Heritability Explains Less About Mental Disorders Than You Think
The focus on diseased brains and genes obscures the significance of social and environmental influences.
The Betrayal of Professionals with Lived Experience
I know that being “out” at work could help challenge stereotypes and reduce stigma but I hide. I have that luxury.
We Can’t Help People With Trauma If We Can’t Say Trauma
Although the medical care Cary received was excellent, no one mentioned “trauma” or counseled us on how it might manifest emotionally.
The Wound That Speaks
In my case, writing was the beginning of healing. It pulled me out of the abyss and gave me structure, voice, and purpose. It gave me a sense of authorship over a life hijacked by memory.
Beyond the Pill Paradigm: Reclaiming Humanity in Mental Health Care
By tackling social causes of distress along with personal support, we prevent suffering rather than just reacting to emergencies.
Power, Privilege & Controlling the Narrative: Vested Interests in ‘Mental Health’
Alienating someone from their own meaning-making is a violent action, but that's what happens when professionals use unscientific, decontextualised diagnoses.
Antidepressant Withdrawal Is Common and Debilitating
Those using antidepressants long-term were more likely to experience withdrawal and to have severe withdrawal symptoms.
Two Decades of PSSD: A Life Stolen by Antidepressants
Our two-year-long collaborative research project suggests that neuroimmune processes and related downstream mechanisms may play a role in PSSD.
Something Broken: My Mother’s Story
The use of psychiatry against women who have experienced male violence is a form of control. It silences women and maintains the status quo.
More Evidence That Antidepressants Work Via Placebo Effect
Antidepressants were more effective for depressed patients who were more “optimistic.” Still, only 30% responded to SSRIs.
Kermit Cole: Dialogical Therapy and Quantum Theory Walk Into a Bar…
On the podcast this week we are joined by Kermit Cole who shares his thoughts on how humor can help in creating a shared experience that is helpful to the healing process. Kermit, in his experiences of being with people in psychotic states, has seen humor as a moment when a connection can be made. In many ways, this project is bringing Kermit back full circle to his work as a film director, early in his professional career.
Are Psychiatrists More Mad Than Their Patients?
Misconceptions among psychiatric leaders are at variance with the scientific evidence. They suffer from a serious, collective delusion.
Criticisms That Establishment Psychiatry Can and Cannot Tolerate
Criticism that uniquely applies to establishment psychiatry but not to medicine in general threatens its existential legitimacy, and is not tolerated.
Death in a Bottle: My 24-Year Battle with Benzodiazepines
I’m not even taking Klonopin because it helps me. I’m taking Klonopin so I don’t go through withdrawal from Klonopin. That’s the trap.
And You Thought They Were Side Effects: How Psychiatry Turned Chemical Disruption Into Medical...
There’s no cure beneath the disruption, just a chemical hit that alters perception or behavior.
Chemically Imbalanced: Joanna Moncrieff on the Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth
Joanna Moncrieff joins Robert Whitaker to talk about her latest book, titled Chemically Imbalanced: The Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth. They discuss the serotonin story and the fact that there is no good evidence that a serotonergic deficiency is a primary cause of depression.
The Quiet Crisis in Mental Health: The Medicalization and Deskilling of Psychotherapy
The focus on the "worried well" and the exclusion of the "mad" serves to legitimize psychiatric control and surveillance.
Jo Watson Interviews Cathy Wield, Author of “Unshackled Mind”
It’s never too late to seek another explanation for the problems you’re facing, to change your mind and get your life back.
Half of Those Who Take Antidepressants Are Labeled “Treatment Resistant”
Millions of people are trying multiple antidepressant drugs without success, and psychiatry labels them “treatment resistant.”
The Fight Against Involuntary Commitment: Are Protection & Advocacy Organizations Fulfilling Their Mission?
Protection and Advocacy organizations were designed as ground-breaking tools for fighting involuntary commitment and protecting patients’ rights. Are they fulfilling their promise? And will they survive Trump?
The Garden of the Mind: Fictions Weeded Out by Psychiatry
Delusions are more than fleeting mental turmoil; they reveal the unconscious mind’s storytelling power.
America’s Unhealthy Relationship with Antidepressants
Exhaustive research topples the conceptual house of cards in which the antidepressant hegemony resides.
Interview with German activist Peter Lehmann: “I Lost My Fear and Gained Everything.”
Peter Lehmann is a central figure in the struggle for emancipation and dignity of people with lived experience of psychiatric treatment.
The Moral World of Personality Disorder Assessment
Professionals in the field must recognize psychiatry's connection to social norms rather than portraying it as a neutral branch of medicine.
The Failure of “Spit For Science”: No Genetic or Neurological Pathways for Substance Abuse
Despite finding no meaningful correlation between genes and substance use, high-profile geneticists misleadingly conveyed optimistic results.
