"What we call 'normal' is a product of repression, denial, splitting, projection, introjection and other forms of destructive action on experience. It is radically estranged from the structure of being. The more one sees this, the more senseless it is to continue with generalized descriptions of supposedly specifically schizoid, schizophrenic, hysterical 'mechanisms.' There are forms of alienation that are relatively strange to statistically 'normal' forms of alienation. The 'normally' alienated person, by reason of the fact that he acts more or less like everyone else, is taken to be sane. Other forms of alienation that are out of step with the prevailing state of alienation are those that are labeled by the 'formal' majority as bad or mad." 

R. D. Laing, The Politics of Experience

fredag den 19. juni 2009

Tyskland erklærer psykiatriske forhåndserklæringer for juridisk bindende

Mens politikerne i Danmark har tænkt sig, at i fremtiden sparke endnu hårdere til dem, der allerede ligger ned, og ignorere både almindelige menneskerettigheder og dem, som menneskerettighedskonventionen for mennesker med handicap, CRPD, fastslår, så mener tyske politikere, at det er på tide, at sætte en stopper for psykiatriens almagt og dens uhæmmede misbrug af denne almagt til at krænke psykiatriserede menneskers rettigheder: Tyskland har erklæret psykiatriske forhåndserklæringer for juridisk bindende. Det vil sige, at hvis du har affattet en gyldig forhåndserklæring, er det fremover ulovligt for psykiatrien, at "behandle" dig mod din i din forhåndserklæring udtalte (-skrevne) vilje. Tvangs"behandling", der er i strid med din forhåndserklæring, vil således fremover blive betragtet som personfarlig kriminalitet, og tilbageholdelse på lukket afdeling som frihedsberøvelse. Sådan, Tyskland!

Her er pressemeddelselsen, oversat fra tysk til engelsk af René Talbot:

(This press release was translated and forwarded by Rene Talbot - please snowball this message in e-mail lists and newsgroups)

Finally, coercive psychiatry can be put to a stop!
In Germany a new advance directive („PatVerfue“) makes it possible
Berlin, 18/6/2009

After years of discussion, today a new law on the legal rules for advance directives has finally been adopted by the German parliament.
The legislature has clearly and with votes from all political parties agreed to make valid the will of the patient and by doing so also the self-determination in any situation against any medical and state paternalism, regardless of the type and stage of an illness.

The time finally belongs to the past that others - doctors and judges - define what the supposedly "objective" best interests of a person are and what should be undertaken or refrained from, against his/her declared will, with regard to these supposedly "objective" best interests of a person! This will have far-reaching effects with regard to court ordered guardianship: For the first time there is the chance that guardianship may no longer be enforced against the wishes and needs of the person in question and thus guardianship now has the potential to be transformed into a service that is loyal to the person in question.

The patient‘s will is now to be regarded as being legally binding in medical decisions, as already promised in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany and for over 60 years in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Each case of "medical" treatment against the written and actual will of a "patient" thereby becomes bodily assault and incarceration in a locked ward becomes deprivation of liberty.

On this occasion we would therefore like to make known our specific form of an advance directive, the PatVerfue, with a built-in representation agreement, in which any torture-like bodily harm in the form of unwanted psychiatric treatment and any deprivation of liberty whatsoever due to a slanderous pseudo-medical psychiatric diagnosis is legally binding excluded. The associations publishing this form have joined forces to help this parliament´s promise to be accepted in the judiciary. It is this promise with which the validity of basic, civil and human rights for all, also for the psychiatrically slandered, hopefully becomes reality. By supporting and encouraging all those with a PatVerfue who would nevertheless be incarcerated and endure coercive treatment and/or are threatened with these acts, to create precedents at all judicial levels Germany, it is our aim to make the PatVerfue „watertight“ in the courts. Our aim is that in the future all judges be made to adhere to this new law, to accept the patient‘s will without restrictions and to implement it with their decisions.

Our proposed form of an advance directive prohibits all psychiatric diagnoses from the outset. We do not believe in the existence of these so-called "mental illnesses", because there is no objective criteria to prove them. The PatVerfue thus ensures the self determination of the person against psychiatrists trying to deny his or her free will, by claiming that they have an illness-incurred lack of „insight or the ability to behave in the light of this insight ".

Today is for us a day of joy!

The rigid implementation of this law would mean the end of forced psychiatry in Germany.


An illogical fact remains, however, in that psychiatric diagnoses and treatment against the declared will of a person can only be staved off by a PatVerfue and - to the contrary - is not excluded at all.

Actually, each psychiatric - just as with any medical - treatment should only be made with the "informed consent" of the individual, i.e. it is explicitly  a g r e e d  to by the person after extensive consultation on the pros and cons thereof.

Thus, with the entry into force of the law, unfortunately a prior legally binding refusal of psychiatric coercive measures is only possible for those who already know that a PatVerfue is a loophole to prevent coercive psychiatry.
This is therefore the right occasion for a broad information campaign to make the PatVerfue public, so that increased use widens the loophole into a "door out of coercive psychiatry".

At www.PatVerfue.de information and the appropriate form is now free to download for noncommercial users.

Publisher of the PatVerfue: Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Psychiatrie-Erfahrener: die-bpe.de, Irren-Offensive: antipsychiatrie.de, Landesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener Berlin-Brandenburg: psychiatrie-erfahrene.de, Landesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener NRW: psychiatrie-erfahrene.nrw.de, Werner-Fuss-Zentrum: psychiatrie-erfahrene.de, Antipsychiatrische und betroffenenkontrollierte Informations- und Beratungsstelle: weglaufhaus.de/beratung.

To celebrate this day of joy, the Werner-Fuss-Center publicly invites everybody to a barbecue at 8 p.m. today on the kleinen Bunkerberg in the Volkspark in Friedrichshain in Berlin. Please bring something with to celebrate.
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Jeg må give pressemeddelelsen ret: det er ulogisk, at det kræver en forhåndserklæring, at afværge uønsket psykiatrisk "behandling". De færreste mennesker affatter formodentligt en sådan, før deres første møde med det psykiatriske system. Hvem regner med, overhovedet nogensinde at komme i den situation, at have brug for en forhåndserklæring, før situationen er en kendsgerning? Og bagefter kan det meget vel være, og er ofte, for sent...

Ikke desto mindre: et kæmpestort tillykke til tyskerne for denne banebrydende sejr!
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P.S.: Måske skulle LAP - åh, sorry, forkert link, her er det rigtige, eller?... - overveje, at udsende en endnu større portion loving kindness sammen med sine pressemeddelelser fremover (og den seneste, angående ambulant tvang, vil sikkert også snart dukke op på sitet)? Jeg er overbevist, at det vil gøre lige så stort indtryk på de danske politikere, som det gør på Darth Vader i "The environmentalist version of Star Wars"...

4 kommentarer:

Anonym sagde ...

Dette blir bra Marian!!! :)

Nå kommer Danmark og Norge - og alle andre land til å si: Look to Germany!!!! :)

This was soooooo goooooood news!!!! Snart følger alle andre europeiske land etter Tyskland! Det vil skje - en vakker dag! :)

Berlin, 18. juni 2009 - en historisk dag!!!!

Is it really true??? :) Is it true? :)

Yesssss!!! :)

Anonym sagde ...

Et blik på lovteksten får det dog til at se lidt mindre klart ud.

Hat ein einwilligungsfähiger Volljähriger für den Fall seiner Einwilligungsunfähigkeit schriftlich festgelegt, ob er in bestimmte, zum Zeitpunkt der Festlegung noch nicht unmittelbar bevorstehende
[...]

Idet jeg læser "einwilligungsfähiger" som værende samme begreb som "kompetent" på dansk, vil det sige at patienten skal være kompetent til at træffe beslutninger når erklæringen skrives, og ændre status til ikke længere at være kompetent.

Jeg kunne meget nemt forestille mig en psykiatri der i sin vurdering af om dette "livstestamente" gælder, vil rejse tvivl ved kompetencen hos en patient som de allerede havde kontakt med, om det var skrevet med henblik på en "umiddelbart forestående" behandlingssituation, og om den gælder når der kan føres ligeså meningsfuld dialog med en "behandlingskrævende" patient, som da erklæringen blev skrevet.

Lovteksten har tilstrækkeligt med gummi til at det bliver spændende at se hvor rets- og behandlingspraksis lander....

Men der er næppe tvivl om at sigtet med loven primært er at mennesker kan få lov til at disponere på forhånd, før de glider ind i et alvorligt sygdomsforløb, hvorder kun er en vej ud - graven. Og det er bestemt et fremskridt, også fordi det motiverer mennesker til at tænke det igennem mens de stadig kan gøre det i ro.

Marian sagde ...

tosommerfugle: Må indrømme, at jeg ikke har læst hele forhåndserklæringen igennem - der sker lige p.t. for meget i mit liv, til at jeg orker - men det har allerede før været sådan i Tyskland, at forhåndserklæringer skulle gennemses og godtages af en advokat, for at have fuld gyldighed, og jeg kan forestille mig, at det også gælder denne nye her. Det gør den noget mindre angribeligt, end dens f.eks. danske modstykke, der bare kræver, at to tilfældige personer skriver under på, at forfatteren på udfærdigelsestidspunktet er "ved sine fulde fem".

Der er ikke så meget at vurdere tilbage til psykiatrien i Tyskland, som der er i Danmark (eller USA).

Marian sagde ...

Jan Olaf: "Look to Germany!!!" Nemli'! Selv om jeg må indrømme, at jeg umiddelbart er skeptisk, taget danske betonpolitikeres betonpolitik i betragtning...