Robert Whitaker > Quotes

“What neuroleptics do, then, is induce a pathological deficiency in dopamine transmission. They induce, in Deniker’s words, a “therapeutic Parkinsonism.” And once they became the standard fare in psychiatry, this is the pathology that became the face of madness in America. The image we have today of schizophrenia is not that of madness—whatever that might be—in its natural state. All of the traits that we have come to associate with schizophrenia—the awkward gait, the jerking arm movements, the vacant facial expression, the sleepiness, the lack of initiative—are symptoms due, at least in large part, to a drug-induced deficiency in dopamine transmission. Even behavior that seems contrary to that slothful image, such as the agitated pacing seen in some people with schizophrenia, often arises from neuroleptics. Our perceptions of how those ill with “schizophrenia” think, behave, and look are all perceptions of people altered by medication, and not by any natural course of a “disease.” - Mad in America, chapter 7”
― Robert Whitaker

“[...] Nor were the boards particularly interested in hiring devoted physicians like Kirkbride to run their asylums. Instead, they sought to hire superintendents who could manage budgets wisely and were willing to scrimp on spending for patients and, in the best manner of political appointees, grease the patronage wheels. [...] Treatment outcomes steadily declined.”
― Robert Whitaker, Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

“So much had happened that would have caused lesser men to give up. As Ulloa wrote, theirs had been a mission marked by a "series of labors and hardships, by which the health and vigor of all were in some measure impaired." But they never had, and the fact that they had kept on until they achieved these results spoke volumes about their character. La Condamine and the others may have been deeply flawed human beings---often vain, fractious, and petty---but they had proven themselves to be men of resolve and courage, Enlightenment scientists through and through.”
― Robert Whitaker