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...
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...
Cognitive Therapy Found Effective in Unmedicated Psychotic Patients . . . And Other News
For a long time, psychotherapy has been seen as providing little benefit to patients with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. However, two recent studies,...
Chapter Twenty: Russian Roulette
After I left my research position on the acute inpatient psychiatric unit of a Boston hospital towards the end of 2006, my life started...
Answering the Critics: Massachusetts General Hospital Grand Rounds
As many readers of Anatomy of an Epidemic know, I spoke at a psychiatric Grand Rounds at Massachusetts General Hospital on January 13, 2011....
Chapter Nineteen: Playing the Part
In the months following my five-year high school reunion in the summer of 2006, I drifted about in a sea of indistinguishable days. Amidst...
Answering the Critics: Let’s Roll the Tape (Again)
This past summer, Behavioral Healthcare ran a two-part interview with me about my book, Anatomy of an Epidemic. This stirred William Glazer, a well-known...
Answering the Critics: The Carlat Psychiatry Blog
Daniel Carlat, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University, wrote a two-part review of Anatomy of an Epidemic on January 21 and...
Chapter Eighteen: Sentenced to Life
A few weeks after my college graduation in the summer of 2006, my five-year high school reunion was upon me. I had expended a...
Healing the Body and Mind
My name is Mark Foster. I am a family physician and writer from Colorado, and the co-Founder and president of a new non-profit called...
A Rorschach Test for Psych Drugs
On October 23, the New York Times ran a very nice feature story about a Los Angeles woman, Keris Myrick, who, even though she...
Anatomy of an Epidemic Down Under: Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Disabling...
During the past six months, I have traveled to a number of English speaking countries to speak about my book Anatomy of an Epidemic,...
September 15, 2011
Dear Bob--
As I share with patients my new perspectives on the ineffectiveness and potential harm of psychotropic drugs, I have found that many, even...
Chapter Seventeen: Commencing to Self-Destruct
While my fellow ‘Class of 2006’ graduates celebrated with embraces and high-fives on Commencement Day, jumping excitedly into group photos with caps and gowns,...
Chapter Sixteen: Inside a House of Cards
Dazed and confused, I was discharged from ‘The Haven’ in September of 2004 and entered an intensive outpatient day program (IOP) on the grounds...
August 4, 2011
Dear Bob--
I saw a very nurturing woman a few months ago, quite obese, for the symptoms of chest pain and fatigue.
She had been admitted...
In Defense of Psychiatric Medications, Part Two
Marcia Angell’s two-part essay in the New York Review of Books, which appeared in the June and July issues, has helped trigger a much-needed...
