Why a Sufi Approach to Healing ‘Mental Illness’ Is So Powerful
From Psyche: In Sufi shrines, rituals of attunement offer sufferers a path beyond the fear and isolation of their mental distress.
The Lie That Antidepressants Protect Against Suicide Is Deadly
Antidepressants do not protect against suicide. According to placebo-controlled trials, they double the risk of suicide.
Why the DSM Is Mostly False | Nassir Ghaemi, MD
From Psychiatry Letter: The DSM is a social construction, based on “pragmatism” much more so than science, and as such should only be used administratively at present.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Preface)
Medical practitioners base their practice on clinical experience, rather than the sound published health research, which they distrust.
Understanding the Medical Industry to Protect Yourself
From The Real Truth About Health: Mary J. Ruwart, PhD, Robert Whitaker, and John Abramson, MD delve into institutional corruption, misinformation, the shift from prevention to treatment, and the urgent need for healthcare reform.
On Systemic Personal Boundary Violations, Low Self-Esteem, and Superiority Complex
From Gary Sharpe, PhD: Just like at the individual level, where folks with low self-esteem and superiority complex tend to seek each other out in toxic relationships, so too do the down-trodden people and the "elites" negatively feed off of each other at the group level.
Our Millions Year-Old Embodied Wisdom: Kinship and the Indigenous Worldview
From Kindred Media: The dominant worldview considers the cosmos fragmented, amoral and disenchanted and has led to the disruption of ecological systems, including child development, worldwide.
Podcast with Robert Whitaker on the Media
From Mad in Norway podcast: Birgitte Valla from Mad in Norway interviews Robert Whitaker on the media in psychiatrist. English discussion begins at 4...
Pigs in the Hospital: The Collapse of Venezuela’s Mental Health System
The directors of the hospital, considering the empty spaces provided by its lack of services, decided to allow “milicianos” to move in, along with their pigs.
Psychiatry, Violence, and the State: California’s Systematic Failure of Its Unhoused Population
California has decided to systematically restrain, incarcerate, forcibly strip, and drug its now sizable unhoused population.
Withdrawing From Psychiatric Drugs: How to Produce Smaller Doses Than Those the Drug Companies...
Peter Gøtzsche: To reduce the risk of withdrawal symptoms, it is necessary to respect the form of the binding curve.
Don’t Give Symptom-Free People Alzheimer’s Drugs
From The Hastings Center: It’s not even clear that patients who actually have Alzheimer’s disease should take these drugs, because they don’t improve symptoms.
Over-stressing Stress: American Psychological Association Report Omits Oppression
Despite noting financial problems, global conflict, and climate crisis, the report was on how individuals could work on their own stress.
What Can Psychedelic Science Teach About Psychosis?
From Aeon: In the 1960s, psychedelic research was driven underground. Now it’s re-emerging – with lessons for the study of psychosis.
Adding Antipsychotics Worsens Outcomes in Psychotic Depression
Outcomes were worse for all, with young people on combination therapy twice as likely to experience rehospitalization or death by suicide than those on antidepressants alone.
The New WHO and UN Guidance: Psychiatry Must Entirely Change
According to the preeminent health and rights bodies in the world, the WHO and the UN, psychiatry has to change entirely.
How the Psychosocial Approach Provides an Alternative to the Biomedical Model
The biomedical model ignores the social context in which mental distress exists, despite a large body of evidence of that link.
Beyond Police and Psychiatrists: Chicago’s Plan to Transform Community Mental Health
From Jacobin: The Treatment Not Trauma approach seeks to build a bottom-up human infrastructure for community care that seeks “mental health for all by involving all.”
Why Emotional Neglect and Depression Are Often Experienced Together
From Dr. Jonice Webb: Children who receive the message that their emotions are not important, not relevant, or not welcome in their childhood home learn to wall off their feelings — both positive and negative.
The Making of a ‘Madness’ That Hides Our Monsters: An Interview with Audrey Clare...
In this interview, Audrey Clare Farley reveals how our understanding of schizophrenia was built to avoid acknowledging sexual trauma, religious abuse, and racism.
Why Do Only Some People Experience Severe Antidepressant Withdrawal?
Much of the vulnerability to antidepressant withdrawal may be related not to bipolar disorder, but a trait called “bipolarity.”
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 16: Is There Any Future for Psychiatry? (Part Six)
In the final blog in Peter Gøtzsche's series, he presents his concluding thoughts and suggestions for the future of psychiatry.
After Antidepressants, a Loss of Sexuality
From The New York Times: Some patients are speaking out about severe sexual problems that have endured long after they stopped taking SSRIs, leaving them unable to enjoy sex or sustain romantic relationships.
Injured, Not Broken: Why It’s So Hard to Know You Have CPTSD
From Brickel & Associates, LLC: Because living in a triggered state of alarm is so familiar, many don’t realize trauma is the source of their feeling “not okay.”
The WHO and the United Nations: Let Freedom Ring for the Mad
This is a call that challenges how psychiatry is practiced today and ultimately challenges its power in society.
