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Sunday, 16 September 2018
'In the hands of others: the nightmare begins' Lin Cochrane #Psychosis Journal
'In the hands of others: the nightmare begins' Lin Cochrane; Psychosis Journal
Pages 225-227 | Received 02 Feb 2018, Accepted 02 Feb 2018, Published online: 04 Apr 2018
From first page:
"With the little insight and foresight I had at the time, I saw the life I once had and appreciated become endless years of control and power. And the medication and the fear of the medication. The endless trials and various types of medication. The continual side effects of all the drugs I have been trialled on, which over the past 38 years has cost me my physical well-being, the loss of friends and the worst isolation I have ever had to bear up to date. Then, at the age of 29, none of this was apparent to me, except for a gut-wrenching feeling that nothing would ever be the same again."
Pages 225-227 | Received 02 Feb 2018, Accepted 02 Feb 2018, Published online: 04 Apr 2018
 |
| link to journal |
From first page:
"With the little insight and foresight I had at the time, I saw the life I once had and appreciated become endless years of control and power. And the medication and the fear of the medication. The endless trials and various types of medication. The continual side effects of all the drugs I have been trialled on, which over the past 38 years has cost me my physical well-being, the loss of friends and the worst isolation I have ever had to bear up to date. Then, at the age of 29, none of this was apparent to me, except for a gut-wrenching feeling that nothing would ever be the same again."
my tweets about the religion of psychiatry and the cult of clinical psychology
Engaging with Dr David Healy and others this morning (a lecture):
Thursday, 13 September 2018
I don't get paid to give therapy
Dec14 I was bullied off this group. I met with Gumley in his office after 4Jul CUSP group & was told that when I left Dec14 it was very hard for him. Well it was very hard for me. I don't get paid. He said I wasn't "more than". I responded saying I wasn't "less than". https://t.co/aaeWpQIsM5— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) November 9, 2017
ClinPsy male academics in Scotland are angry; I've felt the brunt of it; not pleasant; I don't get paid to give therapy, to put up with angry men; if they paid me £50/hr then I might consider it https://t.co/LtSF59BFmY— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) April 15, 2018
I don't get paid to give therapy— Chrys Muirhead (@ChrysMuirhead) September 12, 2018
Tuesday, 11 September 2018
why do psychotherapists encourage people to kneel at their feet?
Or maybe the question should be, why don't they discourage it?
I've witnessed this on a number of occasions, in person and on social media, where therapists, clinical psychologists, psychotherapists and the like make pronouncements as if they were gods, expecting their followers to obey without question.
I first saw this in around 2005/6 at an event in Kirkcaldy where a Professor of psychotherapy and his wife gave a presentation then afterwards sat on chairs at the front of the large reception room, people came to speak with them, kneeling on the floor at their feet. I thought: what's going on there? What's that all about? Couldn't understand it. Have seen a lot more of it since, working in mental health matters, and not just with "therapists". I saw it at the Minorities Conference 5 July 2016 after Lucy Johnstone's talk when coming back into the room and seeing a young guy at her feet and I told him to get up. Johnstone should have told him.
I suspect it's to do with the psychological training giving therapists the ability to manipulate vulnerable people while also distancing themselves from the "other". Setting them above the people they work with, believing their celebrity status and the power they have to hold an audience and peddle their wares.
I had further dealings with the Fife psychotherapist and his wife over the years and it was useful to have seen that first engagement from afar, how they expected adulation as their due, a disrespect for those they perceived as "less than". It helped in the 8 years of trying to be meaningfully involved as a person with "lived experience" in DClinPsy programmes at both Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. From 2009 when I attended a Service User Research Group at the red brick Admin building Gartnavel Hospital with Ross White and Andrew Gumley.
I can still remember that meeting, having a photographic recall. Coming in late, the 2 academics giving "therapy" to a woman who didn't seem to be mentally well, a FT paid worker with ACUMEN, or maybe she was just taking advantage of having 2 therapists available, for free, manipulating the occasion. I wasn't happy, the meeting was meant to be about user research and I never did get my travel expenses from White. Of course the meeting was really about research fodder for academics, we were just a means to their end. This pattern went on for years at both DClinPsy institutions. It's probably still going on, ad infinitum. A tokenistic, tick box affair. Not my cup of tea.
I've witnessed this on a number of occasions, in person and on social media, where therapists, clinical psychologists, psychotherapists and the like make pronouncements as if they were gods, expecting their followers to obey without question.
I first saw this in around 2005/6 at an event in Kirkcaldy where a Professor of psychotherapy and his wife gave a presentation then afterwards sat on chairs at the front of the large reception room, people came to speak with them, kneeling on the floor at their feet. I thought: what's going on there? What's that all about? Couldn't understand it. Have seen a lot more of it since, working in mental health matters, and not just with "therapists". I saw it at the Minorities Conference 5 July 2016 after Lucy Johnstone's talk when coming back into the room and seeing a young guy at her feet and I told him to get up. Johnstone should have told him.
 |
| Prof Gumley said I'd be in my "element" at this event; he was correct |
I suspect it's to do with the psychological training giving therapists the ability to manipulate vulnerable people while also distancing themselves from the "other". Setting them above the people they work with, believing their celebrity status and the power they have to hold an audience and peddle their wares.
I had further dealings with the Fife psychotherapist and his wife over the years and it was useful to have seen that first engagement from afar, how they expected adulation as their due, a disrespect for those they perceived as "less than". It helped in the 8 years of trying to be meaningfully involved as a person with "lived experience" in DClinPsy programmes at both Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. From 2009 when I attended a Service User Research Group at the red brick Admin building Gartnavel Hospital with Ross White and Andrew Gumley.
I can still remember that meeting, having a photographic recall. Coming in late, the 2 academics giving "therapy" to a woman who didn't seem to be mentally well, a FT paid worker with ACUMEN, or maybe she was just taking advantage of having 2 therapists available, for free, manipulating the occasion. I wasn't happy, the meeting was meant to be about user research and I never did get my travel expenses from White. Of course the meeting was really about research fodder for academics, we were just a means to their end. This pattern went on for years at both DClinPsy institutions. It's probably still going on, ad infinitum. A tokenistic, tick box affair. Not my cup of tea.
 |
| 4July17 leaving DClinPsy Programme |
 |
| in the front row at the Minorities Conference BPS London 5Jul16 |
Monday, 10 September 2018
the manipulation of clinical psychology
This is a problem and I think it starts in the DClinPsy training, the indoctrination of mostly females by men at the top and other women who are under them. Based on my experience of engaging with the academics at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. Eight years of trying to be meaningfully involved as a psychiatric survivor Mother voice. But I didn't fit the criteria, being a good mother who had a good mother and supportive upbringing.
I was subject to their manipulation, a lesson in resistance, a battle of sorts. I think the ClinPsy discipline attracts people who are into "hands on" interventions and have egos like bottomless pits. Got to be honest. The successful academics and practioners who I've met didn't get there by intellectual abilities alone, or even, rather, I have gathered, by being able to hide behind a mask of incongruence, mindfulness (switching off) and/or superiority.
The challenge is to get behind the mask or to agitate enough so that they resort to even more manipulation, with gritted teeth and clenched fists, the men that is. The academic women I've met who are "under" the men appear to be ineffectual, dittery, lacking in insight, disorganised and not the sharpest tools in the box. Why is this? In my opinion, because the men chose them for just these reasons! I said this to Schwannauer, November 2016, after he mucked me about in his office, Doorway 6 of the old Medical Quad, at a PhD preparation meeting. Raised expectations at our meeting in September then dashed them 2 months later. I was very angry with this game play and got him telt.
As for his double act partner Gumley (Staying Well After Psychosis) his mask dropped when we engaged virtually 2015-17 after years of a poker-player face at CUSP user/carer meetings since 2011, before that 2009 at a service user research meeting in the red brick building at Gartnavel led by Ross White. I came to the conclusion that Gumley was gay as he said nothing about his personal life, wore tight fitting shirts with a flowery pattern, fancy jeans, lycra when cycling, had a "partner" and no children. In my defence I've met many gay men in mental health matters since 2008. I just thought that the Professor wasn't "out".
Then after Gumley dunted me when coming into the 25Jun15 Schizophrenia Support in Mind Scotland event and was waiting outside after, we had "words" and I gave him a telling off, he offered me a lift down in his taxi, marched off to the end of the street muttering about the driver not coming to the door, left his phone in taxi and looked as if he had something wrong with him. I felt sorry for him and befriended him soon after, by Email, like a penpal. I did this with Prof Ian Reid from 2012-14, engaging with him right up to and shortly before his death in the June.
I shared these Emails with my Psychiatrist friend on occasion, to keep myself right, and he was a witness to many of the virtual exchanges with Prof Gumley as I journeyed through another psychosis after a near death experience and complete breakdown on 31 July 2015 when I thought my number was up. This is when I took up knitting, swimming and fitness again, also doing some dressmaking, having bought a Singer sewing machine from Castle Furniture in Cupar. However we had to give up the car end of 2015 and dressy outfits aren't suitable on public transport, it's more lycra Tshirts and jeans made of denim or cord, for comfort not fashion.
In a sense my engagements with Gumley were about "therapy". I was teaching him a lesson in how to behave. It wasn't easy duelling by Email as you don't know intentions and words can have double meanings. I do think that you have to go through it to know it, to have the experience, to feel the pain. To come out the other side stronger and more secure.
That's how it was for me when engaging with psychiatry in 1978, 1984 and 2002. It was similar with the ClinPsy Professor and his cohort academics from 2015 until the end of 2017 when I retreated from the Edinburgh DClinPsy programme. Gumley went in the huff after 4July17 CUSP meeting. I dunted him back (for 25Jun15) on 25 October 2017 at the NRS MH Network Annual Scientific Meeting in the Queen Elizabeth Teaching & Learning Centre, Glasgow. Tit for tat. He was in my road as I went to the Ladies so I bumped into him on purpose as he did with me. I didn't go out of my way to pay him back. It wasn't a priority. I'm a busy person.
That's not an end of it for me, in terms of Clinical Psychology in Scotland. It's not good enough for people in psychosis and mental distress. I will continue to campaign and agitate for improved training of psychologists and challenge the dominance of male academics and their manipulation of trainees, Mothers and others, the switching off and superiority of practioners in Fife and elsewhere. In my opinion they are not fit for purpose and are in need of a complete overhaul.
I was subject to their manipulation, a lesson in resistance, a battle of sorts. I think the ClinPsy discipline attracts people who are into "hands on" interventions and have egos like bottomless pits. Got to be honest. The successful academics and practioners who I've met didn't get there by intellectual abilities alone, or even, rather, I have gathered, by being able to hide behind a mask of incongruence, mindfulness (switching off) and/or superiority.
The challenge is to get behind the mask or to agitate enough so that they resort to even more manipulation, with gritted teeth and clenched fists, the men that is. The academic women I've met who are "under" the men appear to be ineffectual, dittery, lacking in insight, disorganised and not the sharpest tools in the box. Why is this? In my opinion, because the men chose them for just these reasons! I said this to Schwannauer, November 2016, after he mucked me about in his office, Doorway 6 of the old Medical Quad, at a PhD preparation meeting. Raised expectations at our meeting in September then dashed them 2 months later. I was very angry with this game play and got him telt.
As for his double act partner Gumley (Staying Well After Psychosis) his mask dropped when we engaged virtually 2015-17 after years of a poker-player face at CUSP user/carer meetings since 2011, before that 2009 at a service user research meeting in the red brick building at Gartnavel led by Ross White. I came to the conclusion that Gumley was gay as he said nothing about his personal life, wore tight fitting shirts with a flowery pattern, fancy jeans, lycra when cycling, had a "partner" and no children. In my defence I've met many gay men in mental health matters since 2008. I just thought that the Professor wasn't "out".
Then after Gumley dunted me when coming into the 25Jun15 Schizophrenia Support in Mind Scotland event and was waiting outside after, we had "words" and I gave him a telling off, he offered me a lift down in his taxi, marched off to the end of the street muttering about the driver not coming to the door, left his phone in taxi and looked as if he had something wrong with him. I felt sorry for him and befriended him soon after, by Email, like a penpal. I did this with Prof Ian Reid from 2012-14, engaging with him right up to and shortly before his death in the June.
I shared these Emails with my Psychiatrist friend on occasion, to keep myself right, and he was a witness to many of the virtual exchanges with Prof Gumley as I journeyed through another psychosis after a near death experience and complete breakdown on 31 July 2015 when I thought my number was up. This is when I took up knitting, swimming and fitness again, also doing some dressmaking, having bought a Singer sewing machine from Castle Furniture in Cupar. However we had to give up the car end of 2015 and dressy outfits aren't suitable on public transport, it's more lycra Tshirts and jeans made of denim or cord, for comfort not fashion.
 |
| 3Nov15 after delivery of sewing machine |
That's how it was for me when engaging with psychiatry in 1978, 1984 and 2002. It was similar with the ClinPsy Professor and his cohort academics from 2015 until the end of 2017 when I retreated from the Edinburgh DClinPsy programme. Gumley went in the huff after 4July17 CUSP meeting. I dunted him back (for 25Jun15) on 25 October 2017 at the NRS MH Network Annual Scientific Meeting in the Queen Elizabeth Teaching & Learning Centre, Glasgow. Tit for tat. He was in my road as I went to the Ladies so I bumped into him on purpose as he did with me. I didn't go out of my way to pay him back. It wasn't a priority. I'm a busy person.
That's not an end of it for me, in terms of Clinical Psychology in Scotland. It's not good enough for people in psychosis and mental distress. I will continue to campaign and agitate for improved training of psychologists and challenge the dominance of male academics and their manipulation of trainees, Mothers and others, the switching off and superiority of practioners in Fife and elsewhere. In my opinion they are not fit for purpose and are in need of a complete overhaul.
Sunday, 9 September 2018
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