Last updated 04/10/2007

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Calls to end stigma of schizophrenia ‘label’,
Sunday Herald, 04/10/2007
A growing number of mental health experts in Scotland agree that there is a need to scrap the term schizophrenia, since it has, they believe, become a stigmatised and scientifically redundant category.

World Psychiatric Association Meets With Psychiatric Survivor Movement Groups
June 13, 2007, medicalnewstoday.com
During the WPA congress in Dresden, Germany, June 6-8 2007, top global psychiatry leaders meet with united psychiatric survivor/mental health consumer groups. The topic: dialogue about psychiatric coercion.

People with schizophrenia not taking antipsychotics more likely to recover, states research.
June 13, 2007, psychminded.co.uk
People diagnosed with schizophrenia who are not on antipsychotics are more likely to experience recovery than those taking the medication, according to an American study.

Psychosen sind weit mehr als ein biologischer Defekt, 28. März 2007, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Edgar Hagen will mit dem Dokumentarfilm «Someone Beside You» ein Tabu brechen. Wie kann ein Mensch, der den Verstand verliert, wieder Herr seines Geistes werden? In «Someone Beside You» geben Menschen mit Psychosen Antworten. Zu Wort kommen auch Therapeuten, die auf «die radikale Akzeptanz des Gegenübers» setzen.

A group of police officers training to assist mentally ill subjects were seeing things and hearing voices themselves
Police officers training to assist mentally ill subjects were seeing things and hearing voices themselves.

CASL: The campaign for the abolition of the schizophrenia label Change may be coming more quickly then we think, a new campaign launched.

Paranoia 'a widespread problem', BBC News Online, 03/07/2006
One in three people in the UK regularly suffers paranoid or suspicious fears, clinical psychologists have found.

Page updated 07/03/2008

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 INTERVOICE statement of intent

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The need to develop new kinds of interventions other than those offered by psychiatry is paramount and should be based on embracing the following:

• That the most valuable information is provided by the people experiencing psychosis. It is their perspective and experience that should have paramount importance, especially over any psychiatric theory
• It follows that those people experiencing psychosis; those who have experienced psychosis in the past; those who have been patients; those who have survived psychiatry; those who have avoided psychiatry and who have given much thought to their experiences and problems – and - to the value of psychiatric interventions should be the basis of new knowledge and practice 
• That a new way of thinking about “mental illness” is required, a conceptual leap away from professional theories to patient’s experience
• That we need to stop thinking about specific diseases such as schizophrenia etc. As these are just labels, part of a mindset and not scientifically valid. They are the mental constructs of professionals.

For a new direction for psychiatry to be realised the following issues need to be addressed:

• Symptoms psychiatry considers part of mental diseases can be reinterpreted as coping strategies and psychoses are sometimes more of a survival strategy than a disease
• The new paradigm for psychosis understands experiences, behavioural patterns and symptoms as having meaning; that behavioural patterns are coping strategies, and that causes of “symptoms” can be found in the persons’ life
• Therefore psychosis should not be the object of treatment but instead the persons’ behaviour should be interpreted as personal strategies for coping with overwhelming life experiences
• It is pointless to look for a specific cause for a specific kind of psychosis, because they are reactions to problems in life and reactions are just as unique as peoples problems are
• The psychiatry of the future would start from the premise that “symptoms” are not the effects of specific diseases, but signals of the different ways in which people come to terms with problems in life, which although serious, are common to us all

This approach will give much needed attention to the problems behind psychosis and to experiences like hearing voices and hopefully create possibilities for solutions.

It is up to the person experiencing these phenomena to determine if they wish to make the journey of self-discovery, it is their voyage and the role of mental health workers is to help them plan it and if asked to support them through it.

Based on a speech given by Professor Marius Romme in January 1999 at a conference entitled “Coping with Psychosis” held to honour of Marius’s retirement from the Maastricht Mental Health service.

 

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Page updated 10/03/2008

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Dorothea Buck Thomas Bock

Psychosis Seminars were “invented” in Hamburg (Germany) by Dorothea Buck, a psychiatric survivor of the German Nazi regime, and Thomas Bock, a psychologist lecturing at the Hamburg university.
They are trialogical meetings, which means that psychosis-experienced people, their relatives and friends, and professionals from the mental health sector meet up to discuss issues concerning psychosis.
Everybody is considered an expert of their experiences and everybody’s different perspectives on psychotic states are valued as equally meaningful and important.

Psychosis Seminars usually take place every two weeks and last about two hours. They are located outside of mental health institutions so that the venue is a neutral and safe place for all participants. Ideally, there are three moderators: an expert by experience, one by profession and one as carer who take turns in moderating the meetings.

Some Psychosis Seminars are also open for students or other interested people, but that is up to every group to decide, how public they want to be.

The atmosphere in these seminars should give space for an open, honest and respectful exchange of thoughts and personal experiences, with the aim to learn from each other and appreciate each others’ differences. This way, we can also critically reflect our own ideologies and preconceptions and open up for new and very diverse views on what psychotic states may be and how we can deal with them.

The idea is to develop new ways of actually communicating with each other as human beings, and to overcome fixed identities as “patient” or “client”, “psychiatrist”, “psychologist”, “social worker” or “mother”, “father”, “partner”, etc.
This also means that it should be possible to complain about power structures and bad experiences, to talk about fears, insecurities, anger and confusion – and also about funny incidents, happy encounters and positive developments.
Especially professionals seem in need to learn to express their own feelings and experiences… and not hide behind “objective” knowledge…

Usually, the group decides on a topic that will be discussed in the next meeting. Here are some examples:
- how can I explain my psychotic experiences to people who don’t know anything about this state of mind?
-how can I stand up against professionals or family members who incapacitate me?
-how can I help my relative and still take care of my own needs and resources?
-in how far can I trust the mental health system? how do I know what treatmant helps me/my relative/friend?
-what kind of help do experts by experience want from me as a professional?
-....

This way, we can also acquire the different languages that we use for the so called psychotic states.
It can be very helpful for experts by experience and for carers to acquire the often very abstract and theoretical language of professionals to be able to counter professionals on this level. Acquiring expert knowledge of the different forms of treatment and of the personal rights one has got as a patient or client also enables to make own choices and to no longer feel like a victim of the powerful and hierarchical mental health system. Equally, it is important for professionals to move away from generalizations and theories and learn to both talk about their own personal experiences, fears, worries,... and admit to them! and to listen to the individual stories told by psychosis-experienced people.

Another aim of some Psychosis Seminars is to work on a public level and change the public’s attitude towards so-called psychoses and so-called “mental illness”. Some Psychosis Seminars present themselves in the internet or invite journalists to write an article or film a documentary. They intend to destigmatize and normalize the psychotic experience and to make the hierarchical power-structures within the mental health system transparent.

Ideally, the trialogical structure will move on from the seminars and will be present in all kinds of decision making boards and projects concerning mental health issues. There are some encouraging developments in Germany in this direction, for example a trialogically staffed board that was responsible for the planning and conception of a new psychiatric unit.
Also, the German Voice Hearing Network works trialogically.

Further literature on psychosis seminars:

“Psychosis Seminars: An Unconventional Approach”, by Thomas Bock and Stefan Priebe, in: Psychiatric Services, Nov. 2005, 56, pages 1441-1443

“It is normal to be different.” A Broschure on the Understanding and Treatment of Psychosis from the Viewpoint of Experts by Experience. By the “Working Group Psychosis Seminars”.
To order, mail to: bock@uke.uni-hamburg.de

Es ist normal, verschieden zu sein. Psychose-Seminare – Hilfen zum Dialog. Arbeitshilfen. By Thomas Bock, Dorothea Buck-Zerchin, Ingeborg Esterer, Psychiatrie-Verlag ,2000

Auf der Spur des Morgensterns. Psychose als Selbstfindung. By Dorothea Buck-Zerchin, Paranus Verlag, 2005

Adresses of psychosis seminars:
Here you can find the adresses of psychosis seminars in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.