MIA Today

Headlines of Today's Posts

A man, silhouetted, seen from the back, standing in a dark city street overpass

Inside A Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Where I’ve Come From and Where I’m Going

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I will begin with a story of my youth. Then I will explore what my life has looked like since my release from custody. Finally, I will offer my own perspective on the country’s problems with gun violence, articulated from my unique positionality.
Close up of fingers putting a pill into a mouth. Colored lights all around

The Powerful Allure of Psychedelics in Today’s Disenchanted World

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As a psychiatrist and psychedelic researcher in Melbourne, I’ve reached the conclusion that we are in for a wild ride with psychedelics over the next few years.

How Grief Became a Disorder and What This Means About Us: An Interview with...

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MIA’s Zenobia Morrill interviews psychologist Kaori Wada about what the creation of Prolonged Grief Disorder reveals about our culture and the current status of psychology.
Close-up photo of two textbooks, open, one on top of the other

Psychiatry Textbooks Are Filled with Errors and Propaganda

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The coming generations of healthcare professionals are being taught information that is incorrect, to the detriment of their patients.

Books Under Review: Summer 2022

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Reviews of five recent books reflecting various perspectives on the mental health system.

Catherine’s Story: A Child Lost to Psychiatry 

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A year ago today, our youngest child died, thanks to the adversarial actions and toxic treatments foisted on her by medical-model psychiatry. By telling her story, we hope to promote systemic change.
An illustration of a doctor falling headfirst into a door in a giant brain, his feet kicking outside

Response to Criticism of Our Serotonin Paper

Criticisms of the paper were contradictory. Some psychiatrists said that no one ever really believed the serotonin theory. Yet the public does believe it, and are very surprised to learn that it is a myth.

Psychiatry’s Failure Crisis: Are You Moderately or Radically Enlightened?

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The moderately enlightened acknowledge some of psychiatry’s failures but, in common with the unenlightened, desperately attempt to preserve the institution of psychiatry.
A painterly illustration of a woman's eye with a butterfly in the pupil

The Transformative Potential of Psychosis

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For some, myself included, the “psychosis” became a catalyst for greater connection to self, others, and a sense of purpose.
Richard "Dick" Schwartz alongside the cover of his book, "No Bad Parts"

The Parts Within Us: An Interview with Richard Schwartz, Creator of Internal Family Systems

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IFS is a different paradigm, which says that rather than being a sign of pathology, it’s the nature of the mind to have “parts." We’re born that way because they're all valuable.
Blog author, David Oaks, in wheelchair with Patch Adams, with blue hair and glasses. Both are picking their noses at the Oregon Country Fair, with trees in the background. Oaks says, "Searching for meaning."

July is Both Disability Pride Month and Mad Pride Month: Happy Bastille Day!

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The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) supports both Disability Pride Month and Mad Pride Month: Both are July!”

Andrew Scull—Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness

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Sociologist and author Andrew Scull discusses the history of psychiatry's "Desperate Remedies," from lobotomy and the asylum to the failures of today's drugs and the fads of ketamine and deep brain stimulation.

MIA Webinars: Past, Present and Future

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We are pleased to announce that Charmaine Harris, who is a part of the POD team, will join the peer-supported Open Dialogue panel on Wednesday as a co-host.

“Pollution’s Mental Toll”: A Talk with Journalist Kristina Marusic

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The reporter explains how air and water pollution affect our brains, why children are so vulnerable, and what to do about it.

Inside A Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Rolled Ankles, RATs, and Invisible Abuse—The Final Obstacles Toward...

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Sexual abuse is inevitable, an unspoken and largely invisible tragedy that affects most, if not all, inmates who enter into any detention center, especially a so-called “mental hospital.”

Pathologized Since Eve: Jessica Taylor on Women, Trauma, and “Sexy but Psycho”

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Our guest today is Jessica Taylor, author of Sexy But Psycho: How the Patriarchy Uses Women’s Trauma Against Them, which was published in March...

The UK’s IAPT Service Is an Abject Failure

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Despite the hype, the IAPT is hardly “world-beating.” In fact, it is a doubtful model for other countries to follow. Over half of IAPT clients don’t even attend two sessions.

Less Than a Quarter of Those with Depression Respond to Treatment in Real Life

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In a real-world setting, less than a quarter of patients diagnosed with depression improved with medication, hospitalization, and therapy.

Point/Counterpoint: What Is the Importance of Nassir Ghaemi’s Conclusion that Psychiatric Drugs Do Not...

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A dialogue between Jim Phelps and Robert Whitaker about Nassir Ghaemi's latest article, which concluded that psychiatric drugs, except for lithium, do not provide a long-term benefit.

Peer Values Versus Violence: A View from Lived Experience

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Some of us have survived violent, coercive forms of socially condoned mental health treatments. But many of us grow past the pain, into healing and compassion.

Psychiatric Drugs Do Not Improve Disease or Reduce Mortality

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Nassir Ghaemi: “Most psychiatric medications are purely symptomatic, with no known or proven effect on the underlying disease. They are like 50 variations of aspirin, used for fever or headache, rather than drugs that treat the causes of fever or headache.”

Cargo Cult Psychiatry

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Cargo Cult Psychiatry uses the courts to force people, who are otherwise assumed to have the right to refuse treatment, to submit to their pseudoscientific approach to "mental health."

Jock McLaren – The Biopsychosocial Model is a Mirage, Time for a Biocognitive Model?

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Dr. Niall McLaren joins us to talk of his experiences working in Australian psychiatry and explains why the models that purport to guide psychiatric diagnosis and treatment are not what they seem.

The Power of Activism

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Getting support from other psychiatrized people, outside of the system, has the potential to be mutual. You are not being “treated” or talked down to. The contact is genuine and natural.
Man closely examing instructions on prescription medications

Antidepressant-Induced Serotonin Syndrome a Danger for the Elderly

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Researchers found that 25% of elderly patients taking antidepressants had serotonin syndrome, which is potentially life-threatening.