Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry (ePub)

Peter Stastny was born in Vienna, Austria, where he graduated from medical school in 1976. Since 1978, he has been working and residing in New York City. Taught at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx until 2009 and has conducted several publically funded research projects in the area of vocational rehabilitation, social support and self-help, in collaboration with individuals who had survived personal crises and psychiatric interventions. Dr. Stastny is working on the development of alternative services that obviate psychiatric intervention and offer autonomous paths towards recovery and full integration. These activities have engendered a close collaboration with the user-survivor movement, as manifested by joint research projects, publications, service demonstrations, and community work. He is a founding member of the International Network Toward Alternatives and Recovery (INTAR). +++ Peter Lehmann, D. Phil. h.c., is a certified pedagogue, independent publisher, author, freelance activist in Berlin, and Associate of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. Since 1979, he regularly speaks on and publishes in the field of alternatives beyond psychiatry, support in coming off psychiatric drugs, and safeguarding human rights of people with psychiatric diagnoses. He was co-founder and, until 2010, for many years board-member of the European Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. In 2010, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and in 2011, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the President of Germany. English publications include, "Withdrawal from Prescribed Psychotropic Drugs" (edited in 2022 together with Craig Newnes); "Coming off Psychiatric Drugs: Successful Withdrawal from Neuroleptics, Antidepressants, mood stabilizers, Ritalin and Tranquilizers", edited in 2004, ebook in 2022).