Rights Based Global Mental Health and Social Exclusion: An Interview with Ursula Read
MIA interviews the anthropologist Ursula Read about her research on mental illness, human rights, and social exclusion in Ghana.
Looking Beyond Self-Help to Understand Resilience: An Interview with Michael Ungar
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Michael Ungar about how complex systems make us vulnerable and how resilience emerges in context-specific ways.
Unheard Voices: Carlton Brown
In the first installment of MIA's Unheard Voices series, Carlton Brown talks about his life, living on the streets, the psychiatric system, and survival.
“Getting to the Root Causes of Suffering”: An Interview with Patricia Rush, M.D.
Dr. Rush talks about the THEN Center and the links between childhood trauma, inequality, human development, and chronic illness.
MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy and Therapeutic Humility: An Interview with Marcela Ot’alora
Richard Sears interviews Marcella Ot’alora, therapist and principal investigator for MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.
Greg Hitchcock: Voices, Visions, and the Power of Creating
Greg Hitchcock is standing and schmoozing with a cluster of people in the soaring, glass-domed rotunda of what once was a grand old bank...
“Never Look on the Dark Side”: The Science of Positivity from Early Eugenics to...
The "science" of happiness has always been inextricably linked to eugenics. Modern positive psychology, with its focus on genetics and willpower, is no different.
Britney Speaks: Are We Ready to Listen?
Comparing her circumstances to sex trafficking, Britney Spears told the judge she wished to sue her conservators and be allowed to tell reporters “what they did to me.”
Screening for Bipolar: Have You Ever Been “Unusually Happy” for More than a Week?
A new questionnaire funded by AbbVie conflates antidepressant side effects with bipolar disorder and doesn’t actually meet the criteria for being considered “screening.”
WHO and the Sea Change in Mental Health: Interview with Michelle Funk
MIA's Ana Florence interviews Michelle Funk about her leadership of the new WHO guidelines on rights-based mental health.
The WHO Calls for Radical Change in Global Mental Health
The World Health Organization newly published guidance for community mental health urges an end to forced treatment and the adoption of person-centered and rights-based services.
Discourse, Drug Use, and Psychiatry: An Interview with Critical Psychologist Ilana Mountian
Richard Sears interviews Ilana Mountian on drug use, marginalization, the disease model of addiction, and problems with prohibition.
Responsibility Without Blame in Therapeutic Communities: Interview with Philosopher Hanna Pickard
Hanna Pickard on the elusive middle ground between personal responsibility and systemic factors in our understandings of addiction.
Grassroots Activism: Rethinking Psychiatry Builds A Community
In the United States and abroad, a growing number of groups have devoted their mission and mindset to rethinking psychiatry, doing their best to...
Psychedelics, Transformative Experiences and Healing: An Interview with Katrina Michelle
Richard Sears interviews transpersonal psychologist Katrina Michelle about harm reduction practices with psychedelics in therapy.
Reframing Britney: Press and Public Waking Up to Guardianship Harms
The documentary "Framing Britney Spears" has led to a change in the public’s view of Spears and even prompted political action on guardianship laws.
Questioning the Moral Panic Around Teletherapy: An Interview with Hannah Zeavin
MIA's Emaline Friedman interviews Hannah Zeavin about what the history of teletherapy reveals about its limitations and radical potential.
The Surprising Mental Health Benefits of Volunteering
A program offers psychotherapy in exchange for voluntary service in the community. But the act of volunteering itself can have mental health benefits of its own.
How Therapists Can Help With Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: An Interview With Anne Guy
MIA's Richard Sears interviews psychotherapist Anne Guy about working with clients withdrawing from psychiatric drugs.
What Does Our Species Require for a Healthy Life? An Interview with Peter Sterling
In his book "What is Health," Peter Sterling asks this provocative question: What does our species require for a healthy life? And can we achieve this with drugs?
Feminism, Psychoanalysis and Critical Psychology: An Interview with Bethany Morris
MIA's Micah Ingle interviews Bethany Morris about the psychoanalytic study of film and the history of the "monstrous feminine" in psychiatry.
Creative Maladjustment: An Interview with Donzaleigh Abernathy
Donzaleigh Abernathy—goddaughter of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—shares her thoughts on the civil rights movement and the legacy of racism in the United States.
Uncomfortable Truths in Survivor Narratives: An Interview with Helen Spandler
MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Helen Spandler about how psychiatric survivors challenge and change our thinking about mental health.
The Lessons of Music: Nurturing Mental Health in Cultures Around the Globe
Music is an ancient and omnipresent tool for wellness, a carrier of peace for individuals, and a bonding agent for communities throughout history and the world.
Jill Nickens – The Akathisia Alliance for Education and Research
This week on the Mad in America podcast we turn our attention to prescription-drug-induced akathisia and joining me to discuss this is Jill Nickens. Jill is the president and founder of the Akathisia Alliance for Education and Research, a nonprofit organization formed by people who have personal experience of akathisia.
