It was early evening on Monday, when Storm Corrie was decreasing in power. My smartphone pinged. A WhatsApp message appeared on my screen. It was the experience expert Peter Groot, asking me to come to De Balie, because he had a spare ticket for the debate about the insurance cover of tapering strips, used to help wean people off their medication. I politely declined the offer, explaining that the venue, despite their admirable transformation to Church status, still conformed to the QR code regime imposed by the Dutch government. Therefore I had to settle for the livestream.

Right on cue I was ready, sat on the sofa with a large cup of coffee

One story moved me deeply in the sense of me seeing my former self, circa seventeen years ago, under the very naive assumption I understood the issues surrounding psychoses within the mental health system  and was going to be able to resolve these issues.

With the methodically solution-oriented approach I was accustomed to using as an engineer, like Sherlock Holmes I set out on a mission in order to unveil the truth by deductive reasoning. Along the way, this adventure turned into the Greek tragedy of ‘Oedipus Rex’. The closer I got to the truth, the greater the chance of shooting myself in the foot. Society’s will to fundamentally resolve this issue seemed non-existent. Healthcare institutions don’t actually want to resolve the issue; they want to sustain themselves as well as maintain their status. I sincerely hope that said speaker (going by the name of Ewout Kattouw) will be more successful on this front. We will hear more from him!

What triggered me about the narrative of Professor Jim Van Os, was his reflection on how the large insurance companies argued why they should not have to cover tapering treatment.

In this narrative I saw the citation, underlined in red, that states that ‘in using Tapering strips there is no question of rational pharmacotherapy.’

The thing that was like a red rag to a bull for me in this citation was the word ‘rational’

In my own recovery process I found that almost every Dutch person maintains their own definition of the word ‘rational.’ And in doing so, the argument of the large health insurance providers is rendered illogical. Let me elaborate on this:

The research into Tapering here in Holland conducted by notably Peter Groot  is research into the correct proportions of the dosage on which the patients should taper off.

The word ratio directly refers to the word ‘proportion’. Therefore, rational thinking should mean thinking in proportions. Pharmacotherapy cannot be applied more rationally than that. Here, the large health insurance firms get away with a formula that is the definite logical denial of this.

I am using the word rational in its geometrical meaning here

My own recovered mind orientates itself in abstract geometrical proportions. To me, feeling is the same as energy. A lack of energy goes hand in hand with a depressed feeling of social insecurity. An excessive amount of energy shows itself in chronic insomnia and an endless range of new, creative behavioural possibilities. This makes perfect sense to me. Being an engineer, I know how I can balance myself self-regulatory between these two poles that bipolar patients know all too well.

When the balance shifts too much, there is a high possibility of something breaking. Engineers call this an abstract tipping point. Reaching this tipping point, the complex adaptive system turns into chaos. This is an elemental feature of these systems that Professor in Psychiatry Floortje Scheepers referrred to during this gathering.

Most people, unfortunately including many researchers, seem exclusively able to orient themselves in language. As opposed to a geometrical oriented mind, a language oriented mind searches for a cause. A mind that is solely language oriented subsequently creates a narrative of what a self-persuading explanation for that cause must become. This can result in incomprehension.

Applied explanations

To demonstrate these causes of incomprehension I will use the example of the thought experiment by comparing it to the explanation of the cause of an earthquake. Somebody who thinks geometrically rational knows that an earthquake is the result of  the thing that precedes it. This is an imbalance in tension between tectonic plates, that slide over each other when they reach their tipping point and in doing so are the cause of the earthquake.

People who can solely orient themselves within language, are not capable of deductive reasoning when it comes to said imbalance of the tension; let alone understand how non-linear can result in an injurious tipping point.

People who orient themselves within language can, subsequently to the earthquake, come up with any explanation of the cause of it, as long as language allows for this, and as long as it coincides with the moment of the earthquake. In a superstitious community an explanation of supernatural powers might arise because the cause of the earthquake seems to coincide with the sudden passing of a family member.

Medical science creates definitions in a rational manner, and utilises institutionalised causes in the field of pharmacology, therefore uses a cause-explaining definition of the word ‘rational.’ Just like the linguistic person in the example of the earthquake, this allows them to go in any direction. This is how the real, based on ratio science within psychiatry, gets hoodwinked by language demagogues in this case.

And so…

The sting of inadequate science within the psychiatry often consists of well-meant language demagogy, and once the standards of care are wrongly defined and become institutionalised, it is almost impossible to fight these with fundamentally rational arguments. If you want to change this, the whole system of religious beliefs trapped in linguistic understanding protocol of care definitions, must be challenged. A direct attack on all of the well-meaning Alpha oriented researchers is needed.

As an engineer, in my darkest dreams I haven’t been able to imagine that this is the academical, everyday practice in medical science. It explains to me almost everything about how science, albeit with good intention, can take hostage of the entire world population in an era ruled by fear of the corona virus.

Plato founded the first Academy that is the forerunner of our university

Above the entrance of the Academy was written: ‘Nobody without a geometrical education is allowed to enter.’ Letting go of this fundamental principle has caused immeasurable damage to science. The scientific problem within the Mental health system is a language barrier, and psychiatry appears ‘lost in translation.’

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Eddo Rats is an electrical engineer, sea sailor, guitarist, freethinker, radio amateur, performer, Pirate. He is also an experience expert and has completely recovered from long-term psychosis sensitivity since 2013. Employed at the Regenboog Groep in Amsterdam, SCIP department. He is also active in the association ISPS Netwerk Nederland-Vlaanderen, part of ISPS International and the association plusminus for people with a bipolar disorder. Living in the Netherlands.

*Editor’s notes to this blog:
Today march 19, 2022, the PILL foundation will be presented during the book presentation of the new book by Ewout Kattouw. The aim of the foundation is to promote responsible use of psychotropic drugs. The foundation aims to provide an active platform where the three sources of knowledge (experiential knowledge, clinical knowledge and scientific knowledge) come together, and develops various activities aimed at strengthening the position of the person requesting help.

Want to read or hear more about tapering?

• An observational study about the use of tapering medication
• Latest research on tapering strips
• Succesful use of tapering strips

Translated from Dutch by SGM Taplin