“The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is”
Errol Morris writes a five-part series on anosognosia, beginning with the strange case of a bank robber who was unaware of being stupid and...
Robert Whitaker Speaks at NAMI National Convention
Opening his presentation, "The Case for Selected Use of Anti-Psychotics", at the national convention of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in San Antonio,...
The Diagnostic Manual of Mishegas
Written by a committee including Jay Neugeboren, Michael B. Friedman, and an actual doctor, the D-MOM parodies the "Bible of Psychiatry" promises to "enable...
“Breaking the Seal on Drug Research”
The New York Times offers the story of Dr. Peter Doshi, whose efforts to force pharmaceutical companies to open the records of their drug...
“The Anger and Rage Collection: What we Don’t Engage we Cannot Transform”
Another from the indefatigable Monica Cassani, on a theme close to the heart of this website: working with and through anger.
Thank you, Monica.
Beyond Meds →
“The Suicide Detective”
The New York Times tells the story of Matthew Knock, director of Harvard University's Laboratory for Clinical and Developmental Research, who recently received a...
“Pop Neuroscience is Bunk!”
Sally Satel and Scott Lilienfeld write in Salon on the promises and follies of neuroscience research.
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Review of Allen Frances’ Memoir and Critique of the DSM
Christian Perring of the invaluable Metapsychology Online reviews "Saving Normal: An Insider's Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of...
“Science Doesn’t Know Everything”
Jerome Kagan, professor of psychology emeritus from Harvard University, says that "scientists studying psychological phenomena should replace their habit of linking one cause to...
Rats Choose Social Life over Drugs
A classic experiment demonstrated that rats who had access to a full social life clearly chose not to ingest opiates, if given the choice,...
“Bad Diagnosis for New Psychiatry ‘Bible'”
Gary Greenberg gets a chance to engage with Thomas Insel and Jeffrey Lieberman on the risks and benefits associated with psychiatric diagnosis and the...
“Being the Empowered Patient”
Monica Cassani writes about what, and how much, it takes to be an empowered patient: "I was a mental health professional for so many...
“Is Criticism of DSM-5 ‘Anti-psychiatry’?”
Allen Frances responds to critics of the DSM-5 protesters, saying "The American Psychiatric Association has never once addressed the substantive questions raised about DSM-5....
“Anti-Psychiatry Prejudice? A response to Dr. Lieberman”
A doctor (an infectious disease specialist) responds to Jeffrey Lieberman's defense of the DSM, saying "Rather than respond to critics of the APA’s new...
“Why it’s Truly Bonkers to Believe in Shrinks”
The U.K.'s Daily Mail reviews "Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good" by James Davies.
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“Science Isn’t Golden”
Paula Caplan's Psychology Today blog on the "existential nausea" associated with seeing the recent controversy over the DSM and psychiatric diagnosis. This is a...
“Are Mental Illnesses Such as PMS and Depression Culturally Determined?”
Britain's Guardian discovers, in light of the DSM controversy, that a "growing number of psychiatrists suspect mental conditions are 'culture-bound syndromes' rather than exclusively...
“Closed Thinking: Without Scientific Competition and Open Debate, Much Psychology Research Goes Nowhere”
Science News offers an excellent review of the the perils and pitfalls of the scientific method as it is practiced in psychology today, concluding...
“Temple Grandin on DSM-5: ‘Sounds Like Diagnosis by Committee'”
Salon publishes and excerpt from Temple Grandin's "The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum", saying it "anticipated much of the thinking in the new...
DSM — the Latest News and Happenings… Collected
Monica Cassani promises to add to Beyond Meds' chronicle, today and for the next week or so, of emerging coverage on the DSM rollout....
“To CDC on Children’s Mental Health: Consider Office of Homeland Attachment Security”
Claudia Gold writes in the Boston Globe, "The time has come to recognize the overwhelming evidence regarding the importance of early relationships in healthy...
“Mental Distress Is Not An Illness”
Philip Hickey, PhD, of the valuable blog Behaviorism and Mental Health, explicates the fuzzy distinction between "disorder" and "illness" when it comes to mental health,...
“There Was a Time – it Was a Long Time ago, Maybe 40 Years...
For consistently trenchant analysis of the DSM controversy, visit 1 Boring Old Man. Among many posts this weekend, he eulogizes his early career as...
“The Inmates Seem to Have Taken Over the Asylum”
Allen Frances writes, in the Huffington Post, a "plea to the American Psychiatric Association, to the National Institute of Mental Health, and to the...
“Do we Need to Change the way we Are Thinking About Mental Illness?”
Britain's Guardian offers "experts on both sides of the debate over the classification of mental disorders" an opportunity to make their case.
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