David W. Oaks
| David William Oaks | |
|---|---|
David William Oaks, 2009
|
|
| Born |
September 16, 1955 Chicago, Illinois |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard University, St. Ignatius College Prep |
| Occupation | human rights activism and directing MindFreedom International |
| Movement | psychiatric survivors movement |
David William Oaks (born September 16, 1955, Chicago, Illinois) is a civil rights activist and founder and former executive director of Eugene, Oregon-based MindFreedom International.
MindFreedom International includes psychiatric survivors and psychiatrists who reject the biomedical model that defines contemporary psychiatry. They believe that "mental illness is caused by severe emotional distress, often combined with lack of socialization", and they "decry the pervasive treatment with prescription drugs, sales of which have nearly doubled since 1998". Further, "they condemn the continued use of electro-convulsive therapy—or ECT, also known as electroshock—which they say violates patients' human rights."
Oaks has stated that the psychiatric drugs that patients take are debilitating and have harmful side effects, and people can recover without them. He has protested against drug companies and participated in hunger strikes to "demand proof that drugs can manage chemical imbalances in the brain".
Oaks has called for "a nonviolent revolution throughout the mental health system".
Oaks was institutionalized and forcibly medicated in the 1970s, while studying at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for what was diagnosed as schizophrenia. He has stated that he recovered by rejecting drugs and getting support from family and friends. Oaks "maintains his mental health with exercise, diet, peer counseling and wilderness trips — strategies that are well outside the mainstream thinking of psychiatrists and many patients". He is on the board of directors for the United States International Council on Disability.
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