http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog Thoughts by Stephen Soldz on war, peace, politics, psychoanalysis, and research methods Fri, 16 May 2008 01:10:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In Soviet Russia, psychiatrists sometimes collaborated with the repressive regime by locking up dissidents in mental hospitals and injecting them with powerful psychotropic drugs, "antipsychotics" designed to treat schizophrenia. The Soviet psychiatrists were rightly condemned for their misuse of medicine for the un-therapeutic  purpose of social control. American health personnel are ... http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/15/involuntary-drugging-of-deportees-part-of-a-pattern-of-misuse-of-health-professions/ CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) and VoteVets.org have obtained a memo from a VA hospital’s PTSD program coordinator suggesting that they avoid giving PTSD diagnoses and instead give Adjustment Disorder R/O [rule out] PTSD. We need to find out if this is widespread. http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/15/va-coordinator-suggests-avoiding-ptsd-diagnosis/ As some of you may know, Amy and David Goodman included out movement of psychologists fighting the APA policy on interrogations in their book, Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary heroes or Extaordinary Times. While you DEFINITELY should by the whole book, I've scanned the chapter ... http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/15/amy-david-goodman-in-boston-friday-to-tak-about-standing-up-to-the-madness/ The US military has announced that it has dropped charges against[ one of] the so-called "20th hijacker," Mohammad al-Qahtani. Back in 2006, Bill Dedman of MSNBC asked Can ‘20th hijacker' ever stand trial? Evidently the answer is "no." The reason is partially that al-Qahtani was tortured, as bioethicist Steven Miles ... http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/13/al-qahtani-torture-victim-has-charges-dropped/ National Lawyers Guild Calls For Special Prosecutor to Investigate Bush Administration Officials and Lawyers Who Wrote Torture Memos Issues White Paper On Torture Liability Contacts: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu; 858-204-3565 Jeanne Mirer, NLG International Committee, mirerfam@earthlink.net; 313-515-2046 New York. The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) calls on Congress to appoint ... http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/13/national-lawyers-guild-calls-for-special-prosecutor/ American education at its best. Apparently a substitute teacher in Land O' Laked Florida was fired for showing his students a magic trick in which he made a toothpick disappear. It seems a student, and the School District, thought he was exhibiting wizardry! The trick requires a toothpick and transparent tape. ... http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/12/teacher-fired-for-making-toothpick-dissappear/ In response to the horrifying situation Burma, Avaaz has launched an urgent people-to-people fund-raising effort, to be filtered through the International Burmese Monks Organization and related groups. So far they have raised over one million Euros. To find out more, go here. http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/12/people-to-people-aid-for-burma/ Thanks to Tomdispatch, Bill McKibben reminds us that we have only milliseconds, historically speaking, to make massive environmental changes, or all humanity will suffer the consequences: The World at 350 A Last Chance for Civilization By Bill McKibben Even for Americans, constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, ... http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/12/mckibben-act-now-or-else/ British attorney and author of The Torture Team, Phillipe Sands, testifies before the House Judiciary Committee: Then watch Sands reply to a question from Republican Rep. Mike Pence, about how to interrogate the "difficult cases": [pdf of testimony; attachment, Vanity Fair article, The Green Light] http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/12/phillipe-sands-testimony-to-house-hudiciary-committee/ I was sent this meditation on war by a young teenager: War. We don't really know what this means. Children hopped up on drugs fighting the country's wars, people getting killed for others' small gain. No, we don't know of this but we do know that war occurs yet even though ... http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/05/11/war-one-teenagers-view/