Smoke and Mirrors

Successfully masquerading as a science requires that certain appearances be maintained. It was German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, a Wundt student, who first devised a system of codification of human behavior, while simultaneously acknowledging that psychiatry had no effective treatments or cures for most psychiatric disorders. [Emphasis added]

Over a century later, things haven’t changed. In 1995, Rex Cowdry, then-director of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) admitted, “We do not know the causes [of any mental illness]. We don’t have methods of ‘curing’ these illnesses yet.” [Emphasis added]

Since Kraepelin, the number of psychiatric condemnations of human behavior has steadily expanded. Today, they are codified in the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), mental disorders section. First published in 1952 with a list of 112 maladies, the 1994 issue of DSM-IV specifies more than 370 disorders.

In 1987, “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” (ADHD) was literally voted into existence by a show of hands of APA committee members and enshrined in DSM-III-R. Within one year, 500,000 children in the United States alone were diagnosed with this. Today, the number of American children being labeled as having “ADHD” has risen alarmingly to 6 million.

Internationally, the number of children diagnosed with ADHD, also called hyperkinetic disorder in Europe, or deficits in attention, motor control and perception (DAMP) has been skyrocketing since the 1990s. Between 1989 and 1996, France experienced a 600% increase in the number of children labeled “hyperactive.”

Symptoms of ADHD include: fails to give close attention to details or may make careless mistakes in schoolwork or other tasks; work is often messy or careless; has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities; fails to complete schoolwork, chores or other duties; often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat; often runs about, climbs or talks excessively and interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations or games). In 1999, the U.S. Surgeon General’s
report on mental health said that the “exact etiology (cause) of ADHD” is still “unknown.”

Dr. Louria Shulamit, a family practitioner in Israel, says, “ADHD is a syndrome, not a disease (by definition). As such, it is diagnosed by symptoms. The symptoms of this syndrome are so common that we can conclude that all children—especially boys—fit this diagnosis.”

In 2002, Assistant Professor Eva Karfve, a Swedish sociologist and author, disputed any validity to this disorder: “The claim that ADHD is biologically caused or stems from a metabolic disturbance in the brain is not scientifically founded in any way.”

Dr. Fred A. Baughman, Jr., a pediatric neurologist, says that “the frequency with which ‘learning disorders’ and ‘ADHD’ are diagnosed in schools is proportional to the presence and influence within the schools of mind/brain behavioral diagnosticians, testers and therapists.”

Today, American schools spend at least $1 billion a year on psychologists who work full-time to diagnose students. Annually, $15 billion has been spent on the diagnosis, treatment and study of these socalled “disorders.” The sales of stimulants alone to control the symptoms of ADHD have now reached $1.3 billion annually.

Fred Shaw, Jr., a former Los Angeles deputy sheriff who now runs several California group homes for boys (alternatives to prison), tells this story: “A boy was brought to the home, diagnosed as ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder] by a psychologist. I asked the young man some questions: ‘What’s the longest you’ve ever talked with a girl on the phone?’ Three to five hours. ‘Do you remember what she said?’ Yes, quite well. ‘How long can you play a video game?’ Eight hours straight. ‘What about reading books?’ From the beginning to end—the ones he liked. He also played full games of basketball. So it appeared to me that he could pay attention to anything that he was interested in.”

Tana Dineen, a Canadian psychologist and author of Manufacturing Victims, says psychology is neither a science nor a profession, but an industry that turns healthy people into victims to give itself a constant source of income. In the 2001 revision of her book, she added, “The Psychology Industry is not concerned about, and would prefer to overlook, the damage it wreaks not only on users but also on society as a whole.”

Having infiltrated and secured positions of trust and authority within the education system, and set the scene for a patterned onslaught of psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatry unleashed its next, most dangerous and most lucrative weapons on our youth—addictive, psychotropic drugs posing as medication.

“‘Biological psychiatry’ has yet to validate a single psychiatric condition/diagnosis as in abnormality/ disease or as anything ‘neurological,’ ‘biological,’ ‘chemically imbalanced’ or ‘genetic.’”
— Dr. Fred A. Baughman, Jr., Pediatric Neurologist, 2002

“The Psychology Industry is not concerned about, and would prefer to overlook, the damage it wreaks not only on users but also on society as a whole.”
— Tana Dineen, psychologist and author, Manufacturing Victims , 2001

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