Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Asylums are supposed to be a thing of the past. But they didn't really go away--they became smaller, and multiplied. In fact, more law-abiding Americans today are getting involuntarily committed and forcibly treated "for their own good" than at any time in history. The idea that we're living in a "deinstitutionalized" world and only dangerous people ever get forcibly treated is wrong. Across the nation, individuals from all walks of life are subjected to constant surveillance and the rampant use of powerful tranquilizing drugs, restraints, seclusion, and electroshock. Some justify these practices as necessary, but for many people, they do more harm than good.
This mental health policing isn't limited to hospitals and psychiatric wards--it's occurring in emergency rooms, long-term care facilities, troubled-teen and residential treatment centers, and even in people's own homes under outpatient commitment laws.
Driven on one hand by individuals' genuine concerns for the well-being of others, and on the other by a toxic system that prioritizes power, profit, and social control, psychiatric coercion and force are used to:
- "clean" the streets
- manage complaints in shelters, group homes, prisons, and long-term care facilities
- control school children
- "settle" family conflicts
- increase hospital profits (often through fraud)
- quash workplace disagreements
- discredit whistleblowers
An overly medicalized and deeply flawed mental health system penetrates into every corner of society, detaining and coercively treating people in ways that are all-too-often terrifying, traumatizing, and permanently damaging.
Thoroughly researched, with alarming true stories and hard data from the US and Canada, Rob Wipond's Your Consent Is Not Required builds an unassailable case for the need for vigilance and reform.
Synopsis
Asylums are supposed to be in the past. However, though the buildings were closed, many of the practices lived on. In fact, more law-abiding Americans today are being involuntarily committed and forcibly treated "for their own good" than at any time in history.
In the first work of investigative journalism in decades to give a comprehensive view into contemporary psychiatric incarceration and forced interventions, Your Consent Is Not Required exposes how rising numbers of people from many walks of life are being subjected against their will to surveillance, indefinite detention, and powerful tranquilizing drugs, restraints, seclusion, and electroshock.
There's a common misconception that, due to asylum closures, only "dangerous" people get committed now. But forced psychiatric interventions today occur in thousands of public and private hospitals, and also in group and long-term care facilities, troubled-teen and residential treatment centers, and even in people's own homes under outpatient commitment orders. Intended to "help," for many people the experiences are terrifying, traumatizing, and permanently damaging.
Driven partly by individuals' genuine concerns for the "mental health" of others, and partly by institutions entangled with goals of power, profit, and social control, psychiatric coercion is increasingly used to:
- manage school children and the elderly
- quell family conflicts
- police the streets
- control people in shelters, community living, and prisons
- fraudulently increase hospital profits
- "resolve" workplace disagreements
- detain protesters and discredit whistleblowers
Thoroughly researched, with alarming true stories and hard data from the US and Canada, Rob Wipond's Your Consent Is Not Required builds an unassailable case for greater transparency, vigilance, and change.