Comments on: Visionary or Disaster; a perspective on William Sargant

By: Nick Read

Nick Read — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 11:20:21 +0000

How interesting, Jandy. Yes, attitudes to mental health are changing, but too slowly. I agree, we are all on a spectrum and can shift along that spectrum according to what is happening. More attention needs to be paid to ‘healing’ rather than treatment. Thank you for your useful comments.

By: Jandy Spurway

Jandy Spurway — Sat, 29 Jul 2017 21:31:31 +0000

I was one of those Nightingale nurses who looked after Dr Sargent’s patients – I hated the whole way of treating people like this and agree with the fact that psychotherapy is growing in popularity and patients are given a chance to heal themselves of all their background pain also medication has become so much more sophisticated and slowly attitudes to mental illness are changing, thank goodness – after all we are all on a spectrum and WHAT is Normal?
The spiritual has always been an aid in healing and the vast growth of people using the 12 steps of AA, which after all, is an entirely spiritual programme for people who want to get better and are prepared to work hard at their addictive problems.

By: Nick Read

Nick Read — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 11:57:46 +0000

Amazing. Thank you for the information

By: Vakhtang

Vakhtang — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 14:26:15 +0000

Here is a book (in Georgian, with English digest), which describes a place in Canada, where Sargantian brainwashing is still alive and well and is used on some political “patients”.
http://targetingbrainwashers.blogspot.com/

By: James Opie

James Opie — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 12:26:42 +0000

In this era in which human societies, certainly ours in the United States, seem like one vast sociological experiment (absent discernible elements of intention or purposeful study), the need to understand how people are influenced, how readily we submit to suggestion and the power of “groupthink” become powerfully relevant. William Sargant’s book “The Mind Possessed” is helpful not only for insights conveyed on nearly every page, but also for questioning processes evoked in a thoughtful reader’s mind. Few authors address subjects of such importance without attempting to grasp a reader’s intellect and direct it solely toward the author’s conclusions. I don’t find this true with William Sargant’s writing, which supports processes of questioning, rather than attempting to control them. So I question efforts to belittle or demonize a man who (shock!) surely made mistakes at times but who shared valuable insights in how we tick, how we become broken, and how we may become more whole again. James Opie Portland, Oregon, USA

By: Stewart Reeve

Stewart Reeve — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:28:08 +0000

To say again how good a doctor William Sargant was.When he died I sene a letter to his widow saying how her husband had been a God send to me during my mental illness.She responded saying she had recived many simliar letters from his patients .Also when he went into private practise he had lots of patients who he treated of there own will ! He also said to me you can not live in a chemical world.I get absolutley fed up with people running him down especialy when he is no longer here to defend himself !!
Stewart Reeve

By: stewart reeve

stewart reeve — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:55:46 +0000

A lot of this information is inaccurate, William Sargant can’t defend himself. I was treated by him successfully using medication which was regarded as a dangerous combinations by most of the medical profession