Developing Alternatives to the DSM for Psychotherapists
A new article suggests counselors and psychotherapists are dissatisfied with current diagnostic systems and outlines some potential alternatives.
“New York ‘Parachute’ Programme For People With Acute Mental Distress Lands In UK”
Based on the Finnish Open Dialogue approach, the Parachute program is an alternative to current health care systems where a team of health care workers collaborate with families and those in distress to develop a path to recovery. The success of Parachute is now spurring the development of similar programs in the UK.
Is Good Mental Health About Learning to Live Better with Fewer Resources?
An op-ed in The Advertiser begins with a quote from Carl Jung: “The foundation of mental illness is our unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering.”...
Michael Wilusz: Coming of Age on Psych Drugs
Michael Wilusz discusses his experience struggling with emotional distress, the ensuing regimen of psychiatric drug treatment, and his process tapering off of the drugs.
Depression, Stigma, and our Toxic Culture
From Medium: Often after the suicide of a public figure, there is an increase in articles published attempting to destigmatize depression by categorizing it as...
Bipolar Diagnosis Linked to Childhood Adversity
With the ties between traumatic childhood experiences and mental health issues, should we continue to focus on biological approaches?
ABC Radio: Can Philosophy Prevent Overdiagnosis?
Professor Wendy Rogers believes that overdiagnosis itself is an epidemic and that the roots of the problem lie in an insufficient naturalistic disease-theory. Overdiagnosis, she adds, “can be harmful for the patient and also cause waste of a lot of resources.”
How Race and Class Impact Schizophrenia and Substance-Use Diagnoses
A new article explores how psychiatric diagnoses are differentially applied to people of different racial and class backgrounds.
The Mental Health Act Review: Everything Remains the Same
From Tales from the Madhouse: On May 1st, the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act published a 60-page interim report. The report makes it clear that no...
The Sane Society: The Great Philosopher Erich Fromm
According to philosopher Erich Fromm, the more technologically and intellectually advanced a society becomes, the more the society risks collective insanity, subjecting itself to...
“Diagnostic Dissent”: Experiences of Individuals Who Disagreed With Their Diagnosis
Researchers investigate the first-person experiences of people who disagreed with their psychiatric diagnosis of psychosis.
A Blueprint for an ‘Ecosocial’ Person-Centered Psychiatry
New article pushes for a shift from a psychiatry centered on brain circuitry toward an 'ecosocial' view of mind, brain, and culture.
Getting Involved in Prison Issues – Making Alliances With Mental Health Advocacy
In my recent Alternatives keynote I talked about mental health issues and our unjust prisons, including the shameful racism of the criminal justice system...
Series on Anti-Psychiatry and Critical Theory for World Mental Health Day
To coincide with World Mental Health Day on October 10th, 2015, Verso Books, the largest independent and radical publishing house released a series of blogs on mental health and critical and antipsychiatry. The posts include pieces on R.D. Laing, colonialism, women’s oppression, delusions and art, “The Happiness Industry,” and social and institutional oppression.
Using Participatory Action in Bioethics Research
Participatory action approaches in bioethics research used to decrease coercion and seclusion in psychiatric treatment.
Childhood Trauma and Auditory Verbal Hallucinations
Researchers in the Netherlands compared childhood trauma and auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) in 127 non-psychotic individuals with frequent AVH, healthy controls, and 100 psychotic...
Mental Well-Being and Engagement in the Arts
Public health researchers at the University of Western Australia examined the relationship between recreational arts engagement and mental well-being in the general population. The results, which have implications for policy makers as well as health practitioners, indicate that those who engage with the arts for two or more hours per week have significantly better mental well-being.
Researchers Develop New Model for Understanding Depression
Acknowledging that current depression treatments are failing many people, researchers from Michigan State and MIT have developed a new model for understanding how multiple psychological, biological, social and environmental factors contribute to depression.
Thomas Szasz: Does Mental Illness Exist?
A conversation with Thomas Szasz, published on March 28, 2014. He discusses the question of whether mental illness exists and whether it is possible...
“Psychiatry and the Humanities”: Postgraduate Course
From the American Philosophical Association: A pioneering course called "Psychiatry and the Humanities" for postgraduate students at the University of Montreal has been nominated for the...
New Meta-Analysis: Mindfulness Interventions Effective for Psychiatric Disorders
A meta-analysis of mindfulness-based interventions shows efficacy for treating depression, physical pain, smoking, and addictive disorders.
Robert Whitaker Missed the Mark on Drugs and Disability: A Call for a Focus...
Robert Whitaker extended one of his core arguments from Anatomy of an Epidemic in a blog post last week. His argument revolves around the claim that psychiatric drugs are the principal cause of increasing psychiatric disability, as measured by U.S. social security disability claims. But does this really explain the rise in recipients of these SSI & SSDI benefits?
Why It’s Time to Let Psychoanalysis Into Politics
In this piece for Prospect, Susie Orbach explains how insights from psychoanalysis can help us understand our current political, social, and economic climate.
"Politically, socially, ecologically and economically,...
Depression Test May be Inaccurate for Black Adolescents, Study Finds
Researchers find that psychometric properties in the CES-D, developed for White adults, may not adequately measure the lived experience for Black adolescents.
Beyond Critique: Psychologists Discuss Diagnostic Alternatives
The Journal of Humanistic Psychology compiles diverse research offering diagnostic alternatives toward a paradigm shift in mental health care.
