Female therapist hand on female client's hand

When Validation Becomes Avoidance: The Hidden Costs of Comfort in Modern Therapy

39
Each week, her therapist offered affirmations and reassurance. Her eating disorder remained comfortable and unchallenged.

Locura en Argentina

4
Editor Alan Robinson aims to provide readers with a magazine that represents them and the “mad cultures” found in Argentina.
A couple of kids chowing down on some little pills

Researchers Criticize Putting Preschoolers on Stimulant Drugs

20
Against guideline recommendations, preschoolers were often prescribed stimulants without even having the chance to try family behavioral therapy.
A female whistleblower steps out of the shadows with a folder labeled "pharma lies"

Confessions of an Advertising Writer: What I Learned From Your Stories—And Mine

66
Apologies won’t undo the harm. What I’ve learned might. The current system will not change unless we organize.

Why I Kept Going Back: Breaking Free From Trauma Bonds

10
Breaking free from trauma bonds is a process of doubt, pain, and courage. It’s learning to trust yourself again after years of confusion.

Welcome to the Psychiatry Casino

45
Modern psychiatry is still, in many ways, closer to educated gambling than science. And patients deserve to know that.

Therapy in the Age of Self Management and Public Abandonment: A Conversation with Psychological...

7
Talia Weiner discusses how conservative politics and market logic reshape mental health care.
Double exposure; sad woman with forest in background

A Place in the Forest: Mental Well-Being from a Wider Perspective

12
The whole social system as it is now is not designed with the purpose of well-being. Where has this gotten us?
Illustration of a wrecked train on tracks. Behind it, a DNA helix is dissolving in red light

The 110-Year “Schizophrenia Genetic Research” Train Wreck

182
The “genetics of schizophrenia” area of research is currently in disaster mode and awaits its endpoint.

On Love in America

39
After I nearly died during open-heart surgery, I realized that there is no room in this second life for anything but gratitude — and love.
Selective focus on blue-white capsule pills in blister pack

Public Citizen, the FDA, and SSRI Safety

14
The safe and effective treatment for depression is psychotherapy and social support, not prescription drugs.
VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Feb 09: Vienna Opera Ball is an annual Austrian society event which takes place in the building of the Vienna State Opera in Vienna

Beliefs that Create Madness

44
We know that it is not simply a chemical imbalance or a broken brain. We know how the context plays a large role.
Pregnant person consulting a doctor

Antidepressants in Pregnancy—Turning a Blind Eye, Again

6
You might think that telling women about the potential risks of taking antidepressants during pregnancy would be uncontroversial.

Not Even the Unborn Are Safe from Psychiatric Harm

19
Medical organizations and the media dismiss the experts and the large body of research telling of fetal harm from exposure to SSRIs during pregnancy.

A Manner of Speaking

A cinematic prose poem that uses metaphor and symbol to capture the essence of experiences for which there are no words.
Shot of a young man comforting his peer on the steps

Sober Living: Why Less Clinical Sometimes Means More Recovery

10
Real independence is where most people stumble. Treatment can’t replicate what it’s like to live sober in the chaos of everyday life.
Collage of a complex person reduced to wooden blocks and post it notes of happy and sad faces

The Psychological Totalization of Experience: Objectification and Subjectivity

8
I must be a mechanistic, predictable unit, in order for a psychiatric label or a psychological variable to be implemented on me smoothly.
An elderly woman in a wheelchair tells a doctor (out of focus) about her symptoms

ECT: New Studies Detail Harms, Lack of Efficacy, Lack of Informed Consent

21
What people who have received ECT really think about what they were told, and about how ECT affected them.

Community, Ethics, and Healing Amidst the Great Unraveling

8
If our treatment is only aligned with the individualist reductionist model, we are unwittingly contributing to destruction.
BW photo. Man in a suit telling children

Narrative Reclamation: Who’s Allowed to Tell Their Story?

19
Narratives have the power to lock us up—sometimes literally. But they also have the power to set us free.

How to be a Critical Psychologist Without Losing Your Soul: A Conversation With Zenobia...

15
On the Mad in America podcast, Zenobia Morrill, José Giovanni Luiggi-Hernández and Justin Karter join us to explore the need to raise awareness of psychological approaches that challenge mainstream perspectives.
Unhappy man and group of people behind his back indoors. Therapy session

Reflections on My Mistrust for Other Mental Health Workers

17
I learned to hold my tongue around mental health workers. I dealt with their slurs by working harder and longer than them.
Soldier and politician shaking hands against flag of USA, closeup

Veteran Suicide Prevention Legislation Introduced That Will Save Lives

6
The bill will require prescribers to obtain written informed consent including the risks of psychiatric drugs.
A hand puts lipstick and a face on a risperidone bottle

Confessions of an Ad Writer: How I Helped Turn Atypical Antipsychotics into a Billion-Dollar...

122
How we redefined schizophrenia, rewrote the safety narrative of antipsychotics, and helped drive one of the most successful (and concerning) pharmaceutical launches in history.

When Repair Doesn’t Come: A Trauma Survivor Reflects on a Rupture With Her Therapist

83
I spent years in therapy slowly learning how to feel safe with another human being. But then came the rupture.