It's Not Just In Your Head

Harriet opens with a deep dive into the #FreeBritney conservatorship abuse phenomenon and how Britney Spears was basically turned into a slave to make her family, as well as legal and medical establishment profit-seekers, very rich at Britney's expense. Max recalls growing up with Britney Spears' music on the radio and TV, and asking about how many child pop stars are basically just child slaves for parental capitalist bosses. What exactly are children for? Hit us baby one more time with feedback at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com  Become a patron to get early access to episodes, a monthly reading/discussion group, and discord server at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

A listener emailed us about how politically polarized their family was, and how painful this was for everyone to experience. Harriet and Max comment on what may have caused this phenomenon historically and economically. Email us if your family is politically polarized and whether this causes you distress or if you're fine with this abeing your family dynamic. Do you avoid political conversations? Do you just listen to family members? Have you cut them off permanently due to their views? itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com To join our patrons-only discord, get early access to episodes, and our monthly reading group, go to patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

In this solocast episode, Max offers some critiques of the depoliticized and McDonaldized way #mentalhealth is discussed on social media. When he saw a recent CIA recruitment video that included a millennial Latinx CIA agent identifying as being diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and listening to some nearby 20-somethings use a bucket full of DSM-5 and pop-psych jargon, he began wondering why #mentalhealth content has become so #relateable to the millennial and zoomer generations. He did some research and found that the hashtag #TikTokTherapy has 50 million posts on TikTok , then decided to lecture you for 40 minutes about it. The gist is: Marx's theory of alienation is important, the top social media therapist influencers should use their platforms to historicize and politicize young adults' internal experiences and connect them larger social, political, and economic forces, and everyone should read "Coming Up Short: Working Class Adulthood In An Age Of Uncertainty" by Jennifer Silva. Yell at Max for his problematic takes at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com  SMASH this link to become a patron: patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead, so we can #outcompete other #therapists in the #freemarket of #mentalhealth podcasts. Links: Woke CIA Recruitment Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X55JPbAMc9g Marx's Theory of Alienation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation Sampled TikTok Therapists: https://www.tiktok.com/@strongtherapy/video/6952896749132467462?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1 https://www.tiktok.com/@evolveandbloom/video/6867622435034877190?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1 https://www.tiktok.com/@dylan_sessler/video/6976381439843568901?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1 Book: "Coming Up Short: Working Class Adulthood In An Age Of Uncertainty" by Jennifer Silva. ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Do you ever feel guilty or ashamed for having climbed or been born into a more "middle class" or "upper class" position on the socioeconomic ladder? Harriet and Max call this phenomenon "class guilt," and define it separately from other forms of "privilege guilt" such as white guilt and male guilt. Harriet complicates "class" by reminding us of the Marxian definition. Some argue there are multiple classes in society denoted by amounts of money or types of jobs, but on a basic level there are ultimately two major classes: the ownership class who owns the means of production and accumulates wealth through ownership, and the working class who do not own the means of production and can only survive through wage labor. Both therapists offer insights around whether such a sense of guilt, and any form of "privilege" based guilt, is helpful or harmful. Harriet encourages listeners of all backgrounds to simply ask themselves if they stand with those who exploit for a living or if they stand with those who wish to transform the economy into an equitable, sustainable one based on cooperation and democracy. Max encourages listeners to go beyond cognitively believing oneself to "be on a side" and to become active members of organizations intending to build and expand working class power, long-term. Email us feedback on this episode at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com Get early access to episodes, join monthly reading groups and the discord community at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Harriet and Max "wrap up" on identity politics so they can move on to other topics. itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com, patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Youtuber and podcaster Angie Speaks joins us to talk about what inspired her recent video "How Validation Ruined Your Life: Narcissism and Social Justice."  In this episode we discuss (and debate) whether there is value to identifying or allying with certain groups along lines of gender, race, ethnicity, immigration status, etc. Angie argues that most  identification to this effect has been twisted into pseudo-political culture wars that produce more infighting and political ineffectiveness. Harriet argues that identity is often a starting point for people to become politicized and later develop class politics (ie, through Blackness, woman-ness, trans-ness, etc). A debate breaks out about whether a "class identity" is an appropriate way to talk about moving toward class unity. Max acknowledges the psychological need most people have to develop a sense of personal and collective identity, but questions whether this identity development process in our current culture leads to class politics or has become designed to become hostile toward it. Check out Angie Speaks' Youtube videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUtloyZ_Iu4BJekIqPLc_fQ And her podcast Low Society here: https://soundcloud.com/low-society Reach Angie on twitter at twitter.com/SpeaksAngie ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

This week we talk to Jennifer White, one of the founders of the Critical Suicidology Network. White is a professor in the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. She served for 7 years as the Director of Suicide Prevention Center in the Dept. of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. With White, we learn about the new field of "critical suicidology," which seeks to rethink what it means to study and prevent suicide in a more diverse and less psycho-centric and depoliticized ways. We explore how historical factors like colonialism and genocide, deindustrialization, gender violence and racism impact suicide. While DBT's mantra as a modality is to help clients "build a life worth living," White challenges us to develop approaches that empower suicidal people to fight to build a WORLD worth living in. Here is an additional interview and podcast with Jennifer White from Mad In America: https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/11/rethinking-suicide-prevention-interview-critical-suicide-studies-jennifer-white/ A book that Prof. White recommends, including an article she wrote on collective ethics of suicide prevention: Suicide and Social Justice New Perspectives on the Politics of Suicide and Suicide Prevention https://www.routledge.com/Suicide-and-Social-Justice-New-Perspectives-on-the-Politics-of-Suicide/Button-Marsh/p/book/9781138601840 --- Send us your reactions to this episode at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com, and become a patron to get early access to episodes, to join our monthly reading groups and discord server, and extra behind the scenes content at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Two union organizers from Atlanta, Georgia join us to explore questions about the psychology of bosses versus workers in the context of union organizing. What's a typical reaction of managers and bosses when workers form a union? Are these reactions any different with more liberal or progressive bosses? Are workers who organize a real or imagined threat to a business owner's sense of identity and accomplishments? What are common fears that prevent workers from organizing? When workers do organize together, what helps them overcome fear of retaliation from the boss and how do they develop a sense of solidarity over horizontal distrust and competitiveness? Our guests: Tedwood Strong (they/them), former animator and campaign lead for CODE-CWA - a campaign to organize digital employees. Jen Garcia, a "reformed animator" and software engineer who "thinks unions are rad." Go to code-cwa.org for more info Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com, support the pod at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Marxian economist Richard Wolff joins us to define capitalism, socialism, and communism. He explains the historical relationships and tensions between those who own property and those who do not. Wolff discusses the heated debates and criticisms of capitalism and the lag in understanding these ideas in America. The podcast also explores how capitalism and the business model impact different fields, the demotion of universities, the connection between capitalism and mental health, the reasons for ignoring exploitation under capitalism, and the rise of worker co-ops as an alternative.

For this episode we invited Asad Haider on to talk about identity politics and mental health. Haider wrote a book called Mistaken Identity in 2018, which weaves in a blend of personal narratives and scholarly analysis; Haider shares on the one hand the "lived experiences" of being on the receiving end of racism having grown up in a Pakistani immigrant family in post-9/11 America, and on the other a deep challenge for the left to consider whether modern identity politics are capable of significantly and positively transforming society. We ask Haider if he thinks there has been cultural and interpersonal progress on the left from the now relatively normalized integration of mental health and trauma therapy language into identity politic discourse (ie, invalidation, trigger, safe space, micro-aggression). Haider argues that there's a mistake in assuming there are more similarities than differences for people with "the same identities," and that operating on this assumption often leads to ineffective politics. Harriet and Max try to balance the need to acknowledge the psychological significance of identity while understanding the limitations of identity as a form of politics. Asad Haider is a founding editor of Viewpoint Magazine. He is the author of Mistaken Identity. His writing can be found in The Baffler, n+1, The Point, Salon, and elsewhere. Read about Haider's work here, here, and here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/31/mistaken-identity-by-asad-haider-review https://theintercept.com/2018/05/27/identity-politics-book-asad-haider/ Two of Haider's more recent writings: https://saaganthology.com/Emancipation-and-Exhaustion https://viewpointmag.com/2019/12/16/on-depoliticization/ Please give us your feedback on this discussion at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Support our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.