Dr. E. Fuller Torrey quits NAMI
Torrey calls NAMI a Mental Health America “Clone” Embarrassed to belong in advocacy group he once championed.
(9-20-24) Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, who played a crucial early role in helping the National Alliance on Mental Illness become the nation’s largest and most influential mental health organization, is ending his 40 plus-year affiliation with the grassroots group, writing in a recent letter: “NAMI is now a sad shadow of its original self, and I am embarrassed to belong. Please cancel my membership.”
In his open letter (see end of blog post) to NAMI CEO and President Daniel H. Gillison Jr., Dr. Torrey explained: “NAMI functioned as a very effective mental illness advocacy organization for almost 20 years. However, by the turn of the new century, it had become clear that, despite its name, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill was abandoning its focus on mental illness in favor of mental health issues. But it is even worse since NAMI no longer even distinguishes between mental illnesses and mental health problems.”
He was referring to NAMI’s decision several years ago to begin representing all mental health issues – a so-called “big tent” approach- rather than focusing primarily on “serious mentally illnesses, (SMIs)” defined as schizophrenia, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, autism, as well as severe forms of other disorders such as major depression, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The DSM-5 TR, lists nearly 300 mental disorders grouped into 20 categories. It recently added “prolonged grief disorder.” Torrey has argued for years that NAMI should stick to focusing on serious brain diseases and not all possible mental ailments.
