“Saving Minds Along With Souls”
Tanya Luhrmann writes in the NY Times about Pastor Rick Warren's effort to "get the church directly involved with the care of people with...
The Fictions and Futures of Transformative Justice
In this interview for The New Inquiry, two co-editors and three writers of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements discuss prison abolition and...
Using Chosen Names Reduces Suicide in Transgender Youths
From UT News: A new study has found that allowing transgender youths to use their chosen name at home, school, and work dramatically decreases their risk...
3 Women Tell Us What It’s Really Like to Live With Schizophrenia
From Refinery29: Three women who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia share their stories of experiencing psychosis, recovery, and dealing with societal prejudice against people with...
Mental Health Industry Should Embrace Choices Beyond Drugs
In this video for NowThis, Yana Jacobs critiques the mental health industry standard of prescribing drugs as the first-line treatment for "mental illness." She emphasizes...
How Compassion Can Triumph Over Toxic Childhood Trauma
From Medical Xpress: New research findings suggest that when pregnant women who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) feel supported by those around them, their...
Letters to the Editor: âThe Treatment of Choiceâ
Readers respond to the New York Times article, âThe Treatment of Choice,â about innovative programs for psychosis and schizophrenia that involve patients and their families in treatment decisions. âNarratives of success counter a drumbeat of faulty links of mental illness and violence, inaccuracies which serve only to further stigmatize and isolate individuals with psychiatric illness.â
Institutional Psychotherapy in France: An Interview
In this interview for Hidden Persuaders, Camille Robcis discusses institutional psychotherapy, a French psychiatric reform movement that began during the Second World War. Robcis explains...
I’m Reinventing Mental Health Care by Putting Patients in Charge
In this piece for The Guardian, Joy Hibbins describes how her experiences of powerlessness as a mental health service user led her to start Suicide...
Apology Sought for Confinement of People with Disabilities
From the National Post: An independent report found that disabled people were being unjustly confined in a Nova Scotia psychiatric hospital. Law professor Archie Kaiser...
Awe is the Everyperson’s Spiritual Experience
From Science of Us: Researchers have found that awe and other Self-Transcendent Experiences have positive consequences for people's mental and emotional health, including enhanced interconnectedness and...
âWorld Benzo Awareness Day, First Step To End Global Dependency Woesâ
âIn a bid to raise awareness towards the global epidemic of abuse on Benzodiazepine or âbenzosâ abuse, a global campaign dubbed as World Benzo Awareness...
Loneliness is a Warning Sign to Be Social
From Nautilus: Numerous research studies demonstrate the strong correlation between social isolation and significant emotional and physical health risks. The pain of loneliness can serve...
Thinking of Schizophrenia as Normal Can Be Helpful
Daniel Helman had a psychotic episode at age 20, but has been off all psychiatric medications since 2006 and is now 44. In Schizophrenia...
Students With Mental Health Conditions Find Support at BU
From STAT: For the past three years, Boston University has offered one of the few programs in the nation dedicated to teaching students who have...
Webinar Discussion – Rethinking Madness
A free recording of last week's webinar anchored to Phil Borges' Crazywise, a documentary exploring alternative approaches to mental health, is now available. Over 4,000 people...
âAlternative Therapies Should Be Considered Before Antipsychotics for Childrenâ
The official voice of the American Psychiatric Association covers the short and long term side-effects of antipsychotics and promotes the use of therapeutic alternatives...
Re-telling Our Stories: Liberation or Re-oppression?
-When we "re-narrate" our own stories and identities, it may be an opportunity for either liberation or re-oppression.
Normality: Unattainable Ideal and Euphemism for Boring
Our culture promotes "fitting in" through "normality" as an ultimate ideal that all "disordered" people should strive to attain, and yet at the same...
âWhere Police Violence Encounters Mental Illnessâ
In The Opinion Pages of the New York Times, Matthew Epperson discusses the devastating results of police acting as the primary responders to mental health crises. âIf we are to prevent future tragedies, then we should be ready to invest in a more responsive mental-health system and relieve the police of the burden of being the primary, and often sole, responders.â
“The Post-Irene Mental Health System of Care”
-Hurricane Irene seems to have left some community-based approaches to psychiatric care in its wake.
âDoes Psychotherapy Research with Trauma Survivors Underestimate the Patient-Therapist Relationship?â
Joan Cook, professor of Psychology at Yale, writes than in her work with military veterans she realized that her psychotherapy techniques mattered much less than her training had indicated. Instead, what mattered was âthe bond forged over years of therapy,â known as âthe therapeutic alliance.â
Playing Up the Benefits of Play at Work
From the Association for Psychological Science: New research has found evidence that play at work is associated with less fatigue, boredom, stress, and burnout in...
The Touch of Madness
In this piece for Pacific Standard, David Dobbs recounts the story of Nev Jones, a psychologist with lived experience who is working to change the...
How to Really Help LGBT Teens Thrive
From The Atlantic: Although acceptance of LGBT individuals is growing, LGBT teens still on average experience lower life satisfaction and more depression than their straight peers,...
