When ‘Not Guilty’ is a Life Sentence
From The New York Times: While the public perception of the insanity defense is that it is a "get out of jail free" card, the...
Inside a Case of Repressed Memory
From The Guardian: At age 17, Nicole Kluemper came to be one of the most controversial cases in modern psychology when she recovered memories of...
Can Therapists Really Share Their Power?
From Psychology Today: It has become increasingly trendy for therapists to talk about sharing their power or even giving away their power to clients. However,...
Institutional Psychotherapy in France: An Interview
In this interview for Hidden Persuaders, Camille Robcis discusses institutional psychotherapy, a French psychiatric reform movement that began during the Second World War. Robcis explains...
Whistleblowers at Research Institutions Fear Retaliation
From The Washington Post: A new investigative report on deterrents in reporting problems with human research found evidence of fear of retaliation among whistleblowers in...
Representative Tim Murphy Resigns From Congress
From The Washington Post: Representative Tim Murphy, who has worked to decrease the civil rights of those labeled mentally ill, has announced that he will...
Implant ‘Restores Consciousness’ to Man in Vegetative State
From The Guardian: A 35-year-old man who had been in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) for 15 years has shown signs of consciousness after receiving...
Using Participatory Action in Bioethics Research
Participatory action approaches in bioethics research used to decrease coercion and seclusion in psychiatric treatment.
3 Whiting Workers Investigated Over Patient Abuse Allegations
From the Hartford Courant: Over this past spring and summer, 31 employees of the Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital were suspended, and nine...
Why We Need to Get Better at Critiquing Psychiatric Diagnosis
In this piece for Mind Hacks, Vaughan Bell, a long-term critic of psychiatric diagnosis, points out the major flaws and logical fallacies in some of...
PA State Representatives Introduce Bill to Ban ECT on Children
From Fox43: Last week, two Pennsylvania state representatives, Tom Murt and Stephen Kinsey, introduced a bill to prohibit the use of electroconvulsive therapy on children...
We Should Not Forcibly Commit the Homeless During Hurricanes
From Pacific Standard: In an effort to protect homeless individuals from the effects of Hurricane Irma, officials from the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust used the...
APA to Release Guidelines for Fat-Shaming Kids for Profit
From Ravishly: The American Psychological Association has released a draft of their "Clinical Practice Guideline for the Behavioral Treatment of Obesity and Overweight in Children...
Psych Journal Issuing Caution About Torture Paper
From Retraction Watch: The psychology journal Teaching of Psychology plans to issue an editor's note about a controversial paper exploring the APA's involvement in the torture...
US Congressman, 64, Admits to an Affair with ‘Close Friend’
From Daily Mail: U.S. Representative Tim Murphy, who proposed the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which includes provisions to expand coercive treatment, has...
Proove Biosciences Sells Off Assets as CEO Departs
From STAT: Proove Biosciences, which sold dubious DNA tests to predict opioid addiction risk, has been placed into court-ordered receivership for restructuring and asset sale. Experts...
Good Psychologist, Bad Psychologist
In this episode on BBC Radio, psychiatrist Raj Persaud reports on the CIA's so-called "enhanced interrogation" program, which has frequently been characterized as torture. He discusses...
Kate Millet Obituary
From The Guardian: Kate Millet, the radical feminist who launched the second wave of the women's liberation movement, died on September 6th. Millet was also...
State Permanently Closes Psychiatric Hospital
From The Boston Globe: The state of Massachusetts has permanently closed the Westwood Lodge psychiatric hospital due to issues of patient safety, quality of care,...
The History of Brainwashing is a Red Flag for Technotherapy
From Aeon: In the 1950s, psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron developed a treatment called psychic driving, which involved removing distressing memories and pathological behaviors through an...
9 Arrested so far in Patient-Abuse Scandal at Whiting Forensic
From the Hartford Courant: Nine state mental health workers at Whiting Forensic have been arrested and charged with cruelty to persons in the largest patient-abuse...
Feel Bad About Feeling Bad? Embrace Negative Emotions Instead
From Big Think: According to new research, habitually accepting negative emotions rather than criticizing or suppressing them positively impacts our long-term psychological health.
"There is a lot more...
Inappropriate Use of Antipsychotics on Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
One-third of adults with an intellectual or developmental disability are dispensed antipsychotics, despite having no existing psychiatric diagnosis.
The Real Opioid Emergency
From The New York Times: In recent years, politicians have shown increased awareness of the opioid epidemic and have made statements about the need for treatment,...
Reporter was Locked in Mental Hospital for 10 Days
This piece from Newsner chronicles the life and work of Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, a journalist who went undercover to expose the conditions at an infamous mental...
