Thursday, July 01, 2010

Paranoid Schizphrenia and "Political Diagnoses"

Three psychiatrists have diagnosed me with paranoid schizophrenia: Dimitrios Georgopoulos, MD (1996); Albert H. Taub, MD (1999); and Betsy Jane Cooper, MD (2004).

Dr. Georgopoulos assigned the diagnosis a brief time after I wrote a letter to him detailing my belief that Dr. Georgopoulos and other psychiatrists associated with the George Washington University Medical Center Department of Psychiatry had violated the D.C. Mental Health Information Act by transmitting confidential mental health information to my former employer, the D.C. law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, at the firm's solicitation.  In other words, Dr. Georgopoulos assigned the diagnosis paranoid schizophrenia after I alleged in writing that Dr. Georgopoulos was engaged in the commission of a crime.

In the year 1998 I filed a complaint with the D.C. Board of Medicine against Albert H. Taub, MD, based on Dr. Taub's refusal to sign an informed consent statement that I had prepared.  In Dr. Taub's written response to the Medical Board, he assigned the diagnosis paranoid schizophrenia -- and oddly enough -- referred to the informed consent statement I had prepared as my "manifesto," a characterization reminiscent of the Unabomber.

Dr. Theodore John "Ted" Kaczynski (born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber (University and Airline Bomber), is an American mathematician and social critic, who engaged on a mail bombing spree that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people and injuring 23 others.  The Unabomber had prepared a lengthy writing, commonly referred to as "The Unabomber's Manifesto," that decried the role of technology in modern life.

After his arrest, Kaczynski's lawyers, headed by Montana federal defender Michael Donahoe, attempted to enter an insanity defense to save Kaczynski's life, but Kaczynski rejected this plea; he did not believe he was insane. A court-appointed psychiatrist diagnosed Kaczynski as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, but declared him competent to stand trial. Kaczynski's family said he would psychologically "shut down" when pressured. In the book, The Road to Revolution, Kaczynski recalls two prison psychologists, Dr. James Watterson and Dr. Michael Morrison, who visited him almost every day for a period of four years, who told him that they saw no indication that he suffered from any such serious mental illness, and that the diagnosis of his being paranoid schizophrenic was "ridiculous" and a "political diagnosis". Dr. Morrison made remarks to him about psychologists and psychiatrists providing any desired diagnosis if they are well paid for doing so.

It was common practice among psychiatrists in the Soviet Union to diagnose political dissidents with paranoid schizophrenia in order to justify the dissidents' confinement in mental hospitals.

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2010/01/ideas-of-reference-apparently-thats.html

At the law firm of Akin Gump, I was diagnosed with the "disorder" ideas of reference in October 1991 days after I complained to the firm's senior managers that I was a victim of job harassment by my supervisor and other firm personnel.  The diagnosis was used by the firm's attorney managers to provide a legal justification for my job termination.  Ideas of reference are typically a symptom of psychotic mental illness, such as paranoid schizophrenia.

5 comments:

My Daily Struggles said...

He has paranoid schizophrenia.

The dog ate my homework.

You see a connection?

My Daily Struggles said...

You can see, based on the Unabomber case, that it is totally plausible that Drs. Singh and Quint in January 1998 would conclude that I did not suffer from any psychiatric diagnosis for which medication was indicated, despite the fact that I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by other psychiatrists in 1996, February 1999 and March 2004.

My Daily Struggles said...

I googled the phrase "political diagnosis" and got 19,900 hits. Apparently, it happens a lot!

My Daily Struggles said...

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2010/07/paranoid-schizphrenia-and-political.html

My Daily Struggles said...

Albert H. Taub, M.D. advised the D.C. Medical Board in 1999 that I suffered from paranoid schizophrenia in response to a complaint I filed against him:

February 22, 1999

Mr. James R. Granger, Jr.
Executive Director
Government of the District of Columbia
Board of Medicine
Dept. of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs
Occupational and Professional Licensing Administration
614 H Street N.W., Room #108
Washington, D.C. 20001

Re: Mr. Gary Freedman: your letter of January 6, 1999

Dear Mr. Granger:

This is not an issue of quality of care. Appropriate medication has been offered to Mr. Freedman who refuses to take the medicine (an antipsychotic). He is insisting that I absolve him of any mental illness in 1988 when he was in a struggle with his law firm. The letter is not possible since I only have been meeting with him since August of 1998 and can make no statement about his mental status in 1988.

My first direct contact with Mr. Gary Freedman occurred last summer [Friday August 7, 1998] when I became his psychiatrist for the purpose of prescribing medication. Ms. Lisa Osborne, a psychology intern at that time, started to see him in weekly psychotherapy.

In view of Mr. Freedman's long record of mental illness (paranoid schizophrenia) I recommended antipsychotic medication which he refused. At first I saw him weekly and subsequently I have been seeing him monthly. He has always refused medication. One week he tentatively agreed to try medication, but changed his mind. At the time he said he might try medication, if I were to sign the letter of August 17, 1998 (revised 8/22/98) vindicating him in his legal struggles with his former law firm which took place approximately ten years ago.

I didn't sign his manifesto since I could make no judgments about events that occurred ten years ago. He didn't seem surprised at my refusal to sign and I don't believe he really expected me to sign. However, it did give him a face saving reason to refuse medication. He has never agreed to take medication that I suggested. Ms. Osborne, the rest of the clinical staff, and I did not feel he was at that time imminently homicidal or suicidal.

Subsequently, he has settled down into his usual lifestyle which includes prolific letter writing. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance to you.

Sincerely,

Albert H. Taub, M.D.
Faculty Member
Department of Psychiatry
Residency Training Program
St. Elizabeths/CMHS

[Docket no. 99-198]