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).

Tsunami of Frozen Grief Found in the Clinical Work

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One of the primary clinical teachings found in the pursuit of prescription drug withdrawal: we need stepping stones and a great many of them to navigate the perilous terrain.

Excellent Article on Antipsychotic Drug Harm Reduction in Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health...

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Matthew Aldridge, a psychiatric nurse at London's Lambeth Hospital, just published a new article in the 2011 Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, "Addressing Non-Adherence to Antipsychotic Medication: A Harm-Reduction Approach." This is an extraordinarily well researched clinical discussion of professional medication practice.

Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care Projects

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One of the incredible things I get to do is talk to researchers, people with lived experience, family members, psychiatrists, psychologists, pediatricians, therapists, social...

Psychiatry’s Grand Confession

The psychiatric profession has finally come clean and confessed on a national media outlet that there is no evidence to support the Serotonin Theory...

The Cure for Mood Disorders Is Dementia?

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Perhaps the most alarming current trend in psychiatry, documented by Domino and Schwartz (2008), is the rise in prescriptions for the class of drug...

Introducing Myself

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I’m an Associate Professor at the Georgia State University in the School of Social Work. Early in my career in the late 1960s and...

Get Off Prescription Drugs: Arriving at the Work

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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….

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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

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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

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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...

The New York Times and all that…

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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...