When the authorities define mental illness...

"Drapetomania was a supposed mental illness described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee captivity."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drapetomania

In the case of slaves "sulky and dissatisfied without cause" – a warning sign of imminent flight – Cartwright prescribed "whipping the devil out of them" as a "preventative measure".[2]:35[7][8] As a remedy for this "disease," doctors also made running a physical impossibility by prescribing the removal of both big toes.[1]:42

Wow.

These days, pharmaceuticals are used to cripple people instead of surgical hamstringing.

Dang, nice to see someone else who knows what drapetomania is.

In response to your other comment, it is interesting to note that anti-psychotic drugs, when developed in the 1950s, were touted as a 'chemical lobotomy' and seen as a more humane alternative to the invasive surgical lobotomy.

To date, even though pschotropic drugs are known to have long lasting, sometimes irreversible side effects, they are still used widely. We have known for some time (since the 90s, I think) that antipsychotic drugs reduce a person's lifespan by 15-25 years on average, yet they are still used. It's hard not to see the conspiracy in that.

Can you cite a source for your claim? I'm interested in learning more.

I can. Two books by Robert Whittaker - "Mad in America" & "Anatomy of an Epidemic" both cover the subject matter in full from an historical perspective, bpth extensively sourced with the original sources. If anti-psychotics and their history is your primary interest, start with "Mad in America".

Excuse my typos - I only have shoddy internet on my phone here out in the sticks and it's not easy to edit the text I've typed.

"if his master or overseer be kind and gracious . . . the negro is spell-bound, and cannot run away"

• some dead sonuvabitch

I find it funny that the word 'spell-bound' suggests a psychological aspect keeping the slave in place - as opposed to some physical mechanism. That is to say, once you break free of the concept 'slave' there's nothing keeping you in such a relationship. Without the mental tethers nothing is really keeping you in that relationship.

Which is why inculcating unfree people with the idea that they're "free" is so important to the Ruling class. But it seems that even they have given up on the idea and we just hear the occasional parrot repeat what they've heard.

After the outlawing of slavery in the US, some Americans were clued to the switcheroo:

"We have stricken the shackles from 4,000,000 human beings and brought all labourers to a common level, but not so much by the elevation of former slaves as by reducing the whole working population, white and black, to a condition of serfdom. While boasting of our noble deeds, we are careful to conceal the ugly fact that by our iniquitous money system we have manipulated a system of oppression which, though more refined, is no less cruel than the old system of chattel slavery."

Horace Greeley, 1870s

Americans have been the most well-kept captives in history. That's coming to an end, for better or worse.

Thanks OP , great article .

The entire book, "Mad in America" and the follow up book by the same author, "Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America" are both excellent reads.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union

Political Ponerology was based on what the Soviets were doing in Poland as seen from a practicing psychologist.

I knew those Spartans were crazy.

That was a good read. Thanks for posting. I'd not read it before.

In a related topic... "Drugging Our Kids" a five-part investigative report.