“Wage Gap May Help Explain Why More Women Are Anxious and Depressed Than Men”

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“According to a new study, the consequences of this wage gap extend beyond the checking account: women who earn less than their male peers...

China Mills Talks Back to the Movement for Global Mental Health

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The Movement for Global Mental Health Newsletter has published a substantive interview with one of the movement's most prominent critics, China Mills, author of...

“94 Psychiatric Patients in South Africa Died of Negligence, Report Finds”

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The New York Times reports on the findings of a South African government investigation that determined that "94 psychiatric patients died of negligence last year after being...

“Pharmaceutical Prosthesis and White Racial Rescue in the Prescription Opioid ‘Epidemic’”

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Critical psychiatry researcher, anthropologist and NYU professor Helena Hansen writes: “Opioid maintenance acts as a kind of pharmaceutical prosthesis which promises to return white ‘addicts’ to regaining their status as full human persons and middle-class consumers. Meanwhile, black and brown users are not deemed as persons to be rescued, but rather dangerous subjects to be pharmaceutically contained within the public discipline of the state.”

“Why San Bernardino Polarized America and What It Means for Our Political Future”

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What does the psychology of terror mean for America’s future? Social psychologist Daniel Kort weighs in on what the science of terror management theory, behavioral economics, and political polarization can tell us about where we’re headed.

“Pentagon Wants Psychologists to End Ban on Interrogation Role”

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Only months after the American Psychological Association voted to ban psychologists from “advanced interrogation” facilities like Guantánamo Bay prison the Pentagon is asking them to...

“Feds Charge Former Valeant and Philidor Execs with Fraud”

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“The executive who once ran the specialty pharmacy at the heart of the Valeant Pharmaceutical accounting scandal was arrested Thursday morning, along with a...

“Suicide, Mental Illness Risks Increase During Recessions”

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The latest economic recession led to a spike in diagnoses for mental illnesses, suicide attempts, and suicide, according to report out of the University...

Psychology in the Metacolony

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From Mail & Guardian: Colonialism today is more entrenched in our society than it ever has been in the past, and traditional psychology and mental...

The Empire Dreamt Back: Britain’s Use of Psychoanalysis

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From Aeon: In the early 20th-century Age of Empire, officials in the British Empire sought to better understand their colonial subjects through the use of...

“Google’s Latest Health Hire Wants to Create Wearables That Can Measure Your Mood”

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Dr. Thomas Insel worked as the director of the NIMH for thirteen years, and now he is moving on to Google where he hopes to help develop technology to monitor our mental health.

“How We Learned to Stop Worrying About People and Love the Bombing”

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For Tom Dispatch, historian Rick Shenkman “explores the biological phenomena that may well underpin our appalling lack of empathy, the animal instincts that allow so many of us to stand by in the face of unspeakable acts,” and “how the stories we tell ourselves and others might offer us a path to overcome our utterly human inhumanity.”

“The Psychology of Terrorism: Q&A with John Horgan”

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The Scientific American reprints their interview with psychologist and terrorism expert John Horgan following the attacks in Paris on November 13th. “An issue I find problematic right now is the idea that to prevent terrorism, we have to first prevent radicalization… There are far more people who hold "radical" views than will ever become involved in terrorism, and there are plenty of terrorists (who are already small in number – a point we tend to forget) who don’t initially hold radical views but drift into terrorism regardless.”

“Bernie Sanders Blocks Obama’s FDA Nominee for Big Pharma Ties”

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Yesterday, senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders announced that he will formally oppose Robert Califf’s nomination as FDA commissioner. “Dr. Califf’s extensive ties to...

“Why Are Young Westerners Drawn to Terrorist Organizations Like ISIS?”

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"ISIS provides existential fast food, and for some of the most spiritually hungry young Westerners, ISIS is like a Big Mac amidst a barren wasteland of an existence,” Omar Hague writes in the Psychiatric Times. “Who actually joins ISIS? Not psychopaths or the brainwashed, but rather everyday young people in social transition, on the margins of society, or amidst a crisis of identity.”

The Psychology of Terror and Forfeiting Our Civil Rights

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Speaking on the Essential Pittsburgh radio show, psychologist Brent Dean Robbins, former president of the Society for Humanistic Psychology, discusses how fear drives us toward irrational policies in the wake of terror attacks. He also offers commentary on the Murphy Bill, which he criticizes for unfairly scapegoating those diagnosed with mental illnesses.

“Privacy Not Included: Federal Law Lags Way Behind New Health-Care Technology”

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“The federal privacy law known as HIPAA doesn’t cover home paternity tests, fitness trackers, or health apps. When a Florida woman complained after seeing...

Corporations Want to Cure Depression in the Workplace

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The Ottawa Citizen has published two feature stories exploring a growing collaboration between scientists involved in the US National Institute of Mental Health-funded brain...

“We Need REAL Change in Mental Health Policy, Not the Illusion of Reform”

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David Shern, from Johns Hopkins University, writes that the latest mental health “Murphy bill” in Congress is “an expansion of the approaches that got us into our current difficulties.” “Early intervention and prevention, assessable and patient-focused services with a rehabilitation orientation and increased funding for the community supports needed for successful recovery are the tickets to system improvement.”

“More Patients in Scotland Given Antidepressants”

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The BBC reports that the number of people in Scotland taking antidepressants has increased by 5% in the past year with most of the patients being women and those in the poorest parts of the country. “We are now looking at the flabbergasting statistic of more than one in seven people in Scotland being prescribed antidepressants this year,” Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said. “We urgently have to look at better alternatives than simply parking people on medication in the hope things don't get any worse, with no aspiration for complete recovery."

“Making a Choice: APA Reform or Business as Usual?”

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Former president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR), Roy Eidelson discusses efforts to undermine the Hoffman report which revealed the American Psychologica Association’s collusion in torture. "First, from a familiar playbook, we have the obligatory attack on the patriotism of Hoffman and those who have criticized psychologists’ participation in abusive detention and interrogation operations,” he writes. “The most outrageous example comes from two retired military officers, David Bolgiano and John Taylor. In a recent piece they described the Hoffman Report as a ‘classic attack of cowards’ and also stated, ‘By the publication and release of this report, the APA becomes a willing co-conspirator to the likes of al Qaeda and ISIS.’”