The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

Progressive Radio Network

Psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, MD believes you can make a marvelous life. Great guests, callers and conversations to inspire you.

  1. 15 APR

    Dr. Peter Breggin Hour - 4-15-26

    How the fear of death and illusion of freedom turn us into accomplices to evil We have spent nearly forty years fighting to keep medicine humane. Along the way, we learned a bitter lesson. Trusting systems without watching them is a form of surrender. Fear of death and the illusion that someone else will save us make us complicit in our own undoing. A father told us about his daughter, Grace. She was loved, playful, filled with light. A simple cold led to a hospital visit and a series of choices that ended with her gone. The family said no to a preauthorized ventilator. The hospital needed beds. The calculations were not abstract. They were made in dollars and in throughput. We watched a human life treated like a line item. This is not an accident. Collectivist logic has been woven into American law and medicine over generations. A century-old decision that placed the safety of the many over the liberty of the one still governs how public health talks to us. Payment systems and official protocols narrow what doctors may offer and what they may even discuss. Informed consent is rendered fragile when the only options presented are those the system endorses. We must resist being taught to fear. Decisions made in panic lead us away from love. Love is the true and practical remedy. Treasure your children. Treasure your elders. Build small circles of care that refuse to let a neighbor be reduced to a statistic. Repentance is not only a spiritual word. It is a daily turning from easy deference to active stewardship of one another. Pray, learn, ask hard questions, appoint advocates who will be present for the bedside moments when life hangs in the balance. Do not let a culture that prizes efficiency tell you who is worth saving. If we do not love fiercely now, then what will any law save for us later?

    57 min
  2. 8 APR

    Dr. Peter Breggin Hour - 4-8-26

    The future of mental health in America and the world may depend on a growing number of brave psychotherapists like our guest today, Dr. Teralyn, who defy conventional psychiatry by voicing their own opinions on the shortcomings and dangers of psychiatric drugs.  These criticisms are grounded in hundreds and thousands of hours of meetings with psychotherapy clients, meeting face to face an hour at a time and hearing the stories of their patients which places them in a better position than prescribers, who spend much less time with the people they are medicating and who have much less insight into how much medications interfere with human relationships and with love. Dr. Teralyn Sell, PhD, is a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in understanding mental health when standard explanations and treatments fall short. Her work integrates psychology with principles from nutritional psychiatry and functional medicine, examining how brain health, sleep, stress, and medication effects shape emotional and cognitive health. Dr. Teralyn is particularly interested in long-term outcomes, informed consent, and helping people make sense of mental health decisions. She is the author of Your Best Brain and co-host of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, where clinical insight meets candid conversation about where mental health care breaks down and how clearer thinking leads to better choices. She also writes a regular blog, Dr. Teralyn. Her style is thoughtful and engaging, grounded in science, and focused on making complex ideas understandable without oversimplifying them. This fascinating and fun interview with Dr. Teralyn, PhD, and the Breggins on The Breggin Hour is truly worth your time.  We hope you will join us.

    57 min
  3. 1 APR

    Dr. Peter Breggin Hour - 4-1-26

    In this week’s interview, we speak with the inimitable Elizabeth Nickson about how the world, especially much of today’s youth, is waking up to the reality of the global predators—that 1% Elite cabal who are trying to control the world. We discuss the brutal and almost impossible-to-confront reality of Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex, torture, and murder—and the blackmail enterprise and the capital crimes being exposed in the released Epstein files. Dr. Peter Breggin commented on the interview as follows: Thinking about and trying to face the topics of this interview can be very discouraging. The simple idea of inflicting pain and suffering on children is so unacceptable to most of us that I would simply draw away from facing it. An unloving, destructive society or culture such as has developed among that 1% sees human life as expendable. This is evidenced, for example, in a society that justifies taking life for the convenience of the group, such as offering euthanasia to those who are sick or elderly.  If any life is considered expendable, the treasuring of life in general is voided, and the government becomes less free and more destructive toward citizens in general. In our discussion, the question became how do you understand people who are so violent toward other people? It may help to view them as representatives of what Dr. Breggin calls the “Dynamic III: Coercion” in his paper on “The Three Dynamics of Human Progress: A Unified Theory Applicable to Individuals, Institutions and Society.” Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry, 21(1-3):97-123, 1988-89. The lowest aspects of the human condition are collected under this dynamic. Humans are seen as objects or biochemical devices. There is indifference toward others. Force is considered the means to any end. Exploitation and subjugation, totalitarianism, and involuntary relationships are the means to achieve any goal, object, or desire. While we are fighting against elite atrocities that vastly demean human life, understanding love can maintain our optimism and give us the strength to fully face the hatefulness that corrupts much of society. We look forward to exploring this topic further with our guests and through our writings.

    57 min
  4. 18 MAR

    Dr. Peter Breggin Hour 3-18-26

    Our hour conversation with Adam Johnson was one of the most moving in memory.  Ginger cried. She covered it over pretty well, and you’ll have to listen carefully to the third segment to catch it. Adam Johnson is a Christian, a working man, a husband, a father of five children, and a powerful writer on Substack.  We were drawn to him by an intriguing essay titled I set fire to my school when I was thirteen, and his more recent follow-up article Where Is God? We open the show talking about sexual abuse he endured at the hands of a health professional when he was thirteen, but which he only recently recalled. He makes an informed plea for parents to be more aware of protecting their children from being groomed by predators masquerading on children’s platforms as friends. Adam emphasizes that it’s not just the stranger at the park who presents a danger to our children, but that our screens bring predators right into our homes and our children’s bedrooms, where we are our children’s last line of defense. The last segment of the show shifts to examining “the dark night of the soul,” which results from inevitable human torments stemming from childhood and mortality itself. Share with us this sobering, educational, and moving hour. An hour after we prerecorded this show, our guest published another article we have to share titled “I’ve been in that bed before”, through which we are reminded to reach out to someone, to speak, especially in the darkest times when we feel the most alone. I set fire to my school when I was thirteen

    57 min
  5. 11 MAR

    Dr. Peter Breggin Hour - 3-11-26

    Men of America—I have a message for you that could transform your life and the lives of those around you, in a seemingly miraculous fashion. Do not be afraid to love your wife with all your heart and soul. Love her as if she were a miracle from God, and she may gain the strength to give you all the miracles that a woman can give to a man and a wife to a husband. What brought this to mind was a brief discussion of miracles that we had with our guest, Sheriff Richard Mack. Who epitomizes the strength we need in America today, and who is not too embarrassed to say that he knows of miracles and that finding and marrying his spouse was one of them. A viewpoint that my wife and I share about each other. One way in which evil forces in the world have weakened us as boys and men has been to discourage us from believing that our love is the greatest gift we can give each other as friends and family. This is an enormously important issue in our personal lives and also in our political lives because the destruction of family bonds goes hand in hand with all forms of political oppression, including and exemplified by the Marxist strategy of replacing the family with the worship of the State and its dictators. I am grateful to Sheriff Richard Mack for having the honesty and courage to identify his wife as a miracle in his life. This is a theme I will be returning to in future shows, Substack columns, and in a book that I hope to have out in the next year. During this past summer, I suffered from a stroke that injured a major part of my brain for organizing thinking and feeling in a rational manner, which, along with improper medications, brought me into a state of short-term but extreme confusion from which I recovered when I focused on how my wife’s face was radiating with love toward me in that terrible moment. Men, never forget! Love rescues and empowers us in a miraculous fashion if we let it. We were privileged this week to interview Sheriff Richard Mack (Ret.), founder and president of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. He became the first sheriff in American history to sue the federal government in a case that went to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that the federal government could not compel state or local officials to enforce federal regulatory programs, including federal gun control measures requiring sheriffs to perform background checks on potential gun buyers. The decision has been hailed as “the most powerful Tenth Amendment decision in US history.” Sheriff Mack continues to advocate for the US Constitution to this day through his CSPOA organization and in his many podcasts and personal appearances, with the help of his wife, Dawn.

    56 min
  6. 4 MAR

    Dr. Peter Breggin Hour 3-4-26 - Rethinking mental health beyond medication

    The future of mental health in America and the world may depend on a growing number of brave psychotherapists like our guest today, Dr. Teralyn, who defy conventional psychiatry by voicing their own opinions on the shortcomings and dangers of psychiatric drugs.  These criticisms are grounded in hundreds and thousands of hours of meetings with psychotherapy clients, meeting face to face an hour at a time and hearing the stories of their patients which places them in a better position than prescribers, who spend much less time with the people they are medicating and who have much less insight into how much medications interfere with human relationships and with love. Dr. Teralyn Sell, PhD, is a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in understanding mental health when standard explanations and treatments fall short. Her work integrates psychology with principles from nutritional psychiatry and functional medicine, examining how brain health, sleep, stress, and medication effects shape emotional and cognitive health. Dr. Teralyn is particularly interested in long-term outcomes, informed consent, and helping people make sense of mental health decisions. She is the author of Your Best Brain and co-host of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, where clinical insight meets candid conversation about where mental health care breaks down and how clearer thinking leads to better choices. She also writes a regular blog, Dr. Teralyn. Her style is thoughtful and engaging, grounded in science, and focused on making complex ideas understandable without oversimplifying them. This fascinating and fun interview with Dr. Teralyn, PhD, and the Breggins on The Breggin Hour is truly worth your time.  We hope you will join us.

    57 min

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Psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, MD believes you can make a marvelous life. Great guests, callers and conversations to inspire you.

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