MIA TODAY

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Psychiatry: Medical Science of Mind or Moral Ideology?

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Psychiatry is a moral ideology, making and enforcing judgments about the appropriateness of people's experiences.
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What I Have Learned in Working With 300+ People in Their Journey of Tapering

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Tapering is stepping into each individual’s complex world of biology, history, psyche, circumstance, and tolerance for discomfort.

Tortured by the Mental Health System Due to Misdiagnosis of Schizophrenia

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The police think my non-existent "schizophrenia" makes me a danger to the community. If I don't show up for my injections I'm subject to police arrest and kidnapping from my home.
Photo of diverse hands in center of huddle

Mad Camp Europe: My Journey from Ward Violence to Healing and Community

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If we want to advocate for a better mental health system, we have to integrate our own shame. And that is what happened to me at Mad Camp.
A jenga tower of bricks begins to collapse

From Public Service to Private Practice: The Collapse of the Social Work Profession

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Can we resist turning to private practices masked in social justice rhetoric as a substitute for genuine movement building and advocacy?
An engraving depicting water being shot at two prisoners; hydrotherapy

Everything About Us Without Us

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Between 1883-1955, there was little attention given to the value and contributions of those who were “patients” at the Oregon State Insane Asylum.

Art, Poetry, and Humor Galleries

View the artwork, poetry, and humor galleries and submit your work. Or visit the Arts Corner.

Liberation of Psyche by Marlena Kolesinska

Dr. Morgan Shields of Washington University in St. Louis is conducting research on the experience of people utilizing behavioral health crisis services. They are recruiting people who have direct lived experience as patients/recipients or providers/clinicians and those with indirect experience as loved ones. If interested, take the 5-minute screening survey here.
 

Survivors And Families Empowered (SAFE) has developed a pilot project to work with caring families who have been stymied in their search for support and help. You can fill out their survey here.

Please join us on April 15, 2025, at 12PM ET for a special panel on The Hope of Harm Reduction with Caroline Mazel-Carlton, hosted by Ron Unger. 

Psychology, Personhood, and the Crisis of Neoliberalism: Jeff Sugarman on Theoretical and Critical Psychology

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Tim Beck interviews Jeff Sugarman on the psychology of personhood, the influence of neoliberalism on mental health, and the need for a more philosophically informed psychology.

Do Critics of Biological Psychiatry Have an Alternative to a Life of “Whack-A-Mole”?

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Psychiatry has simultaneously offered multiple biological theories of depression and its other disorders, but the theories that stick are those that are effective marketing devices for money-making drugs.

Exploding Myths About Schizophrenia: An Interview with Courtenay Harding

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The Vermont Longitudinal Study, led by Courtenay Harding, belied conventional beliefs about schizophrenia by showing remarkably good outcomes for patients discharged in the 1950s and '60s.

“Dad, Something’s Not Right. I Need Help”: Richard Fee on the Dangers of Adderall

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In appointments that last five to seven minutes, all doctors do is push drugs—psychiatric drugs, ADHD meds, everything.

Psychotherapy and Social Change: Mick Cooper on Counseling, Pluralism, and Progressive Politics

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Javier Rizo interviews Mick Cooper on the intersection of psychotherapy and social transformation, the pluralistic approach to counseling, and the role of psychology in building a more just society.

“All Real Living Is Meeting”: Brent Robbins on Love, Death, and the Possibilities of...

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Psychologist and existential thinker Brent Robbins reflects on a lifetime of work, the limits of psychiatric diagnosis, and what facing mortality has taught him about joy and human connection.

EDITOR'S PICK

Rethinking mental health in Ireland: Why not a Trieste-style approach?

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Mental health is not just a medical issue; it is a societal concern that demands collective responsibility. Ireland has an opportunity to reimagine its mental health services, moving beyond crisis-driven, medicalised care towards a compassionate, community-based model that truly supports recovery and inclusion.

Suicide among Pakistani Women: Reasons and Protective Factors

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Factors like abuse by in-laws, diminished patience, children’s well-being, and religious beliefs influence Pakistani’s women’s suicidal thoughts and attempts.

A lone monkey is a dead monkey – about stigmatization?

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We all know that humans are social creatures; as mammals we live in packs, we are not solitary, but our belonging to the group is an essential part of how our species has survived historically. What's more, our brains have changed little since we lived as hunter-gatherers on the savannah, meaning that our desire to belong to the group is still an important psychological mechanism in all of us

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