Dissolving the Ego: Transcendence and Ecstasy
From Aeon: Experiencing ecstasy and transcendence has long been pathologized and marginalized by Western culture and the psychiatric model of "mental illness." However, ecstatic experiences, including...
Dr. Andrew Weil Says We’re Taking Too Many Medicines
From The New York Times: According to Dr. Andrew Weil, who is best known for popularizing the concept of integrative medicine, the problem of overmedication...
Calling it “Brain Disease” Makes Addiction Harder to Treat
From The Boston Globe: Conceptualizing addiction as a biological brain disease is often ineffective, as the biological model overlooks the important psychological and social factors that...
Unanswered Questions in New Mental Health Screening Program for Children
An article presents new screening tools for pediatric depression and anxietyâbut fails to answer its own questions about efficacy.
Women are Flocking to Wellness due to Sexism in Healthcare
From Quartz: Seeking healthcare in the medical system can be a dehumanizing experience for women: doctors often dismiss women's pain as psychological rather than physiological, and...
Talking Madness With Robert Whitaker
On Friday, June 9th, Robert Whitaker participated in a discussion with Lois Holzman about psychiatry, the medicalization of distress, and alternative practices. Click here to...
Why Are So Many Adults Today Haunted by Trauma?
From Greater Good Magazine: According to Dr. Gabor Mate, capitalism plays an important role in childhood trauma. Because our political and social systems do not support...
Barriers to Engaging in Self-Help CBT for Voice Hearing
Individuals with lived experience and clinicians share about barriers and facilitators to guided self-help CBT for voice hearing.
Researchers Question the Utility of an ADHD Diagnosis
A new article examines the usefulness of the ADHD diagnosis and suggests alternatives
Invitations to Crucial Re-orientation
In this lecture for the Forum for Existential Psychology and Therapy, SÞren Hertz, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Denmark, challenges our tendencies on to focus on individual...
Study Investigates Physicians’ Beliefs About Placebo and Nocebo Effects of Antidepressants
Surveyed doctors overestimate pharmacological effects of antidepressants and underestimate placebo effects.
Reading Suggestions for Bibliotherapy
From Notes From a Typewriter: Bibliotherapy, i.e., the use of books in coping with emotional distress, can be a great source of comfort and support.
"Reading is...
The Fictions and Futures of Transformative Justice
In this interview for The New Inquiry, two co-editors and three writers of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements discuss prison abolition and...
I’m Sorry I Was Being So Crazy While You Treated Me Like Shit
From Reductress: "Let me just start this by saying I am so sorry I have been acting so crazy lately; I donât know whatâs gotten...
Dealing With Changes in Psychiatry Through the Years
In this guest post for Shrink Rap, Dr. Maher critiques the ways psychiatry has changed over the years. While psychiatry used to be humanistically, psychodynamically oriented,...
United Nations Report Calls for Revolution in Mental Health Care
In a new report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr. Dainius PĆ«ras, calls for a move away from the biomedical model and âexcessive use of psychotropic medicines.â
Fixing Genes Won’t Fix Us
From The Boston Globe: Scientists' focus on biology and genetics research downplays the role of socioeconomic factors in causing distress and health problems.
"Science is threatening a new era of...
Stories from the Psych Ward: Why Drugs Aren’t the Cure
In this piece for Elephant Journal, one man tells his story of being locked up and forcibly drugged in the psych ward, and how he...
Humanistic Counseling Effective in Schools, Study Finds
Pilot study finds school-based humanistic counseling reduces emotional symptoms in students.
Hold Your Heads Together to Reduce Prejudice of Mental Health
From Openforwards: The biomedical model of mental illness does not reduce prejudice against those who are suffering from mental health concerns. Words like "illness" and...
Psychodynamic Therapy Revealed to be as Efficacious as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Meta-analytic study finds that psychodynamic therapy outcomes are equivalent to those of CBT and other empirically supported treatments.
Moral Enhancement Technologies are Reportedly Ineffective, Impractical, and Unwise
A new paper published in Bioethics assesses proposals to âenhance moralityâ through neuropharmacological and neurotechnological interventions.
Unreliability of fMRI Emotional Biomarkers
From Discover Magazine: A recent study found that neural responses to emotional stimuli are highly variable even within the same individual, which could hinder researchers' ability...
New Podcast – is it Really Mental Illness?
From the University of Liverpool News: In a new podcast, Dr. Peter Kinderman, the vice-president of the British Psychological Society, argues that emotional distress is...
We Need to Stop Prescribing Antidepressants in Primary Care
In this op-ed for Pulse, Des Spence argues the case for dramatically reducing antidepressant prescriptions, as antidepressants are often completely ineffective and unnecessary.
"Clearly psychological pain,...
