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Kelly Brogan

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Kelly Brogan
Profile photo of Kelly Brogan
Brogan in 2019
OccupationAlternative medicine practitioner
Notable workA Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives
Spouses
Andrew Fink
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(m. 2006; div. 2018)​
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(m. 2019; div. 2022)​
Websitekellybroganmd.com
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Alternative medicine
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Kelly Brogan is an American author of books on alternative medicine who has promoted conspiracy theories and misinformation about medical hypotheses.[1]

Background and credentials

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Brogan graduated from Cornell University Medical College, and has a B.S. in Systems Neuroscience from MIT.[2] She uses the title of "holistic psychiatrist".[3]

Brogan maintained a psychiatry practice in Manhattan from 2009 to 2019, specializing in helping people wean themselves off medication. Peter M. Heimlich stated that she appears not to have maintained certification with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, according to the association's database. She no longer claims to be certified in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine on her website.[4]

Brogan wrote about health on Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop retail website and was featured on expert panels at several Goop events.[3][5][6]

Alternative medicine controversies

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Brogan promotes the belief that human diseases are caused not by infectious agents, but rather by psychological factors. She mocks the well-established notion of "little invisible pathogens, you know, that randomly jump around from person to person".[3][4][7]

In a similar vein, Brogan attributed the death of AIDS patients not to HIV, but to treatments meant to fight it. Even though the link between HIV and AIDS is clearly established by medical research, she calls it an "assumption". She also defended the unsupported belief that a dysbiosis (imbalance) of intestinal bacteria causes depression; Brogan invites people to stop taking antidepressants and use the techniques and products from her website instead.[6][8] Through her website, Brogan offers a subscription-only "lifestyle medicine" community space and access to self-improvement training resources.[9]

She also promotes many of the usual erroneous claims against vaccines,[7][10] and despite coffee enemas being long discredited as medical procedures, Brogan promotes them as a treatment for depression.[6][11]

COVID-19 denialism and conspiracies

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An analysis of Twitter and Facebook anti-vaccine content found Brogan to be one of 12 individual and organization accounts producing up to 65% of all anti-vaccine content on the platforms.[12] She has promoted widely disproven conspiracy theories about masks not preventing the spread of COVID-19, questioning the existence of a coronavirus causing COVID-19, and conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic being planned.[1]

Brogan indicated at length that, in her opinion, the virus may not exist. According to her, it's rather the fear of a virus that makes people sick and die. She referred her followers to the pseudoscientific claims of Joseph Mercola and Ryke Geerd Hamer on the topic. Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and Instagram removed Brogan's videos, as part of their efforts to limit the spread of misinformation during the epidemic, actions Brogan described as "censorship".[3][4][7][13]

Brogan's claims about the cause of diseases, like Hamer's and Mercola's claims, have been debunked by medical experts as dangerous misconceptions.[4]

On that occasion and others prior, she accused the government of being controlled by pro-vaccination "elites" with a sinister agenda. She suggested the pandemic was a ploy by the United States government to force vaccination on people and usher in totalitarian measures.[3][4][7] Investigator Benjamin Radford attributes Brogan's theories to a wider phenomenon of self-styled populist health experts inciting people to reject science and embrace their own theories.[4]

Personal life

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Brogan lives in Florida,[4] and has two children.[2]

Bibliography

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  • Brogan, Kelly (2019). Own Your Self: The Surprising Path beyond Depression, Anxiety, and Fatigue to Reclaiming Your Authenticity, Vitality, and Freedom. Hay House. p. 352. ISBN 978-1401956820.[14]
  • Brogan, Kelly (2016). A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives. Harper Wave. p. 352. ISBN 978-0062405579.[15] On the New York Times' list of best-selling books.[3]
  • (as editor) Greenblatt, James; Brogan, Kelly, eds. (2015). Integrative Therapies for Depression: Redefining Models for Assessment, Treatment and Prevention. CRC Press. p. 531. ISBN 978-1498702294.[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Srikanth, Anagha (March 24, 2021). "12 prominent people opposed to vaccines are responsible for two-thirds of anti-vaccine content online: report". The Hill. Archived from the original on March 25, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Kelly Brogan, M.D." Goop. Archived from the original on March 28, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Ritschel, Chelsea (March 25, 2020). "Goop expert says coronavirus doesn't exist: 'There is potentially no such thing'". The Independent. Archived from the original on March 28, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Jones, Sterling (March 25, 2020). "The Gwyneth Paltrow-Approved Doctor Pushing Wacky Coronavirus Conspiracies". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on March 28, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  5. ^ Rothkopf, Joanna (December 1, 2017). "Anti-Medication Goop Summit Expert Claims AIDS Treatment Kills and GMOs Cause Depression". Jezebel. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c Gunter, Jennifer (February 1, 2018). "The five most ridiculous ideas from Goop's 'health' conference". MacLean's. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d Hills, Megan C. (March 25, 2020). "Goop contributor Kelly Brogan peddles 'nonsense' conspiracy theories about coronavirus, cites 5G and vaccine companies as real causes". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  8. ^ Frankel, Joseph (June 12, 2017). "HIV doesn't cause AIDS according to Gwyneth Paltrow Goop 'trusted expert' doctor Kelly Brogan". Newsweek. Archived from the original on February 27, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  9. ^ Brogan, Kelly. "An online membership community for step-by-step health reclamation". Kellybroganmd.com. Archived from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  10. ^ Watling, Eve (February 25, 2019). "Why do some people believe vaccines are dangerous?". Newsweek. Archived from the original on June 2, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  11. ^ Gunter, Jen (January 9, 2018). "Don't listen to Gwyneth Paltrow: keep your coffee well away from your rectum | Jen Gunter". The Guardian. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  12. ^ "The Disinformation Dozen" (PDF). Center for Countering Digital Hate (PDF). 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  13. ^ Spiegelman, Ian (March 24, 2020). "A Controversial Psychiatrist and Goop Contributor Suggests that Coronavirus Isn't Real". Los Angeles Magazine. Archived from the original on March 25, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  14. ^ Own Your Self: The Surprising Path beyond Depression, Anxiety, and Fatigue to Reclaiming Your Authenticity, Vitality, and Freedom. ASIN 1401956823.
  15. ^ A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives. ASIN 0062405578.
  16. ^ Integrative Therapies for Depression: Redefining Models for Assessment, Treatment and Prevention. ASIN 1498702295.
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