The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) is a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry. NAMI gets $11 million over 2 1/2 years from drug companies. (Ken Silverstein, Mother Jones, (www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/ND99/nami.html); Stephen Pomper, Washington Monthly, May 12, 2000; Gabriel Roth, "Too hot to handle," San Francisco Bay Guardian).

They say they are a grass roots organization. John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton teach journalism at the University of Wisconsin. From their book, Toxic Sludge is Good for You, about the public relations industry, they report, "the PR industry is ... turning the definition of grassroots politics upside down." (Stauber, Rampton page 79)

PR executive Michael Dunn said, "The purpose of the grassroots program is not to get more Americans involved in this political system, ... The purpose of a grassroots program is one purpose period, and that is to influence legislative policy. ... This is battle, folks. ... politics is war without bullets. And if you think you are not in a war right now, you have not been in the trenches yet. This is war." (Ibid, page 88-89)

The May 1994 Consumers Reports warned, "That group with the do-good name may not be what it seems." (Ibid, page 92) "These public interest pretenders work in so many ways--through advertisements, press releases, public testimony, bogus surveys, questionable public-opinion polls, and general disinformation--that it's hard to figure out who's who or what the groups real agenda might be." (loc.cit.)

     "Phony grass roots groups," (loc. cit.) are one venue that corporations use to promote their vision of reality. The drug companies are no different. But unlike other corporations the drug companies and their servants the psychiatric industry, the human services industrial complex (as MA State Rep. Marie Parente calls it), and the academic research industry try to include all humans as their clients. "Today, inventing phony citizens groups is an industry in its own right." (Ibid, page 93)

     The Cambridge Chronicle reported (December 15, 2005) that the Cambridge police department was conducting in service training using NAMI trainers. Here is some of what NAMI taught the Cambridge police.  

     The NAMI Guide entitled, Mental Illness: Police Response Guide includes some remarkable statements.

     On Page 3 NAMI says, "Mental illnesses are biologically based brain disorders." There is no evidence that that is true. It is simply spin by NAMI on behalf of the drug companies and the psychiatric industry. The American Psychiatric Association was challenged by a national group of persons to provide evidence of that claim. The APA was unable to do so.

     In the same paragraph NAMI says, "Mental illnesses are the result of physical abnormalities in the brain." This is as much fantasy as the above-mentioned statement.       Also on page three NAMI says, " ... many who are severely ill do not realize that anything is wrong with them." This paradigm conflicts with the anti discrimination laws that protect persons with disabilities. Psychiatrists insist that their victims must accept the made up diagnosis.       But under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and M.G.L. Chapter 151 B, the issue is not what a person thinks about himself. The issue is, is he being treated differently because he is regarded as having a disability. Many public officials share this reverse paradigm including but not limited to the MA Attorney General's office, and the U.S. Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Office.       This is a matter of what the other person thinks. The police are empowered to enforce the laws. They are not paid to determine if a person is aware of what the psychiatrist accuses him. On Page four NAMI states that psychiatric illness is the cause of homelessness. This is as ridiculous as saying that psychiatry is a cause of crime. I'm aware of how pervasive that false belief is among journalists, lawyers, police and judges.

On Page four NAMI says, "Most calls to the police that relate to people with mental illness concern behavior that is abnormal but not dangerous." If their behavior is not criminal why is it matter for police? Is abnormal behavior a crime? NAMI goes on to suggest that officers must "be able to recognize the difference between abnormal behavior that is not dangerous and abnormal behavior that has the potential for posing a threat to personal safety." Well duh!

This too is a psychiatric standard not a legal one. Police cannot punish protected speech and protected behavior. But psychiatrists want to punish unpopular behavior, speech that they do not like, and speech they do not understand. Psychiatrists believe that they are the moral arbiters of what is proper speech and behavior, and what is improper speech and behavior. Protected speech and behavior is a matter to be determined by the courts and the legislature, not psychiatrists. Recruiting the police to punish what the psychiatrists say is improper is a corruption of the Constitution. I know how widespread that is.

Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 123 has a standard of "a likelihood of serious harm," not a threat to personal safety. NAMI and psychiatrists prefer looser standards. The reason this becomes an issue is that there are few if any attorneys who challenge psychiatric abuses.

The last ludicrous statement made by NAMI on Page four is, "In general, those people who are not receiving treatment, those with dual disorders, ... or those with a history of violence should be approached cautiously ... " This shows the prejudice of NAMI against persons accused of psychiatric illness. What does a history of violence have to do with psychiatric illness? The matter is the violence not the illness.

This demonstrates that NAMI believes that psychiatric illness causes crime, which is irrational. But it is good for business. On Page five NAMI lists anecdotal speech and behaviors that they say can help a neighbor or a bystander to identify psychiatric illness. If anyone can diagnose those illnesses, who needs psychiatrists? This is exactly the problem with psychiatry. It is personal opinion masquerading as science. 

On Page five NAMI refers to "the involuntary nature of the behavior." If the behavior is involuntary then it cannot be criminal. American jurisprudence requires knowing that an act is wrong. It requires an act of will. This is another prevailing anomaly of psychiatry. Psychiatrists medicalize social problems and addictions. Again it is good for business.

NAMI wants to criminalize psychiatric illness. Behavior cannot be punished without a violation of law. In this page NAMI tries to have police identify lawful behavior as psychiatric illness. That is not the job of police. NAMI promotes constitutional rights violations. Pharmaceutical corporations trained the Cambridge police department to violate the Constitutional rights of persons in Cambridge.

On Page seven NAMI uses the standard "a person is behaving in a manner that poses a serious danger to him- or herself or others and must be removed from the scene." That may be a standard in other states. But in Massachusetts the standard is a likelihood of serious harm. Again the drug corporations trained the police to punish lawful behavior.

On Page eight NAMI says, if an "individual is taking medication for his or her illness, he or she must continue to take it." One reason for this is the danger of withdrawal from psychiatric drugs, which usually has a negative effect on humans. It is the drugs, which cause the problem not the made up illnesses. It is necessary to wean people off of these chemicals, which harm the body. But NAMI promotes drug usage, not the rights of humans. That’s the underlying problem with what NAMI does.

NAMI recruits the police to promote more treatment, to force people to take drugs against their will. Without a court order people are free to take or not to take drugs. NAMI denies this right to informed consent. Police must focus on crime not on the false medical practice called psychiatry.

Neurologist Fred A. Baughman, Jr. MD says "Every time parents or a patient is lead to believe that their child's emotional/behavioral problem is a disease due to an abnormality within their body or brain, they have been lied to, their informed consent rights wholly violated." (FDA conf 2 9 06 long version 2 7 06.doc, "FDA--Knowing, Willful Party to the ADHD Fraud," page 7) This pervasive lack of informed consent applies to many of the fake diseases used by psychiatrists to control human behavior. The psychiatric industry convinced the legislature to merge substance abuse with psychiatric illness. This promotes business for psychiatry. Medicalizing social problems is what the Nazis did. There is no appeal from a medical diagnosis.

Psychiatry is a means of social control without due process protections. That’s where the abuses appear. Unlike police, psychiatrists can use their personal opinion to take a person's freedom. Police need probable cause.

NAMI fools many people who think that they protect people from psychiatric abuses. Contrary to that misguided belief, NAMI promotes the interests of the drug companies

primarily more funding for more treatment. Few people question what NAMI promotes. State legislatures and the U.S. Congress write laws for the benefit of the corporations no different from the way that other laws are written for other industries. Few individuals can afford to pay lobbyists to promote their interests in Congress. But corporations using deceptive techniques like NAMI get laws written which promote their industry at the expense of ordinary citizens.

AN ABRIDGED VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE APPEARS IN THE PRINT EDITION OF THE MARCH 2006 BRIDGE. THIS IS THE ORIGINAL VERSION.