Recent Blogs
Fast-Moving Bill in Congress Would Weaken FDA Oversight of New Drugs and Devices
Alison Bass
May 16, 2012
Congress is moving quickly to pass a bill that would authorize higher industry fees for the FDA in exchange for speeding up the approval of some drugs and medical devices and eliminating restrictions on financial conflicts of interest among the …
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Categorized in: Blogs
E. Fuller Torrey’s Review of Anatomy of an Epidemic: What Does It Reveal About the Rationale for Forced Treatment?
Robert Whitaker
May 16, 2012
E. Fuller Torrey, through his Treatment Advocacy Center, is the country’s most prominent advocate for outpatient commitment laws, which typically force people with a diagnosis of a severe mental illness to take antipsychotic medications. He has posted a review of …
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Whose Recovery Is This?! Helping Families Heal
Lisbeth Riis Cooper
May 16, 2012
Last night I had the privilege of attending my first Family Den with other Mother Bears like myself—parents, spouses, siblings and adult children. All of us have family members who have experienced mental health challenges. All of us had a story to tell.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Uncategorized | Tagged as: children, emotional distress, family support, hope, Mad in America, mental health recovery, Mother Bear, Recovery
The Big Chill: Psychiatric Medications Now Are on Trial For Murder
Michael Cornwall, Ph.D.
May 16, 2012
The Canadian judge in the first North American criminal trial to find Prozac the sole cause of a murder ruled- “There is clear medical evidence that the Prozac affected his (defendant’s) behavior and judgment, thereby reducing his moral culpability.” Will those …
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Categorized in: Blogs
Is there Any Value In Psychiatric Diagnosis?
Tim Desmond, LMFT
May 16, 2012
The medical model of diagnosis has become a dominant idea in the field of mental health, but it hasn’t always been this way. As a therapist, I will explore whether mental health diagnosis is a useful way of thinking about …
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Is Psychiatry “Salvageable”?
Alice Keys, M.D.
May 15, 2012
A reader in the commentary here asked me if I think “psychiatry is salvageable.” This is a timely question that requires careful consideration. First, I’ll examine this question with regard to my personal life. Then, I’ll explore this question from …
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Categorized in: Adult, Blogs, Psychiatric Drugs, Rethinking Psychiatry/Medical Model, Uncategorized | Tagged as: Alice Keys MD, managed care, medical systems, prescribing, psychiatric providers, Psychiatry
Human Rights and Managed Care: Part 1
Steven Moffic, M.D.
May 15, 2012
Preface: Before I went to the American Psychiatric Association, many on this webzine expressed interest in my presentation to come on “Human Rights and Managed Care”. Given that interest, and how it may relate to some of our blog discussions, …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Rethinking Psychiatry/Medical Model
The Bureau of Bears Kept Me Alive
Ken Braiterman
May 15, 2012
The Bureau of Bears kept me alive when I was driving a cab all night in New York City, with a raging undiagnosed traumatic psychosis. I knew the bears were a conscious product of my imagination, not a delusion or …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: "Taxi Driver", delusional, isolation, Ken Braiterman, New York City cab driver, Patricia Deegan, Psychosis, Robert de Niro, schizophrenic
Towards Resolution of Distress: Thinking Outside the Bio-Psychiatric Paradigm
Dan Edmunds, Ed.D.
May 14, 2012
About a year ago I participated on a television panel which discussed the antipsychotic drugs and the massive settlements pharmaceutical companies paid out. A psychiatrist on the panel compared the need for these drugs for psychoses as comparable to a …
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Mad Pride and Spiritual Community: Thoughts on The Spiritual Gift of Madness
Sascha Altman DuBrul
May 13, 2012
Let our Mad Pride movement be grounded in humility and kindness for each other in our diversity of life experiences, a recognition that social movements need good communicators and organizers more than charismatic leaders and messianic visions, and that the beautiful language we use to describe ourselves is only as powerful as the grounded actions we take to back up our words.
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Categorized in: Answering the Critics, Bipolar, Blogs, Community, Uncategorized
Start with a Solid Foundation
David Ross, M.Ed., LPCC
May 13, 2012
How are we going to do this? That’s the question we asked ourselves when a few likeminded bureaucrats sat down and said, our current mental health and substance use system is broken and causing immeasurable harm to many. If you …
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Categorized in: Blogs
My “Head in a Bucket” Metaphor
Alice Keys, M.D.
May 9, 2012
“How could I not have known?” This question has been asked of me, as a psychiatrist, with regard to prescribing psychiatric drugs. All those problems. How could I not have known? This question, when asked only of psychiatrists, comes with …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Rethinking Psychiatry/Medical Model | Tagged as: Alice Keys MD, cognition, information filters, information processing, listening, marketing, not hearing
May 9th: 6 years of Struggle for Accessibility, Human Rights, Compassion, and Dignity in the Mental Health System
Dan Edmunds, Ed.D.
May 8, 2012
May 9th marks 6 years since I organized the Center for Humane Psychiatry. I had been involved in previous reform organizations, but became disillusioned to find that one of the key principles that I believe is necessary to combat the …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: acupuncture, Alternatives, critical, drugs, holistic, Psychiatry, psychology, Recovery, therapeutic communities
IOM report concludes that the FDA is not doing its job
Alison Bass
May 8, 2012
Two weeks ago, I headlined my blog with this question: Is the FDA violating its own mandate to approve safe drugs? Four days later, the national Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a 233-page report concluding that FDA’s current approach to …
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Categorized in: Blogs
Recovery through Learning Creatura, a Language of Life
Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D.
May 7, 2012
There is a language underneath our familiar verbal language. Ordinarily it is called nonverbal communication. It is also called body language. I came to intimately know this language during each of my excursions into altered states, which resulted in my …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Community, Mind/Body, Non-Drug Approaches, Recovery/Empowerment | Tagged as: recovery/creatura/dialogue
The Child’s Journey Out of Despair: The Power of Understanding and Journeying With the Other
Dan Edmunds, Ed.D.
May 7, 2012
This reflection is based on the actual experience of a young person I encountered in my therapeutic work. The summer day arrived where the child entered this world. The mother laid hemorrhaging, barely conscious, and the child upon birth was whisked away …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Non-Drug Approaches, Recovery/Empowerment, Trauma/Distress | Tagged as: behavior, children, counseling, despair, therapy
On Recovering from Psychiatric Labels and Psychotropic Medications: An ‘Occupy APA’ Manifesto
Laura Delano
May 6, 2012
To Readers: I’ve decided to sway, briefly, from my traditional story-telling style on this blog in order to post my short speech from this weekend’s ‘Occupy APA’ event in Philadelphia. —— It is an honor to be in Philadelphia, the …
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The Pond, Learning and Humility
Alice Keys, M.D.
May 5, 2012
What an amazing ride I’ve had in the past few days on the tsunami of commentary from my previous post. While it’s been fun (dare I use the “F” word again in a post?) it has also left me unsettled. I’m …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Rethinking Psychiatry/Medical Model, Uncategorized | Tagged as: Alice Keys MD, all one, Empowerment, hope, humility, new learning, on-line conversations
At the Door of the Sausage Factory
David Ross, M.Ed., LPCC
May 4, 2012
Robert Whitaker’s book, Anatomy of an Epidemic, has provoked all manner of responses. Some outraged, dismissive, but many supportive and relieved to hear the clear voice given to concerns that many have had for years. To keep the momentum going …
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Anti-Authoritarians and Schizophrenia: Do Rebels Who Defy Treatment Do Better?
Bruce Levine, Ph.D.
May 4, 2012
Preface: Failing in my efforts to get this article published for the general public, apparently only here can I talk about a “cool subculture of anti-authoritarians” and how the Harrow study shows medication resisters have greater recovery. Anti-Authoritarians and …
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Categorized in: Blogs
Voices in the Wilderness and Sacred Madness
Dan Edmunds, Ed.D.
May 3, 2012
There have been those in various generations who were voices in the wilderness, who through very unconventional ways brought attention to the problems and oppression of society. These individuals were possessed with sacred madness. Many of these individuals were initially …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, madness, Psychosis, spirituality
Are Some Psychiatrists Addicted to Deference?
Michael Cornwall, Ph.D.
May 2, 2012
One of the subtle but underlying factors that keep the great divide active between psychiatry’s medical model of human emotional suffering, and the alternative paradigm that challenges it, is the existence of a class system based on meritocracy, that accounts …
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Categorized in: Blogs
Call Me “The Doctor”
Alice Keys, M.D.
May 2, 2012
I seem to have generated unexpected ire with my biographical information. This deserves more than just a few lines in the reply section. I I hear strong reactions, I suspect an iceberg. In this case, there may be two icebergs. First, there …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Psychiatric Drugs, Uncategorized | Tagged as: Alice Keys MD, Empowerment, mental health recovery, rethinking medical systems, the power of words
Take a ride on the Mood Elevator
Carl Elliott, M.D., Ph.D.
April 30, 2012
These are not happy times for the embattled drug maker AstraZeneca. The patent for Seroquel has expired; the company’s profits have plummeted; and its CEO, David Brennan, has just been escorted to the exit door. It seems like a good …
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Categorized in: Bipolar, Blogs, Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders | Tagged as: AstraZeneca, atypical antipsychotic, Seroquel
The Idea of Depression
Bob Fancher, Ph.D.
April 30, 2012
The experience of depression is horrific, and when we’re in it, we want—need—it to stop. Does postulating a disorder named “depression” help much with that?
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Categorized in: Blogs