, 30 Tabernacle Street, London EC2 4UA.
The British Psychological Society requires everyone who wishes to attend to register online via this link: response.questback.com/britishpsychologicalsociety/dcphoarding/

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How Come We Didn't Know?
A photographic exhibition by Marion Macalpine
Showing between 16th - 27th June
Mondays to Thursdays 9am-8pm
Fridays 9am – 6pm
Saturdays 9 am – 5pm

Highlighting the many different ways that healthcare corporations are taking over the NHS.

Marion is a Hackney resident and member of Hackney Keep Our NHS Public.
The Brady Arts and Community Centre
192-196 Hanbury Street London E1 5HU
Tel: 020 7364 7900
www.hackneykeepournhspublic.org/exhibition-how-come-we-didnt-know.html

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End Austerity Now - National Demonstration Starts at 12:00PM
Saturday 20th June Assemble 12pm, Bank of England (Queen Victoria St) City of London
March to Parliament Square Organised by The People's Assembly

There is no need for ANY cuts to public spending; no need to decimate public services; no need for unemployment or pay and pension cuts; no need for Austerity and privatisation. There IS an alternative. We need a government to reverse damaging austerity, and replace it with a new set of policies providing us with a fair, sustainable and secure future. We can no longer tolerate politicians looking out for themselves and for the rich and powerful. Our political representatives must start governing in the interests of the majority.

www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/calendar

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THE DIVIDED LAING or, The Two Ronnies
A Rehearsed Reading
Written by Patrick Marmion
Directed by Michael Kingsbury
Cast: William Houston, Alan Cox, Michael Matus and Laura-Kate Gordon

A surreal comedy about utopian ambition, the nature of madness and the seething mind of RD Laing " The Divided Laing" depicts the final days of the community at the Kingsley Hall.

23rd of June 6:30PM
Kingsley Hall, Powis Road, E3 3HJ
Free of charge
RSVP michael@spellboundproductions.co.uk

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MARCH ON STREATHAM JOB CENTRE Friday, June 26 at 1:30pm. Meet at Streatham Memorial Gardens, Streatham High Road/Streatham Common North to march to Streatham Job Centre Plus, Crown House, Station Approach, London SW16 6HW

A mass protest against Lambeth Community Mental Health Services moving to Streatham Job Centre, and the establishment of the UK's first psychological therapies department at Streatham Job Centre - explicitly merging mental health services with the DWP's agenda of harassment posing as "Back to Work."

"Curing unemployment is a growth market for psychologists. Job Centres are becoming medical centres, claimants are becoming patients, and unemployment is being redefined as a psychological disorder."

- Organised by the Mental Health Resistance Network

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BREAKING THE FRAME 2: Second Gathering on the Politics of Technology
July 9-12 2015, Unstone Grange, Derbyshire
Organised by CorporateWatch, Scientists for Global Responsibility, Luddites200 and others

Come to Breaking The Frame 2 for a fresh conversation on the politics of technology. Join us in July for 3 days of workshops and campaign planning, plus music, food by Veggies, walking in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside, hands-on activities and more

We live in a world dominated by technology and by systems created by technical experts. So whether it's where your food and energy comes from or if there is a right to privacy, almost everything in life is profoundly shaped by those technologies. Technologies do bring some genuine benefits, but because their design is almost entirely controlled by corporate and military technical elites, they tend to reinforce corporate power and destroy the environment. Breaking The Frame is based on the idea that everyone has the right to take part in decisions about technology, and that is crucial to creating an economically just and sustainable society.

Last year's gathering was supported by more than 20 organisations. Whether you're a technology politics campaigner, trade unionist, environmentalist, critical scientist, developer of alternative technology, artist or plain concerned citizen, Breaking the Frame is not to be missed.
Booking: places are limited, so you'll need to book in advance. We aim to ensure that no-one is excluded for reasons of cost.
For those who are travelling from London, a group will taking the 12.58pm train from St Pancras on Thursday 9th - we'd love you to join us.

There will be panels on basic technology politics/technocracy, democratic control of technology, alternative technology and the transition to an economically just and sustainable society.
Workshops run by leading campaign groups will focus on the technology politics of food, the workplace, privacy/policing, gender, energy, health, militarism, mining/infrastructure, etc.

For more information visit breakingtheframe.org.uk/btf2015/, contact info@breakingtheframe.org.uk or call 020 7426 0005.

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Dr Bob Johnson & Peter Bullimore with National Paranoia Network
Present a Half Day Panel Discussion
Psychoses – the case for optimism
It’s time we –

(1) reversed PSYCHIATRIC NIHILISM

(2) stopped relying on MIND NUMBING DRUGS, &

(3) re-kindled the HEALING HAND OF KINDNESS

_

(1) DSM-psychiatry isn’t working – 1 in 50 deaths is SUICIDE [>800,000 of 56m in 2012. WHO]

(2) All psychiatric drugs work by ‘INTOXICATION’alcohol [Myth of Chemical Cure p 244]

(3) More psychoses were CURED 1796-1850 than ever since. [Mad in America p24]

Panel: Dr Bob Johnson, Dr Eleanor Longden, Oliver James(stc), Peter Bullimore.

Chair – David Brindle, the Guardian
Saturday 10th October 2015, 1:30pm – 5:00pm
Venue: Bloomsbury Suite, Friends House,
173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ
Rates: £15, concessions £5.00. Contributions/donations welcomed
Email: lindawhiting54@yahoo.co.uk Tel 07763652490/ 07590837694 – www.DrBobJohnson.org/audio

May Newsletter

Dear Friends,

The Open Dialogue event the other week brought along a good number of like-minded participants to our quest of effective and humane mental health services.

Dr Razzaque updated us about the OD pilot that was recently completed by the NELFT and three other trusts. It was a great shame to find out that our trust in East London apparently had not shown interest to get involved, when invited to take part to the pilot.

Nick Putman brought along with him a few trainees, fresh from the Open Dialogue UK training that week, and it was inspiring to hear that some of them are service users themselves. A very pleasant Adrian Laing, which came along to check out the event, was invited to join the team on stage for a much appreciated impromptu contribution.

Myra has suggested for the Kingsley Hall to be used as a base for this type of training to develop and as Liam Kirk said, the Open Dialogue seems to be returning to its spiritual home.

Most of us have already heard and seen enough of the obsolete system which, funded on terror and damaging dependency to medication, has been patronising the services for far long with poor results.

We really wish to see this new movement take shape and for the ripple to bring real benefits to people asap.

Notes of most of the event are available to share; send us a message if you wish to have a copy. A photo album can be viewed here goo.gl/BKcyrM

FEEL was on a local paper recently as some of our poets and Friends will be contributing to the closing Cabaret event of The Expert View, a micro festival by Bobby Baker and the Daily Life Ltd team. Please do check all the events of the festival that will take place between Thu 7th and Fri 8th exploring ‘expertise’ in arts and mental health from the perspectives of all involved dailylifeltd.co.uk/the-expert-view-a-micro-festival-save-the-dates/

To follow, please find a few interesting and important dates for your diary and find attached Word file with details of the just published Poetry Express e-magazine No.48 from Survivors' Poetry.

The next FEEL monthly meeting is on Monday the 18th of May at LARC. Join us if you can.

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Next week between the 11th and the 17th is mental health awareness week.
Also time to use the SMILEY TEARY BADGE. The "ONLY US" campaign can be now followed on Twitter

"There's "them" — and then there's "us". They are mentally ill and dangerous We are well, happy and safe"

Is this really true? Or is the uncomfortable truth that there's a continuum, a scale along which we all slide back and forth during our lives, sometimes happy, occasionally depressed or very anxious; mostly well balanced but with moody moments; usually in touch with reality, but at times detached or even psychotic. When we separate ourselves and imagine humanity divided into two different groups, we hurt those labelled as sick, ill, even mad. We allow stigma, prejudice and exclusion to ruin potentially good and creative lives. But we also hurt ourselves, because we stress ourselves out with false smiles and the suppression of our own vulnerabilities. Don't be afraid of your vulnerability, your sensitivity, your mad side. Be bold, and, if you've ever had your own experience of some kind of mental health issue, whether or not you were diagnosed....... get yourself the SMILEY TEARY BADGE

There is no them and us THERE'S ONLY US

- Order the badge at www.buttonbadges.co.uk — 20 badges for £10 (Just quote 'SMILEY TEARY BADGE' (you don't need to send them the image)
- Give the badges to your friends. Keep one for yourself. Think about the implications.
- Monday May 11th (the start of Mental Health Awareness Week) put on your badge. Wear it all week. Find other badge-wearers. And talk to each other. We all have something in common. They are ONLY US

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MAY 16th INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST PSYCHIATRIC ELECTROSHOCK LONDON PROTEST

Electroshock can be given against your will in the UK and Worldwide.
(Please, see leaflet and press release attached)
Date: Saturday May 16, 2015; Time: 14:00 until 18:00
Place: Houses of Parliament (Old Palace Yard - behind Westminster Abbey) London SW1P 3JY
Contact: Cheryl Prax speakoutagainstpsychiatry@gmail.com 07961 852 913

On May 16, 2015, from 2pm until 6pm, there will be a demonstration at the Houses of Parliament (Old Palace Yard - behind Westminster Abbey) London SW1P 3JY against Electroshock as a psychiatric ‘treatment’. The demonstration will be part of a coordinated international event involving over thirty cities in nine countries on the same day. This historic event has been organized by three shock survivors: Ted Chabasinski from California, Debra Schwartzkopff from Oregon, and Mary Maddock from Ireland. Protests will begin in Rotorua, New Zealand, early on May 16, and end many hours later at an evening forum to be held in New York City.

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R.D. Laing 50: June 7th, Cafe Oto

In order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Philadelphia Association’s residency at Kingsley Hall in Bow, London, R.D. LAING 50 will explore some of their radical approaches to anti-psychiatry through conversation, film, and music.

The evening will bring together practitioners from Kingsley Hall, and artists who have researched and been inspired by its specific time/space.

Joining us on the evening:
Luke Fowler - screening of 'What You See Is Where You're At' and Q&A
Dr Leon Redler - 'My Time At Kingsley Hall' talk and Q&A
Dr Joseph Berke - 'Mary and Joseph' talk and Q&A
The Bohman Brothers - Composition commissioned for the event
Blue On Blue - 'I LOVE them, for they are my friends' - Mary Barnes inspired project commissioned for the event
For full listing information and ticket link, please visit: www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/rd-laing-50/

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Asylum, Film screening and discussion, Friday 12 June 6.30pm

Venue: Kingsley Hall, Powis Road, London, E3 3HJ
Tube: Bromley By Bow, DLR Bow Church 
Buses: 25, 8,108, S2

Time: Arrive 6.30pm, Screening begins 7pm, followed by a discussion about the film
Cost: By donation.

“Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.” – R.D. Laing

Celebrating 50 years since the start of the radical therapeutic community at Kingsley Hall.

Both influential and infamous, psychiatrist R.D. Laing’s critique of conventional psychiatric treatments gained significant visibility and attention in the 1960’s and 70’s. His passionate voice drew attention to the dehumanising psychiatric treatment of vulnerable patients and generated an intellectual and cultural polemic reaching far beyond the psychiatric community. His experimental and alternative therapeutic communities - where the distinction between patient and therapist was dropped - were the source of both criticism and inspiration. Filmed by Peter Robinson, Asylum documents their experiences at the Archway Community in North London.

Contact:
Rebecca Greenslade E: rebeccagreenslade@hotmail.co.uk
Nat Fonnesu E: f.e.e.l.campaign@gmail.com

Organised in collaboration with Friend of East End Loonies and R.D. Laing in the 21st Century Reading Group and the Kingsley Hall. Supported by Claremont Project.

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The Italian Riviera Project has invited us to share their information about the educational and recreational respite breaks they provide on a self-help basis for disabled persons and their carers, supported by Community Action Southwark. For info email italianrivieraproject@yahoo.com or check goo.gl/wWXmCK

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Inspirational Links To Save The Male of The Species - Raising Awareness

(By kind email from a Friend)

My dad has just been in and out of hospital due to Septicaemia bought about by my dad not eating due to grief for the death of our mum; basically possible attempted suicide by neglect. In trying to support my dad and my brother who has ‘Power of Attorney’ to make decisions I found all these useful links. Please pass them on.

I thought some of these links may either be of use to you or your relatives (bereavement and counselling) or for any of your friends, children, members, students or colleagues. I was so shocked that suicide is the single biggest killer for most age ranges of men. Inspired by the programme I want to share it with as many people to promote and support all men’s wellbeing as I would women’s wellbeing.

Interestingly CALM – ‘The Campaign Against Miserable Living’ was created by men from the north east. No man need to go through stuff alone. This was what I sent my brother; who knows it may help him too.

Here are some possibly helpful links In answer to dad’s view ‘it’s all hippy shit’. Backed up by science – opening up saves male lives. Enjoy -

Here is a link to a very interesting documentary on male suicide by Panorama.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05rcrx0/panorama-a-suicide-in-the-family

This is CALM – THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST LIVING MISERABLY – looking at and promoting good male mental health by men for men. This campaign was promoted in the programme www.thecalmzone.net
Open to Hope – Expressing grief
www.opentohope.com

The Counselling Directory – Berevement
www.counselling-directory.org.uk/bereavement.html

Cruse Bereavement Care
www.cruse.org.uk

NHS Dealing with Bereavement
www.nhs.uk/livewell/bereavement/pages/coping-with-bereavement.aspx

Maytree suicide support
www.maytree.org.uk

Open Dialogue PROGRAMME for today

Kingsley Hall, Powis Roads, Bow, E3 3HJ
Friday 24th April 2015 7.00 – 9.00 PM

PROGRAMME

19:00 - 19:10: Opening and brief introductions about/from:
- History of Kingsley Hall
- The LifeHouse Project
- 'Only Us' campaign

19:10 - 19:30: Dr Russell Razzaque (Consultant Psychiatrist, ELNFT, POD - Peer-supported Open Dialogue)

19:30 - 19:45: Q&A with Dr Razzaque

19:50 – 20:05: Interval with music provided by English folk group The Mudlarks and Poetry by David Kessel and Madeline Kenley

20:05 - 20:25 Nick Putman (Open Dialogue UK, Soteria) and Open Dialogue training team and experts from Finland

20:25 - 20:55 Q&A with Nick Putman, Dr Razzaque and the future OD practitioners - questions taken from the floor

20:55 - 21:00 Conclusions and End

Blog: friends-of-east-end-loonies.blogspot.co.uk
Email: f.e.e.l.campaign@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/feel.campaign

Donations welcome to cover costs. Thank you!

HUMANE THERAPY – NOT DRUG TYRANNY

ARE PSYCHOSES CURABLE? - by Dr Bob Johnson

ARE PSYCHOSES CURABLE? – does this 5 minute clip prove anything?

PSYCHOSIS mystifies – except that everyone, INCLUDING YOU, can agree two simple facts.  FIRSTLY, there’s no psychosis without ‘thought disorder’, broken sentences, blocked phrases.  If you don’t know this, then you fail your medical exams, and rightly so.  SECONDLY, childhoods matter.  OK so far?  Problems thinking and problematic childhoods – can you suspend disbelief for a moment and blend these two long established facts, despite what you’ve been taught all your life?

In this 5 minute audio clip (transcribed below) Sam [a pseudonym], now 45, shows that, having apparently been hit by his father so hard at age 2, he is still “being hit” today.  He didn’t want to believe this, any more than you do.  So listen carefully to how he stumbles over the word ‘hit’, how he argues against the idea that he is currently stronger than his dad, even though the latter is now 74, and that even thinking he is stronger is ‘prohibited’ to him, by him.  Whether he was actually hit or not, I don’t know, and I’m not interested – what matters is that he still thinks he is being hit today – and he isn’t, that is something I do know. The key is that he begins to feel ‘relief’ once today’s reality percolates through the cognitive mire.  You don’t have to believe me, but if you want solid clinical evidence, have a listen.  Osler told you to listen to the patient, because s/he is telling you the diagnosis.  Here I invite you to listen to the dialogue, because Sam and Freda are telling you the pathology.

Freda  [also a pseudonym] is now aged 40.  Her mum died 33 years ago, but still paralyses her thinking, even in the supermarket – check it out below.  Listen to her struggling to ‘think what we’re thinking about’.  Elsewhere, she is coherent.  Here she’s ‘blocked’.

SO WHAT’S GOING ON?
You could dismiss these 5 minutes, as being just a bee in my bonnet trying to link thought blocks and childhoods.  Or you could listen, say to line 35, where Freda says “I can’t say it” – is this true, and if so why?  If she wants her mum ‘to go’ (“I want to think her gone,”  line 22), why can’t she think clearly enough so that she does?   Is her cognition really clogged?  Is this what psychosis is all about – gummed up cognitive processes, because the sufferer ‘thinks’ the trauma is still ‘alive’ in her head?  If you provide her with adequate trustworthy emotional support, could you persuade her that, since her mum is dead, it’s over?  If you did, would she be cured?  We know childhood traumas ceased long ago – both these two don’t – what would happen if they caught up with reality?  They keep desperately pressing me for more, because think they’d be cured.  Do you?

The model is simple, though far from easy.  Infants learn to cope with erratic parenting.  Dad shouts, mum dies, or vice versa – the actual event is not material, the context is all.  Infants have no physical defence, so they devise a mental one – “this isn’t happening to me”.  So here’s a message to Sam’s dad, and to all parents – no parent I have ever met wants to give their child a psychosis, and I’m sure Sam’s didn’t  – but some infants are caught on the hop, and get stuck.  They can be unstuck, but only when they can be persuaded that thinking is safe again – simple, but not easy.  Infant survival strategies prolonged into adulthood, ‘infantism’ – it doesn’t work, it can be shown not to work, and with enough emotional support, non-psychotic thinking can be restored.  Or can it?

Like any ‘thought-coach’, I use whatever ‘verbal spanners’ I can that come to hand.  You may find my responses brusque – but such is the trust between the three of us that they take it on the chin, and profess to be helped by it.  Could this be clinical evidence of efficacy?  They think it is, do you?

HEALTH WARNING – since the trauma is still going on in the head, though not in reality, expert care is needed in ALL SUCH CASES, not to make matters immeasurably worse – re-traumatisation is a constant, inevitable risk – so TAKE EXTRA CARE.   What seems simple, and at one level is, defeats many, inflicting enormous mental pain – don’t make it worse because you don’t know what you're doing.

This audio clip is available for download at www.DrBobJohnson.org/audio - handle with care.  I reproduce it here with permission. © Dr Bob Johnson, 2015, - but please feel free to circulate it, and this transcript, without charge, as widely as you wish.


Dr Bob Johnson, Sunday, 22 March 2015

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5 MINUTE EXCERPT, ** *** 2015. [B: is Bob, me; F: is Freda; S: is Sam; ~ is ‘blocking’.]

1.    B: [to Freda] So how does your experience agree with Sam’s?
2.    F: um ~~ very much ~ the same
3.    B: Go on – in what way?
4.    F: I’m finding it SO difficult to think. . . and not just thn~. . I find it ~ to think about what’s being said, so difficult
5.    B: [softly] Wow. That’s interesting, isn’t it.  Why is it so difficult to think?
6.    F: In this context . . .
7.    B: yes
8.    F:  . .  we’re talking about thinking about what we’re thinking about . .
9.    B: yes
10.    F: how to ~ stop our parents stop us thinking.  What I’m doing ~.  It happens ~ that I can’t think about it.  But I can’t think ~ about the supermarket shopping when my mum’s in my head either.  It goes on everywhere.  But here, I can’t ~ I tried to get on the point of what Sam’s saying, ‘cos it’s relevant. . .
11.    B: It is relevant, yes.
12.    F: . . . and I can’t think [sighs exasperatedly]. I can’t think [sighs again] properly.
13.    B: [gently] It’s training, right.  You’ve trained yourself not to think
14.    F: mmm
15.    B: say that
16.    F: ~~ I’ve trained ~.  I have ~ trained, I’ve trained myself not to think.
17.    B: yes, ‘and now I have to train myself TO think.’
18.    F: [smoothly] and now I have to train myself to think.
19.    B: what do you have to think?
20.    F: I have to ~ think ~ what I want to think, individually
21.    B: yes? And what with respect to your mum?
22.    F: ummm.  I want ~ if I want.  I want her to go. I want to think her gone.  I really have to believe that, that I want to think her gone, so that I can think. I get myself little rhythms, and tongue tied things that I . . . 
23.    B: you also have to look her in the eye, I’m afraid. And beat her.  Not in a physical sense, but in a victorious sense.  ‘I’m stronger than you mum’ – off you go.
24.    S: [coughs]
25.    F: er ~ I ~~~ I’m stronger than ~ you-mum. [rapidly]
26.    B: well, that wasn’t very convincing was it?
27.    F: [brightly] I actually believe it.
28.    B: what do you believe?
29.    F: that I’m stronger than my mum
30.    B: well say so then, not with b-b-g, it’s called muttering.  Come on. Off the top, come on . . .
31.    F: I’m stronger than you mum.
32.    B: it’s a bit feeble still, isn’t it?  [2mins 18].  I mean you know, it wasn’t, you know, 100%.  Sit her down there [loudly] ’HELLO MUM’ . . And tell her.  Go on.
33.    F: umm.  Hello mum, I’m stronger than you
34.    B: do you believe that?
35.    F: I~ um~~.  I can’t say it.
36.    B: [loudly, lots of emphasis] WHY NOT?
37.    F: [giggles nervously] ~ for thinking and speaking ~ for myself
38.    B: a very good idea, try again
39.    F:~~ I’m stronger than you mum
40.    B: [to Sam] what do you think of that diction?  It’s not good, is it?
41.    S: mmm
42.    B: what do you think?  What’s your comment on that diction? [2:54]
43.    S: . . . ummm.  [softly] Doesn’t quite believe it.
44.    B: she doesn’t, does she?
45.    S: no
46.    B: go on, tell her.
47.    S: ugh.
48.    B: [brightly] what about you?  Are you stronger than your dad?
49.    S: . . . . I don’t, I don’t think so, no.
50.    B: well I want you to say ‘HELLO DAD, I’M STRONGER THAN YOU, you're 70, heh, heh, heh’.
51.    S: all right, OK.  Hello dad, I’m stronger than you, you're 74. [3:28]
52.    B: 74? It’s gone up since I last asked. And what happens to you when you say that?
53.    S: . . . a little tiny bit of relief
54.    B: Ha!  So if you said it and believed it you’d have lots of relief. Is that correct?
55.    S: probably, yeah
56.    B: what do you mean ‘probably’.  The whole object of the exercise is to get you some relief.  ‘Tiny bit of relief !’  Do it again.
57.    S: hello dad, I’m stronger than you, you're 74 [chuckles briefly]
58.    B: Hey !  See the giggle.  So what happened then?
59.    S: . . . . ummm . . . .  like he dies or something?
60.    B: no.  It’s just real.  If you're stronger than him, he’s not going to hit you. Say that please.
61.    S: if I’m stronger than you, you can’t hit me [hurried] . . ~ can’t hit me
62.    B: what happened to that sentence?  Say it again [insistently].
63.    S: if I’m stronger than you, ~~ you can’t ~ hit me
64.    B: do you believe that?
65.    S: partly
66.    B what do you mean, ‘partly’ [derisive tone]
67.    S: a bit
68.    B: what do you mean, ‘a bit’ [argumentative] [4:40] It’s logical.  Isn’t it?’
69.    S: . . . I dare say ~ I don’t want to see him
70.    B:  [insistently] I beg your pardon?
71.    S: ~ maybe . . . I don’t want to see him
72.    B: Aah.  Aah. ‘I don’t want to see him’.  What effect does that have?
73.    S: it makes me mad.
74.    B: no it doesn’t, [lightly] it makes you impotent.  It paralyses you. ‘I’m not looking at the person who’s hitting me.  And he continues to hit me because I don’t look at him.’ [5:08] Hey, how about saying that?  I like that.  Off you go.
75.    S: I don’t look at the person that’s hitting me . . .
76.    B: yes
77.    S: . . (because I don’t want to)
78.    B: right. ‘I’ve trained myself to . . . ’
79.    S: and umm  . . . .
80.    B: ‘he continues to hit me’
81.    S: that makes me small and impotent, that’s like keeping me . . .[at 2]
82.    B: so my advice is to look at him – OK?
83.    F: I had a little thing to say there which is . . . . a bit . . .
84.    B: off you go  . . . [5:44]

Continues.  This is an excerpt from over 3 hours of group work.  The above is my rendering of the audio – check it out for yourself on www.DrBobJohnson.org/audio.



FURTHER COMMENTARY

If you look at this with a calm, non-prejudging eye, it is immediately clear, clinically, that thought block varies from line to line – it is not random, it is meaningful, and it is so much worse with some emotive topics than with others.

Starting with F: at line 12 “I can’t think properly”.  Here is thought disorder from the inside.  She can think clearly enough about a myriad other topics – she immediately has trouble when she begins to focus on how memories of mum derail her cognition.

Over the last 4 years I’ve spent upwards of 200 hours listening intensively to gobbledegook – raw, unadulterated, unbiased.  I wonder how many others have had this privilege.  The above is my conclusion.  It has disturbing implications for all other aetiologies.  Faulty brain chemicals, dopamine for example, do not vary within the same micro-second, neither do genomics – in order to claim these as causative factors, you’d have to assume they would impact on all thinking, and all speaking.  If there is a significant neurological factor impacting on thinking and speaking – then it should impact right across the vocabulary, as it does in Alzheimer’s or paresis.  Partial thought block, which characterises all psychoses, needs a different model – brain pathology alone won’t suffice.  This is why clinical examination of the actual verbatim recording is so crucial – much is sane and non-psychotic, much else is anything but – how would you account for the difference?

The so-called ‘anti-psychotic’ drugs degrade the whole sensorium, not just those parts blocked, a sledgehammer by any other name.  Indeed this is one explanation why they hinder recovery – fears cannot become ‘burnt out’, if thinking about them is obliterated not only emotionally, but also chemically.

Sadly, attempts to promulgate this type of detailed clinical reasoning are uphill – psychosis has for so long been taught to be life-long, intractable, and fundamentally inexplicable.  And many of its more bizarre symptoms seem to confirm this – wild apparently random assertions, quite devoid of realism – the reason for which is described here.  Clinical evidence presented here, however, shows that there is an underlying pattern which in favourable circumstances as here, can be discerned – but which the average sufferer from psychotic symptoms actively wishes you not to discern – for reasons touched on above.  This all goes to show why the future of this approach remains problematic.  At all events, I have now closed my clinic, in order to allow time to assemble further weighty clinical evidence of its efficacy.  Thank you for your interest so far.




Dr Bob Johnson               

Consultant  Psychiatrist, 
Empowering intent detoxifies psychoses

P O Box 49, Ventnor, Isle Of Wight, PO38 9AA, UK

e-mail DrBob@TruthTrustConsent.com                         www.DrBobJohnson.org
GMC speciality register for psychiatry                            reg. num. 0400150

formerly      Head of Therapy, Ashworth Maximum Security Hospital, Liverpool
formerly      Consultant Psychiatrist, Special Unit, C-Wing, Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight.
                 MRCPsych (Member of Royal College of Psychiatrists),
                 MRCGP (Member of Royal College of General Practitioners).
                 Diploma in Psychotherapy Neurology & Psychiatry (Psychiatric Inst New York),
                 MA (Psychol), PhD(med computing), MBCS, DPM,  MRCS.
     Author Emotional Health ISBN 0-9551985-0-X & Unsafe at any dose ISBN 0-9551985-1-8