Get Off Prescription Drugs: Arriving at the Work
I sat in my office in the middle of Provo, Utah (home of BYU) on a scorching hot Wasatch mountain day. I was taking a brief professional hiatus...
The Importance of Being Useful
All people need to feel useful in this life. The sense of belonging with others and being important to them is the primary need...
Letters from the Front Lines
Dear Bob--
I met a new patient today, an African American gentleman in his late 40's, a successful entrepreneur and innovator (invented and marketed his...
Recovery and Liberation: One and the Same?
You can’t have one without the other. I’ll explain as we go along.
As 2011 was winding down, SAMHSA issued what it termed its “…...
Pilgrim’s Progress: From Young Madman to Old Therapist
I'll begin this chapter of my personal odyssey through madness and the vocation it created of my life as a therapist specializing in madness, with...
On Creative Maladjustment and Rethinking Psychiatry
On this day January 16 2012, we commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and as such, many thoughts are...
Diagnosing Dangers
As I wrote in my first blog, A Three Pronged Approach to Mental Health System Change, after I read Mad in America in 2002,...
Chapter Twenty-Two: To the Hospital on the Hill
Bright, white light pours into my eyes, which have opened themselves slowly. I clench them closed again, hoping to push the light out. For...
A Visit into the Lithuanian Mental Health System
In November of 2011 I spent two weeks in Lithuania -- a fascinating time. Some colleagues in Scandinavia connected me with a progressive psychiatrist...
Rethinking Brain Research In Psychiatry
The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA is one of the premier centers for brain research in the country, and so when the...
Letters from the Front Lines
Dear Bob--
Last fall, I was filling in at a clinic for a provider who was on vacation, and saw a woman in her late...
A Mother Bear’s Story
In the last year of high school, my daughter’s personality suddenly changed, almost overnight it seemed. Initially, I chalked it up to adolescence.
What had...
Evidence, Bias, and Anecdote
I suspect that many people who come to this website are not fans of psychiatry. Although I am also critical of various aspects of...
New Video: Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs: A Harm Reduction Approach
I want to thank Bob Whitaker for inviting me to join the bloggers at Mad In America. As an introduction to my work I...
A Counter Narrative for Psychic Diversity
This is a paper I recently wrote for Prescott College with the help of my friend and mentor, Dr. Bradley Lewis. I'm finishing up...
Expect Recovery….
Expect Recovery….seems like a tall order, especially for people that have: little hope; spent years cycling in and out of hospitals; spent years on...
Initiatory Madness
If madness isn't what Psychiatry says it is, then what is it?
I have been asking myself that question almost every day since I became mad...
Autism as a Mode of Being
Autism is not a disease or an entity. It is not something that we must seek out to eradicate. Rather, it is a mode...
Introduction: Anatomy of a Psychiatric Practice
In anticipation of this first blog post, I have spent some time wondering how I arrived at this point in my career. I have...
The New York Times and all that…
It has been indeed an honor to have my story featured on the front pages of the New York Times. It is rare that people with...
Happy New Year From The Icarus Project!
I want to begin by thanking Bob Whitaker for the invitation to blog on this site. I am honored to find myself amidst this...
Chapter Twenty-One: Countdown to Surrender
COUNTDOWN- THREE DAYS
It is mid-morning on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008. I am staring at a computer screen in my cubicle, one among many at...
Letters From the Front Lines
Dear Bob--
A disturbing case from this week.
I was working at an urgent care and saw a fifteen-year old boy for the complaint of severe...
A Three Pronged Approach to Mental Health System Change
I thought I would begin my blogging career with a description of how I see three elements that reinforce each other in ways that...
Answering the Critics: William Glazer, in Behavioral Healthcare Magazine
In its 2011 summer issues, Behavioral Healthcare ran a two-part interview with me about my book, Anatomy of an Epidemic. This stirred William Glazer, a well-known...
