Awais Aftab is a psychiatrist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University and writes the substack Psychiatry at the Margins. I invited him on the podcast to talk about how criticisms of psychiatry – such as critical, philosophical, and anti-psychiatry – affect mainstream theory and practice. We also discuss his recent exchange with Mad in America founder Robert Whitaker on progress in psychiatry, whether psychiatrists are responsible for rising rates of mental illness, and why many in the mental health field are now eyeing the public health approach to treatment. We conclude by talking about the difficulty of interpreting and acting upon psychiatric studies, with Awais arguing critics’ standards of evidence are so high they dismiss useful treatments like antidepressants out of hand.

You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Links:

* Awais Aftab, Epistemic Justice and Psychiatric Clinical Practice.

* Anti-psychiatry reading list.

* Awais Aftab, Antipsychiatry as an Analogue of Populism.

* Freedland and Zorumski, Success Rates in Psychiatry.

* Peter Simons, JAMA Psychiatry: No Evidence that Psychiatric Treatments Produce “Successful Outcomes.

* Awais Aftab, Lost and Found in Translation: From JAMA Psychiatry to Mad in America.

* Robert Whitaker, Answering Awais Aftab: When it Comes to Misleading the Public, Who is the Culprit?

* Awais Aftab, What Whitaker wants us to know about Mad in America.

* Robert Whitaker, Anatomy of an Epidemic.

* Awais Aftab, The Case for Antidepressants in 2022.

* Awais’ Substack, writings in Psychiatric Times, professional website, Google Scholar, Twitter.