Blogs

Essays by a diverse group of writers, in the United States and abroad, engaged in rethinking psychiatry. (The directory of personal stories can be found here, and initiatives here).

Stressed, frustrated girl concept vector. Scene of accusation in life, depression in work. Human hand helps lonely woman. Upset girl with long hair sits and hugs her knees.

Don’t Include Involuntary Commitment as a Treatment Tool in Seattle

6
As someone who has experienced the trauma of involuntary mental health treatment, I am deeply concerned.
A white-coated white male with glasses looks skeptical; an ouija board is the background

The Ouija Board and the Skeptic

42
Skepticism, especially from those with lived experience, is necessary. It forces us to question whether our tools and methods truly help.
The universe inside us, the profile of a young woman and space, the effect of double exposure. scientific concept. The brain and creativity. Elements of this image furnished by NASA.

Guided Dreaming Can Transform Psychosocial Issues: 11 Case Studies

7
Dreaming problem-solves various waking concerns creatively through memory consolidation and emotional processing.
3D illustration of a green tree emerging from an unlocked prison-cell like door shaped like a head

Schizophrenia and Homosexuality: My Experience and Case Studies

39
During my confinement, I became convinced that the forced repression of my homosexuality was the true etiology of my schizophrenia.
A hand holds out pills. A child is out of focus in the background.

For-Profit Healthcare Is a Predator; Its Main Prey Is Our Young

14
Labeling kids with “brain diseases” sets them up for failure. This explains why the U.S. has so many youth crises.
Engraving-style art of a person looking out the door of an asylum room

From Auctions to Moral Treatment

5
In less than 25 years Oregon moved from auctioning off the “care” of the "insane" to the lowest bidder to creating a safe place focused on recovery.

Mad in America’s 10 Most Popular Articles in 2024

2
A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2024 as chosen by our readers.
Medical Students In Lecture Hall 6th March 2022 Hyderabad India — Photo by rajastills

Modern Psychology and Its Colonial Legacy

23
I question the modern rhetoric of ‘primitive’ cultures not having enough ‘knowledge’ about mental health and needing to be ‘educated’.
Close up of document titled "Informed Consent" being held

Who Can Consent to Research—and What Does That Mean for Forced Treatment?

15
What the doctors are not seeing is the health in people—except when it’s convenient for them and their research projects.
Person sitting in the distance, yellow light corridor

The Fallacy of Modern Psychiatry: Treating Symptoms, Ignoring Causes

105
To truly understand a person’s actions and behaviors, one must ask: What was this person exposed to? What did they experience?
Stock image of a person holding a warning sign in front of their face.

Mental Illness Prophesies Society’s Spiritual Sickness

26
The rising prevalence of mental illness in the west is a warning to society to take a good, hard look at itself.
comic book style see, hear, speak no evil, psychedelic background

Set, Setting, Forgetting: Silence on Abuse in Psychedelic Therapy Histories

14
The failure to address therapist abuse in MDMA-AT perpetuates a dangerous silence that distorts the field's history and compromises future practice.
Train Station in Sopot, Poland, Europe. Attractive man waiting at the train station. Thinking about trip, with backpack. Travel photography. tourist with backpack stand on railway station platform.

Exile: My Cure for Psychosis

30
Psychiatry infantilizes the patient. Living in exile allows formerly psychotic people to achieve mature, healthy independence. 

Rights, Responsibilities and Resources–Peer Support in Mental Health Services

1
Service users and peer support experts should be taking inspiration from the Recovery movement and the defense of rights.
Aliens in a cornfield

The Schizophrenic and the Dreamer

16
If delusions contain symbolic content, like dreams, then the language of the schizophrenic may be intelligible after all.
watercolor portrait of a sleeping woman

What Are Waking Dreams, and Why Should You Care?

11
Indigenous cultures around the world recognize and intentionally cultivate waking dreams for both personal and community well-being.

The Consciousness of Voices and Visions

4
Alan Robinson reviews a 30-year journey working with his voices and visions in directing actors and creative writing.
Photo of a dramatic tree-lined wilderness

The Two Earliest Stories of Recovery in Oregon

10
In the early 19th century, frontiersmen Pelton and Day experienced recovery from "mental illness" after traumatic experiences.
Professional woman looking at documents with magnifying glass

Seriously Misleading Testimony by Psychiatry Professor in Oslo District Court About the Effect of...

6
Lawsuits are a means to obtain changes in an inhumane psychiatry.
B&W photo of a young woman smoking. Close-up on the cigarette being lit by a lighter; her face is out of focus

Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em: Rethinking Smoking as a Trauma Response

27
For people with trauma-impacted brains, smoking is a tool to quiet an ever-present storm.
Portrait of Primeval Caveman Wearing Animal Skin and Fur Hunting with a Stone Tipped Spear in the Prehistoric Forest. Prehistoric Neanderthal Hunter Ready to Throw Spear in the Jungle

Beyond the Chemical Imbalance: Looking to the Past to Understand the Mental Health Crisis

25
Our bodies and minds evolved to thrive in an environment that is vastly different from the one in which a majority of us now live.

Ward 362: On Meeting People in Sorrow

12
There is no understanding that we have the need for comfort and support. Our feelings are not allowed; they are reduced to medical symptoms.
Close-up of hands, sunlight between them, above tiny growing pink flowers

A Bicultural Māori/European Vision for a Truly Healing Hospital

5
Our therapies need to treat the root causes of mental distress—especially trauma and environment—and not just numb the pain.
A man hiding behind a large wooden table, only his head and hands showing

The Trauma Craze: How the Expansion of Trauma Diagnoses Fueled Victimhood Culture

102
Exploring the paradox of increasing trauma diagnoses in a safer world and the proliferation of trauma culture.
Miniature people - The worker at work with medicine pills

Irrational Polypharmacy: How Integrated Mental Health Treatment Can Help

1
Drug-first treatment overlooks the underlying circumstances that contributed to the development of mental health issues in the first place.