MIA Reports

In-depth reporting on psychiatry and its impact on society.

New WHO Guidance Calls for Paradigm Shift in Mental Health Policy

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The guidance emphasizes shifting away from institutional mindsets and practices, the biomedical approach, and the use of psychotropic drugs.

Psychology’s Small Stories and the Call of the Other: An Interview with David Goodman

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Ayurdhi Dhar interviews David Goodman about his vision for a psychology grounded in care for the other, the risks of psychotherapeutic standardization, and why humility—and even embarrassment—may be vital to human flourishing.

“Dad, Something’s Not Right. I Need Help”: Richard Fee on the Dangers of Adderall

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In appointments that last five to seven minutes, all doctors do is push drugs—psychiatric drugs, ADHD meds, everything.

Psychology, Personhood, and the Crisis of Neoliberalism: Jeff Sugarman on Theoretical and Critical Psychology

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Tim Beck interviews Jeff Sugarman on the psychology of personhood, the influence of neoliberalism on mental health, and the need for a more philosophically informed psychology.

Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics: End of an Era for Independent Journals? An Interview With Giovanni...

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Giovanni Fava joins us to discuss the uncertain future of the journal 'Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics' which he edited for thirty years and which has been essential to our understanding of the impact of psychiatric treatments.
Illustration of a headstone reading "IN MEMORY OF PSYCHOTHERAPY AND PSYCHOSOMATICS 1992-2024"

The Editorial Demise of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics Is Bad News For Us All

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Karger’s decision to replace the editorial leadership without consultation is extraordinary, abruptly ending decades of success and accumulated expertise.

“All Real Living Is Meeting”: Brent Robbins on Love, Death, and the Possibilities of...

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Psychologist and existential thinker Brent Robbins reflects on a lifetime of work, the limits of psychiatric diagnosis, and what facing mortality has taught him about joy and human connection.
A white brain surrounded by a pile of red and white pills

Depression: Psychiatry’s Discredited Theories and Drugs Versus a Sane Model and Approach

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Psychiatry’s depression outcomes are poor because its bio-chemical-electrical treatments are based on a depression model that science has flushed down the toilet.

May Cause Side Effects–Radical Acceptance and Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: An Interview with Brooke Siem

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Brooke Siem discusses her experiences of being medicated with antidepressants as a teenager, her withdrawal from a cocktail of psychiatric drugs and her debut memoir, May Cause Side Effects.

Do Critics of Biological Psychiatry Have an Alternative to a Life of “Whack-A-Mole”?

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Psychiatry has simultaneously offered multiple biological theories of depression and its other disorders, but the theories that stick are those that are effective marketing devices for money-making drugs.

Exploding Myths About Schizophrenia: An Interview with Courtenay Harding

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The Vermont Longitudinal Study, led by Courtenay Harding, belied conventional beliefs about schizophrenia by showing remarkably good outcomes for patients discharged in the 1950s and '60s.
Photo of a girl surrounded by bullies holding cell phones

“A Dangerous Substance”: The Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health

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This is what social media does, she says. It draws people in. It hurts people. In the worst cases, it kills people.

NIMH’s It-girls: The Genain Quadruplets and the Whiteness of Psychiatry

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The poster-children of psychiatric genetics, who endured abuse throughout their lives, were also the product of a racist culture.

The False Memory Syndrome at 30: How Flawed Science Turned into Conventional Wisdom ...

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Soon after states finally began providing adults who remembered childhood abuse with the legal standing to sue, the FMSF began waging a PR campaign to discredit their memories—in both courtrooms and in the public mind.

Summing up the STAR*D Scandal: The Public was Betrayed, Millions were Harmed, and the...

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American psychiatry, the NIMH, the larger medical community, and mainstream media have betrayed the American public by failing to make this scandal known.

Psychotherapy and Social Change: Mick Cooper on Counseling, Pluralism, and Progressive Politics

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Javier Rizo interviews Mick Cooper on the intersection of psychotherapy and social transformation, the pluralistic approach to counseling, and the role of psychology in building a more just society.
Illustration of colorful blocks resembling tetriminoes

“Tetris for Trauma” Viral Twitter Thread: A Master Class in Misleading Psych Research

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A TV writer claims that research shows that Tetris is “literally a trauma first aid kit.” Her tweets sound scientific, but the research behind it is unconvincing.

Suicide Hotlines Bill Themselves as Confidential—Even as Some Trace Your Call

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Every year suicide hotline centers covertly trace tens of thousands of confidential calls, and police come to homes, schools, and workplaces to forcibly take callers to psychiatric hospitals.

Kids Are Not the Problem: An Interview With Gretchen LeFever Watson

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In this interview, Brooke Siem, who is the author of a memoir on antidepressant withdrawal, May Cause Side Effects, interviews Gretchen LeFever Watson, PhD. Gretchen...

Peer-Support Groups Were Right, Guidelines Were Wrong: Dr. Mark Horowitz on Tapering Off Antidepressants

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In an interview with MIA, Dr. Horowitz discusses his recent article on why tapering off antidepressants can take months or even years.

Anatomy of an Industry: Commerce, Payments to Psychiatrists and Betrayal of the Public Good

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Pharmaceutical companies paid psychiatrists $340 million from 2014 through 2020, corrupting every aspect of the testing and marketing of new psychiatric drugs.
Woman holding a smartphone and touching the screen, she is using mobile apps, vintage style collage

Therapy by App: A Clinical Psychologist Tries BetterHelp

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Revealing concerns about BetterHelp’s ability to provide quality, secure treatment—and the unresolved tensions in the science of psychotherapy that services like BetterHelp exploit.

From Freud to Fanon: How Daniel Gaztambide is Redefining Psychoanalytic Practice

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In this interview, Daniel Gaztambide discusses how decolonial perspectives can transform psychoanalytic practice.

A Short History of Tardive Dyskinesia: 65 Years of Drug-Induced Brain Damage That Rolls...

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Psychiatry has long turned a blind eye to the full scope of harm associated with TD. New TD drugs "work" by further impairing brain function.
A photo of David Taylor on the left and Mark Horowitz on the right

The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines: An Interview with David Taylor and Mark Horowitz

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Tapering should be tailored and adjusted to the patient, slowed and more hyperbolic in people who have severe and longstanding reactions.