Flat illustration of an anxios person holding their head with their hands.

A Reflection on “Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance”

62
The act of diagnosis is so influential on a person’s sense of self that its limitations need to be repeated again and again and again.

The Curious Case of Empty Asylums and the Birth of Psychiatry

14
Psychiatry has cut, burned, shocked, drugged, and subdued its way through history—leaving behind compliance, not cures.
Man on a white background reads the instructions for medicines. Male looks at the list and composition of the drug. The concept of home self-medication and the study of the properties of drugs

False Information in UK Package Inserts for Antidepressants About a Chemical Imbalance

6
To state something that is blatantly false is not a “paradigm,” it is a lie, plain and simple.
Closeup of a researcher's blue-gloved hands counting money

Confessions of an Advertising Writer: How I Helped Pharma Sell Antidepressants

34
As a former pharmaceutical ad writer, I not only witnessed the explosive growth in antidepressant drugs, I contributed to it.
Signpost showing many different directions

De-Meaning Psychotherapy: The New Psychiatric Critic

4
I reject psychiatry. But I also reject the critic. In the final analysis psychiatric abolition must be a deeply personal act.
Illustration of a diver disappearing into a human head full of water

Symptoms and Surface Psychology

20
Given the lack of objective signs, surface psychology can only ever be the treatment of subjectively distressing symptoms.

Rethinking Mental Health in Ireland: Why Not a Trieste-Style Approach?

2
Those with mental health difficulties continue to face systemic barriers to holistic, person-centred care.

When Narratives Clash: Unshrunk and The Cognitive Dissonance of the NY Times

57
For the mainstream media, reviewing Laura Delano's memoir "Unshrunk" is an exercise in cognitive dissonance.
Sepia illustration of a brain machine

Psychiatry: Medical Science of Mind or Moral Ideology?

15
Psychiatry is a moral ideology, making and enforcing judgments about the appropriateness of people's experiences.
Black and white photo of a hand holding a colorized pill

What I Have Learned in Working With 300+ People in Their Journey of Tapering

54
Tapering is stepping into each individual’s complex world of biology, history, psyche, circumstance, and tolerance for discomfort.
A jenga tower of bricks begins to collapse

From Public Service to Private Practice: The Collapse of the Social Work Profession

43
Can we resist turning to private practices masked in social justice rhetoric as a substitute for genuine movement building and advocacy?
An engraving depicting water being shot at two prisoners; hydrotherapy

Everything About Us Without Us

26
Between 1883-1955, there was little attention given to the value and contributions of those who were “patients” at the Oregon State Insane Asylum.
A hospital bed with restraints. The background is a pride flag with all colors.

Sexual Sanism: Why Anti-Queer Rhetoric Is a Threat to the Mad, Too

7
Our response to this moment should be understanding our shared queer/Mad history and solidarity across lines of oppression.
Pills falling out of a doctor's gloved hand

The Ethics of Long-Term Psychiatric Drug Use and Why We Need a Better Way

49
Many of these so-called “treatment-resistant” conditions aren't underlying illnesses—they're caused by the drugs themselves.

Jo Watson Chats With Rob Wipond About His Work and His Book

4
Wipond exposes abuses in mental health systems, including forced treatment, psychiatric detentions, and surveillance.

Usorum: A Peer Led Collective Wisdom Project

5
I built Usorum around the belief that we can tap into our collective experience and begin building the generational knowledge to improve everyone’s quality of life.
Vector illustration of businessmen on an assembly line with burned out light bulbs on their heads; one is being picked up by a robotic arm and has a lit lightbulb.

Managing Nonconformity: Lessons from Quality

38
Psychiatry is akin to the outdated and unhelpful way that industry used to understand the assembly line.
Helping hands

Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: Harm Reduction, Not Judgment

Good advocacy does not rely on fear or shame. No one can predict the future for any individual.
Pills spilling out of an outstretched hand

Suicides Increase After National Suicide Prevention Introduced

4
Researchers have consistently found increasing psychiatric services associated with higher suicide rates.

Mad in Ireland

1
Although Jennifer Hough’s older sister, Valerie, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she was fifteen, Hough never saw her sister as mentally ill. “To...
A photo of RFK Jr. emerges from a pile of blue pills

RFK Jr. May Be Wrong on Many Medical Issues, But He’s Right About Antidepressants

127
Documented cases show a link between SSRIs and school violence, but pharma has suppressed the data that could prove this link.
A drawing of a human head, brain visible in profile, being burned

Upcoming ECT Legislation Needs to Be Revised

12
Testimony submitted to the Connecticut state legislature in opposition to a bill expanding forced ECT.
Two hands holding pills, one with a smiley face, the other with x's for eyes and a frown

Observational Studies Confirm Trial Results That Antidepressants Double Suicides

60
Depression drugs don’t work, and they increase suicide.
Abstract design made of thick canvas paint relevant for human connections with the world's colors and textures

Schizophrenia in Philosophy and Theology

27
From Socrates to Jesus to Nietzsche, all experienced divine Beatific Visions, just as I have.
Illustration of a head showing brain and cogs in the background

Psychiatry, Capitalism, and the Industrial Machine

74
Psychiatry, under the guise of science, tries to identify and manage those who deviate from industrial society's norms.