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).

emotion faces illustrations

A Book Review of “Acceptance: The Defining Voice of Validation”

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This is no goody-goody book but one that compellingly draws our attention to what in our hurried, overburdened lives too easily gets lost, that is, the essential human need for acceptance and validation. Validation, the author says, "is a joining with the distressed person to reflect or give voice to that person’s feelings accurately."

Please Stop Saying “Anti-psychiatry”

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I think a better term to use is "medical harm aware advocate." It is a much better explanation of both the problem and the solution that we are working for. I've updated my graphic that explains why Allen Frances and mainstream mental health is using the word "anti-psychiatry" to avoid dialogue with our community.
A girl looks sad, blurry through a rainy pane of glass, dark

The War on Suicide Is Making Things Worse

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While allegedly intended to help, institutionalizing people against their will does more harm than good. Psychiatric coercion is dehumanizing.

What Are You Doing WHO?

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The World Health Organisation was established in 1945 to provide leadership on global health matters. According to its Director General Dr Margaret Chan, it...

New York’s Mayor: We’re out of Ideas, so It’s “Back to the Cuckoo’s Nest”...

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A psychiatrist obsessed with violence among the mentally ill, Torrey is dedicated to promoting involuntary hospitalization.
Trap with medical bottle full pills. 3D rendering isolated on white background

On the Brink of Murder Because of an Antidepressant

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After being put on antidepressants, Katinka started hallucinating wildly, thinking in very violent images.

Flying Over Australia’s Cuckoo’s Nest: A Review of “Overprescribing Madness”

"Overprescribing Madness" explains how our sane social, political-economic distress responses have become medicalized into a mental illness epidemic.

Shedding the Limits of “Severe Mental Illness” Labels

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When people seeking help are relegated to “the Other,” how can they ever form a “therapeutic alliance”? Without collaboration, treatment devolves into coercion and oppression. We must change our language and relationships so new narratives can be born.

Can’t Breathe

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As a person who has been psychiatrized, but hasn’t faced long-term institutionalization, I have to accept that I can’t know that level of loss of power and vulnerability. (But I can tell you even short stays are enough to begin to understand.) And to be a person of color with psychiatric labels interfacing with the police? It’s like the perfect storm. (A type of ‘perfection’ that occurs more often than most, given that people of color are more likely to be diagnosed in the first place.)
cartoon drawing of a superhero ripping a sign that reads "DSM"

DSM Led Us Far Astray. Life Story Is the Path to Truth.

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When the DSM-5 came out six years after the study was published, it ignored the evidence that psychological injuries caused 88% of “depression” in adulthood. It wasn't just this study that was sidelined. All the research that linked childhood trauma to later episodes of “depression” was ignored as well.
card reads "did you know?"

12 Essential Facts About Psychiatry

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With these twelve facts, you are equipped to defend against the misinformation propagated by academic psychiatry, Big Pharma, and the laypeople they target. You are encouraged to use this knowledge to (firmly but respectfully) challenge statements you hear in passing or from loved-ones such as “He is mentally ill,” “I have a chemical imbalance and these drugs help correct it,” or any other commonly accepted falsehoods that the above facts expose.

Benzos: A Dance With the Devil

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Beginning with the glamorization of Miltown in the 1950’s, the “I don’t care” pill was a way to ease the growing awareness that the world is indeed unsafe, and that something is deeply bankrupt in the promises of burgeoning science, technology, and industrialization. Still, we sought to heal these wounds through application of more of the same mentality – one of dominance, management, and suppression of all obstacles into submission. As our bodies, minds, and spirits become more and more separated from nature, each other, and ourselves, the worry, discomfort, and unease mount. Now that the going has gotten very tough, we are reaching for medications more than ever. Surely, however, turning off the smoke alarm is not the best way to deal with a fire.

Updates on the Epidemic

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Here’s a rundown of a hodgepodge of studies that I’ve come across recently that relate to themes I wrote about in Anatomy of an...

Conservatorship: The Racket That Ruined My Father’s Last Years

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I have watched as my father’s pursuit of happiness was swept away by the court system in his senior years.
Sticky notes on blue background. One shows a smiley face, one a frown, and one between them depicts a question mark.

Beyond the Pill Paradigm: Reclaiming Humanity in Mental Health Care

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By tackling social causes of distress along with personal support, we prevent suffering rather than just reacting to emergencies.

Poverty & Serious Mental illness: Connecting the Dots

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Judging from the responses of several readers, certainly not all, to my previous post of March 7, “Poverty & Mental Illness: You Can't Have...

Fighting Outpatient Commitment in Massachusetts

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Massachusetts politicians are pushing for a law to increase involuntary treatment. This law will be far harder to get rid of once it’s on the books than it’s been to keep it from getting there.
blue mandala-kirism

A Kirist Response to Psychiatry

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Eric Maisel offers a new philosophy of life called kirism, answering questions about purpose, meaning, and how to live.
group therapy

“Be Kind to Yourself… For Us!”

Ann: "I’ve fallen in love! With my group! And they’re in love with me!" Hugh: "The group and you have an important relationship that you’re creating together week after week. This includes breaking down the authoritarian boundaries that keep people in their “places” so that they can’t grow."

The Ups and Downs of Online Therapy

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Now that the novelty has worn off and we are able to step back and analyze the situation, what does the switch to teletherapy portend for our profession?
Blog author, David Oaks, in wheelchair with Patch Adams, with blue hair and glasses. Both are picking their noses at the Oregon Country Fair, with trees in the background. Oaks says, "Searching for meaning."

July is Both Disability Pride Month and Mad Pride Month: Happy Bastille Day!

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The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) supports both Disability Pride Month and Mad Pride Month: Both are July!”

Racism 101

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There are many similarities between mental health oppression (which is an umbrella terms for what this blog/web site is about) and racism. I invite readers to contemplate the similarities and differences in these pernicious forms of oppressions. Sera Davidow has begun a wonderful MIA blog-discussion on this. (Thank you, Sera.) In the mean time let me admit to my own racism. Here is what I wrote previously. I offer it as an invitation to racism 101.

Free from Harm? Reflecting on the Dangers of the White House’s Proposed ‘Now...

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“And so what we should be thinking about is our responsibility to care for and shield them from harm and give them the...

A Recent Study of Atypical Neuroleptics: “The Results of our Study are Sobering”

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This week, MIA highlighted a recently published study of the four most commonly prescribed neurolpetics. As noted in the post, the major outcome was that these drugs were not found to be effective or safe. This important study, co-authored by Dilip Jeste the current president of the American Psychiatric Association, is worth reviewing in greater detail.

Immune Response is Secondary to Trauma

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Mad in America has featured an article about inflammation and the immune response in the Lancet. It’s great that these things are being studied, but as usual it’s done from a dangerously reductionistic perspective. We must broaden our lenses if we hope to profoundly help people. Again, my favorite meme: everything matters.