“Get Over It”? A Response to Empower Parents to Repair Instead of Victim Blame
An epidemic of children blaming their parents in therapy? In my 20 years as a psychologist, I've seen the opposite.
The Dangers of Precision Medicine: Mental Health Is Not a Battlefield
Rather than a war to be fought within individuals, we should envision mental health as a garden to be carefully nurtured.
“Impairment: Says Who?”: The Fundamental Question of Mental Health Treatment
The criterion of "impairment" is defined not by the person seeking treatment, but by other people: parents, clinicians, courts, employers, and so on.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 2, Part 5)
Les Ruthven addresses increases in suicide and homicide caused by antidepressant drugs.
Toxic Interactions: Social Circumstances and Well-Being
Social circumstances are indisputably connected to psychological well-being, but this has gained no traction in policy and service provision.
Accounting for Mental Disorder: Time for a Paradigm Shift
Many people continue to be victimized by psychiatry’s adherence to a model that exists to satisfy guild interests, not science.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 2, Part 4)
Les Ruthven addresses a ghostwritten study claiming effectiveness of antidepressants for children and adolescents.
Arrested Development: Britney Spears’ Memoir Is a Survivor’s Tale of Generational Trauma, Psychiatric Abuse,...
Miranda Spencer discusses Britney Spears' new memoir and the harms of conservatorship.
Giving Caregivers a Platform: Sherita, Mother of Tony
This is the story of Sherita and her son Tony, and her efforts to help him following years of psychiatric drugs and hospitalizations.
What Helped—and What Didn’t Help—My Recovery
In order to recover, it was necessary to give up the psychiatric treatment system, and the idea that I need something from that system, that I belong there.
It’s Health’s Illusions I Recall, I Really Don’t Know Health at All
There is a core concept shaping the ‘market’ in health, the concept of an assay, that few doctors or patients understand.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 2, Part 3)
Les Ruthven addresses the lack of evidence for antidepressants being better than placebo, as well as a note about ECT.
A Psychotic Experience can Help to Process Difficult Memories
The patient is talking, if sometimes more or less metaphorically, about real experiences. Hallucinations and delusions are not meaningless.
De-privatizing Our Relationships
I’m glad we’re chipping away at the cracks in psychiatry and psychology and de-privatizing our lives.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 2, Part 2)
Les Ruthven addresses the scientific literature on antidepressant efficacy and FDA approval.
Mad in America’s 10 Most Popular Articles in 2023
A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2023 as chosen by our readers.
Dr. Gordon Warme: The Curious Case of an Unconventional Psychiatrist
Dr. Warme bucked convention, examining the cultural role that shamans, witch doctors, and placebo cures played in medicine.
Conservatorship: The Racket That Ruined My Father’s Last Years
I have watched as my father’s pursuit of happiness was swept away by the court system in his senior years.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 2, Part 1)
Beginning the discussion on depression and antidepressant drugs. Are they as effective and safe as psychiatry claims?
Not Just a Dream: Finding the Mental Health Community I’d Been Longing For
I dreamed of a place where healers weren’t afraid of intense states like madness. They embraced it; maybe they’d been through it themselves.
2023 in Review: A Paradigm Shift Is Underway
Our growing community is eager to change the narrative of psychiatry. And that is how paradigm shifts occur: the collective voice for radical change grows ever louder.
Therapy by Script Undermines Healing; Connection Is the Key
Healing from our deepest wounds comes through being in connection with people who cherish us and take us seriously.
Reimagining Crisis Support: A Conversation with Tina Minkowitz
The mental health system is always trying to get more resources for itself, insinuate itself into every aspect of life, subsuming every aspect of the fulfillment of human rights.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 1, Part 3)
About healthcare's focus on back end treatment rather than front end treatment: treating the symptoms rather than the causes of the health condition.
How the Medical Model Corrupted Mennonite Values
How to square the violent restraint and isolation of a vulnerable patient with the empowering, pacifist values of the hospital's founders?
