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).

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Part 2: Are We All Neurodivergent Nowadays?

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The unacknowledged politics of neurodiversity: How neoliberalism and exploitation help explain the rise of neurodiversity rhetoric.
Photo of a man dressed in a plain robe doing alchemy with a glass jar over a candle

Theodoric of Arizona: State-Sanctioned Pharma-Based Pseudo-Doctor

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I propose Theodoric’s Principle of Medical Advancement: “Medicine has advanced when the old standard of care becomes a joke.” 
Two women, therapy session

Why Increased Psychological Freedom Should be the Main Goal of Psychotherapy

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Insight into the childhood roots of recurring interpersonal problems and better expressive mastery of primal emotions are cornerstones of effective psychotherapy.
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Part 1: Neurodiversity–What Exactly Does It Mean?

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The fuzzy concept of neurodivergence has expanded to include almost every human experience, plus its opposite.
house of cards is tumbling down with title: Psychiatry's Evidence Base

Desperate Measures: Ghaemi’s Response to Our Review of Lithium and Suicide Prevention

Ghaemi’s article is more of a rant than a scientific commentary.

Who Is Afraid of the Abolition of Psychiatric Confinement?

3
Psychiatry doesn't care that you haven't committed a crime. The law gives them the authority to deprive you of your freedom for as long as they deem necessary.
Stock photo of hands on the bars of a cell, collaged with Derrida's face over the right side

The Patient-Enemy: How Derrida Helps Explain Psychiatry’s Cruelty and Care

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"Now look what you made me do!" Psychiatrists feel obligated to care for their patients, but also resentful of this obligation.
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Iatrogenic Practices in Psychiatry: Kindling

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Psychiatric practices can have very painful and destabilizing consequences, including "kindling" or neuronal sensitization.
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What Are We Overlooking? Reviewing Current and Alternative Treatments for Psychosis

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We should explore a raft of interventions, as susceptibility to psychosis isn’t separable from a person’s general well-being.

Who Is Being Targeted for Forced Medical Treatment in NYC? We Require Answers

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I’m concerned for those forcibly drugged under Mayor Adams' policy. But also because New York City sets a national precedent.
Illustration of poison jars labeled with a skull and the words "COGNITIVE DISSONANCE"

It’s You, It’s Not Me: Treatment Resistant Depression and the Psychiatric Breakup

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"Treatment resistance" is best explained not as a medical issue but as a way for psychiatry to resolve cognitive dissonance.
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Prescription Drugs: The Hidden Costs to Health and the Planet

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Pharmaceuticals seem to overtake every facet of life, but it’s important to start thinking critically about what we are putting in our bodies.
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Doctors Are Not Trained to Think Critically

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University students are expected to to ask questions, but medical students are expected to give "correct" answers.
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Reframing Mental and Emotional Pain from a Buddhist Psychology Perspective

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The Five Hindrances perspective encourages exploring the underlying causes of suffering and developing strategies for coping and resilience.
A screenshot from Dr. Strangelove depicting Major Kong riding a bomb and waving his cowboy hat

How to Explain Top Psychiatrists’ “Dr. Strangelove Exuberance” Unchecked by Reality

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Leading psychiatrists appear unfazed that their theories and treatments are repeatedly proven to be scientifically invalid and discarded.

Dorothea Buck’s Memoir Tells of the Horrors of Twentieth Century Psychiatry: A “Hell Amidst...

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Sterilized under Nazi law, Dorothea Buck fought throughout her life for psychiatric reform.

Don’t Call Me a Therapist

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Psychology is closer to philosophy than medicine, laying a foundation for personal development that can lead to better adaptation.

Remembering Bhargavi Davar: A Global Leader in the Struggle for Human Rights

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Bhargavi Davar was a global leader in the struggle for human rights, with her work as a psychiatric survivor activist simply one aspect of that work.

When HVN Ireland Meets HVN Athens

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Chairperson of Hearing Voices Network Ireland Owen Ó Tuama on the joy and power of community for voice-hearers across the globe.

Can We Talk About Spirituality? The Medicalization of Transpersonal Experiences

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Even social work and psychotherapy rarely leave space for lived experiences of spirituality, though it instills hope, strength, and meaning.

Deconstructing the Word Trauma: What Does it Mean Today?

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"Trauma" is a pandora's box of a narrative. Most writings on the subject emanate from the Global North. Is trauma the 'same' in the Global South?
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Is Public Psychiatry Responding to the Mental Health Crisis or Just “Treating the Chart?”

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What sense did it make that he had been through hundreds of pages of notes worth of treatment and yet was still essentially un-helped?
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Psychosis Treatment: Numbing the World of Spirit

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In my experience, antipsychotic drugs aimed at “managing” schizophrenia work by numbing the individual’s sensibility to the world of spirit.
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Who Do We Leave Behind When We Ignore the Body? Why Critical Neuroscientists and...

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Implications for those at the intersection of mental health and chronic illness.
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How Danish Journalism Misleads About Psychiatry

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On the multiple errors found in a Danish newspaper article about adult ADHD.