Barry Blackwell’s Pioneers and Controversies in Psychopharmacology

Chapter 19: The endof thebeginning. The beginning of the end. Corporate Corruption in the Psychopharmaceutical Industry. Revised

Barry Blackwell’s reply to Samuel Gershon

            I agree with Sam Gershon that the tentacles of corruption extend into many contemporary arenas including gridlocked medical education, a Congress in thrall to lobbyists, conflict ridden professional organizations and complicit medical journals.

            But this is not all due to the machinations of one industry. It is empowered and embedded in a contemporary culture of income disparity, greed and addiction to money that has transformed medicine from a profession into a business, health care into a for-profit enterprise and the drug industry from therapeutic innovation to commercial profit.

     The purpose of my book, waiting hopefully for a publisher, is twofold.  “Treating the Brain: an Odyssey” honors the pioneers in our field and their contributions to mental health in a conducive environment and era.  That is contrasted with a modern Zeitgeist that is sterile, corrupt, seemingly impervious to change and mired in pessimism and powerlessness.

January 24, 2019