Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

This week on MIA Radio, we interview Dr. George Atwood. Dr. Atwood has devoted a substantial part of his life to the study and treatment of what he refers to as ‘so-called psychosis’.  He has authored or coauthored several books, including The Abyss of madness published in 2011 and more than one hundred articles. In the episode we discuss: The story of how Dr. Atwood came to be interested in “so-called psychosis,” including what piqued his interest as a high school student, and his work under mentors Austin DesLauriers and Silvan Tomkins. An overview of his more recent work on intersubjective theory with collaborator and friend, Robert Stolorow. After studying what he refers to as “madness” for over 50 years, Dr. Atwood offers his perspective that madness is not a disease or illness existing within a person, but a subjective experience of self-dissolution or catastrophe. How diagnostic classification systems can result in the false reification of mental diseases in a way that obscures individual realities. The phenomenological approach, or the study of individual human subjective experiences, as offering a hopeful future in a shifting away from “illness” or “disorder” frameworks. How psychotherapy, as a healing process, includes the relational context between clinician and patient, meriting a dedication to personal histories and contexts rather than overt symptoms.  The history of the term “schizophrenia,” and how terms such as these are embedded in a Cartesian medical model. A few of Dr. Atwood’s clinical cases and particularly his perspectives on “so-called psychosis” and “so-called bipolar disorder.” Dr. George Atwood's Personal Website with Works and Lectures To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

Download to listen later... This week on MIA Radio, we share the time between two interviewees; clinical psychologist Dr. Noel Hunter and entrepreneur and author Brett Francis. Dr. Noel Hunter is a clinical psychologist in New York and an advocate for the rights of people diagnosed with mental disorders. She believes in a trauma-informed, humanistic, person-centred approach to understanding problems in living.  She has trained in community mental health, state hospital, residential, and college counselling settings.  Dr. Hunter is on the board of directors for the Hearing Voices Network – USA, the International Society for Ethical Psychiatry & Psychology, and the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy. She is an Associate Editor for the peer-reviewed journal Ethical Human Psychology & Psychiatry and has been a guest editor for Asylum Magazine.  Brett Francis is a professional speaker, mental health advocate, author and entrepreneur.  Brett was herself diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome and ADHD at 6 years of age, leading to being medicated for over eleven years and subsequent difficulties with anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She is now passionate about supporting and encouraging open and honest discussions about mental health and disabilities and giving confidence to those struggling. In the episode we discuss: Dr Noel Hunter How Dr. Hunter came to be involved with the mental healthcare system. That Noel found that if she did reach out and discuss her experiences, she felt punished or accused of ‘seeking attention’. That these experiences made Noel want to fight back and become a therapist and advocate who took a different approach. That Noel feels that building trust within the therapeutic relationship is a fundamental part of a therapists job. That it is healthy to be sceptical of the mainstream system and for people to be afraid of getting help because of the potential of being re-traumatised by treatment. That the medical model ultimately leads to avoidance and harm. Whether there can ever be equality in the therapeutic relationship.  Brett Francis How Brett came to be diagnosed and medicated at a very early age. Her experiences taking the antipsychotic drug Haloperidol, and that she felt it disrupted her schooling. How Brett decided not to be limited by her diagnoses but instead focussed on tackling the stigma and misinformation prevalent in mental healthcare. That we should support and encourage people to talk about their struggles and we should do that through education. That creating communities and social connections can be enormously helpful in responding to emotional or psychological distress. To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week on MIA Radio we interview Dr Joseph Firth. Dr Firth is a postdoctoral research fellow at Western Sydney University. His research focuses on the role of exercise and nutrition in first episode psychosis in young people. In this interview we discuss: That Dr Firth completed his PhD in Manchester, UK, which focussed on the role of exercise in the treatment of psychosis in young people. That he now works on a programme of adjunctive and novel treatments for psychosis, particularly the role of exercise and nutrition and including technology and mobile health. How results show that exercise can reduce symptoms in young people such as the cognitive deficit, lack of motivation and social withdrawal and that these are symptoms that the medications don’t really help with. That, in the very early stages of psychotic illness, there are currently few interventions other than therapy, so exercise and nutrition could have a role in reducing the need for antipsychotic drugs and even potentially affect the onset of psychotic symptoms. That qualitative research has shown that young people report that their symptoms are reduced or become less troubling when they exercise. How exercise and nutrition have key roles in reducing the health inequalities that are seen in young people treated with antipsychotic drugs. To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week on MIA Radio we interview Dr Jay Joseph. Dr Joseph is a clinical psychologist and author who brings a critical perspective to claims in the media and the academic literature that disordered genes underlie psychiatric disorders. His most recent books are The Trouble with Twin Studies: A Reassessment of Twin Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences and the 2017 e-book Schizophrenia and Genetics: The End of an Illusion. In this interview, we discuss the evidence that psychiatry puts forward in support of the claim that mental disorders have an important genetic basis and the reasons why psychiatry is still searching after many decades of failed attempts. In the episode we discuss: How Dr Joseph, as a clinical psychologist, came to be interested in the validity of the diagnosis of schizophrenia. How he then became interested in the assertions by psychiatry that diagnoses such as schizophrenia had a genetic basis. That he discovered that the evidence for genetic factors underlying major psychiatric disorders is very weak and based mainly on twin and adoption studies. That, despite decades of work, there have been few if any discoveries of disordered genes that cause the major psychiatric disorders. How twin and adoption studies are used to try and demonstrate the relationship between genetics and mental disorders. That people are being told that their mental illness is genetically based which is not supported by evidence and it is rather like the chemical imbalance myth in this regard. That a disorder or condition ‘running in the family’ means that it is ‘genetic’ is also a common misconception. That psychiatry seems to be focused on finding the ‘cause’ of mental disorders within the body, rather than acknowledging that social and environmental factors are the main causes of trauma, distress, and psychological dysfunction. Relevant links: Dr Jay Joseph Schizophrenia and Genetics: The End of an Illusion Bias and Deception in Behavioral Research Schizophrenia Genetic Research – Running on Empty To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week we interview Dr David Healy.  Dr Healy is an internationally respected psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, scientist, and author. A professor of Psychiatry in Wales, David studied medicine in Dublin, and at Cambridge University. He is a former Secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and 20 books, including The Antidepressant Era and The Creation of Psychopharmacology and his latest book, Pharmageddon, published in 2012.  David is a founder and CEO of Data Based Medicine Limited, which operates through its website RxISK.org, and is dedicated to making medicines safer through online direct patient reporting of drug side effects. In this interview, we discuss Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) and Dr Healy’s novel and innovative approach to finding a cure. A recent email to Dr Healy starkly highlights the problem: I took X for 16 years without any side effects. Stopped 7 months ago and all hell broke loose. Some of the side effects I got in the first week after quitting are: no libido, cold testicles/penis, pain around penis and anus, tinnitus, erectile dysfunction, tingling, numbness...  Life is not very good these days. I am married with beautiful children. They have lost their father. If I can do anything to help, don't hesitate to get in touch. I would like to give you my biggest thanks for what you are doing and wish you all the best with the fundraising. In the episode we discuss: How Dr Healy came to set up Data Based medicine and RxISK.org. Why RxISK are focussing on Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). That genital numbness can occur very quickly upon taking an ssri antidepressant and can also be triggered by drugs such as Roaccutane (isotretinoin) and Propecia (finasteride). What led to setting up the RxISK Prize. How people can get involved with the campaign. That it’s often people not involved with healthcare who get motivated to take action. How empowering it is to enable people harmed by pills to be part of the solution. To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week we interview Dr Gordon Warme. Dr Warme is a medical doctor specializing in psychiatry. He trained with Karl Menninger at the Menninger Clinic in the US and at Heidelberg University in Germany, and has been a faculty member at the Menninger Clinic, the University of Kansas, and has been an academic at the University of Toronto for 40 years. His most recent book, published in 2016 is Brain Evangelists: How Psychiatry Has Convinced Us to Believe in Its Far-Fetched Science and Dubious Treatments in which he blows the whistle on modern psychiatry, arguing that, in the long history of medicine, biological and chemical “abnormalities” in psychiatric patients have never been identified, and labels such as schizophrenia and depression are misleading metaphors that dehumanize patients. In the episode we discuss: How Dr Warme came to specialise in psychiatry. His experience of being trained by doctors who had a strong psychoanalytic approach. That Sigmund Freud wanted psychiatry to be scientific, but Dr Warme feels that this led Freud astray. The relationship between culture and psychiatric ‘disorders’. Watching, describing and talking as important therapeutic skills to develop. Dr Warme’s view of how drugs are used in psychiatry and that he hasn’t prescribed for many years. The Rosenhan Experiment. Where psychiatry is heading as a profession. To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week we interview David Mielke. David is a psychology graduate and teacher in a California high school who has become increasingly concerned about the number of children that he teaches that have a psychiatric diagnosis and how many are on psychiatric drugs. In this interview, we discuss David’s experiences as an educator and how teachers can empower students to have more confidence in themselves. In the episode we discuss: How David studied psychology and then came to be a teacher at Culver City High School in California. How an experience witnessing electroshock therapy made an indelible mark on his approach to educating. How David knew from interacting with his students that most often their struggles were because of difficult circumstances such as issues at home rather than brain diseases in need of diagnosis. How David has witnessed many of his students have internalised their diagnostic labels. The relationship between a psychiatric diagnosis and learned helplessness. The tensions that may arise between school policies and guidance, teachers and parents when a psychiatric diagnosis is involved. The power inherent in psychotherapy to connect with and support people in difficulty. To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017 

This week on the Mad in America podcast we interview Olga Runciman.  Olga is an international trainer and speaker, writer, campaigner, and artist. She co-founded the Danish Hearing Voices Network and sees the role of the Hearing Voices Movement as post-psychiatric, working towards the recognition of human rights while offering hope, empowerment, and access to making sense of individual experiences.  Olga was a psychiatric nurse working in social psychiatry but today she is a psychologist and since 2013 she has had her own private practice in Denmark, working with people who have been labelled schizophrenic or psychotic. Olga is herself a psychiatric survivor and a voice hearer too. In this interview we discuss Olga’s professional and personal experiences of the psychiatric system and how she now helps and supports healing and recovery in others. In the episode we discuss: How Olga became a specialist psychiatric nurse in Denmark, believing at the time the reasons given for psychiatric diagnoses. How she came to see that there was little evidence or corroboration to underpin the diagnosis and treatment that she witnessed. How Olga was also a voice hearer, but kept this hidden from her psychiatric colleagues. How, when experiencing stress and trauma, Olga came to be admitted to a psychiatric ward, diagnosed as schizophrenic and treated with a cocktail of psychiatric drugs. Olga’s experiences of the antipsychotic drug Clozapine. How Olga came to stop her psychiatric drugs which she had been taking for ten years. Psychiatry’s story of hopelessness and chronic illness that is so often sold to patients. How Olga now views her work from a post-psychiatry perspective. Relevant links: Psycovery Olga’s posts on Mad in America  The Hearing Voices network International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal  Postpsychiatry: a new direction for mental health  To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017

This week, Mad in America editor Emily Sheera Cutler presents the first in a series of interviews that examine the many important issues around forced treatment and cognitive liberty. The series will examine philosophical, theological, and sociological perspectives on coercive treatment. In this first part, Emily interviews two well known and very respected academics and activists Bonnie Burstow and Nick Walker. Central to both Bonnie and Nick’s work is the concept of cognitive liberty or freedom and integrity of the mind. Early proponents of cognitive liberty have defined it as the right to control one’s own consciousness and be free from mind-altering drugs and technologies, as well as the right to use mind-enhancing drugs and technologies without facing legal consequences. Contemporary proponents of cognitive liberty have expanded the definition to include the right to experience and express each and every thought, feeling, state of mind, and belief as long as it does not harm anyone else. Both Bonnie and Nick describe cognitive liberty as the right to express oneself authentically. In this first episode, they get to the core of why so many human rights activists oppose forced treatment – it can interfere with people’s rights to be themselves. In this episode we discuss: How Bonnie became an antipsychiatry activist and scholar, and why she sees the institution of psychiatry as a human rights violation How Nick became a neurodiversity scholar through his involvement with the Autistic rights movement The difference between the neurodiversity paradigm, which views neurological, mental, and cognitive differences on the natural spectrum of human diversity, and the pathology paradigm, which assumes there is a right way or healthy way of being and to differ from it is unhealthy What it means for each person to have cognitive liberty and be able to express their own unique way of being and processing the world without repercussions How psychiatry curtails our cognitive liberty and freedom of mind by pathologizing difference to justify forceful and coercive measures The social model of disability, which states that people are disabled by lack of access and discrimination, not by medical conditions or internal deficits How the social model of disability intersects with neurodiversity and antipsychiatry but also falls short That Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) constitutes a human rights abuse against Autistic children, forcing and coercing them to act more normal and less different That other behaviour therapies and even humanistic therapies can be coercive as well That the autism industry profits off of the pathology paradigm, convincing parents there is something wrong with their Autistic children and that it is not okay to be Autistic, and their children need to be subjected to ABA and other “treatments” How antipsychiatry and neurodiversity intersect with feminism and queer studies Why it is necessary for educators to teach students “mad literacy” from an early age The importance of writing and publishing literature with accurate, positive representations of neurodivergent and Mad people How we can build communities in which people support one another through emotional distress without violating anyone’s autonomy or restricting anyone’s freedom Why the conventional notion of “suicide prevention” is problematic and can serve to take away people’s coping skills How the ideas of somatic therapy can help us support people in distress Relevant Links Bonnie Burstow Nick Walker Bonnie Burstow’s articles for Mad in America The Bonnie Burstow Scholarship in Antipsychiatry Autonomous Press Throw Away the Master’s Tools: Liberating Ourselves from the Pathology Paradigm by Nick Walker Neuroqueer: An Introduction by Nick Walker The social model of disability vs. the medical model of disability To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017 

This week, Mad in America’s news editor Justin Karter interviews Professor Michael O’Loughlin. Professor O’Loughlin is a college professor and researcher at Adelphi University on Long Island. He is a licensed psychologist and a psychoanalyst in private practice in New Hyde Park, New York. Dr O’Loughlin writes critically about the biomedical model of psychiatry and psychology and also has a deep interest in psychiatric rights and social justice issues. In 2015 as an editor he launched a book series entitled Psychoanalytic Studies: Clinical, Social, and Cultural Contexts, with Lexington Books.  In August 2017, with colleagues Dr. Awad Ibrahim (University of Ottawa), Dr, Gabrielle Ivinson (Manchester Metropolitan University), and Dr. Marek Tesar (University of Auckland), as series co-editors, he launched a book series, Critical Childhood & Youth Studies: Clinical, educational, social and cultural inquiry, to be published by Lexington Books. Professor O'Loughlin talks about his childhood experiences and how they influenced his narrative and conversational approach to psychological distress.  In this episode we discuss How Dr O’Loughlin’s early experiences growing up in Ireland led to a deep interest in social justice issues, particularly poverty and inequality. That as a young man in college he engaged in charity work and activism. How, more recently, he became interested in psychiatry when he was appointed as a lecturer in clinical psychology, but realised that there weren’t required courses on trauma or psychosis. That this led to teaching courses in intergenerational trauma and the way that our history shapes us as people. That Michael has engaged in autobiographical writing to understand the way that deprivations and injustices that he experienced had a formative impact on his own thinking and writing. That another course on madness and psychosis was perceived by clinical psychology students as radical, leading to a realisation that mainstream psychology is a very conservative discipline. How he became interested in interviewing psychiatric patients and telling stories that represented a diverse group of people and experiences of psychiatric services. That this led to a project at Fountain House in New York City to see if narratives could be reinforced and shared. That Michael does not himself use the terms mental illness or disorder because he feels that we need to be flexible and that even this terminology can be traumatising. How he has recently focused on creating spaces where participants can share their experiences and stories and it shouldn’t be a classification or categorization exercise. That he has found many that have experienced the psychiatric system have felt that the system impeded their recovery. That a collaborative team of Adelphi academics, Fountain House staff and Fountain House members will together publish research. That Professor O’Loughlin feels that psychology and psychiatry are traditional and reactive disciplines and that psychiatry has been driven by pharmacological concerns. How Michael’s work with children is grounded in his own childhood experiences and a sense that human beings need nurturing spaces and validation. That Michael is extremely disturbed about the medicating young children with drugs that are not known to be safe for them such as antipsychotic drugs. The unwillingness to understand that a child's distress has an origin and that we have a responsibility to engage with the child and create a space for them to communicate. How we define normality within such a narrow range that children find it very difficult to conform to society’s expectations. That there seems to be little room for a child in school, only room for a student. That psychoanalysis has tools to understand our emotions and experiences but also has tools to help understand societal drivers that may underlie psychological distress. The worry that talking therapies are being replaced by tick lists and categories and that we need to bring stories back into psychology. Relevant links: Michael O’Loughlin, PhD Psychoanalytic Studies: Clinical, Social, and Cultural Contexts Arthur Frank Kathryn Bond Stockton To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com © Mad in America 2017