Alita Taylor – Open Dialogue: Making Meaning
An interview with psychotherapist, trainer and facilitator Alita Taylor who shares her passion for Open Dialogue, explaining why Open Dialogue 'cannot be taught, but needs a teacher'.
Loneliness Cure: Red or Blue Pill?
Does this "loneliness pill" concept amount to encouraging people to stay in their homes and take a pill rather than get socially connected in their communities or reach out to those who need it? Even if a pill could generate the same effects as physical and emotional closeness between humans, is it the right thing to do?
Institutional Corruption in the Cochrane Collaboration
My story is not just about the personal costs of speaking truth to power. This is a story about institutional corruption and one of the worst show trials in academia that you can imagine. I have written a book that documents the truth, backed by leaked board room recordings, private emails and testimony from concerned citizens.
Funder Fragility and Forced Collaboration
Dear Funder, You say you want to work on health equity but can you walk the talk? Do you care about hearing the actual community? Do you REALLY want data-driven, accurate info to balance harm vs benefit? Or do you just want to keep your status quo? Dear Funder, Don't be fragile. Move beyond your blind spots. Our people matter.
‘Full Moral Status’ Part II: How to Achieve Safety, Parity, and Change
If you want to leave the system and the drugs and get your diagnosis removed, the following guide might stimulate some effective action. Like with many of life's challenges, having excellent re$ources could potentially gain these results more quickly, but the most important elements are attitude, awareness and strategy.
“I’m Not Going, You Can’t Make Me!”: A Community Approach to School Refusal
Consider an imaginary child called Jack who has been avoiding school as much as possible for a month. Standard practice would be cognitive-behavioral therapy or psychoactive drugs to help Jack deal with his anxiety. But what if Jack's social network instead mobilized to help him regain the role of student?
The War on Antidepressants: Why We Need to End it for Public Benefit
In the interest of the patients who are currently experiencing withdrawal reactions and the many more who will suffer withdrawal effects in the future, we need to end this “war.” Academic psychiatry must address these problems and conduct thorough research on withdrawal reactions.
MIA Survey on Involuntary/Assisted Outpatient Treatment
MIA is conducting a survey of people who have experienced an involuntary or assisted outpatient treatment order. The survey takes 10 minutes to complete.
MIA: Support Groups for Parents
Beginning Feb. 5 and Feb.14, Mad in the Family will begin hosting monthly, moderated online support groups for parents skeptical of, or seeking alternatives to, conventional drug-based treatments for their children with mental health challenges. We offer two groups—one in Europe and the other in the United States/Canada. Each is limited to 15 participants. Learn more, and sign up here.
Parenting Today: Raising Strong Resilient Kids
Dr. Ben Furman is a Finnish psychiatrist, psychotherapist and an internationally renowned teacher of solution-focused therapy. Click here for more Parenting Today videos.
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ARTWORK AND POETRY
A Tale of Two Studies
With increasing evidence that psychiatric drugs do more harm than good over the long term, the field of psychiatry often seems focused on sifting through the mounds of research data it has collected, eager to at last sit up and cry, here’s a shiny speck of gold! Our drugs do work! One recently published study on withdrawal of antipsychotics tells of long-term benefits. A second tells of long-term harm. Which one is convincing?
Helping Children With Angry Outbursts
Finnish psychiatrist Ben Furman reviews various non-drug therapies for children with aggressive outbursts of anger, including the Kids' Skills approach that he and social psychologist Tapani Ahola developed. These approaches focus on helping children come up with their own ideas for overcoming their problems with the help of family and friends.
MIA GLOBAL
Read updates from Mad in America’s family of affiliated sites here.

From Mad in Brasil: An analysis of Open Dialog and the challenges of implementation are discussed in this literature review published in the journal Ciência e Saúde Coletiva.