MIA Today

Headlines of Today's Posts

A colorful pattern made up of tiny MDMA tablets with various designs

A Win for Science, with Profound Implications for Industry: FDA Rejects MDMA

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Concerns, from functional unblinding to sexual assault in the clinical trials, led this week to a full repudiation of Lykos' MDMA-assisted therapy.

Violence Caused by Antidepressants Ignored Once Again by Psychiatrists

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Based on RCTs, antidepressants double the risk of harms related to suicidality and violence. Why do psychiatrists ignore this data?

My Story of Surviving Psychiatry

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This belief that there was something fundamentally wrong with me reinforced the damage done by repeated experiences of abuse, rejection, and discrimination.
Stock photo of male therapist looking annoyed. Female client on couch

How to Know if You Have an Abusive Therapist

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Your therapist is, first and foremost, a regular person. No matter how many degrees, years of training, or fancy certificates, they are still human.

Our Medical System Protects Wrongdoers and Punishes Whistleblowers: An Interview with Carl Elliott

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MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Carl Elliott about scandals in psychiatry and the challenges faced by whistleblowers.

Tuskegee Syphilis Study Whistleblower Peter Buxtun Has Died at Age 86

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From AP: Buxtun is revered as a hero to public health scholars and ethicists for his role in bringing to light the most notorious medical research scandal in U.S. history.

The Ethics of Antipsychotic Dose Reduction and Patient Rights

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New research highlights the ethical responsibilities of clinicians in supporting patients who choose to reduce or discontinue antipsychotic medication.
Illustration of diverse people

Part 4: Neurodiversity: New Paradigm, or Trojan Horse?

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Promoters of "neurodiversity" replace existing forms of oppression with new "neuro" versions that still decontextualise our struggles.

Mount Sinai Aggressively Sought to Stifle Debate Over Its Controversial Brain Research

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From STAT: Leading neurologist Michael Okun at the University of Florida Health said the revelations about Mount Sinai's brain research should “set off the alarm bells."
Stock photo. Wooden circles with simple faces. One smiling is picked up by fingers.

The Clinical, Social, and Cultural Harm of an Iatrogenic Psychiatry

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Normal reactions transformed into illnesses, emotions stripped of meaning, & people deprived of their autonomous coping skills and supports.

Nearly a Third of Adolescents Getting Mental Health Treatment, Federal Survey Finds

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From CBS News: This works out to around 8.3 million young people between the ages of 12 and 17 getting counseling, medication or another treatment.
Black and white photo of a wall with faces on it like masks

We Are Amidst the Age of Behavioral Alchemy

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How the Reality Approximation Engine allows us to rethink psychology, mental health care, and perhaps even society.
Black and white photo of a large room with chairs in a circle, striking light and shadow

Trust Among Those People in Prison, Rising From the Borderlands

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With a vision to transcend the cycle of incarceration into a restorative model of justice, rituals are integrated alongside acupuncture.
Illustration of diverse people

Part 3: Neuro-Authenticity, Neuro-Identities, and the Neuro-Industry  

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The medicalisation of ordinary human existence continues apace, thinly disguised as embracing the authentic self.

The Dying of the Light: Norway’s “Medication-Free” Services for Psychotic Patients Are Fading Away

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Despite their successful outcomes, Norwegian non-coercive and medication-free programs are being threatened with closure.
Black and white photo of a hand releasing a bird

What Is Beyond a Diagnosis?

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One of the counselors at the crisis center asked me a simple but profound question; Are you ready to let go of your story?
Image of the words "Placebo effect" on a green background

The Power of Suggestion and the Problematic Insignificance of Significance 

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The power of suggestion: what my experience with hypnotism taught me about the placebo effect.
Illustration of diverse people

Part 2: Are We All Neurodivergent Nowadays?

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The unacknowledged politics of neurodiversity: How neoliberalism and exploitation help explain the rise of neurodiversity rhetoric.

Dismissing the “Human Experience”: College Students Feel Unseen by the Medical Model of Mental...

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In conversations with college students and recent graduates from across the country and around the world, they described feeling dismissed by views of mental health that narrow their experiences to individual medical problems.

Overcoming Stigma as an Academic With ‘Schizophrenia’

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From PublicSource: My success stands in contrast to the hundreds or thousands of brilliant individuals with significant disabilities who have been locked out of academia for all the wrong reasons.
Photo of a man dressed in a plain robe doing alchemy with a glass jar over a candle

Theodoric of Arizona: State-Sanctioned Pharma-Based Pseudo-Doctor

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I propose Theodoric’s Principle of Medical Advancement: “Medicine has advanced when the old standard of care becomes a joke.” 

Beyond Paternalism or Abandonment in Mental Health Care: An Interview with Neil Gong

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Neil Gong exposes the false choice in mental health policy between tolerant containment for the poor and paternalistic surveillance for the rich.
Two women, therapy session

Why Increased Psychological Freedom Should be the Main Goal of Psychotherapy

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Insight into the childhood roots of recurring interpersonal problems and better expressive mastery of primal emotions are cornerstones of effective psychotherapy.

Medication Overuse in Mental Health Facilities: Not the Answer, Regardless of Consent

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From Medscape: Consent, while I support it, is not the solution to what is fundamentally an infrastructure problem, a personnel problem, and lousy long-term mental health care.
Illustration of diverse people

Part 1: Neurodiversity–What Exactly Does It Mean?

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The fuzzy concept of neurodivergence has expanded to include almost every human experience, plus its opposite.