Fernando de Freitas: A “Dear Friend” Who Was a Warrior for Radical Change
Fernando de Freitas, co-founder of Mad in Brasil, passed away January 30. He had devoted his professional life to seeking to transform psychiatric care in Brazil and beyond.
Leading Psychiatrists Unwittingly Acknowledge Psychiatry Is a Religion, Not a Science
Leading figures in psychiatry acknowledge that DSM psychiatric diagnoses and the chemical imbalance theory of mental illness are not scientifically valid, but are useful fictions that help people manage their emotions and comply with their medication treatments.
A Revolution Wobbles: Will Norway’s “Medication-Free” Hospital Survive?
We interview Ole Andreas Underland, Director of the Hurdalsjøen Recovery Center in Norway which provides “medication-free” care for those who want such treatment or who want to taper from their psychiatric drugs. Ole Andreas explains why the success of this pioneering approach might threaten its future.
Mad in America’s 10 Most Popular Articles in 2022
A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2022 as chosen by our readers.
Ten Years of Rocking the Boat: Reflecting on Mad in America’s Mission and Work
Continuing our 200th podcast, staff members join us to discuss reinvigorating MIA continuing education, science writing and blogs, personal stories, community commenting and family resources.
Art and Transformation: Creating Justice in Mental Health
An upcoming conference focuses on the perspective of artists and activists in answering what it means to have a just mental health care system: Who decides who is labelled as mad?
David Healy – Polluting Our Internal Environments: The Perils of Polypharmacy
On the MIA Podcast, Dr David Healy discusses World Tapering Day, antidepressant treatment and sensory neuropathy and the difficulties that can be encountered when trying to deprescribe.
Anders Sørensen – Tackling Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Through Research and in Practice
Anders Sørenson is a Danish clinical psychologist with a special interest in psychiatric drug withdrawal. He has undertaken research which assesses the state of guidance on psychiatric drug withdrawal and paid close attention to tapering methods with the aim of identifying approaches which might make withdrawal more tolerable for people.
Dear Psychiatry
Dear Psychiatry: We are done with your juvenile black-and-white bullying tactics that argue that because you cannot neatly contain Us in a box of your design that We are somehow the problem.
A New-Old Way of Coping with Grief
"How to Grieve" is a Renaissance recreation of a lost text from ancient Rome by Cicero, and it’s meant for a wide audience. It's packed with talk-therapy strategies for coping with grief.
Jim Flannery: Sorry It’s Not Funny – Comedy, Hip-Hop and Activism
Born and raised in suburban Weathersfield, Connecticut, Jim Flannery was committed at four mental hospitals across the United States. There he received the best care available in the modern world…torture.
Understanding the Limits of the Beneficial Effect of Antidepressants Reported in the Meta-analysis by...
Stone, M. B., Yaseen, Z. S., Miller, B. J., Richardville, K., Kalaria, S. N., & Kirsch, I. (2022). Response to acute monotherapy for major...
Jon Jureidini–Evidence-Based Medicine in a Post-Truth World
In this interview, Jon Jureidini talks about the issues with evidence-based medicine and describes what led to the debasement of a system originally conceived to challenge extravagant claims and poor science.
The Mad in the World Network: A Global Voice for Change
Mad in Ireland is the newest Mad in America affiliate. The network of affiliate sites is becoming a global voice for change.
John Read and Jeffrey Masson – Biological Psychiatry and the Mass Murder of “Schizophrenics”
On the Mad in America podcast this week, we hear from the co-authors of a paper published in the journal Ethical Human Psychology and...
Psychiatry’s Failure Crisis: Are You Moderately or Radically Enlightened?
The moderately enlightened acknowledge some of psychiatry’s failures but, in common with the unenlightened, desperately attempt to preserve the institution of psychiatry.
Andrew Scull—Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness
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.
Pathologized Since Eve: Jessica Taylor on Women, Trauma, and “Sexy but Psycho”
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...
Tara Thiagarajan: Mental Well-being Better in Venezuela than in United States: Why?
Tara Thiagarajan is founder and chief scientist of Sapien Labs, a nonprofit organization that runs the Mental Health Million Project, we discuss its annual Mental State of the World Report, which uses an online survey to track mental wellbeing among internet-enabled populations around the world.
Interview with Sonja Styblo: Update on the Massachusetts Benzo Bill
Styblo discusses the history of the Benzodiazepine Bill, its current status, the purpose of the legislation, and why she and others have so vigorously pursued this legislation.
The Impact the DSM Has Had On All of Us: An interview with Sarah...
"You're not going to sell many drugs by saying your problem is your life experiences. It's far more effective to say your problem is in the brain. It's an imbalance, we can correct that imbalance, just take our product."
Mental Wellbeing Poorest in English-Speaking Countries of the World
A survey of 233,087 “internet users” in 34 countries that measured “mental wellbeing” found that the percentage of respondents who were “distressed or struggling” was highest in English-speaking regions of the world, where 30% fell into this category.
The ENIGMA-MDD Project: Searching for the Neuropathology of “Major Depressive Disorder”
There's an old saying in research: "garbage in; garbage out". Research based on invalid concepts or false assumptions will produce invalid conclusions.
Anti-Psychiatry, Szasz, Torrey, Biederman & the Death of Freethinking
Americans appear to be increasingly terrified by the possibility of ostracism, including for failing to conform to psychiatry dogma. This prevents critical thinking.
Robert Spitzer on DSM-III: A Recently Recovered Interview
Robert Spitzer, chair of the Task Force for DSM-III, discusses his decisions on inclusion, exclusion, expansion, and renaming disorders in the manual.
