MIA Today

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.

From The Atlantic: As the 20th century progressed, the field moved away from the idea that social reforms were a necessary part of preventing disease and willingly silenced its own political voice.

Commonly used autism interventions, such as ABA, have been found to be both ineffective and abusive, inflicting trauma on those subjected to them.

New guidance on how to taper and discontinue from psychiatric drugs from leading researchers Mark Horowitz and David Taylor.

From Psychology Today: One anthropologist after another has been amazed by the degree of equality, individual autonomy, indulgent treatment of children, cooperation, and sharing in the hunter-gatherer culture that he or she studied.

From Chronic Illness Trauma Studies: The impact of one of the ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) in particular - emotional neglect - is huge and underrecognized.

A TV writer claims that research shows that Tetris is “literally a trauma first aid kit.” Her tweets sound scientific, but the research behind it is unconvincing.

Celia Brown, Ron Bassman, and Peter Stastny mourn the loss of Darby Penney, who fought to transform the mental health system in New York.

As a psychiatric survivor, I was stunned to see a medical professional describe a dystopian nightmare as a vision of progress for psychiatric medicine.

From The New York Times: Experts say some facilities are using a schizophrenia loophole to continue sedating dementia patients, and the impact has been more severe for Black residents.

My intent with this blog is to compare some lessons learned from my recent medical crisis response to a similar peer-run respite response.

From The New Yorker: The Christian organization Teen Challenge, made up of more than a thousand centers, claims to reform troubled teens. But is its discipline more like abuse?

From The Detroit News: This is ground made hallow by the tremendous torment that was endured there. To have the suffering and misery mocked up for the amusement of Halloween thrill-seekers is disrespectful.

“Eating disorder recovery is about rejecting oppressive values.” Therapist Shira Collings discusses person-centered approaches to dealing with food-related challenges in youth.

From The Daily Mail: "Our research shows that there is no effective monitoring or regulation of ECT in England," said Professor John Read, who led the study.

A rapid withdrawal can be very dangerous and even deadly. You do not solve the problem by firing those who point this out, but that happened to me.

From The Atlantic: "I became an advocate not because I wanted to but because I had to, to survive," said Angel Love Miles. "I was not very outspoken at all. But if you’re trying to get home and the bus keeps passing you up because you’re in a wheelchair, you have to scream out."

MIA interviews psychiatrist and anthropologist Helena Hansen about bringing structural competency to psychiatry while rebuilding communities.

The harm that medical-model practitioners inflicted on me had to be managed and overcome. This delayed my progress resolving my childhood traumas.

From Susan Rosenthal, MD: It’s a huge challenge to trap a highly social species in such a dehumanizing social arrangement.

From MindSite News: The appointment of Pierfranco Trincas as director of the Barcola mental health center in Trieste, Italy, has set alarm bells ringing among supporters of this unique system of community mental health.

Reviews of four recent books reflecting various perspectives on the mental health system, including explorations of the DSM and Open Dialogue.

From France 24: "Human beings are born with a search for meaning that can’t be suppressed by an injection of antipsychotic drugs or a few anti-depressants," said one Parisian child psychiatrist.

From NSUN: Are there still some people who are not 'aware' of 'mental health'? Yes, of course. Maybe World Mental Health Day is for them, but somehow, I’m not so sure.

Our approach is to openly care about our clients and empower them as much as possible. It's vital that clients know we care about their survival.