Mental Health Apps: AI Surveillance Enters Our World
While the developers are promoting the apps as a public health initiative, they are effectively an AI that would be snooping on you at all times—ostensibly coming to know you better than you know yourself. And ultimately doing so for commercial purposes that will expand the psychiatric enterprise.
Psychology is Not What You Think: An Interview with Critical Psychologist Ian Parker
MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Ian Parker about critical psychology, discourse and political action, and whether psychology has anything left to offer.
An Open Letter to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie: A Plan for Deprescribing Veteran Suicides
Through my research and experiences, I've found that what the Veterans Administration has been doing to fight the veteran suicide epidemic isn't working and appears to be unintentionally exacerbating it. These problems are fixable. But I need your help.
Live and Learn: An Interview with Laysha Ostrow
MIA’s Peter Simons interviews Laysha Ostrow about her mental health research and consulting company, the inclusion of peer specialists in mental health care, and her personal experience with the mental health system.
The Carter Center’s Guide for Mental Health Journalism: Don’t Question, Follow the Script
The Carter Center’s Journalism Resource Guide on Behavioral Health is a manual for docile journalism. There is no encouragement to be skeptical of the powerful in psychiatry. Rather, the guide provides reporters with a template to follow that reifies conventional wisdom, offering a message similar to what the American Psychiatric Association has sounded for years.
“Reimagining Psychiatry:” An Interview with Peter Stastny
Peter Stastny is a New York-based psychiatrist, documentary filmmaker, and a co-founder of the International Network toward Alternatives and Recovery (INTAR). He has been...
Moving Mental Health Work Away from Diagnosis: Sarah Kamens and Peter Kinderman on New...
MIA's Justin Karter interviews two leaders of the Task Force on Diagnostic Alternatives, a group of mental health professionals who have issued an open letter demanding a new look at psychiatric diagnosis.
Capitol Hill Briefings Debunk Myth Linking Gun Violence to Mental Illness
The public is regularly led to believe that mass shootings are committed by people diagnosed with a serious mental illness. Researchers explain that is just plain wrong, and prevents our society addressing the most common causal factors.
Bernie Sanders’ ‘Revolutionary’ Disability Plan Opposes Expanding Involuntary Treatment
Candidate Bernie Sanders' 'disability rights as civil rights' plan is distinctive in its explicit inclusion of people with psychiatric disabilities and diagnoses, an orientation that runs counter to prevailing policy discourse in the U.S.
Psychology and Poverty: An Interview with APA President Rosie Phillips Davis
MIA’s Gavin Crowell-Williamson interviews psychologist Rosie Phillips Davis about her presidential initiative to address deep poverty.
The Charade of New Drug Approvals for Schizophrenia
The FDA recently approved lumateperone for schizophrenia. A review of the clinical trials reveals a testing process that is fatally flawed, and a new drug coming to market that doesn't provide a clinically meaningful benefit.
The Management of Captive Populations with Psychiatric Drugs: An Interview with Anthony Ryan Hatch
Dr. Anthony Ryan Hatch is a sociologist and associate professor of Science in Society, African American studies and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University, who...
Opening Doors in the Borderlands: An Interview with Liberation Psychologist Mary Watkins
MIA’s Micah Ingle interviews Mary Watkins about reorienting psychology toward liberation and social justice.
The Whistleblower and Penn: A Final Accounting of Study 352
After 18 years, the full story of the scientific corruption in a study of paroxetine for bipolar disorder, and the psychiatrist who blew the whistle.
Trump Calls for “Keeping Very Dangerous People Off Our Streets” at Mental Health Summit
A common refrain from the pro-forced treatment advocates at the summit was that "four walls" are not the solution to the crisis. Dr. Drew slammed such efforts in California during his presentation: "The vast majority have serious mental illness and drug addiction. Four walls are not going to do anything, if they would even go in."
Healing Youth with Nature and Connection: An Interview with Peter Mayfield
An interview with Peter Mayfield, founder and Executive Director of the Gateway Mountain Center. Peter talks of his journey from mountaineering to his role as an educator and mentor, and how enabling children and adolescents to connect with nature has such a profound effect on their health and wellbeing.
The Media’s New Hashtag: #GuardianshipIsGood for Britney Spears
Recent press coverage of top star Britney Spears, who remains under a personal and professional guardianship, reflects conventional attitudes about “mental illness” that are both stigmatizing and encourage legislation that promotes forced treatment.
Prescribing an Epidemic: A Veteran’s Story
Had I known what I know now, I never would have taken any of these drugs, and I absolutely would not have taken a role in which my outreach efforts to get veterans into mental health treatment might place thousands of lives at risk.
Kamala Harris’s ‘Mental Health’ Plan: Why It Still Matters
Harris’s plan was met with vociferous condemnation from psychiatric survivors, civil libertarians, and disability justice advocates, who vowed to fight it. While Harris has dropped out of the presidential race, the ideas behind her policy proposal have existed for decades, and are likely to endure.
Medication-Free Treatment in Norway: A Private Hospital Takes Center Stage
At the Hurdalsjøen Recovery Center in Norway, patients with a long history of psychiatric hospitalizations are tapering from their medications and, in a therapeutic environment that emphasizes a good diet, exercise, and asking patients "what do they want in life," are leaving their old lives as chronic patients behind.
On Human Rights and Surviving Race: A Conversation with Celia Brown
An interview with Celia Brown: psychiatric survivor, human rights activist, and president of MindFreedom International.
Screening + Drug Treatment = Increase in Veteran Suicides
For the past 15 years, the VA's suicide prevention efforts have focused on getting veterans screened and treated for psychiatric disorders, with antidepressants a first-line therapy. This effort has caused veteran suicide rates to steadily rise.
Here We Go Again: RESPONSE Act Pushes Forced Treatment of the “Mentally Ill” As...
In the name of preventing mass shootings, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced a bill that calls for "enhanced mental health services," including involuntary treatment and long-acting antipsychotic injections. It also calls for increased collaboration between mental health and law enforcement authorities, and promotes online monitoring of American students.
Survivorship, Resistance, and Connection: An Interview with Dorothy Dundas
An interview with activist Dorothy Dundas about her connection to the psychiatric survivor movement from the 1970s to today.
When Healing Looks Like Justice: An Interview with Harvard Psychologist Joseph Gone
MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Joseph Gone about how a history of dispossession, conquest, and colonization shapes mental health outcomes in Native American communities.
