Saturday, December 2, 2023

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).

A Counter Narrative for Psychic Diversity

1
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….

3
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

25
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

9
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…

6
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!

0
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

4
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

3
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

12
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

0
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

2
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

0
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

5
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

0
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)

0
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

0
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

1
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

0
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

0
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...

2
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

0
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

0
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

0
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

0
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

2
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...