Neuroleptics 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

“The neurobiological side of the hypothesis is proposed that a) the feats cause, at the brain level, a rise in dopamine b) delusions are feats of fantasy and fantasy shield feats that cause this same award, or relieve punishment c) the neuroleptics show efficacy in reducing delusions since they inhibit dopamine receptors and take away the prize for self-deception”
― Martín Ross, THE SHIELD FEATS THEORY: a different hypothesis concerning the etiology of delusions and other disorders.