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).

Empowerment is Vital to Dialogical Recovery

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In my previous blog, I used a new term, Dialogical Recovery to describe the importance of dialogue to recovery. I and others in the...
Illustration depicting a card on a clothesline reading "DIAGNOSIS: PLACEBO EFFECT" against a blue background

Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Two)

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Peter Gøtzsche discusses misleading statements about depression pills and dosing.

Bipolarized and Crimes Against Nature

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Rethinking Psychiatry recently hosted a showing of the award-winning film 'Bipolarized.' The film criticizes both the mainstream mental health system and societal standards of masculinity. The author of this post draws parallels to the film and the one-man show "Crimes Against Nature," in which psychology professor Dr. Chris Kilmartin critiques traditional standards of masculinity as harmful and unrealistic.

Responding to Attacks on MIA — One Long Night of Zombie Whack-a-Mole

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Mad in America has been under a low-grade attack by hackers for several weeks. I first noticed an odd traffic pattern in our Google Analytics account, indicating that the front page was receiving more than ten views for each unique visitor. This means that some minority of accounts was reloading our front page over and over again. This is called a botnet attack, where a hacker uses a set of zombie computers, often compromised by malware, to perform repetitive tasks.

Introduction: Anatomy of a Psychiatric Practice

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In anticipation of this first blog post, I have spent some time wondering how I arrived at  this point in my career.  I have...
candle incident

Escaping from AOT: The Importance of the Incident with the Candle

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At my AOT hearing, in response to a question about whether I had had any problems with substance use, my counselor said that there had been “an incident with a candle.” There has never been an incident with a candle, but now it is enshrined in my permanent record, so vague and so general that it could mean anything.

Dear Boston Globe: You Are the Failure You Describe

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When it’s come to those seen as wearing the crown of ‘science,’ journalists have apparently been instructed (or so I’m told) to simply act as ‘translator.’ To question becomes sacrilege, or the act of one who must be ‘crazy’ (or at least hell bent on destroying their journalistic career).
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."
psychiatric drugs and violence

Prescripticide: A Proposal for Action and a Request for Your Help

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The primary factor protecting psychiatry’s unwarranted power and authority is that it is perceived as shielding society from folks who are believed to be dangerous. It would seem, then, that one logical step toward reducing society’s trust in biological psychiatry would be to reveal the evidence of a significant correlation between the use of prescribed psychoactive drugs and the commission of violent acts against oneself or others.
DNA symbol

Kicking Over a Straw Woman

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The Galvin family is the quintessential example of "genetic" schizophrenia. But their history of sexual abuse, violence, and trauma provides a clearer and simpler explanation.

Eat Breathe Thrive: Chelsea Roff on Eating Disorders, Trauma, and Healing with Yoga and...

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Chelsea Roff is the Founder and Director of Eat Breathe Thrive (EBT), a non-profit with an inspired mission to bring yoga, mindfulness, and community support to people struggling with negative body image and disordered eating. I reached out to Chelsea to learn more about her life and organization, which she writes, “…is like AA for people with food and body image issues, plus yoga and meditation.” Chelsea shared her journey from life as a patient to yogi, author, and innovative community organizer. With her permission, you can find this interview below.

Forced Psychiatric Treatment (and Protection against it) in Germany in 2013

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For years, people in Germany who act like they are radical antipsychiatry activists have said that in this country psychiatric violent (forced) treatment has been forbidden. Unfortunately, this is not true.

Mis- (and Dis-) Information about UN Disability Convention

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The November 5 hearing on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations reached new heights of absurdity and opens new ground for concern. It may be worse for us to ratify with the reservations, understandings and declarations (RUDs) being proposed, and with the legislative record that is being created for the specific purpose of rejecting any application of the treaty's standards to US law than not to ratify at all. All the proponents of CRPD ratification who are allowed a voice in these discussions are in agreement that the US ratification is aimed ONLY at giving the US greater influence over other countries and over the development of customary international law, and NOT at improving the enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities in the US itself.

Six First Steps for Building Communities of Emotional Wellness

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I am being asked by a number of grassroots communities to facilitate a dialogue about how they can better welcome and support individuals who experience emotional distress. This is a challenge for many aspiring peers and allies in a culture where responsibility for our individual well-being has been increasingly transferred to psychiatrists, doctors, and other health professionals.

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.

The Quantum Mechanics of Tessa’s Dance & Signal Peak

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Although psychiatric researchers have speculated that the rate of people within the (politically-derived, biologically-fictional) racial category of ‘American Indian’ who simultaneously fit into the DSM category of schizophrenia is no greater than the ‘general population,’ we should remember that there’s no word at all for being mentally ill or psychotic or schizophrenic in any traditional language among Native Americans. I feel confident in asserting that’s likely also true for traditional indigenous languages worldwide. This is likely so because visionary, dream-time experiences are not viewed as sickness.

The Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health: Finding Our Way in a World of...

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Every day we read, on the one hand, another compelling headline touting "news" of a “scientific breakthrough” that claims to have discovered the “cause” of “mental illness,” while another headline tells of researchers uncovering egregious falsification in the clinical trials of the pharmaceutical industry. The list goes on and on. Though many people report that they find medications helpful when they are in an extreme state (mostly to help them sleep ), given that there is as yet no scientific evidence confirming a specific disease/illness process underlying "mental illness,” and evidence that most if not all of the perceived effect is comparable to placebo, the fact remains that any positive effect of these meds are based on theory, while their harms are well-established.

Better Living through Chemistry?

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Reading the article “Risky rise of good-grade pill” in the New York Times on Saturday once again raised the philosophical issue of how to...

Occupy APA in San Francisco: Joined in Spirit

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Tomorrow, May 18, the American Psychiatric Association kicks off its 166th annual conference. That same day, its new DSM-5 will be officially published. Given the occurrences of the past couple of weeks, which I’ll review briefly below, some members of the APA might wish tomorrow’s events would go unnoticed. But they won’t.

Listen to the Victims: Senate Holds Hearing on Guardianship

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I have seen the exploitation wreaked by court-appointed guardians. It is up to us to use our voices for those who cannot speak out.

Study 329: The Data Wars Cross the Rubicon

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It can be difficult to pinpoint transitions. The Rubicon that led from a Medical Republic to a Pharmaceutical Empire was crossed in 1962 with the passage of the Amendments to the Food and Drugs Act. This act put in place an apparatus of controlled trials, prescription-only status and disease indications that laid the basis for a global pharmaceutical hegemony, although the drift to Empire could still have been stopped at this point.

It’s Not Going To Get Better Soon

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I’ve been thinking a lot about George Saslow since I came south to take a timeout and think. I miss him. A lot. Dr....

Slices of Pies: A Dialogue with Ronald Pies

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For those of you who haven't read it, I published a blog post called, 'Too Much Pies,' on Mad in America on Wednesday, April 10th.  The post included an invitation to psychiatrist Ronald Pies (who caught the interest of many when he wrote a letter to the New York Times about psychiatric diagnosis) to a real dialogue, not limited by number of words, frequency of reply or professional licensure. I copied the letter directly to Mr. Pies, not knowing if he would reply.  On Thursday, April 11th I received a direct reply that Mr. Pies has authorized me to repost here.  I am also including my response to him.

If I’d Known Then What I Know Now

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If I'd known then what I think I know now about our overuse of psychiatric medications (and all the words we were using to dehumanize people and their experiences), what would I have done differently? Was my occasional reference to recovery hollow? Once I get beyond my increasing regrets and start trying to imagine steps I could have taken, here's what I would do.
Pills and orange pill bottle on black textured background

Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Eleven)

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Peter Gøtzsche discusses the harmful effects of lithium and anti-epileptic drugs used for bipolar disorder.