Dear
Tom,
In
the name of the Irren-Offensive I present you the Irren-Offensive´s
Freedom Award, the "Golden Flashlight". It is our first Freedom
Award and we are proud that you accept it. This award is a symbol
of our thanks to you as the first person within the suppressive
shrink profession who had the courage and straightforwardness to
throw light on the snakepit.
Your
truth set us free, the truth that no such thing as "mental illness"
exists at all.
There
was always grievance against and resistance to the snakepit but
the voices of the persecuted were discredited as irrational, having
no "illness insight", being a griper or they were simply
not heard. So more than 40 years ago your voice broke the silence
and was therefore the fundamental crack in the foundation of the
oppressors, who claimed objectivity. The truth will finally prevail
and they will never recover.
We
chose the "Golden Flashlight" to address
- first of all your sense of humor
- secondly the pathfinding value of your work and
- thirdly because of the safety and modernity of your ideas which
are mostly misunderstood as dangerous, like a torch flame in the
gunpowder magazine.
We
chose the expression "snakepit" not only because it is a common
word in America for the psychiatric prison but also as an allegory
on the snake as the symbol for medicine. You
demystified its evil function in medicines claim to help and heal
with violence and coercion.
This
freedom award is therefore also a peace award, as your work expresses
a deep confidence in civil, non-violent relationships instead of
violent and paternalistic, dehumanizing and degradinig conduct and
its language in the command modus.
Rather
you illuminated - with a spotlight instead of a flashlight - the
cruel and inquisitorial practice of this new church, medical science,
and therfore this freedom award is also a scientific award because
you fulfilled the basic function of science, which is to criticize
and speak out the truth.
Thank
you so much, Tom, for being the lighthouse for over 40 years, providing
orientation in our political struggle for human rights, regaining
our dignity and humanity and overcoming a degrading and dehumanizing
system.
Spoken
by René
Talbot
