Dr Jeanne Stolzer will discuss the growing mountain of evidence that psychiatric drugs are potentially dangerous to health, are addictive, often worsening the emotional difficulties for which they are prescribed, and which are implicated in acts of violence toward self and others including a number of the school shootings that have so horrified our society. We will discuss the politics inherent in convincing our society that problems in living and emotional distress are the result of undiagnosable and possibly fictitious brain diseases that condemn millions to a life on drugs and limited aspirations. Finally, we will discuss the role professionals might play in helping people who suffer emotional distress without any reference to any medical terminlology unless those terms are used metaphorically.