Plagued from a young age by disturbing intrusive thoughts and unable to control dangerous compulsive behaviours, 3 Body Problem screenwriter and best-selling author Rose Cartwright was immensely relieved to learn that she had a disease called OCD, which was caused by a chemical imbalance in her brain and could be easily treated with a pill. She became the UK’s poster girl for recovery from OCD, and even wrote a book called Pure—later adapted into a TV show—about the success of the psychiatric model in treating her disorder. But years later, having sunk back into chronic suicidality, she struggled with the fact that this model hadn’t really produced any kind of long term relief. Then she discovered something astounding: that there is no biological basis for most of the disorders in the DSM, and the ‘chemical imbalance’ theory of mental illness had been quietly discredited years ago. She embarked on a quest to understand what was going on, resulting in her groundbreaking book The Maps We Carry: Psychedelics, Trauma, and Our New Path to Mental Health. In Episode 80, we talk to Rose about her story and her research, getting into the failures of the medical system to treat mental illness effectively, the amazing properties of psychedelics in this field, and the question of how to give working class people access to these new, important tools.

Show Notes

Rose Cartwright’s website

Rose’s Instagram

Her book The Maps We Carry

Her BBC radio series on psychedelics and trauma

Study about dance and depression

Gabor Mate’s book The Myth of Normal

Links

clementinemorrigan.com

jaylesoleil.com

Theme song

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John Driscoll

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