Blogs

Essays by a diverse group of writers, in the United States and abroad, engaged in rethinking psychiatry. (The directory of personal stories can be found here, and initiatives here).

Crumpled papers in a trashcan

Cochrane Recommends Antidepressants for Anxiety in a Garbage In, Garbage Out Review

0
Cochrane's review of antidepressants for anxiety is misleading and harmful.
Enraged crowd of people are behind bars. Fence wire mesh barbed wire, vector silhouette. Street camera on the pillar. Sunset background.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

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Society’s practice of physically segregating privileged people from those they deem to be “less than” has deep roots beginning with the treatment of madness.
Miniature shot. People crowded in the lower right corner, walking

Where Did All the People Go?

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The question that this history will try to answer is how Oregonian lives were affected by deinstitutionalization, in three phases.
A magnifying glass and pen on charts and data

An Approach to Making Sense of Psychiatric Research

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I don’t consider myself a scientist in the usual sense, but I know a lot about what makes scientific findings more valid and useful.

Subpatterns: A Deeper Dive into Attachment Theory

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Psychological issues have their roots in childhood and are linked to the attachment patterns we develop early in life.

Grossly Flawed Paper Denies that Antidepressant Withdrawal Effects are “Clinically Meaningful”

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Pharma-funded researchers are endangering patient safety by minimising the incidence and severity of withdrawal.
Doctor explaining something to patient

Brain Disorders or Problems with Living? How Research on “Mental Illness” Went Awry

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Is it time to consider the possibility that the entire field is a failed enterprise, a wrong turn in human history?
A glow through the trees of a dark forest

Becoming Stewards of Shadow: Beyond Great Men and Myths of Invention

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Before the psyche was carved into parts with elegant diagrams and marketed methods, cultures walked with shadow. 

Mad in Puerto Rico

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Since Puerto Rico is, in essence, a colony of the United States, colonialism has a heavy impact on mental health and the healthcare system.
Creative abstract template collage of hands throw flowers aster blooming freak bizarre unusual fantasy billboard.

The Cat Is Out of the Bag

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I’ve healed; not overnight and not without effort, but today I feel the vitality that I had before my psychiatrization began as a teen.
Double-exposure type photo showing the same person with different expressions

A Mad Perspective on IFS Training

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I became concerned that the reason I was unable to hear from my parts was because I take antipsychotic medication.
Miniature scientist at work with Medicine pills

Protecting the False Narrative About Antidepressants

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We have a mental health crisis because the existing depression drug-focused approaches are not working.

Goodbye, Brian Wilson

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I propose to call any psychiatrist-patient bond “Landy syndrome” after psychiatrist Eugene Landy, the captor, abuser and oppressor of Brian Wilson.
Magnifying glass is looking at the People stand in a circle on a gray background. Communication. Business team, teamwork, team spirit. Wooden figures of people. A circle of people. Selective focus

Madness Is a Human Phenomenon

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We can see how complicated it is to be human and how much human suffering (called psychopathology) is a complex and unique human phenomena.
Stacking wooden blocks upward like stairs

Why Psychotherapy Should Busy Itself with Building Character Strengths, Not Reducing Symptoms

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Clients want outcomes like self-understanding, self-agency, and social engagement from therapy.

It’s a No-Brainer: Living Proof We Are More Than Our Parts

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Terms like “reward systems,” “emotion centers,” and “decision circuits” suggest precision. But these aren’t discoveries—they’re metaphors.

Soteria—A Human Response to a Human Problem

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The Soteria model has gained recognition in Israel, with more than 35 such "stabilizing houses" now operating, most publicly funded.
Triple exposure of young man holding hand over mouth

From Wounds to Labels to “Mental Illness”

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We don’t need to understand someone’s entire past to exercise a little emotional humility—to see behavior as adaptation, not brokenness.
Photo of people holding round hand-drawn faces over their own faces, each depicting an emotion

Waking Up to Your Emotions 101: The Other Side of Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal

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Many people find themselves stuck: withdrawal symptoms might have passed, but emotionally, life feels overwhelming.

Beyond Medicalization: Psychedelic Therapy and the Promise of Community-Based Healing

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Will psychedelics represent something different, or will we recreate the same problematic paradigms?
Alone woman at the beach one twilight time looking out to sea

Where Is God When I Cut Myself? Soul Care and the Voices of Self-Injury...

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Care, as I’ve come to see it, is about sitting beside someone when the pain is too loud for words and not leaving.
Female College Student Meeting With Campus Counselor Discussing Mental Health Issues

Therapists, Neutrality Is No Longer an Option — Politics Is Tearing Us Apart

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To my fellow therapists: stop playing neutral. Stop minimizing systemic trauma to keep your comfort intact.
A young blonde woman looks sad in bed with the covers up to her neck

Inertia as Neuroceptive State Beyond the Pathologizing Lens 

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Reframing inertia as an adaptive, biologically based survival response offers a powerful alternative to traditional deficit-oriented models.
Teamwork hands as work collaboration and partnership tiny person concept. Team work together with many partners for effective performance vector illustration. Project with job management and leading.

A Relationship Imbalance, Not A Chemical Imbalance

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With DSM-III, everything we knew about relationship dynamics was buried under the tidal wave of the pharmaceutical industrial complex.
Black male therapist listening to White female client

Between Diagnoses and Dialogue: The Silent Conflict Between Psychiatry and Psychology

In contrast to psychiatry's biomedical model, for many psychologists, care begins with listening rather than labelling.