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...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
“Asylum”
This story, published in Aeon, about a hospital at Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole, in southern France during WWII, has some lessons for us today. According to author...
Fernando de Freitas: A “Dear Friend” Who Was a Warrior for Radical Change
Written by Robert Whitaker and posted to Mad in America on February 3, 2023
Over the past decade, the call for radical change in psychiatry...
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....
Freedom To Be – Herstory Writing Workshop
Freedom To Be
A 15-week Herstory Writing Workshop for those harmed by being labelled BPD, hosted by Rebecca Donaldson & The Herstory Writing Network.
When: Sundays,...
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...
“Cured”
Bruce Levine reviews “Cured,” a PBS Independent Lens documentary about gay liberation from psychiatry to be broadcast on October 11, 2021. Levine writes: "Cured is...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
RIP: Ed White – Advocate, Researcher and Supporter
To read the original of this post click here to go to the Mad in the UK site
By James Moore -17/10/2021
It is with great...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...