MIA Reports

In-depth reporting on psychiatry and its impact on society.

The Crisis in Psychiatry and The Slow Way Back: Interview with Vincenzo Di Nicola

5
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews psychiatrist and philosopher Vincenzo Di Nicola about his call for "slow psychiatry" and a renewed social psychiatry.

Inside a Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Here’s How to Survive

12
Sean Gunderson, who was detained by the criminal justice system for 17 years after receiving an NGRI verdict, documents the life of a forensic psychiatry inmate.

Renee Schuls-Jacobson – Psychiatrized: Waking up After a Decade of Bad Medicine

8
We interview Renee Schuls-Jacobson about her book Psychiatrized: Waking up After a Decade of Bad Medicine which details Renee's experiences being prescribed the benzodiazepine clonazepam (Klonopin) for seven years.

Giovanni Fava – A Different Psychiatry is Possible

17
In this podcast, we hear from the renowned clinician and researcher Dr. Giovanni Fava about his latest book entitled “Discontinuing Antidepressant Medications”.

Can Critiques of Psychiatry Help us Imagine a Post-Capitalist Future? An Interview with Hans...

3
An interview with Hans Skott-Myhre on the seeds of post-capitalist subjectivity to be found in the writing of Franco Basaglia and R.D. Laing.
Shira Collings

New Perspectives on Eating Disorders: An Interview with Shira Collings

7
“Eating disorder recovery is about rejecting oppressive values.” Therapist Shira Collings discusses person-centered approaches to dealing with food-related challenges in youth.
Poster for the documentary film "Cured"

In a PBS documentary, ECT Is Bad for “Curing” Homosexuality, but Great for Depression!

13
A new documentary about gay activists' defeat of the APA ends with a disclaimer that ECT is "effective" for severe depression. Bruce Levine spoke with the filmmakers.

Why Some Experts and Patients Want to Rename Schizophrenia: Interview with Raquelle Mesholam-Gately and...

17
MIA interviews Matcheri Keshavan and Raquelle Mesholam-Gately on their research with service users and consumers on renaming schizophrenia.
Photograph of East Wing and a field of buckwheat

Inner Fire: Where Seekers Have a Choice

12
A Vermont residential community program helps people taper or stay off medications with holistic care embedded in a pastoral setting.
A bird soars between bright clouds

Can Psychotherapy Promote Liberation? Addressing Power Dynamics in Clinical Practice

11
Just as it risks transmitting harmful narratives about pain and distress, psychotherapy might also subvert these very harms in pursuit of genuine healing and transformation.

Jim van Os and Peter Groot: When Assessing Antidepressant Withdrawal Methods, RCTs Fall Short

2
Jim van Os and Peter Groot discuss their paper: “Successful Use of Tapering Strips for Hyperbolic Reduction of Antidepressant Dose: A Cohort Study” published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology.

Rights Based Global Mental Health and Social Exclusion: An Interview with Ursula Read

2
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

8
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Michael Ungar about how complex systems make us vulnerable and how resilience emerges in context-specific ways.
Carlton Brown

Unheard Voices: Carlton Brown

13
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.

3
Dr. Rush talks about the THEN Center and the links between childhood trauma, inequality, human development, and chronic illness.

Greg Hitchcock: Voices, Visions, and the Power of Creating

3
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...

13
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?

49
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.”

WHO and the Sea Change in Mental Health: Interview with Michelle Funk

5
MIA's Ana Florence interviews Michelle Funk about her leadership of the new WHO guidelines on rights-based mental health.

Discourse, Drug Use, and Psychiatry: An Interview with Critical Psychologist Ilana Mountian

0
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

14
Hanna Pickard on the elusive middle ground between personal responsibility and systemic factors in our understandings of addiction.

Psychedelics, Transformative Experiences and Healing: An Interview with Katrina Michelle

12
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

7
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

3
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

12
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.