CASL - Campaign To Abolish the Schizophrenia Label

The Label

We are calling for the label of schizophrenia to be abolished as a concept because it is unscientific, stigmatising, and does not address the root causes of serious mental distress.

The Stigma

To be labelled ‘a schizophrenic’ is one of the most devastating things that can happen to anyone. This label implies dangerousness, unpredictability, chronic illness, inability to work or function at any level and a lifelong need for medication that will often be ineffective but will usually cause unpleasant side effects.

The label is also morally wrong. It is imposed on people in the absence of any evidence base and used without their informed consent (informed that is, of the controversies surrounding it).

The label also appears to justify drugs as the major intervention as well as a vast and very unsuccessful research programme searching for biological and genetic causes.

We now know that the mayor complaints of ‘schizophrenia’ are rooted in daily life problems like traumatic experience and identity crisis but these are mystified using the schizophrenia concept

The above is taken from the CASL website. For more information, check out www.caslcampaign.com and/or sign their petition HERE