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Imperialist-patriarchy expands the use of p$ychology to control the oppressed
By HC116 April 18, 2005
(See also: MIM Theory no. 9: Psychology and Imperialism .)
In 1990, George H. W. Bush declared the '90s the Decade of the Brain and gave government endorsement to research perpetuating the biological view of so-called mental illnesses, including depression. Fellow imperialist and gender oppressor Tipper Gore chaired the June 1999 White House Conference on Mental Health, which opposed the stigmatization of "mental illness," but nonetheless promoted the diagnosis of mental illness in children particularly, the use of psychopharmaceuticals, and the biological view of mental illness--things which distract from the socio-historical understanding of so-called mental illness symptoms, and more political approaches to changing persyns impaired by class or gender oppression and unable to participate in the revolutionary struggle more fully. The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, established by President George W. Bu$h in 2002, in 2003 recommended universal mental health screening for children and pregnant wimmin (for the children's benefit)--effectively the entire population in the long run. The Illinois legislature passed the Children's Mental Health Act of 2003 (Public Act 93-0495):
"The State of Illinois shall develop a Children's Mental Health Plan containing short-term and long-term recommendations to provide comprehensive, coordinated mental health prevention, early intervention, and treatment services for children from birth through age 18. . . . The Illinois State Board of Education shall develop and implement a plan to incorporate social and emotional development standards as part of the Illinois Learning Standards for the purpose of enhancing and measuring children's school readiness and ability to achieve academic success." (http://www.casel.org/downloads/cmh_act.pdf)
Children's entry into the mental so-called health care system happens under conditions of subordination to gender oppressors: parents, teachers, juvenile court judges, and other "adults." Imperialism contributes to the decay of old patriarchal forms. In addition, the development of the patriarchy has its own dynamics arising from the distinct gender strand of oppression. Also, imperialist decadence has an impact on ideology in a way that possibly manifests mental illness symptoms. These are reasons why Amerikans and Kanadians, children in particular, are diagnosed at high rates with mental illnesses. The reported incidences of mental illnesses, regardless of diagnosis, are also much higher compared with Mexico for example. And mental diagnoses aside, the u.$. youth suicide rate is high compared with several other imperialist countries.(1)
Imperialist parasitism and the availability of more money for expenditure on mental health care is an interfering factor that clouds things, but the imperialists' plans for universal mental health screening is deeply reactionary and does not have to do with just psychopharmaceutical capitalists corrupting politicians and researchers with grant money and donations. Psychology is often p$ychology--and certainly p$ychology is characteristic of mental health professionals, and psychopharmaceutical researchers and manufacturers--but that is not the end of it. Matters relating to development and some parts of "mental" disability have a bearing on gender oppression and gender struggle. The public's patriarchal paternalistic concern with children's suicide in some ways preceded the pharmaceutical capitalists' using youth suicide as a pretext for universal mental health screening. The imperialists are also specifically targeting oppressed-nation children of the internal semi-colonies. Things like these are important to understand, otherwise everything will be reduced to just money and usual imperialist profit-seeking, which would be wrong.
Mainstream media coverage of TeenScreen, a Columbia University-developed mental health screening program endorsed by Bu$h's New Freedom Commission, has been lacking. The Oregonian was one of the few new sources at all to report on TeenScreen in 2001: "Hoping to identify teens who are most at risk for depression and suicide, Oregon City middle school administrators and counselors next month will offer free mental health screenings for eighth-graders. . . . Students who have their parents' permission will take a brief pencil and paper test, followed by a computerized one. Those who show possible signs of depression or other mental illnesses will meet with a mental health professional that day for additional assessment."(2) However: "Since 1999, communities across the country have started using the screening program, which can test for more than 30 psychiatric disorders. Last year, Yamhill County became the first community in Oregon to use TeenScreen."(2)
TeenScreen has reached Iowa, where "[a]bout 10 Iowa schools have used TeenScreen, developed by experts at Columbia University in New York. Four other schools will soon be on board. The intent is to catch mental and emotional problems in teens before they turn deadly."(3) "Deadly" doesn't just mean suicide, but also clearly connotes lethal school violence. Since the Springfield and Littleton school shootings, in 1998 and 1999 respectively, school violence has increasingly been used as an excuse to expand the repression of youth as well as to force children into the mental health care system; although, the imperialists and their allies considered using psychology to control children in oppressed-nation neighborhoods before then.(4)
Ironically, several well-reported school multiple killers, including the Springfield and Littleton shooters and the recent Red Lake shooting suspect , were reportedly taking psychiatric drugs when they carried out their acts. The Springfield and Littleton incidents were exploited to whip up support for further youth repression and psychological control. But now, it were as if the psychology had gone too far: many people, responding to media coverage of some studies, think that there is a connection between psychiatric drugs and not only homicide but also suicide. So, on the one hand, there is this movement for universal mental health screening, but on the other hand, some of the public have begun to oppose the use of psychiatric drugs, at least with children (who were always "vulnerable" anyway of course). Simultaneously, nobody opposes on principle the failed individualistic approach to "treating" "mental illness."
Much of the hostility toward psychiatric drugs (not just with children, but with children in particular) is religious in nature (i.e., Scientology and other religious types). Another trend clearly reflects a dynamic of patriarchy. For example: " 'I see it as stepping into my role as a mom,' said Pam Wheeler, who has a freshman and a senior at Des Moines' Lincoln High School, an Iowa TeenScreen site."(3) Authorities encroaching on parental so-called rights is a general concern when it comes to new high-tech devices for controlling children (e.g., RFID) and psychologists' intruding on the privacy of children--which in a sense was never really their privacy but their parents'. These adults are concerned with defending their patriarchal prerogatives.
However, when the choice is between the gender oppressors called "parents" and the gender oppressors called "the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health," MIM opposes the NFC regardless of the parents' self-serving reasons for opposing, piecemeal, particular instances of the repression and control of youth. As is typically the case, the parents opposing TeenScreen for their own children don't give a sh*t if other parents' own children are controlled, just theirs.
"Teen"Screen targets young people of different ages and has been implemented in primary schools. TeenScreen "was designed for kids between 9 and 18 years of age, and consists of a 52-item computerized interview that includes questions about depression, suicidal ideations or attempts, anxiety, and alcohol and drug abuse."(5) Bu$h's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has recommended the use of TeenScreen for children's mental health screening.(6) "The Columbia University TeenScreen program provides a model for early intervention."(7) A "goal" of this "model" is "[t]o ensure that all youth are offered a mental health check-up before graduating from high school. TeenScreen identifies and refers for treatment those who are at risk for suicide or suffer from an untreated mental illness " (my italics).(7)
Although NFC chairpersyn Michael Hogan insists the commission "did not recommend mandatory medication treatment for children and teens," the clearly stated goal is to encourage the population to adopt mental health screening for its children and to provide the delivery system to meet the consequent "demand" for universal screening.(8) Also, nothing stops guardians from forcing their children to undergo mental health screening. Laurie Flynn, Columbia University's Carmel Hill Center for Early Identification and Treatment of Mental Illness Director and former National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Executive Director, tacitly recognizes this: "The next step is clear: Every parent, school and health professional should be working to ensure that every child receives a mental-health screening before graduating from high school."(9) Bu$h, Gore and others pretend to oppose stigma and pay lip service to voluntary treatment (or parents voluntarily forcing children to receive treatment), but are actively promoting the p$ychological surveillance and control of the oppressed. They expect psychological treatment to become as routine as a check-up. The distinction here between involuntary and so-called voluntary treatment is trivial to a certain extent, but homeless persyns and youth are already subject to forced treatment in several different ways. MIM condemns the gender and nation oppressors' phony concern for youth suicide and works toward a society where there are alternatives to therapy and psychiatry--tools of the oppressor and the oppressive status quo.
Notes:
1. New Zealand Ministry of Health, "Youth Suicide Facts : Provisional 2000 Statistics (15-24 year olds)," October 2002, http://www.nzhis.govt.nz/stats/youthsuicidefacts.pdf
2. Noelle Crombie, "Youths at risk for suicide have hope of help," The Oregonian, September 27, 2001, B02.
3. Megan Hawkins, "Schools' suicide survey examined," March 21, 2005, /desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050321/NEWS02/503210331/1004
4. Peter R. Breggin and Ginger Ross Breggin, War Against Children Of Color: Psychiatry Targets Inner City Youth ( Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1998).
5. Evelyn Pringle, "TeenScreen - Angel of Mercy or Pill-Pusher," April 10, 2005, http://www.sierratimes.com/05/04/10/12_161_125_153_11425.htm
6. Evelyn Pringle, "Ken Kramer, crusader for kids against TeenScreen," April 18, 2005, http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/041805Pringle/041805pringle.html
7. http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/reports/FinalReport/FullReport-05.htm
Also see: http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/reports/FinalReport/toc.html
8. Michael F. Hogan, "Long-term study needed," October 20, 2004, http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20041020-092931-2216r.htm
9. Laurie Flynn, "Mental-health screenings in schools would help many kids," Columbus Dispatch (Ohio), October 27, 2003, 11A.
10. James Bone, "New Yorkers to be offered a mental health check," April 14, 2005, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1568060,00.html
"Now New York is trying to measure the mental health of its residents with a questionnaire that asks if they ever 'feel down', 'have little energy', 'feel bad about yourself', or have 'trouble falling asleep'. . . . The programme, based on research from the Rand Corporation, is starting with about a dozen medical practices. But officials plan to extend it to patients at city-run hospitals so a mental health score becomes as much part of a checkup as a blood pressure test or cholesterol reading."
11. "House approves reform of mental health care," April 15, 2005, http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4773539p-4396957c.html
"The House approved a far-reaching, pricey mental health bill Thursday that would dramatically reform the state’s approach to mental illness and chemical dependency, which sometimes go hand in hand. . . . The bill’s primary goal is integration of screening and treatment for mental illness and for drug and alcohol addiction, problems that often occur together."
12. Illinois Children's Mental Health Task Force, "Children’s Mental Health: An Urgent Priority for Illinois," April 2003, http://www.isbe.net/spec-ed/mental_health/ICMHTF_FinalReport2003.pdf
Some recommendations in regard to treatment:
"1. Change the state mental health code [the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code is at ilga.gov] to increase to twelve the number of times adolescents age 12-18 years can receive mental health services without parental consent.
"2. Increase children's access to school-based and school-linked treatment services and supports by building linkages with community organizations and agencies, and through use of new technologies such as telepsychiatry (i.e., via use of long-distance video technology).
"3. Increase the number of school-based health centers equipped to provide mental health services" (p. 21).
13. "Children's Mental Health Screening creeps forward in Illinois," March 29, 2005, http://www.illinoisleader.com/news/newsview.asp?c=24021