December 01, 2020

This is a tale of staggering corporate mendacity and greed, and of news media which all too often behave like lapdogs rather than watchdogs. But it's also the story of courageous doctors, reporters, litigators, and ordinary men and women whose lives were turned upside-down by these drugs -- all of whom were relentless in their drive to uncover the truth. 

July 12, 2019

A century of research in the field of psychiatric genetics has produced no credible evidence of a strong genetic component to so-called “mental illnesses,” no findings that help the human condition in any way, and in fact has caused great harm by diverting attention away from the well-established causes of these conditions, which have their roots in child sexual abuse and other adverse childhood experiences. 

March 17, 2020

My essay on the origin of insect wings has been selected for the Adelaide Literary Award Anthology 2019. 

December 01, 2020

​Why did anyone think wearing a warm, moist rag a millimeter away from his or her mouth, for hours at a time, creating the ideal conditions for bacteria to multiply, would be a good thing? This is a gigantic, uncontrolled experiment. 

October 27, 2020

A basic principle of science—not to mention common sense—is that the burden of proof rests on anyone making a claim. These drugs have been on the market for decades. After all this time, can anyone point to any convincing evidence that they produce meaningful long-term benefits for children or adults? The harms, however, are indisputable. Why do doctors continue to prescribe these drugs?

September 15, 2020

The hysteria is approaching a fever pitch. Writing in The Conversation, a professor of medical ethics opined that we need “morality enhancers” to induce people to wear their masks. Such morality enhancers might be taken in pill form, the professor helpfully explained, or added to the water supply. 

September 14, 2020

In plain English, the researchers found no evidence that cloth masks protect against infection—and some reason to believe that they might actually be making things worse.

August 09, 2020

What Paddy Chayefsky’s Network was to the Twentieth Century, Paul John Scott’s Malcharist is to the Twenty-First. 

August 03, 2020

Once upon a time there was a family with ten sons. Six of the sons went on to be diagnosed with schizophrenia.

​

One tried to murder his wife by forcing her to inhale cyanide fumes. One shot his girlfriend dead, then turned the gun on himself and ended his own life. One molested his younger brother and sisters. One set fires and viciously attacked police officers, as well as patients and staff members in a mental hospital.

​

Are you curious to know what the Hell was going on behind the scenes while these boys were growing up? I am.

July 08, 2020

For the past several years, I have borne witness to people like Vickie – wonderful, creative, caring people – who were turned into burned-out shells of their former selves after getting hooked on antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs. 

June 23, 2020

A tale of David versus Goliath -- and Goliath won

June 02, 2020

GlaxoSmithKline's Study 329 of Paxil claimed the drug was "safe and effective" for the treatment of major depression in adolescents, even though their own data -- data no one else was allowed to see -- showed the stuff was totally ineffective and drove the kids crazy to boot.

April 11, 2020

In the drugmakers' ongoing War on Children, Martin Whitely is one of the good guys, fighting back.

March 06, 2020

After climbing upward steadily for centuries, life expectancy in the Western world has stalled, and in the United States has actually dropped, for five years in a row. This is big news – as big as global warming.

February 18, 2020

My talk at the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry Annual Meeting in Baltimore, 12 October 2019.

January 20, 2020

A son's moving tribute to his father

January 10, 2020

The real myth of the schizophrenogenic mother is the idea that psychiatrists ever seriously promoted the idea that mothers are solely responsible for schizophrenia in their children. And this myth has for too long been used as a straw woman to divert attention from serious discussion of the role of abuse and trauma in the genesis of schizophrenia and other types of mental distress, and to promote biological explanations and pharmacological interventions for these conditions instead.

November 01, 2019

I know that we are all supposed to pretend that we are going to live forever, that death is this rare and preventable anomaly, but you know something? I think hanging in there until sixty-five was enough for Uncle Walter. He’d seen a lot of this world, both the good and the bad, and I think he was just ready to meet The Man Upstairs.