On Psychological Abuse: How The System Twisted My Pleas For Help
I once heard a fellow survivor describe narcissistic abuse as a “rape of the soul,” and that is exactly how it felt for me.
Surviving Psychiatry’s ‘Help’
I can never visit a zoo again after my experience in the acute ward. I could never watch an animal pace back and forth.
Mercy, Magic, and the Medical Humanities: An Interview with Jussi Valtonen
Novelist and neuropsychologist Jussi Valtonen explains how close reading and creative writing can sharpen clinical attention, deepen perspective-taking, and help clinicians notice the language they use to describe patients.
Beyond Medication: What England’s Experience Can Teach Us About Psychosis Care
For over twenty years, NICE in England has recommended that people experiencing psychosis should be offered psychological therapy.
Reconstructing 20+ Years of Psychiatric Treatment Through Medical Records
Seeing it laid out on paper felt like discovering an inventory of damage. It was an astonishing amount of intervention for someone who kept getting worse.
A Tribute to Diana Rose
I remember her for her brutal honesty, her path-breaking work in service-user led research, and sadly, her pain.
Despite What You’ve Heard, “Schizophrenia” Is Not “80% Heritable”
Schizophrenia genetics researchers begin with false assumptions and then present and interpret data in ways that confirm these strong beliefs.
Study Finds the Majority of Increases in Symptoms During Antidepressant Tapering are Related to...
Past research has framed symptom increases during tapering and discontinuation of psychotropic drugs as a relapse of an underlying “illness.” A new preprint article...
Open Dialogue Studies Highlight Collaboration, Clinician Support, and Stable Costs
This week Mad in America examines three studies related to the Open Dialogue approach in mental healthcare. Open Dialogue is a mental health approach...
Your Vagus Nerve Is Not in Control: The Problem with Polyvagal Theory
In addition to being scientifically incorrect, there’s no reliable evidence that PVT works to relieve people of their symptoms or distress.
Psychiatry’s Attack Dog Is at It Again
Robert Whitaker responds to Awais Aftab's inaccurate smear campaign toward Mad in America and other critics.
Faith, Culture, and Coercion: An Interview with Cultural Psychiatrist G. Eric Jarvis
Cultural psychiatrist G. Eric Jarvis discusses religion and mental health, the social determinants of psychosis, and how coercive treatment can deepen mistrust in psychiatric care.
Rearranging Deck Chairs While the Titanic Goes Down—The American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology Issues...
Clinicians seeking practical guidance about how to deprescribe in a safe, pharmacologically rational manner will find little here to assist them.
“A System Built on Medication:” How Psychiatric Institutions Undermine Drug-Free Care
In 2015, the Norwegian Health Minister issued a directive ordering regional health authorities to create a plan for providing mental healthcare without drugs. A...
On the Autistic Spectrum or a Camus Anti-Hero? Rebellion Obtuseness in Psychiatry
There is much that human beings rebel against, and there are various forms of rebellion, many of which psychiatry pathologizes.
The Bargain
On my chest, I have a tattoo. It's the pagan symbol of Mephistopheles — the mark Faust signed with when he made his deal.
The Keto Diet + Drug Tapering: What Are the Possibilities?
The Accord program in Arlington Massachusetts will provide a test of whether an intensive ketogenic program, when combined with drug-tapering support, can lead to robust recovery over the long term, with diminished use--or no ongoing use--of psychiatric medications.
Kindling Our Inner Fire: A Residential Program Where Drug Tapering is the Norm
Robert Whitaker interviews Beatrice Birch, Founder and Director of Inner Fire, a residential program in rural Vermont.
With Veterans Demanding Action, Bipartisan Support Emerges for Written Informed Consent Bill
On the morning of April 29, representatives of 35 veterans’ service organizations (VSOs) gathered under cloudy skies on Capitol Hill for a press conference...
Remembering Brent Dean Robbins
Brent was one of humanistic psychology's clearest voices against the DSM’s narrowing of human suffering and the over-medication of distress.
Not Serotonin Deficiency: A Veteran’s Story of Misdiagnosis and Medication Harm
When my experience did not match what I had been told to expect, it was minimized and dismissed.
“It Was Like They Crushed a Beautiful Flower”: Families Speak Out on the Harms...
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a controversial practice, with recent research finding harm, as well as a lack of efficacy and informed consent. A new...
Desperate Cries for Help and the Copper Toxicity Doctors Missed
Although there is a known correlation between estrogen and copper, mainstream doctors don’t test copper levels or estrogen-dominance.
Which Would You Prefer: Electroshock or a Safe Taper?
Imagine you’ve spent your entire life as a healthy person, seven decades in fact, and suddenly being recommended ECT by the psychiatry department of a prestigious university.
Fighting Psychiatric Subjectivation and Helping Others Along the Way: An Interview with Prateeksha Sharma
Prateeksha Sharma reflects on her own experience of recovery from psychosis with the help of music, family, and dogs, sheds lights on the treatment harms that often go unnamed and thus unnoticed, and discusses how to claim narrative, dignity, and voice.
