Can Critiques of Psychiatry Help us Imagine a Post-Capitalist Future? An Interview with Hans...

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An interview with Hans Skott-Myhre on the seeds of post-capitalist subjectivity to be found in the writing of Franco Basaglia and R.D. Laing.

Books Under Review: Fall 2021

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Reviews of four recent books reflecting various perspectives on the mental health system, including explorations of the DSM and Open Dialogue.

The Misery of Being Misdiagnosed and Overmedicated

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From an early age, relatives and doctors alike had told me I was severely mentally ill. Naturally, I believed them.

Medication Overload, Part II: The Explosion of Drugs for Kids

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An analysis of the huge increase in drugs for children, the role of Big Pharma, and a look at the impact on families and communities.

Psychotherapy Can Prevent Relapse When Discontinuing Antidepressants

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“Short and simple psychological programs can prevent people from relapsing when they stop their antidepressants.”

Remembering Jay Mahler

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“I’ve spent 58 years in the public mental health system—10 years surviving it and 48 trying to change it.” That’s how Jay Mahler—psychiatric survivor, activist, leader—described his experiences.

Critical Psychology for a Better Society: An Interview with Sebastienne Grant

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Micah Ingle interviews Sebastienne Grant about her work developing a critical psychology program to reimagine and restructure social systems.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA - September 8, 2018 The Indian Summer Festival, Child wearing traditional native american clothing, dancing at the pow wow competition.

A Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court Could Surge the Psychiatric Labelling and Drugging...

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If the Brackeen v. Halland case is successful, Native children are more likely to be placed with non-Native foster parents, and face a surge in psychiatric labeling and drugging.

The Impact the DSM Has Had On All of Us: An interview with Sarah...

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"You're not going to sell many drugs by saying your problem is your life experiences. It's far more effective to say your problem is in the brain. It's an imbalance, we can correct that imbalance, just take our product."
Three photos: Saraceno on the left, the statue of Giordano Bruno in the middle, and Oaks on the right.

Allies for Human Rights in Mental Health: Psychiatric Survivor David W. Oaks Interviews WHO...

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"Psychiatric practice is too often violating human rights, too often incapable of understanding the suffering of people, too often unable to provide help to people who need housing, work, money, respect, inclusion and instead are receiving psychotropic drugs, electroshock, physical restraint, isolation."

Lead Exposure in Childhood Impacts Personality and Mental Health

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A study of over 1.5 million people in Europe and the US links the development of less adaptive personalities with childhood lead exposure.

Mad in America’s 10 Most Popular Articles in 2023

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A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2023 as chosen by our readers.

Mad in America’s 10 Most Popular Articles in 2022

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A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2022 as chosen by our readers.

Screening for Bipolar: Have You Ever Been “Unusually Happy” for More than a Week?

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A new questionnaire funded by AbbVie conflates antidepressant side effects with bipolar disorder and doesn’t actually meet the criteria for being considered “screening.”

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.

Psychiatric Drugs Do Not Improve Disease or Reduce Mortality

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Nassir Ghaemi: “Most psychiatric medications are purely symptomatic, with no known or proven effect on the underlying disease. They are like 50 variations of aspirin, used for fever or headache, rather than drugs that treat the causes of fever or headache.”

“Making a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s Ear”: Erick Turner on How Publication...

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Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Erick Turner about publication bias in antidepressant trials, compromised psychotherapeutic research, and a culture of journal worship.
Ozempic injectors and a tape measure

Popular Obesity Drugs Monitored for Suicidal Thinking

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Concerns rise about the adverse effects and longer-term harms of GLP-1 injections like Ozempic and Wegovy.

When Homosexuality Was a “Disease”: My Story of Abuse

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The horrors I was forced to undergo to “treat” my homosexuality are now unthinkable, but continue to raise questions about psychiatry’s ethics.

When Darkness Traps People, Consider The System

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EDITOR’S CORNER If you’ve been following the news over the last week or so, you’ve likely read of Zoraya ter Beek, the young Dutch woman...

Pathologized Since Eve: Jessica Taylor on Women, Trauma, and “Sexy but Psycho”

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Our guest today is Jessica Taylor, author of Sexy But Psycho: How the Patriarchy Uses Women’s Trauma Against Them, which was published in March...

Making Mental Health an Ongoing Priority:  A Patch Adams Approach

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My brother’s sudden death and Mental Health Awareness Month spurred me to spend May making small, very personal efforts to both honor his memory and move the mental health conversation forward.
A painting depicting clouds with lightning over the sea at sunset

Breaking the Cycle: How I Overcame Intergenerational Trauma and Became a Peer Advocate

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How did that young Puerto Rican girl who very much disliked seeing a therapist when locked up in the juvenile system end up working in the mental health field as an adult?

And Now They Are Coming for the Unhoused: The Long Push to Expand Involuntary...

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Mayor Adams' plan to "involuntarily remove" unhoused people has met with backlash from activists and the unhoused, who say it violates their rights and further entrenches systemic racism.

Martin Harrow: The Galileo of Modern Psychiatry (1933 – 2023)

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Harrow's research over the years told of how long-term antipsychotic use is associated with worse outcomes, even after controlling for psychosis severity.