Study Documents the Emotional Toll of Psychiatric Microaggressions

A new study reveals that microaggressions—from cold detachment to unspoken assumptions—shape psychiatric care in ways that undermine healing.

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A new study conducted by Ploon Defourny, Nienke van Sambeek, and colleagues at the University of Amsterdam delves into service users’ experiences of microaggressions within psychiatric care.

The findings illuminate subtle yet harmful interactions that contribute to service users’ feelings of dehumanization, exclusion, and hopelessness—undermining their recovery journeys.

Microaggressions are “everyday slights, indignities, put-downs, and insults that marginalized groups experience in day-to-day interactions.” While these interactions may appear minor, they can have a significant cumulative effect. The research team emphasizes that microaggressions often manifest as much in what is withheld—such as respect, engagement, and empathy—as in what is overtly expressed. The authors write:

“Our results imply that it might be useful to rethink microaggression in mental healthcare not only for what is actively done to people but also in terms of what they are deprived of. Strikingly, service users often described negative care experiences in terms of the absence of relationship-building and not being treated as equal or worthy of humane interaction.”

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11 COMMENTS

  1. Implicitly, the field of Western medicine recognizes that health is natural function, because they recognize deviation from natural function as disease or dysfunction, so natural function is the standard reference point for health. And psychiatric drugs are known to derange natural function as are other questionable medical and surgical procedures which produced some kind of biological or neurological fudge, or disablement, which means the understanding of medicine is not sufficient to restore natural function, and such medicine should always be evolving if it were to rectify this within the limitations of the current medical field.

    But now I see we don’t need almost anything within the field medicine at all – we need natural lives, which is the best medicine, and if we had that medicine, our medical knowledge and technology would be used intelligently and in harmony with the processes that operate in natural human lives which the West understands as little as the Incas understood a life dominated by the toxic all consuming, all dominating, all destroying society. Can we see all this and the radical implications? I think it’s undeniable, and it helps that medicine and psychiatry utterly fails me on almost every contact and has done for years, because as a consequence I tend to use medicine very rarely and see how much of their advice is untrue, for example strict instructions not to walk when you’ve got a broken hip or to rest your arm when there’s a broken arm or whatever: being unable to do these I found I healed much quicker then the 6 weeks of rest they prescribed, although I would have been lost without the painkillers with the broken hip in the early stages.

    The same is true for me with psych drugs, because I have been much worse when taking them and have been totally against them for years. I would occassionally use them as a last resort when I had a crisis but it is clear that I’m far more healthy then I could possibly have been without them.

    And if we understand this we won’t be at the mercy of microaggression, cynical profeteering through deception in the form of false theoretical assertions, and all the rest of the expensive dysfunction within the health systems which have done nothing to stem the rising tide of all manner of chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, many cancers, dimentias, osteoporosis, dental problems, liver diseases (fatty liver, cirrhosis, hepatitis etc), many infections for example all the sexually transmitted diseases, all the inflammatory diseases and the higher prevalence of many of these will undoubtably also be rooted in the far more sedentary and stressful lives we lead which produces a general weakness and lack of resilience in the body that should itself be regarded as ill health but which the doctors could well pass off as healthy when it leads to many problems including the need to comfort, escape and medicate when things get out of control which is responsible itself for many kinds of social and behavioural pathologies.

    And really although what I’m saying might sound radical or anarchistic, but if so what I’m suggesting isn’t made clear. I imagine we will have better standards of health and won’t need the vast sprawling health systems if we live truly natural lives while ensuring good nutrition and community, and having access to full understandings and technologies of medicine to be used in harmony with health natural life systems. I actually don’t feel this is at all debatable, based on the observable facts. Disease can be controlled through medicine without being dependent on a vast, sprawling system that we interact with, most of us, on such a regular basis at enormous expense. If you discover this it’s quite a shocking insight, that’s all, and one day it will destroy health as we know it. Obviously we will always want to take care of people who become sick but I contend that the overwhelming majority of sickness would be eliminated if we lived natural lives which implies also a community. I could imagine the Mormons needing a fraction of the healthcare that others need, at least until recent history – I don’t know, and it would be interesting to find out. They are not quite living natural lives, but they do live traditional lives which are clearly more similar to the truly healthy, natural and free societies that no doubt have been and one hopes could be again some day. Our health is being utterly destroyed on every level so our health systems don’t heal us – they are part of a total social process that’s destroying health, clearly.

    By the way, needing sex all the time I would argue is a symptom of socially conditioned ill health, a maladaption brought about by our culture and it’s ignorance of our sensuous and emotional needs.There is so little meaning and intimacy and beauty and transcendence in our miserable societies that inevitably, every bit of nature or freedom or excitement or other glitter overwhelms and arouses us too easily, and that includes sex, but also egoism and it’s lust for wealth, pleasure and power, violence, gambling, hate speech, but also protest, occupations and the like which at least help to discharge social negativity in a manner which sometimes advances nature’s interests. Perhaps I am not making the case clear but it’s blindingly obvious to me, and I think all traditional and natural communities would vouch the same, although there are very few. I doubt they have much modern medicine in the remote Himalayas for example so perhaps we could ask them.

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  2. I’ve found that at least here in my experience a lot of these behaviors are deliberate. It isn’t a nurse having a bad day or a psychiatrist getting frustrated. These behaviors are deliberate and they are intended to inflict pain and suffering on people who are supposedly being helped.

    Humiliation is part of treatment because treatment is slavery.

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    • “1. Dehumanization

      “Service users often felt that they were viewed as disorders to be managed rather than as people deserving of care.”

      Well, I have written proof this is how my ungodly disrespectful psychiatrist thought of me, written right in his medical records.

      “2. Disregard for Lived Experiences

      “Many service users reported that their input was dismissed or ignored during treatment planning and care discussions.”

      My psychiatrist very literally denied the common adverse effects of his anticholinergic toxidrome poisonings, as the symptoms of my psychologist’s misdiagnosis. And, in the end, he declared the entirety of my life to be a “credible fictional story,” since he’d gotten all his misinformation about me from a child abuse covering up psychologist.

      “3. Conveying Hopelessness

      “Service users often described feeling as though they were given no sense of purpose or hope for recovery.”

      I was defamed to my husband by my child abuse covering up psychologist, as having a “life long, incurable, genetic illness,” none of which was true. But that “conveying hopelessness,” and stigmatization / defamation, by a child abuse covering up psychologist, did destroy my marriage.

      So I do most definitely agree, all these forms of psychiatric and psychological “microaggressions” are common behaviors by today’s scientific fraud based psychological and psychiatric professions.

      “Emotional and Psychological Impact,” or how to heal oneself, from psychological and psychiatric abuse:

      “Plot 1: Seeking Safety and Recognition: Service users expressed a longing for relationships where they felt seen and valued.” Isn’t that what everyone needs? In as much as I had less than zero safety and recognition from “mental health professionals,” “peer support groups and recovery colleges.” I do agree, “My friends, our conversations, our work — they were my salvation.”

      “Plot 2: Taking Back Control:” I do agree, the only way to heal from the systemic sins and crimes of today’s “invalid” psychological and psychiatric industries is to escape and take back control of one’s life – today’s psychological and psychiatric industries are unworthy of trust.

      “Plot 3: Proving Them Wrong: Some participants described defying the expectations placed on them by mental health professionals.” Well, we here have found the medical evidence of the iatrogenic etiologies of the two “most serious” DSM “disorders,” their billing code “bible” was debunked in 2013, so I think we have scientifically proven the “mental health professionals” are “wrong,” but they’ve yet to repent and change from their iatrogenic illness creating ways.

      “… psychiatric institutions, despite their mission to provide care, can erode dignity and perpetuate stigma.” Indeed, since their DSM “bible” of “disorders” is “invalid,” all psych diagnoses are merely used to stigmatize people … and declaring the entirety of a person’s real life to be “a credible fictional story” is very wrong, absurd, and insulting.

      “The findings suggest that recovery often occurs outside traditional mental health settings due to the relational deficits within them.” Or since the psych drugs can create iatrogenic illnesses that mimic the DSM disorders, escape from the psychiatric system, is likely the only way to heal … albeit, withdrawal from the psych drugs can also create the symptoms of the “invalid” DSM disorders.

      “These behaviors are deliberate and they are intended to inflict pain and suffering on people who are supposedly being helped.” I agree, HadEnough. I’ve had too much disrespect, too.

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    • Thank you Joel for beautifully articulating what I’ve observed for years.

      Microaggressions are an inescapable element of the “psychotherapeutic”
      relationship though much of the time these occur without clients consciously realizing what’s happening because they’ve been conditioned to defer to authority rather than believe what they themselves are observing.

      It all starts the with a needless power imbalance unconsciously(?) designed to hide psychotherapy’s inherently aggressive power dynamics.

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  3. Ms. Aybar,
    “Microaggression” is such a quaint, sanitized term for what goes on in the psychiatric industry.

    During my 12-year entombment that began with top-shelf Florida private insurance, degenerating to the nightmarish Arizona RBHA/Medicaid system….the bullying was relentless. As I was addicted to the drugs and they were the Gatekeepers (corner drug slingers), the flawed but easily understood Stanford Experiment was SOP.

    There was no need for ‘microaggressions’…it was big, flagrant, and constant…a flex by under-educated folks who were angry that the clients didn’t exhibit RESPECT for their ‘underpaid’ attentions. As mental health is the step-child of the legislative system everywhere, effective oversight is zero.

    Once I appropriately refused ‘home visits’ mandated on their worksheets. They were NOT required policy…if one read the handbook.

    I then had yet another life-threatening side-effect (anaphylaxis!) to the drugs perscribed by one of a carousel of NP’s, requiring an independant hospital intervention….and on-the-record report

    Following that avoidable horror-show, I appropriately requested an appointment with a psych M.D…as I hadn’t been seen/assessed by one in 7 years.
    My LCSW (6th in 9 months) said she would ‘get me that appointment’ if I would grant the home visit…so her report was ‘complete’.

    Quid pro quo…. for adequate BRAIN treatment…by a ‘caregiver’ to an ostensible SMI. That’s MUCH larger than a tiny ‘microaggression’ label.

    If that had been Oncological care or Cardio-pulmonary care, it would have been a front-page scandal.

    It worked out tho’….

    I got an ‘audience’ with the Director M.D….. he was justifiably frightened by my quiet recitation of facts…and my terms for drug withdrawal & written rescension of their LIFETIME BPD diagnosis.

    Turns out he was already promoted to Chief Medical Officer & Vice President of the biggest Arizona behavioral health contractor. Just waiting for the ‘official announcement’.

    Also turns out his very impressive New York elite psychiatric medical degree (‘Albert’somethingsomething) wasn’t too important….the contractor’s budget & power trumped it easily.

    He (and HIS boss) quickly agreed to my terms.

    “Lifetime”? No problem, as he swept it into the metaphorical trashcan…and changed it to “Anxiety”…12 years after diagnosis, ‘treatment”, and profound losses & damages to my life, body, & soul.

    I was secretly (!) withdrawn off the drugs. It took 2.5 years. I got my written diagnosis removal.

    30 days before I was scheduled to achieve those milestones, HE REQUESTED A DINNER DATE…in a text I still have. He had earlier requested I communicate with him by texting his private number.

    He was my psychiatrist. I was his drugged patient…for almost 3 years.

    According to Arizona statutes, I was a “vulnerable adult”. A COERCED, vulnerable adult.
    Panicked, I called my former therapist.
    She responded she was mandated to report him.
    I just wanted to run & save what was left of my life.

    He is a predator…with tremendous power in Arizona.

    Ms. Aybar, please ‘square’ that kind of terrorism vs. “microaggression” for me.

    I’ll be right here waiting.

    He ascended to the throne and remains there today, COP-ing with the endless, manufactured diagnoses fueling (what was) a $2 billion dollar budget.

    Ms. Aybar, that’s not “microaggression”, that’s Thermo-Nuclear Power.

    Look harder under the rock.
    And jack-up your polite outrage.

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  4. Diagnosing someone with a psychiatric “disorder” is by itself a very aggressive act; it’s where the othering begins.

    I think any interaction with the so-called “mental healthcare system” is extremely damaging to people in subtle ways due to the inherently aggressive nature of psychiatry, including even the most talented therapists because in the final analysis all “mental patients” are viewed on some level as objects of study and/or sources of income instead of what they truly are: human beings worthy of healthy and equitable human relationships undefined by unhelpful labels or tainted by the exchange of money.

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