Berlin Manifesto launch

Berlin Manifesto for Humane Psychiatry Released

43
Changing the mental health and psychosocial support system in Germany requires public debate about the ways our society should help and support people in mental crisis and with chronic mental health problems. We believe the driving force behind all help and support should be humanitarianism and respect for inalienable human rights.

Study Confirms Higher Suicide Risk for Sexual Minority Adolescents

0
Researchers report that sexual minority adolescents have considered, planned, and attempted suicide substantially more than their heterosexual peers.

Traditional South African Healers Use Connection in Suicide Prevention

3
Study finds that traditional healers in South Africa, whose services are widely used by the country’s population, perform important suicide prevention work.
A black rubber duck stands out among a group of yellow rubber ducks

“Please Be Normal!” My Experience Working for NAMI

40
At my job with a NAMI affiliate, I heard daily from people who looked at family members with “mental illness” as non-people, non-human, the “other.” In the office, it was no different. If NAMI had a tagline, it would be “Please be normal like us.”

What Does Social Justice Really Mean for Psychologists?

8
Without clarity and consensus around what social justice means, psychologists risk perpetuating injustices that undermine their stated mission.

United Nations Report Calls for Revolution in Mental Health Care

18
In a new report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr. Dainius Pūras, calls for a move away from the biomedical model and “excessive use of psychotropic medicines.”

New Book Deconstructs Ideology of Cognitive Therapy

76
CBT forwards a hyper-rational perspective of human suffering that complements a managerialist culture of efficiency and institutionalization in the Western world.

First-Person Accounts of Madness and Global Mental Health: An Interview with Dr. Gail Hornstein

16
Dr. Gail Hornstein, author of Agnes’s Jacket: A Psychologist’s Search for the Meanings of Madness, discusses the importance of personal narratives and service-user activism in the context of the global mental health movement.
stigma

Mortification of the Self: The Impact of Stigma on Identity

51
This is how the vicious cycle continues: the more one internalizes stigma, the more she will distance herself from her social surroundings; the more she distances herself, the more she will experience proliferation of symptoms; and the more symptoms are present, the more others will stigmatize and "force" the person into further isolation.

Does Psychotherapy Reproduce or Disrupt Neoliberal Capitalism?

42
Researchers explore neoliberal influences on interactions in psychotherapy and question whether the radical potential of psychotherapy can counter prevailing social systems.

The Scarlet Label: Close Encounters with ‘Borderline Personality Disorder’

To help my non-recovery oriented colleagues understand the stigma/resentment associated with ‘borderline personality disorder,’ I simply mention this: “Let’s say I call you and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a referral for you. She’s been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder . . .’” I need to go no further; without fail, my colleague will smile or laugh. We both know that such a referral is a no-no, so much so that it doesn’t even have to be mentioned; it is a given.

Anti-Stigma Campaigns Enable Inequality, Sociologists Argue

103
Scholars contend that stigma functions as a mechanism of power in analysis of UK Heads Together mental health campaign.

Critical Psychologist On How Scientific Research Can Influence Public Policy

4
Critical participatory action research conducted on the higher education programs offered in prison leads to mobilized advocacy and shifts in public policy.

Length of Stay in Emergency Departments Longer for Mental Health Emergencies

1
Statewide study finds patients with mental health emergencies and who are uninsured face longer waits in emergency departments.

Dear Self-Proclaimed Progressives, Liberals and Humanitarians: You’ve Really Messed This One Up

263
When it comes to psychiatric diagnosis, I can be almost certain that anyone outside of my immediate field of work just won’t ‘get it,’ no matter where they stand on anything else. And not only won’t they get it; they will often actively be one of the unwitting oppressive masses, either through their inaction or worse.

The Psychology of Inequality

2
From The New Yorker: A number of studies show that much of the damage done by being poor comes not from the conditions of poverty itself,...

The CHRUSP Call to Action, and Its Significance

20
Various instruments of the United Nations have commented on forced treatment, or involuntary confinement, or both (for details, see Burstow, 2015a), and a number of truly critical additions to international law have materialized. Arguably, the most significant of these is the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. What makes it so significant? For one thing, it is because this landmark convention puts forward nothing less than a total ban on both involuntary treatment and the involuntary confinement of people who have broken no laws.

International Research Team Proposes a New Taxonomy of Mental Disorders

14
New data interpreted to suggest a hierarchical, dimensional system of mental disorders will aid future research efforts and improve mental health care.

Dehumanization Linked to Poorer Mental and Physical Health

6
A new review finds that dehumanizing language, including self-dehumanization, is connected to anxiety, depression, and disordered eating.

Opening Doors in the Borderlands: An Interview with Liberation Psychologist Mary Watkins

10
MIA’s Micah Ingle interviews Mary Watkins about reorienting psychology toward liberation and social justice.

Western ‘Depression’ is Not Universal

30
Derek Summerfield, consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust, challenges the assumption that Western depression is a universal condition.
diagnosis curse

Does a Psychiatric Diagnosis Have the Impact of a Medical Curse?

97
Over and over I've seen the aftermath of that ritual of receiving and internalizing a lifelong, pathologizing diagnosis. I don't think we can underestimate the uncanny power of receiving such proclamations about our personhood by people sanctioned by our culture to serve as arbiters of truth.

When Psychiatric Medications Cause Psychiatric Symptoms

21
Dr. Yolande Lucire, a psychiatrist from Australia, recently published a paper about the iatrogenic effects of psychiatric drugs.

Feral Psychiatry: The Case of Garth Daniels

123
Garth Daniels, a 39-year-old Melbourne man, has been shackled for 110 days and forced to undergo ECT 94 times at three times a week against his will. Last year, his family asked me to provide a second opinion on Garth’s case. As predicted, my recommendations against continued ECT were quickly dismissed by the hospital. There are critically important issues at stake in this case.

Your Anxiety is a Political Issue

7
From Extra Newsfeed: Anxiety is a political issue, resulting directly from marginalization and structural inequality. The solution to anxiety is not self-help culture but activism...