Reviewed by Fritz;

Breggin, Peter R. Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy, and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the “New Psychiatry.” New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.

This is dissident psychiatrist Peter Breggin’s classic work which outlines the history of his opposition to the psychiatric system. Breggin explains both why he opposes the use of dangerous, damaging and addictive psychiatric drugs, and why he opposes the use of pseudo medical labels to define people as “mentally ill.”

Toxic Psychiatry was written more than a decade and a half ago, and so it is out of date in a lot of areas, for instance, SSRI “antidepressants” were still a relatively recent invention when Toxic Psychiatry was written, so it contains little information about them, but the information it contains is all still valid. Using a thoroughly convincing combination of medical studies, court cases, and personal anecdotes to cover everything from the non-disease nature of what have been labeled as “mental illnesses” including Schizophrenia, to the brain damage caused by psychiatric drugs, including detailed information about the harms caused by the “antipsychotic” drugs, including Tardive Dyskinesia, many examples are given of drug “side effects” which harm the body and mind, potentially inducing “mental illness” and leading to psychosis, suicide and violence. The highly addictive nature of psychiatric drugs, including Benzodiazapams, commonly prescribed for anxiety, is acknowledged, and common withdrawal problems are discussed.

This book is less focused on psychiatric drugs than Breggin’s later work, and also devotes considerable time to lamenting about how the psychiatric profession has been steered wrong, and how counseling and other potentially non pathologizing ways of treating emotional problems are the way to go. Electroshock, mental institutions, and psychiatric abuse in general are all covered, and Breggin gives much credit to survivors of psychiatric abuse for their first person accounts. Although somewhat dated, and sometimes possessing misleading chapter titles, (for instance, a section that is supposed to contain information about psychiatric suppression of women, children, and homeless people covers women and children admirably, but has next to nothing to say about the homeless), this book is a valuable classic of anti-psychiatric system theory and research, and someone who reads this book will likely seek out Breggin's other works, and see their opinions about the psychiatric system drastically changed.

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