Upcoming Events

International | Education

no events match your query!

New Events

International

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Record Number of Over-60s Referred to Prevent Amid Explosion in ?Extreme Right Wing? Views, eg Likin... Sat Aug 02, 2025 15:00 | Toby Young
The over-60s are being referred to Prevent in record numbers for their susceptibility to ?extreme Right-wing? ideology, with red flags including liking the Dambusters and owning the complete works of Shakespeare.
The post Record Number of Over-60s Referred to Prevent Amid Explosion in ?Extreme Right Wing? Views, eg Liking The Dambusters appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link GB News is Now Britain?s No1 News Channel Sat Aug 02, 2025 13:00 | Richard Eldred
Just four years after launch, the People's Channel has toppled the BBC to become Britain's most-watched news channel, beating both the Beeb and Sky in key July slots.
The post GB News is Now Britain?s No1 News Channel appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Red Cross Pays For Dependents of Asylum Seekers to Relocate to Britain Sat Aug 02, 2025 11:00 | Toby Young
The Red Cross is paying for the families of hundreds of migrants granted asylum to relocate to Britain. Confronted about this by the Telegraph, Yvette Cooper blamed the Tories. Shock!
The post Red Cross Pays For Dependents of Asylum Seekers to Relocate to Britain appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Scottish Prison Officer Sacked For Refusing to Call Male-Born Trans Prisoners ?She? or ?Her? Sat Aug 02, 2025 09:00 | Toby Young
A Scottish prison officer has been fired for refusing to call a male prisoner (who thinks he?s a woman) 'she' or 'her'. But with the Free Speech Union's help he's fighting back.
The post Scottish Prison Officer Sacked For Refusing to Call Male-Born Trans Prisoners ?She? or ?Her? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Stockport ?Ethnic Diversity Service? Pushing Open Borders Dogma on Schoolchildren Sat Aug 02, 2025 07:00 | Charlotte Gill
Welcome to Stockport, where the council's "Ethnic Diversity Service" is busy turning schools into open-border fan clubs with bilingual assistants, cultural talks and Ramadan guides.
The post Stockport ?Ethnic Diversity Service? Pushing Open Borders Dogma on Schoolchildren appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Break-through!

category international | education | news report author Sunday October 03, 2010 21:36author by Sean Crudden - imperoauthor address Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louthauthor phone 0879739945 Report this post to the editors

A New Paradigm?

I travelled by Malev Airlines through Budapest from Dublin Airport to Thessaloniki on Tuesday for the first assembly in 6 years of ENUSP (European Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry). A conference; workshops; an election of a new board representative of all the regions of Europe; and an open air concert in Aristotle Square, the principal civic square in Thessaloniki, on Thursday night at the end of the conference. The theme of the conference was the future for users and survivors. The motto of the concert was Stop Psychiatric Violence. I reversed my journey on Friday evening reaching Jenkinstown at 23.55.

I was the sole Irish representative at the conference although there were several representatives of Mind the British advocacy outfit and they insisted the title of their country was Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I told them I did not care what they called themselves but that I considered myself representative of all of Ireland.

There were representatives there from Czech, Latvia, Greece, Portugal, Russia, France, Italy, Spain, Georgia (home to Joseph Djugashvili), Israel, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Serbia, England, Germany, Spain. And I don't think that that is an exhaustive list. The conference took place in and around the main assembly hall of Aristotle University. The psychology department of the university took care of all the arrangements, accomodation, travel, food, entertainment.

I was impressed by the leader of the Greek delegation. Listening to simultaneous translation (by a young female student) through headphones I gather he thought that a psychiatric diagnosis wrecks one's life; the drugs are poison; psychiatry is over-rated.

At the end of the conference during the closing ceremony one of the academics referred to psychiatry as a scientific monologue. A failed paradigm built by careerists on the bodies of sensitive people.

In the public square that night a banner declaring, "Stop the psychiatric violence!" was slug across the apron of the stage dominating the city square, films of violent psychiatric intervention were blazed across an outdoor screen. A heavy wall constructed of cardboard boxes displaying the logos of all the prominent global pharmaceutical companies was unveiled. At a signal users and survivors rushed the wall, demolished it, kicked it asunder; with shouts of triumph. The music and singing was of a quality to be found no-where else in this small globe except Greece. Users and survivors danced and jived in the square for over an hour. The square is bounded on three sides by impressive buildings and on the fourth side (behind the stage) by the Aegean Sea.

Related Link: http://seancrudden.wordpress.com/
author by Sean Crudden - imperopublication date Sat Aug 23, 2014 14:43author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The fist general assembly of The European Network of Users and Survivor of Psychiatry since Thessaloniki is slated for the final week of November 2014 in Copenhagen.

In the first place evidence is scarce on the subject of how mental patients have fared comparatively since Thessaloniki. My opinion is that the position of the mental patient is now profoundly worse. But then I am merely a glazed zombie with a heightened sense of uncertainty.

The state of advocacy on behalf of mental patients in Ireland is discouraging and depressing. There has been a plethora of initiatives in this field all backed by state money. But the voices I hear are very conventional and very conservative as befits people who are within the sphere of influence of the state which supports psychiatry without doubt or question.

Anyway ENUSP is currently reviewing its membership lists in preparation for the General Assembly. I would welcome contact from user survivor organisations in Ireland however small but which are bona fide advocates and who wish to be associated with ENUSP.

I am writing about these matters from a sense of responsibility. I am secretary of IMPERO and vice-chairperson of ENUSP.

Related Link: http://imperodotorg.wordpress.com
 
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy