Around The Web

Updates on critical psychiatry postings across the Internet.

The Dividing Line Between Crazy and Not Crazy | Daniel Mackler

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From Wild Truth: Being in touch with reality means seeing things clearly, without the veils or filters known as defenses. Thus, we’re all crazy to some degree, to the degree that we have defenses.

Why Breakdowns Are Sometimes Necessary

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From Sustainable Human: Everyone thinks that the way to get to love, happiness and joy is by avoiding the forest of dark emotions inside us. But we actually need to go through it in order to get to the Garden of Eden.

Be Worried About Boys, Especially Baby Boys | Darcia Narvaez, PhD

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From ACES Too High/Kindred Media: A review of research by Dr. Allan Schore shows that early life experience influences boys significantly more than girls, leading them to need more care instead of less.

A Theological Reckoning With ‘Bad Trips’

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From Harvard Divinity Bulletin: The therapeutic instrumentalization of transcendence ignores volumes of wisdom from traditions that emphasize the dangers of nonordinary experience.

Concern as Proportion of Children in England on Antipsychotics Doubles

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From The Guardian: Although the overall percentage who were prescribed antipsychotics was relatively small, experts consider it a worrying trend since these powerful drugs carry serious safety risks.

A Neuroscientist Views Deaths of Despair and Depression

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Dr. Sterling's grand rounds lecture looks at why U.S. deaths of despair are the highest in the developed world, what our species' needs are for a healthy lifecycle, and what happens when those needs are frustrated.

Epilepsy Drugs as ‘Chemical Restraint’ on Rise in Nursing Homes

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From The Washington Post: An inspector general report indicates nursing home physicians have traded one controversial practice for another: sedating dementia patients with anticonvulsant drugs rather than antipsychotics.

The Biases of Western Medicine | Gabor Maté, MD

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From Sustainable Human: Western medicine has a number of hidden ideological beliefs that hinder our understanding and resolution of illnesses, whether physical or mental.

Do We Live in a Brave New World? Aldous Huxley’s Warning to the World

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From Academy of Ideas: "In 1931, when Brave New World was being written, I was convinced that there was still plenty of time," wrote Huxley. "Twenty-seven years later…I feel a good deal less optimistic…The nightmare of total organization…is now awaiting us, just around the next corner."

Misleading Ads Fueled Rapid Growth of Online Mental Health Companies

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From The Wall Street Journal: In the two years since the government expanded the scope of allowable telehealth services, companies have been operating largely outside of the advertising rules that govern drugmakers.

Congressional Inquiry into Alzheimer’s Drug Faults Its Maker and FDA

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From The New York Times: The agency’s actions "raise serious concerns about FDA’s lapses in protocol," the report concluded. Nevertheless, the FDA is now evaluating two other Alzheimer’s drugs for approval early next year.

The New York Times Uncritically Repeats Discredited Antidepressant Claims

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From CounterPunch/Bruce Levine, PhD: Once again, as with their reporting on WMDs in Iraq, the paper showed no skepticism about declarations from sources with powerful motives to sell a self-serving narrative that conflicts with the evidence.

A House on Shaky Ground: Eight Structural Flaws of the Western Worldview

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From Tikkun/Jeremy Lent: Many of the ideas we hold sacrosanct in modern society are actually myths that emerged from erroneous assumptions made at different times and places in history.

Babies Feel Pain More Intensely Than Adults, Brain Imaging Study Finds

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From Return to Now: Researchers found that babies are actually four times more sensitive to pain than adults, even though painful procedures are still routinely performed on them with no pain relief.

Assisted Dying Laws Are Devastating for Suicide Prevention, Warns New Research

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From Scottish Daily Express: European countries and US states that have introduced systems to allow for euthanasia have reported an increase in the number of non-assisted suicides.

‘Restraint and Seclusion’ Harms Kids. So Why Is It Used in Schools?

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From The Washington Post: What if you went five days a week to a school that regularly locked you up or physically held you down? Most of us would walk in ready for a fight, not to learn.

I Was Hospitalized Against My Will. I Know Firsthand the Harm It Can Cause

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From The Guardian: As Mayor Eric Adams recently announced a dramatic expansion of New York City’s involuntary hospitalization policy, I listened in disbelief, overcome with both rage and grief.

‘Transparent Replications’ Project Aims to Improve Reliability in Psychological Research

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From Clearer Thinking: The new initiative, launched by Clearer Thinking, will replicate a substantial fraction of papers coming out in top psychology journals.

Celebrating Steps Toward Humane Approaches to Distress

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From John Read, PhD/Psychology Today: 2022 saw many examples of the ongoing international struggle for effective mental health services. Here is my list of some of the year's successes.

The Wisdom of the Symptom Bearer: It’s Always the ‘Crazy’ One Who Knows the...

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From Medium/Rev. Sheri Heller, LCSW: The 'symptom bearer' or 'identified patient' is the scapegoat who carries the evidence of the familial dysfunction.

Civil Rights Advocates Call U.S. Child Welfare System a ‘National Problem’

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From The Imprint: A new report says the child welfare system fails to adequately address the needs of families and often harms the very kids it's designed to protect.

Why Is Stigma Toward ‘Schizophrenia’ Getting Worse?

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From Psychology Today/Justin Garson, PhD: Intriguingly, the greatest increase in stigma toward 'schizophrenia' occurred from 1990 to 2001, the so-called "decade of the brain."

Eat For Life Podcast: The Hidden Harms of Antidepressants with Robert Whitaker

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From Eat For Life: As one of the first children to be put on Prozac, this is an important and personal episode for me, as depression and mental illness continue to rise despite all the drugs available today to treat them.

Authenticity Can Heal Trauma | Gabor Maté, MD

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From How To Academy: What happens if, for the sake of fitting in with the family or culture, we have to give up our connection to ourselves, our authenticity, for the sake of attachment?

AI Has Already Taken Over. It’s Called the Corporation

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From Resilience/Jeremy Lent: Futurists warning about the threats of AI are looking in the wrong place. Humanity is already facing an existential threat from an artificial intelligence we created hundreds of years ago.