The Bipolar Manifesto

Statistics vs. people: Hippocratic Oath First “Do No Harm” – Physician – heal thy self, of course technology – new machines, equipment, procedures, state of the art skills and devices are critical to an improved advanced civilization. That is not the question. The question arrives at what cost to the individual is “the greater good” of mass produced technology. I asked a friend I had not been in touch with recently how his 86 year old mother was doing and he said “she went to the heart doctor who had her worked up for “increased shortness of breath ,acute fatigue for the past week and difficulty walking more than a few feet without stopping. She was “sent for blood work, scans and diagnosed with severe blockage in 3 arteries. She was hospitalized immediately and had bypass heart surgery performed.. She was “on the pump” for more than 9 hours. The family saw her post op in the ICU.The next day she died. Yes, as the saying goes, “ the surgery was successful, the patient expired.” The Issues here are complicated, they include moral, economic, political, religious & social values. At root – they encompass life itself, the quality of daily life functioning as opposed to quantity and to whom the right to determine how that determination/ decision regarding self vs. others, is made Often when personal gain, reputation, profit is at stake, social and moral_integrity loses. It is not my intent here to argue the above existential _conflict of individual vs. institutional /corporate rights. It is my intent to focus on the psycho-soc ial side effects of such conflicts. The fact is that the patient, a competent individual, socially valued grandmother, was not fully informed of the consequences of such surgery. She underwent surgery with an expectation of continued life, not death. She was on the bypass heart machine longer than the brain and body can sustain. The “__worst trauma/fear to man is perhaps not the body but the “psyche” – to be excommunicated, expelled, thrown out and disowned from one’s “blood” clan, tribe, people, family, group is a rejection beyond physical. It is a rejection of the_soul and psyche, essence of the core self - a mark-_sign label of shame and stigma. A non-verbal communication to all others of a “ person non grata ” who must be shunned because of deviance and difference from the socially ascribed credo and structure. To be excluded from critical decision making involving person and family is persé – a psychic blow. The surgical team had its checklist that worked. That procedure went well, The checklist that was missing was the person and family and co-ordinator checklist. There are checklists and checklists – they need to be coordinated into an integrated whole protocol that is inclusive much the way – (military seal and delta_force, architects, builders and contractors have learned to work together pilots/air crew – flying the plane to include concerns for the passenger as well as how to fly a plane safely. Successful outcome critically_ depends on each expert adhering to the code “voluntary submission to the obligatory in the service of the ego.” Bowing to the round of consensus--all for one and one for all bonding. This _book_ is a personal story about real people who learned “__voluntary_submission to the WHAT is necessary”, working together to succeed for internal quality of life as well as external quantity. A case in point. An article appeared in the New York Times by William Grimes published April 20, 2011 reported: Alfred Freedman, a Leader in Psychiatry, Dies at 94 Dr. Alfred Freedman, a psychiatrist social reformer who led the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 when overturning a century-old policy, declared that homosexuality was not a mental illness, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 94. In 1972, with pressure mounting from gay rights groups and form an increasing number of psychiatrists to destigmatize homosexuality, Dr. Freedman was elected president of the association, which he later described as a conservative “old boys’ club”. Its 20,000 members were deeply divided about its policy on homosexuality, which its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders II classified as a “sexual deviation” in the same class as fetishism, voyeurism, pedophilia and exhibitionism. It went on: “We will no longer insist on a label of sickness for individuals who insist that they are well and demonstrate no generalized impairment in social effectiveness.” The board stopped short of declaring homosexuality “a normal variant of human sexuality,” as the association’s task force on nomenclature had recommended. May 19, 2012, an article in the New York Times by Benedict Carey reported “Psychiatry Giant Sorry for Wacking Gay “Cure”. Dr. Robert L. Spitzer considered by some to be the father of modern psychiatry was ready to recant a study he had done himself, a poorly conceived 2003 investigation that supported the use of so-called reparative therapy to “cure” homosexuality for people strongly motivated to change. A world health organization report released Thursday, May 17, 2012, calls the therapy “a serious threat to the health and well being –even the lives – of affected people.” Dr. Spitzer is reported as having said “I owe gay community an apology.”