WHAT IS GOING ON IN OUR PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALS.
The following was received in May 2004.

"I am qualified as a psychiatric nurse and as a nurse teacher but only taught psychiatric nursing care for a few years preferring to stay with general health care because I had difficulty accepting the mainstream dogma of a biological basis in mental illness. My earliest concerns were generated by not finding mental illness in the Bible coupled with the realization that most of what I observed on the psychiatric wards was sinfulness and selfishness. It was often remarked by nurses that so-and-so learned this or that symptom from another patient.

I also noticed the undercurrent of guilt in many personal histories and the Freudian guilt-avoidance techniques of carers. Indeed many patients, including those with depression and schizophrenia, had an easily demonstrated sinful (often shameful) background. The dominant sins relating to sexual, financial and religious anomalies.

As you suggest, the cloak of mental illness appears to be too convenient. However, I do believe that under certain conditions we may experience strange and disturbing behaviours. In this I would include sleep-deprivation and chemically induced disturbances of the mind – e.g. from hormonal, electrolyte or drug imbalances."

[MB- I agreed with his last sentence, but pointed out that they were chemical/metabolic imbalances that can result from extreme depression, and were not directly due to stress which is the major cause of depression.]

BAGFY p.53 - Nurse working in a psychiatric ward -

"Another Christian psychiatric nurse found that Dr. Law's lecture and chart completely changed her view of mental illness. She challenged her patients and was amazed by the number who admitted they were responsible for their behaviour. This nurse was desperate to leave the profession, referred to the sexual orientation of many of the staff and commented, "The Devil is having a field day in psychiatry."

A manic-depressive - "My recent experience has been of a mini-breakdown based on selfish behaviour and exhaustion from having sent out my project MH AT CH [MB - the leaflet I received that he had sent to 8,900 churches!]. I rebelled, quit, seemed to have no purpose. This whole experience can be seen in the perspective of your book to be fully a self pity "party" and a resentful reaction. Your book was like reading the script of a play after once again going through a breakdown. God allows us to go through these things to bring us to a new place, a new commitment.

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From America -
Dear Mr. Bowden:
After finding a link to and reading your excerpted article from, "Breakdowns Are Good For You!", I purchased the book, and "True Science Agrees with the Bible."
I devoured the first book quickly. This book was a great help to me, Mr. Bowden, and I wanted you to know what a blessing it has been in helping me to understand things I have grappled with for years.
My mother has been receiving disability for "mental illness" for 25+ years. It has been obvious to me for a long time that she is merely spoiled, selfish, and devious, but I could never quite grasp and articulate with 100% surety what it was I was seeing in her...
Mom is still in the gall of bitter self-deception, but I did talk with her on many occasions before she got so sick, and your book was a tremendous help. I also gave her a printed out copy of your on-line article [Dr. Law's article "Breakdowns are good for you"]
I am currently reading the second book, and I am really enjoying the history.
Thanks so much for your efforts, Mr. Bowden. I really appreciate you and Dr. Law.
Sincerely in Christ,
S.B. Florida USA
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From M. Story (Finland) "When I marked up the important parts of one copy for a Finnish friend to read, the reaction was IMMEDIATE and TERRIBLY positive The reader works with homeless alcoholics and has seen an immediate change with the application of HIS new attitude... I will let you know more as soon as I hear more!
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In correspondence with one member, they related their local experience of friends reading BAGFY as follows;
"She thinks every Pastor ought to read it, and has used the book to tell their people her own story confirming self-pity as the cause of her own past behaviour and the Lord Jesus and His word as Being the Only Cure for sin and the overcoming of these matters."
[NOTE; It is one thing for a counsellor to claim that their method had "cured" a person, but when that person themself gets up and admits IN PUBLIC that the root of their problem had been self-pity, then the effect is far more powerful, and encourages others to look at their own problems very carefully.]

(Also-) "when I first showed her the cover of Bagfy and pointed my finger at the bottom line question, "Is self-pity the cause of "mental illness"?" it was C**, who as soon as she read it looked up and said, "V**, I know it is!"

( Also - )She saw the book for the first time on Wednesday and is ordering a copy to send to the Christian people who trained her in counselling. Her comment: "How, I wish we had this book when I was training!" I gather she is thinking of sending a copy of the tapes to all the people she trained with. The chart has already been handed out among their church mid-week meeting people with plenty of 'talk'.

(Also-) " ten minutes or so before their evening meetings, she had got a call from one of their people who had nearly succeeded in killing herself last year .... She was in a state and C** said something to her to which she got the reply 'I am only human.....' The next day this lady turned up (as she later admitted ) 'hating' C**'s 'guts' but after the two of them had sat down and drawn pictures in silence for about twenty-minutes, the questions began to come beginning with 'How dared you speak to me like that?' C** showed her the book and began reading her a bit out of it. She picked it up for herself and it opened up at the page where the heading comes 'I'm only human!' C** said she screamed 'that's what I said to you!' They went to the Bible references and started reading them. She said, 'I want this book.'

Letter - "I left my copy with the * church... As it has already proved so beneficial in my life I trust it may have an input on theirs, but I would also like a replacement copy. I do hope you have had a positive response - I expect you either love it or hate it. I am in my 70's and have led an up and down existence for years, despite becoming a Christian and having had endless, endless ministry over many years. Your no hold barred approach was what I required to set me finally on the starting line. A lot of running still to do but thanks to your writing I am off to a good start. My thanks indeed - when we meet I shall thank you both personally!

One counsellee said "I wish I had read your book earlier. It would have made me realise how badly I was behaving all that time."

Letter - "I sent copies to my Vicar son... and my barrister grandson-in-law... I also gave a copy to ... Dr.... You are touching on a raw subject... for a doctor. Stress is a "niche market". Income would vanish if your book was taken to heart!" C.S.
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ATBC ISSUE 9 (PART)
[The suggestion had been made that after hearing all about the problem, and seeing where root cause lay, the counsellee(s) could be asked "What do you want first - the good news or the bad? The bad news would be that the problem basically lay with themselves, NOT OTHERS. The good news is that because THEY have the problem, THEN THEY CAN NOW ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT CURING THEMSELVES. This raised some discussion and the following incident was related by one of the members in the ATBC issue No. 9]

Now let me mention a small coincidence. I had got out my laptop to reply to your email when the phone rang. Could I see a couple whose marriage (of 3 months only!) was in danger of collapsing? I went round immediately. I listened for about 25 minutes when it quickly became obvious what the real problem was. Following that, I made all the major points that are given in Bagfy. I did not actually say "Do you want the good news or bad news?"; as I suggested, but I can assure you that had I actually put this to them it would have been fully acceptable. Several times I had to stop the man and point out that he was blame-shifting, excusing himself or simply trying to be "one up" on his wife, and he fully accepted it. A retired doctor present who had counselled in much the same way agreed that I had made all the major points that should have been raised for them to act on. I found that when I faced both of them with their responsibility, they both responded very positively and agreed.

I think that if people can see that you are personally interested in them and really keen for them to improve, they will accept a very great deal of "straight talking". There is also the subtle acceptance of authority of the counsellor which I became conscious of during the meeting. This can be very heady and needs to be handled with very great care. I several times referred to God and His standards for people's behaviour to show that it was His requirements not mine that I was presenting to them to follow.

Four days later, they were talking to a visiting speaker and I sat and listened as the man repeated to him all the things I had been saying verbatim. Particularly he said that if he has a problem, it is his responsibility - not anyone else's! I said nothing, just sat there quietly and smiled inwardly a little. (I have just returned from meeting them a second time and they want to see me once or twice more. They have really improved their attitude.)

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The nurse (p.53) also confronted her patients that they were responsible for their behaviour and she was astonished that they all agreed! Robert confronted the "post natal depressed mother" (p.26) with a very unacceptable diagnosis but she admitted that he was right and did not walk out!

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Well - so much about the "confrontational" aspects of TBC. Please - would members respond about this very important subject. It is the major stumbling block in the eyes of those anti-TBC, yet I still think that handled properly it can give a major breakthrough where conventional counselling has had minimal effect in making a lasting cure. I would hope that we can counsel in such a way that THE COUNSELLEES DO NOT NEED TO RETURN. They can be given clear guidelines on how to behave in an unselfish, unself-centred and outgoing manner that will not only get them out of their present problems but will last them the rest of their lives.

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END OF ATBC ISSUE 9

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