New Perspectives on Eating Disorders: An Interview with Shira Collings
“Eating disorder recovery is about rejecting oppressive values.” Therapist Shira Collings discusses person-centered approaches to dealing with food-related challenges in youth.
Combatting Structural Racism and Classism in Psychiatry: An Interview with Helena Hansen
MIA interviews psychiatrist and anthropologist Helena Hansen about bringing structural competency to psychiatry while rebuilding communities.
Books Under Review: Fall 2021
Reviews of four recent books reflecting various perspectives on the mental health system, including explorations of the DSM and Open Dialogue.
Interview: How Does Climate Change Affect Youth Mental Health?
Psychiatric epidemiologist Jennifer Barkin talks about her research on the traumatizing effects of extreme weather events on youth and how caregivers can help them build resilience.
In a PBS documentary, ECT Is Bad for “Curing” Homosexuality, but Great for Depression!
A new documentary about gay activists' defeat of the APA ends with a disclaimer that ECT is "effective" for severe depression. Bruce Levine spoke with the filmmakers.
Why Some Experts and Patients Want to Rename Schizophrenia: Interview with Raquelle Mesholam-Gately and...
MIA interviews Matcheri Keshavan and Raquelle Mesholam-Gately on their research with service users and consumers on renaming schizophrenia.
Ending The Silence Around Psychedelic Therapy Abuse
All the new hype about miracle psychedelic treatments as the next wave of cures for mental disorders leaves out the risk of therapy abuse.
Anatomy of an Industry: Commerce, Payments to Psychiatrists and Betrayal of the Public Good
Pharmaceutical companies paid psychiatrists $340 million from 2014 through 2020, corrupting every aspect of the testing and marketing of new psychiatric drugs.
Inner Fire: Where Seekers Have a Choice
A Vermont residential community program helps people taper or stay off medications with holistic care embedded in a pastoral setting.
Can Psychotherapy Promote Liberation? Addressing Power Dynamics in Clinical Practice
Just as it risks transmitting harmful narratives about pain and distress, psychotherapy might also subvert these very harms in pursuit of genuine healing and transformation.
Jim van Os and Peter Groot: When Assessing Antidepressant Withdrawal Methods, RCTs Fall Short
Jim van Os and Peter Groot discuss their paper: “Successful Use of Tapering Strips for Hyperbolic Reduction of Antidepressant Dose: A Cohort Study” published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology.
Rights Based Global Mental Health and Social Exclusion: An Interview with Ursula Read
MIA interviews the anthropologist Ursula Read about her research on mental illness, human rights, and social exclusion in Ghana.
Looking Beyond Self-Help to Understand Resilience: An Interview with Michael Ungar
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Michael Ungar about how complex systems make us vulnerable and how resilience emerges in context-specific ways.
Unheard Voices: Carlton Brown
In the first installment of MIA's Unheard Voices series, Carlton Brown talks about his life, living on the streets, the psychiatric system, and survival.
“Getting to the Root Causes of Suffering”: An Interview with Patricia Rush, M.D.
Dr. Rush talks about the THEN Center and the links between childhood trauma, inequality, human development, and chronic illness.
MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy and Therapeutic Humility: An Interview with Marcela Ot’alora
Richard Sears interviews Marcella Ot’alora, therapist and principal investigator for MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.
Greg Hitchcock: Voices, Visions, and the Power of Creating
Greg Hitchcock is standing and schmoozing with a cluster of people in the soaring, glass-domed rotunda of what once was a grand old bank...
“Never Look on the Dark Side”: The Science of Positivity from Early Eugenics to...
The "science" of happiness has always been inextricably linked to eugenics. Modern positive psychology, with its focus on genetics and willpower, is no different.
Britney Speaks: Are We Ready to Listen?
Comparing her circumstances to sex trafficking, Britney Spears told the judge she wished to sue her conservators and be allowed to tell reporters “what they did to me.”
Screening for Bipolar: Have You Ever Been “Unusually Happy” for More than a Week?
A new questionnaire funded by AbbVie conflates antidepressant side effects with bipolar disorder and doesn’t actually meet the criteria for being considered “screening.”
WHO and the Sea Change in Mental Health: Interview with Michelle Funk
MIA's Ana Florence interviews Michelle Funk about her leadership of the new WHO guidelines on rights-based mental health.
The WHO Calls for Radical Change in Global Mental Health
The World Health Organization newly published guidance for community mental health urges an end to forced treatment and the adoption of person-centered and rights-based services.
Discourse, Drug Use, and Psychiatry: An Interview with Critical Psychologist Ilana Mountian
Richard Sears interviews Ilana Mountian on drug use, marginalization, the disease model of addiction, and problems with prohibition.
Responsibility Without Blame in Therapeutic Communities: Interview with Philosopher Hanna Pickard
Hanna Pickard on the elusive middle ground between personal responsibility and systemic factors in our understandings of addiction.
Grassroots Activism: Rethinking Psychiatry Builds A Community
In the United States and abroad, a growing number of groups have devoted their mission and mindset to rethinking psychiatry, doing their best to...
