Electroconvulsive Therapy …. What does Canada have to say?
Electroconvulsive Therapy, also known as ECT, shock therapy, and electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment that uses electricity to induce a seizure in the person...
Is psychiatry such a fragile house of cards?
On October 9, 2021 an opinion piece was published in the Globe and Mail entitled ‘Woke’ psychiatrists have lost sight of the biological causes...
There’s a Fundamental Flaw in Mental Health Care in Canada
Mad in Canada launched on June 1st. We’re just over a month old. Reflection on the mission we share with Mad in America and...
The Ethics of Psychiatry
A government cannot legitimately own its citizens' bodies. Yet, under British Columbia’s (BC) Mental Health Act the BC government, not to mention governments around...
On “knowing,” activism and writing: Remembering Graeme Bacque
We owe a debt of gratitude to activists who over the years have written, recorded, created art and cultural work that exemplifies how, when,...
Remembering Don Weitz, 1930-2021
My hero, mentor, and very dear friend Don Weitz died comfortably, in his home, on the afternoon of September 1, attended by his loving...
Responses to the ‘No Chemical Imbalance Study’: A Long-awaited Watershed Moment?
Initial reactions to the 20 July publication of the Moncrieff et al. study have included widespread media coverage in some places, and the metaphorical...
Queer and Trans Madness: Struggles for Social Justice
This book puts Mad Studies and activism in conversation with queer and trans activism and resistance. When I first came across what would eventually...
Bell Let’s Talk: Are These “New Conversations” Helpful?
January 26th is Bell Let’s Talk Day. From the Bell Let’s Talk website:
"In September 2010, Bell Let’s Talk began a new conversation about Canada’s...
When Tapering Antidepressants, is Going Slow Always the Best Strategy?
I start this blog with an apology. There may be people reading who, like myself, look back with frustration and despair that they cannot...
In Memoriam: Paula Joan Caplan
Paula Caplan, a prolific writer, playwright, and social activist, who for decades was one of the most prominent critics of psychiatry and its diagnoses,...
The WHO Calls for Radical Change in Global Mental Health
During the past decade, the World Health Organization has regularly promoted the goal of improving “global mental health.” While it has often told of...
Wait, What? A Survivor’s Notebook
Diagnosis
I’ve got that thing where you ask yourself if you’re to scale in their world, or merely in yours.
Spiders
The ward is crawling with spiders....
Announcing Oral History Collection on Mental Health Activists in Manitoba
Stories are us. Finding ourselves in history, we figure out who we are and where we belong and how what we do fits with...
Loss, Grief, and Betrayal: Psychiatric Survivors Reflect on the Impact of New Serotonin Study
Loss, grief, and a sense of betrayal are felt deeply by many who have been affected by the myth of the chemical imbalance—a myth...
Honoring Jane Whittington: 1950-2021
It’s with great sadness that I am writing of the sudden and unexpected passing of my former husband and best friend Jane. Many of...
Virtual Film Screening – The Wisdom of Trauma featuring Dr. Gabor Mate
Global Bioethics Initiative will be screening the film ‘The Wisdom of Trauma’ featuring Dr. Gabor Mate.
The film will be followed by a moderated discussion...
The Politics of Distress: A discussion with Dr. James Davies on his new book...
Dr. James Davies graduated from the University of Oxford in 2006 with a DPhil in social and medical anthropology. He is a Reader in...
Mental Health Advocacy and Activism: Perspectives from Living Experience-Based Practices
From Mad in America Continuing Education
Thursday, September 23rd, 2021. 1pm Eastern, 12pm Central, 11am Mountain, 10 am Pacific
Participants will be introduced to highlights of...
Appeal to Board of Health to Ban ECT in Ontario
In January of 1984 seven members of the Ontario Coalition to Stop Electroshock, three psychiatrists, and a psychiatric social worker gave personal testimony. I...
Rethinking Psychiatry …. Robert Whitaker Speaks in Montreal
Robert Whitaker, founder and president of Mad in America, gave a public lecture at Concordia University on November 10th. 'Rethinking Psychiatry: How the Failure to...
The Need for Deinstitutionalization
Irit Shimrat
All provincial and territorial legislation allowing psychiatric hospitalization and community treatment or outpatient committal orders must be abolished.
People who behave strangely routinely get...
Will We Wake for Pity’s Sake
Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. While antidepressants, and other psychotropic, mind altering medications, are designed to decrease...
How are we doing?
We’re 21 months and counting into this global pandemic. And just when we think we’re getting close to the end, this wicked virus dumps...
Mental Health Advocacy and Activism: Perspectives on Systems and Social Transformation
About this event
This is an online event. You can register here.
Note: You can register for free with the code "Freebie."
Co-sponsored by Mad in America...
“Detained: Rights of children and youth under the Mental Health Act”
On Jan. 19, 2021, B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth published a scathing report on the rights of children and youth under the Mental...
The ERNI Declaration: Making Sense of Distress Without “Disease”
The ERNI (Emotions aRe Not Illnesses) declaration is based on the idea that distress does not equate to disease, dysfunction, dysregulation, or chemical imbalance....
BC Government’s Quest to Halt Charter Challenge to BC’s Unconstitutional Mental Health Act Continues...
From the Community Legal Assistance Society of BC: "Today, the government of British Columbia is continuing its five-year campaign to prevent the courts from...
No evidence of a chemical imbalance in depression
The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence.
Joanna Moncrieff and 5 colleagues undertook a systematic umbrella review of evidence aimed...
Kassi’s Mom
Thank you for having me. I walk around angry, jaded and bitter. I am not religious but I have begged bargained and negotiated with...