Mad in America

In the Italian penitentiary system, psychiatry appears to be losing its therapeutic vocation and taking on a role of containment and control. Marcello Maviglia's article, published in the Journal of Psychology & Clinical Psychiatry, explores this transformation with rigor and passion, denouncing the systemic and often inappropriate use of psychotropic drugs in Italian prisons.

It is not nearly enough to compensate for all the damage and loss that I have experienced in my past and present with regard to contemporary psychiatric treatment practices. I feel that I have lost my future and my humanity with its colorful emotional experiences to biomedical psychiatry, which often seems to grind the person who has drifted into it completely to pieces in its own mechanistic and in many ways inhumane machinery.

In response to the growing debate about euthanasia in cases of mental suffering, the NVvP (Dutch Association of Psychologists) is calling on its members to engage in discussions about this within the professional association in preparation for the revision of the euthanasia protocol in October.

What would a truly informed consent for antidepressants actually contain – if it truly reflected the research on efficacy, risks and addiction? In an illuminating article, Danish psychologist and researcher Anders Sørensen sketches out what such consent could look like in practice.

When those we love leave us, a strange space opens up. There we carry them within us as incomplete melodies that still touch. This symbolic presence reminds us of bottomless longing and longing. And of the power of love.

One of the most important pioneering movements that has inspired mental health activism is the Hearing Voices perspective.

The reflections of a mental health professional on saving her own son from labelling. The context of this piece is the author’s experience of their early childhood visits to the large psychiatric hospital where their father worked.

Interview with Francisco by Laura López-Aybar. "You arrive with some issues and leave with others. That's the deal, looking for help, but at times you can feel like a prisoner, a criminal, a person who is a problem, a person who is a burden."

This six-webinar program brings together activists with and without disabilities to share tools, strategies, and insights on organizing under authoritarian political conditions. The discussions will be conducted with interpretation from English to Spanish.

Neil Nallan Chakravartulla questions the shortcoming of diagnosis as it separates the person from their world and detaches their pain from their circumstances. He reflects on the troubling consequences of this in South Asia.

Standing in front of the mirror, i wonder, “what outfit should i wear for scanning my psychiatric records at the local library?” the choice is obvious. i reach for my Sinead O’Connor t-shirt. a sense of pride and gratitude washes over me.

Heredity explains only a small part of mental illness.

When inner needs aren't adequately addressed with listening, empathy, and appropriate professional help, but states of suffering are stifled with psychotropic drugs, further suffering and chronic symptoms result.

In a culture that deifies adaptability and rewards mental resilience as a moral virtue, the public admission of despair functions as an erasure. Anyone who deviates from the script of legitimate sadness – the one that passes, that “has a cause,” that ultimately yields something – is canceled out as a threat to the cultural economy of meaning.

It seems pretty clear that prescribers are not as informed as they should be. Being adequately educated about psychiatric drugs means knowing enough about what they’re prescribing to give patients the opportunity to provide informed consent to treatment.

A medical-philosophical reflection on psychiatric treatment, its justification and its problems

In families where a parent has autism (even if it's unnoticed), there's often an invisible tension. A tension that's barely seen, yet deeply felt. I call it "emotional poverty": a lack of genuine connection that deeply affects the lives of Co-drivers—the children and loved ones of someone with autism. This is my invitation to recognize this dynamic and find a language that makes it a topic of discussion.

In Swedish psychiatry, the blame for failures in care is often placed on the patients themselves - not on the system's own shortcomings. Diagnoses such as borderline are used to explain away abuse, neglect and violations in the name of care. In this opinion piece, psychiatric survivor Cat W highlights the need for a real shift in perspective: from symptoms of illness to an understanding of society and trauma. See the article here:

Both divergent and everyone else may need help understanding human play and life, writes Mad in Norway's book reviews. She praises Jonas Vennike Ditlevsen (pictured) for providing insight into the unspoken patterns of social interaction and communication.

"Affective disorders are captured forms of discontent that must be externalized and addressed to their real cause: capital."