Putting JAMA Psychiatry and MIA to the Genetic Test
We can assess whether Mad in America readers or JAMA Psychiatry readers are being provided with the most robust scientific literature.
Can Madness Save the World? Where R.D. Laing—and Star Trek—Meet
What if the only choice we can really make, and trust, is the irrational, even mad, choice to love? What would saving the world look like then?
Animal Theory of Emotion: Emotion Is Not a Disorder
Too many people see themselves as having mental disorders when what they have is emotion, and in some cases, a great deal of it.
Beyond Greenspaces and Mental Health: The Power of the Wild
Tensions of sustainability, climate change, and global mental health: grassknots, greenspace, and climate psychology.
Never Waste a Good Depression: Family Therapy Challenges the Seductive Shortcut of Psychiatric Drugs
The widespread use of psychiatric drugs reduces important conversations about the problems of being human while limiting our options for problem-solving.
Charles Spencer’s Story of Boarding School Abuse Is Haunting
But parents are still sending children away to board, and it’s still dangerous.
In Defense of Open Dialogue Research
One of the original Open Dialogue researchers responds to a paper presenting a prejudiced and selective review of the scientific literature.
Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS): How the Last Step to Recovery Became the Final Step...
How persistent, unbearable suffering, due to prolonged withdrawal from antipsychotics prescribed as a sleeping medication, led to euthanasia.
The Integration of Peer Support Principles in Community Mental Health Policy and Practice: Toward...
Though there are obstacles, integration of peer support is already underway thanks to change agents in the mental health system.
The New DSM Is Coming and That Isn’t Good News
Binge Eating Disorder is one of many invalid diagnoses we’ll continue to receive as a result of the APA’s failure to correct the mistakes of past versions of the DSM.
Too Good to Be True: How TMS Damaged My Brain
TMS not only has not improved my mental health, but also has robbed me of some of the most important things in life. There has been little to no research on or awareness around the negative side effects that TMS can inflict. This must change.
“The Best Minds”: How the Dazzling New Book Falls Short
"The Best Minds" could be seen as a book that is critical of conventional psychiatry, but it falls short on pointing out its true faults.
Interpersonal Caring as an Act of Resistance Among Socially Marginalized
Some of the most marginalized and stigmatized people in a community are those with psychiatric diagnoses and those who are HIV positive.
Reflections on the Silicon Valley Teen Suicides-by-Train: Fifteen Years Later
A psychiatrist and mom reflects on teen suicide clusters in Palo Alto and discusses alternative ways to address adolescent mental health.
As a Psychologist, I’ve Seen Many Children Misdiagnosed as Autistic—It’s a Clinical Catastrophe
The ASD diagnosis glosses over the many developmental specifics that might underlie a child’s challenges related to social communication.
Duty to Warn – 14 Lies That Our Psychiatry Professors in Medical School Taught...
Revealing the false information provided about psychiatry should cause any thinking person, patient, thought-leader or politician to wonder: “how many otherwise normal or potentially curable people over the last half century of psych drug propaganda have actually been mis-labeled as mentally ill (and then mis-treated) and sent down the convoluted path of therapeutic misadventures – heading toward oblivion?”
“Virtual Autism” May Explain Explosive Rise in ASD Diagnoses
New clinical case studies have found that many young children who spend too much screen time—on TV’s, video games, tablets and computers—have symptoms labeled as “autism.” When parents take away the screens for a few months the child’s symptoms disappear.
Neurofeedback is Not For Everyone: The Dangers of Neurology
One thing I noticed, from the moment that I stepped out of my psychiatrist’s office, was how strangely blank and yet clear my mind was. I felt surprisingly calm and relaxed, and I decided to go back for another treatment the next week. What I couldn’t have known then was that after that next “treatment,” life would be completely destroyed for me.
How and Why Neurotypicals Misunderstand and Mistreat Autistic People
Commonly used autism interventions, such as ABA, have been found to be both ineffective and abusive, inflicting trauma on those subjected to them.
How Psychiatrists Responded to the Launch of Our New ECT Survey
Amid mostly rude and unprofessional jibes, there were also some legitimate points, which are addressed here.
Comments by Shock Survivors and Their Loved Ones
The #FDAStopTheShockDevice petition has received over 2,200 signatures and 800+ comments. A more thorough analysis of those comments is forthcoming, however, we wanted to offer a glimpse of what people shared. The sixth, seventh, and eighth most common words used in the comments submitted through the petition were "damage," "barbaric" and "torture." We must continue the fight to make sure that the FDA hears the people who will be adversely affected by the proposed rule if it becomes an order. There is still a small window of time for you to sign the petition and leave a comment to the FDA.
David Foster Wallace: Suicide and the Death of Agency
Today is the 10th anniversary of David Foster Wallace’s suicide. While it’s not fair to build an entire theory on an incredibly complicated issue like suicide around one person, Wallace’s death should challenge the common narratives around suicide — that “mental illness” causes it and that “we can’t ever know why people do it.” Both of these are self-serving platitudes that are simply not true.
Freud: The First Anti-Psychiatrist
Freud showed disdain for psychiatrists — he saw their untruthfulness and harmfulness. An antidote for the medical model’s infestation of our culture would be to reintroduce some of Freud’s theories to the public. After all, wouldn’t the medical model’s opposite be the best means of counteracting it?
I Don’t Believe in Autism
The conversation about what truly constitutes “autism” is an ongoing one. Although I resist the label personally, I do not begrudge anyone for identifying as autistic, or seeking out an autism diagnosis. Leaving this discussion within the domain of medicine is limiting. That’s why a new discourse is emerging, not among doctors, but among activists who push for autistic self-advocacy.
Why Anti-Authoritarians Are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill
(Note: Read Bruce Levine's latest post:Â Anti-Authoritarians and Schizophrenia: Do Rebels Who Defy Treatment Do Better?
In my career as a psychologist, I have talked with...