JAMA Article Challenges CBT as Gold Standard for Psychotherapy
A review of CBT research findings raises questions about its status as the “evidence-based” psychotherapy of choice.
Seven Points to Ponder for World Mental Health Day
Why do I inwardly cringe at the approach of things like “Mental Illness Awareness Week” and “World Mental Health Day”? Because I’m mentally preparing myself for the onslaught of societally-approved messages about human suffering, messages ranging from the ill-informed to the downright dangerous.
World Mental Health Day 2017: Challenging the Messages – A Call to Action
If we can have a presence and visibility, this could be life-changing for individuals with no current access to the bigger truths about psychiatric theory and practice. So let's infiltrate and disrupt the hashtags #WMHD2017 #worldmentalhealthday and share messages of hope, healing, validation and solidarity!
School Culture May Contribute to Overdiagnosis, Study Finds
Officials at a school that was more focused on ADHD diagnoses described children’s behavior in terms of individual illnesses, taking children out of the context of their social interactions, race, gender, and socioeconomic status.
Knowledge of Mental States and Behaviour: Insights From Heidegger and Others
Applying the methods of natural science to human activity is sometimes necessary, but it cannot enlighten us about the nature of that activity or the reasons that motivate and sustain it. Instead, insights must come from our own and others’ experiences.
A Story of Forced Hospitalization From a Legal Perspective
If I had any legal rights, I knew nothing about them. And the hospital cared even less about them. As a law student, I would like to share the legal rights I did have in the state of California and how they were violated from the very start.
Bonnie Burstow and Nick Walker: An Introduction to Cognitive Liberty
This week on the Mad in America Podcast we launch our series on forced treatment, interviewing antipsychiatry scholar Bonnie Burstow and neurodiversity scholar Nick Walker. Central to both Nick and Bonnie’s work is the concept of cognitive liberty, or freedom and integrity of the mind.
Your Child’s Mind Space
Your child has a room or a shared room where he sleeps, reads, plays video games, and all the rest. But what about that other room where he really resides, the room that is his mind? He takes that room with him everywhere.
Childhood Victimization Connected with Experiences of Psychosis
Childhood victimization associated with experiences of psychosis later in life, and in persons without childhood victimization, there is a bidirectional association between psychosis and adult victimization.
Elimination of the Bereavement Exclusion: History and Implications
The bereavement exclusion was formally eliminated in the spring of 2013, with the publication of DSM-5. The history of its elimination provides an interesting example of psychiatry's relentless expansion of its net.
Using Participatory Action in Bioethics Research
Participatory action approaches in bioethics research used to decrease coercion and seclusion in psychiatric treatment.
And They Said it Wouldn’t Last – Rethinking Psychiatry Celebrates its 7th Year
Rethinking Psychiatry is proud to continue the work that began in 2010 in Portland, and we look forward to many more years of challenging the dominant paradigm in mental health and providing new perspectives and solutions.
Self-Compassion Course Supports College Students to Support Themselves
New research on a brief self-compassion focused course aimed at the college students.
Stimulants: The Long View
When the ADHD literature speaks of scattered attention, it uses terms with historical resonance. Ever since the Puritans, reformers have attached high importance to the regulation of attention. But the standard treatment of ADHD is designed for immediate, not eventual, benefits. It conflicts with its own rationale.
Antidepressants Increase Risk of Death, Study Finds
Antidepressants are commonly considered safe and effective treatments. However, research has questioned their efficacy, and now, their safety.
Electroconvulsive Therapy Class Action Filed
DK Law Group LLP has just filed a class action in federal court in the Central District of California against the manufacturers of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) devices on behalf of every person who has been injured by electroconvulsive therapy in California since May of 1982.
Researchers Identify 27 Categories of Emotion
A new study finds that emotions may be represented by 27 categories, with each category relating to others in a more complex and continuous fashion than previously understood.
Michael O’Loughlin: Exploring Narrative Approaches to Psychological Distress
Professor Michael O'Loughlin of Adelphi University talks about his childhood experiences and how they influenced his narrative and conversational approaches to supporting those suffering with psychological distress.
72 Hour Hold for Inalienable Personhood
Poof! Medical science and brain specialists have just alienated your rights. Far be it from me to question expert judgment, but have any of these people ever considered how dangerous it is to abrogate someone's personhood? It's time to recognize inalienable personhood. Social 'othering' is deadly.
Study Finds Increasing Minimum Wage can Decrease Child Maltreatment
Increasing the minimum wage - even modestly - can lead to less cases of child abuse in the home.
Rise of Involuntary Mental Health: What is Your Resistance Strategy?
Even after working for decades for human rights in mental health, I have been surprised about how involuntary outpatient ideology is taking over. SAMHSA plans to spend as much as $54 million of US taxpayer money for 17 programs across the country to spread this coercive approach.
Challenges in Measuring Low-Value Healthcare
Differences in patient-centric versus service-centric measures make quantifying low-value care difficult.
Dear Mental Health Professionals: Please Stop Defending Yourselves and Listen
Most people who enter the mental health field do so with good intentions. But when it comes to opening up to ideas or information that challenge your worldview or how you conduct your business, on the whole, you’re doing a pretty poor job.
Study Investigates Long-Term Effects of Social and Emotional Learning Programs
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs have gained popularity in U.S. schools in recent years. A new study examines the nature and longevity of their impact on students.
In Memoriam: Matt Stevenson
MIA blogger Matt Stevenson, who was best known to the MIA community for his frequent—and insightful—comments on MIA posts, died last Thursday. He took his own life, at age 32. His last message was this: Don't let a psychiatric diagnosis rob you of your hope.
