The War Against Children of Color: Psychiatry Targets Inner City Youth

by Peter R. Breggin, Ginger Ross Breggin

From the authors of the bestseller "Talking Back to Prozac" comes the definitive work exposing how mental health agencies and the government are using invalid science for social control rather than addressing the decline of families, schools and communities as well as escalating racism and poverty. Dr. Peter Breggin and Ginger Ross Breggin inspired a national campaign against the proposed federal "Violence Initiative," aimed at identifying inner city children with alleged defects that were said to make them more violent when they reached adulthood. Many of the research plans, still in operation, involve searching for a "violence gene," finding "biochemical imbalances," and intervening in the lives of schoolchildren with psychiatric drugs. The Breggins describe this broad network of private and public programs--funded by the pharmaceutical industry as well as tax dollars--in the single-minded quest for a genetic or biological answer to the rising crime rate. With several million youngsters already on Ritalin and other medications, diagnoses and treatments are replacing adult responsibility and social reform. The Breggins warn that the low priority of the rights and emotions of children is the real epidemic that must be addressed, and soon. As an alternative, THE WAR AGAINST CHILDREN OF COLOR offers a host of measures for fulfilling the genuine needs of children without invasive treatments and stigmatizing labels.

Genres: Mental Health

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1972

About the author

Peter R. Breggin MD is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former Consultant at NIMH who has been called “The Conscience of Psychiatry” for his many decades of successful efforts to reform the mental health field.
His work provides the foundation for modern criticism of psychiatric diagnoses and drugs, and leads the way in promoting more caring and effective therapies.
His research and educational projects have brought about major changes in the FDA-approved Full Prescribing Information or labels for dozens of antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs.
Dr. Breggin has authored dozens of scientific articles and more than twenty books, including medical books and the bestsellers Toxic Psychiatry and Talking Back to Prozac.

Reviews

[Bobbi Jo Chavarria · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is one example of the power of a title. It is possible the author's title was originally, "The War Against Children" period, but throw in an ethnic/racial slant and you really fire people up, right? Anyway, that's what drew me to pick it up because I was wondering just exactly what he was talking about.

The truth is the targeting of all youth for what Breggin terms biopsychiatry diagnoses of things like ADHD, OCD, etc. explains something that has been troubling me for a while. Many child advocates and parents alike champion the idea that there's something biologically wrong with children based upon symptoms that show up in their behavior, low performance in school, rebelliousness, and more. Breggin's ongoing battle to protect children and other mental health patients from intrusive and ineffective treatments is an incredibly long and protracted battle because of the combination of federal research funding and the huge profits pharmaceutical companies stand to gain as more and more children are diagnosed and targeted for treatment. The impetus of this book touches upon the movement to find "biological" and "genetic" indicators of violence -- which then, of course, must mean children, especially inner-city children of color must be biologically prone to be violent and perhaps we can medicate and cure the impulse for violence. Exploring the racist eugenics movement that has been used to justify historically horrible treatment of people including slavery, Jim Crow laws, sterilization, and other systemic discrimination is just the beginning of understanding how flawed the "science" of psychiatry can be.

The version I read was released in 1998 and I am curious about more recent updates with the current state of the Violence Initiative at the federal level, and with the practices that he had thus far, been able to fight against, including electric shock treatment and research on children.