How Societies with Little Coercion Have Little Mental Illness
Throughout history, societies have existed with far less coercion than ours, and while these societies have had far less consumer goods and what modernity calls “efficiency,” they also have had far less mental illness. This reality has been buried, not surprisingly, by uncritical champions of modernity and mainstream psychiatry. Coercion—the use of physical, legal, chemical, […]
Why the Dramatic Rise of Mental Illness? Diseasing Normal Behaviors, Drug Adverse Effects, and a Peculiar Rebellion
In “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?” (New York Review of Books, 2011), Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, discusses over-diagnosis of psychiatric disorders, pathologizing of normal behaviors, Big Pharma corruption of psychiatry, and the adverse effects of psychiatric medications. While diagnostic expansionism and Big Pharma certainly deserve a large […]
Psychiatry’s Oppression of Young Anarchists—and the Underground Resistance
Many young people diagnosed with mental disorders are essentially anarchists with the bad luck of being misidentified by mental health professionals who: (1) are ignorant of the social philosophy of anarchism, (2) embrace, often without political consciousness, it’s opposite ideology of hierarchism, and (3) confuse the signs of anarchism with symptoms of mental illness. The […]
The Green Shadow Cabinet and a Mental Health Declaration of Independence
The Green Shadow Cabinet, launched in spring 2013, is led by 2012 Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein. Its purpose is to provide an ongoing opposition and alternative voice to the dysfunctional U.S. government—and to demonstrate what a government of, by, and for the people (rather than of, by, and for, giant corporations) looks like. […]
CDC Reports ‘Substantial Increases’ in U.S. Suicide Rate for Middle-Aged Americans—Financial Meltdown Likely Culprit
The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on May 3, 2013, reported that “recent evidence suggests that there have been substantial increases in suicide rates among middle-aged adults in the United States.” CDC analyzed National Vital Statistics System mortality data from 1999–2010, and found that the suicide rate among Americans aged 35–64 years […]
Imperialist Psychiatrists, Psychopathic Corporatists—But I Repeat Myself
Mark Twain famously said, “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” My immediate reaction to Jon Ronson’s TED talk ? Imperialist psychiatrists, psychopathic corporatists—but I too repeat myself. Ronson reminds us that the media’s poster boy for psychopathic corporatists in the 1990s was “Chainsaw” Al […]
The Systemic Crushing of Young Nonconformists and Anti-Authoritarians
“To be a hero,” says Philip Zimbardo in his talk The Psychology of Evil, “you have to learn to be a deviant, because you’re always going against the conformity of the group.” That’s true, and I think Zimbardo would agree that the heroism required to battle for liberty and justice in the face of tyranny […]
Even Some Establishment Psychiatrists Embarrassed by New DSM-5 Mental Illnesses—Is It Time to Abolish the Psychiatric Diagnostic Bible?
After the American Psychiatric Association (APA) approved the latest version of its diagnostic bible, the DSM-5, psychiatrist Allen Frances, the former chair of the DSM-4 taskforce and currently professor emeritus at Duke, announced, “This is the saddest moment in my 45-year career of practicing, studying and teaching psychiatry” (“A Tense Compromise on Defining Disorders”). The […]
What Happened After a Nation Methodically Murdered Its Schizophrenics? Rethinking Mental Illness and Its Heritability
When we begin to question, we discover that (1) scientifically flawed research has been used to promote ideas around mental illness and its heritability, and (2) instead of focusing on nature vs. nurture causes of mental illness, it’s time to consider whether certain phenomena are really symptoms of pathology or instead are inextricable aspects of our humanity.
How 7 Historic Figures Overcame Depression without Doctors
While Sylvia Plath and Ernest Hemingway received extensive medical treatment for depression but tragically committed suicide, other famously depressed people—including Abraham Lincoln, William James, Georgia O’Keeffe, Sigmund Freud, William Tecumseh Sherman, Franz Kafka, and the Buddha—have taken different paths. Did those luminaries who took alternative paths and recovered really have the symptoms of major depression, […]
