Around The Web

In the New York Times' Op-Talk, Anna North interviews Jonathan Metzl about his recent study showing how little gun violence and mental illness are...

University of Liverpool's John Read suggests the "unscientific" nature of psychiatry is a major part of what is driving medical students away from the profession.

From The Guardian: Rather than just seeing ourselves, we need to recognise that our health and fates are inextricably linked to our fellow human beings and find collective care.

From Psychiatric Times: Dr. Aftab and Dr. Pies revisit various criticisms of psychiatry, and discuss the profession’s relationship with its critics.

From Psychiatric Times: Three British experts discuss various ways to respond to and help people who have experienced trauma and psychosis.

From Denverite: The Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program represents a more empathetic approach to policing that keeps people out of an often-cyclical criminal justice system.

The Atlantic compares the use of meth as a “top-line antidepressant” in the 1930s to the 1950s to debates over the use of medicinal marijuana today. “It’s an example of how pharmaceuticals, at their core, are drugs. They’re chemicals that were mixed together and believed to be beneficial to humanity, until they weren't.”

From The Guardian: David Taylor, director of pharmacy for an NHS foundation trust, knows from personal experience that coming off these medications can be horrible. He has also researched ways to make it easier.

From NBC News: Spears told the court that her previous psychiatrist was abusive, but the allegation is neither uncommon in conservatorships nor likely to help her case.

A Facebook page has been set up to tell of what it is like in the Illinois mental hospital where Marci Webber is being held after staff fought her conditional release because she refuses to take any more psych drugs.

From Jeremy Lent/Resilience: Human supremacy is a specific ideology with origins in the Western worldview that desacralized nature, turning it into a resource to exploit.

The March issue, “Practicing Recovery: Implementing and Measuring a Recovery Orientation,” features contributions by Larry Davidson and Sandra Steingard on recovery-oriented approaches to mental...

For The Influence, addiction expert Stanton Peele criticizes our current genetic and biological “brain disease” approaches to addiction and mental health. Article →

The Federal Aviation Administration has ruled out requiring psychological testing for airline pilots in favor of enhanced mental health support programs in response to a crash...

Psychologist Stephen Soldz writes for STAT: "It was profoundly distressing to hear Donald Trump on the campaign trail vowing a return to abusing prisoners...

From Science of Us: This week's This American Life, which addresses questions regarding whether extraterrestrial life exists, reveals a great deal of truth about what it...

From MIT Technology Review: A new app, Triggr, is using smartphone data to track the behavior of people struggling with substance use and addiction, with...

From Big Think: The X-Files, a popular TV show from the 1990's, explores the philosophy of science, delving into questions about what constitutes quality science. While one...

From Atlas Obscura: In the 1930s, hundreds of people with mental disabilities committed to the now abandoned DeJarnette Sanitarium were forcibly sterilized and experimented on by the hospital's eugenicist namesake.

In this interview for SciLogs, Dr. Michael P. Hengartner critiques the current research on antidepressant drugs and the state of biological psychiatry. "One has to realize...

From The Conversation: Scientists are increasingly finding that the P value, one of the classic science statistics, is not as reliable as we like to...

From NPR: People who live in urban areas may experience a poorer quality of life due to spending insufficient time outdoors. In a new book, Forest...

From Mashable: Research shows that being forced into mental health treatment can be painful, traumatic, humiliating, and may lead to worse outcomes.

From The New School for Social Research: The panel will explore finding meaning through suffering, how indigenous cultures identify 'psychotic' symptoms as an indicator of shamanic potential, and the growing severity of the mental health crisis in America dominated by biomedical psychiatry.

From Dr. Gabor Maté: We need to look at the lives of today’s children and adolescents and, above all, at what’s missing in their lives.