Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Deborah Kasdan is author of Roll Back The World: A Sister’s Memoir, in which she describes her extraordinary late sister Rachel–poet, musician, free spirit–and her decades-long journey through psychiatric treatment until, finally, she found a place of peace and community.  Kasdan is a longtime business and technology writer who pivoted to memoir writing on a quest to tell her sister’s story, joining the Westport Writers’ Workshop. Her book, published in October by She Writes Press, is a moving and nuanced portrait filled with love and grief, candor, and complexity.  *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

Hello and welcome to the Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health podcast. If you are new here, hello. My name is James and I will be your host as we ask critical questions about the state of psychiatry and psychology in the 21st Century. In this podcast, we examine mental health with a critical eye by speaking with psychologists, psychiatrists, researchers, journalists and people with lived experience. When you hear such conversations, you realise that much of what is believed to be settled in mental health is actually up for debate. Is mental health a matter of faulty biology or is there more to it? Are the treatments used in psychiatry helpful or harmful in the long term? Are psychiatric diagnoses reliable? With the help of our guests, we examine these questions and so much more. I think you will find the podcast insightful, informative, and, most of all, thought-provoking. It’s available on all major podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple or Google podcasts and YouTube. Just search for Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health. Please join us for these important conversations. *** Mad in America is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

Mark Freeman is a renowned author and a pioneering voice in the emerging field of the psychological humanities. He serves as Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society in the Department of Psychology at the College of the Holy Cross. His body of work, including the critically acclaimed Toward the Psychological Humanities: A Modest Manifesto for the Future of Psychology (Routledge, 2023), offers a profound reimagining of psychology, interweaving it with the arts and humanities to better understand the human condition. He is the author of numerous additional works, virtually all of which, in one way or another, speak to the emerging field of the psychological humanities. These include Rewriting the Self: History, Memory, Narrative (Routledge, 1993); Finding the Muse: A Sociopsychological Inquiry into the Conditions of Artistic Creativity (Cambridge, 1994); Hindsight: The Promise and Peril of Looking Backward (Oxford, 2010); The Priority of the Other: Thinking and Living Beyond the Self (Oxford, 2014); and Do I Look at You with Love? Reimagining the Story of Dementia (Brill | Sense). Along with David Goodman, he has also co-edited Psychology and the Other (Oxford, 2015) and, with Hanna Meretoja, has co-edited the recently published The Use and Abuse of Stories: New Directions in Narrative Hermeneutics (Oxford, 2023). He also serves as Editor for the Oxford University Press series “Explorations in Narrative Psychology.” In this interview, we'll explore his personal journey toward the psychological humanities, delve into his work in narrative psychology, and discuss his approach to the concepts of 'self' and the 'Other.' We'll also touch upon how his perspectives guided him as he navigated his mother's journey through dementia, a deeply personal narrative shared in his book. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

On the Mad in America podcast this week, we continue our reader Q&A with Mad in America founder Robert Whitaker. In Part 1, we discussed Mad in America, the biopsychosocial model and the history of psychiatry. For Part 2, we will be covering reader questions on pharmaceutical marketing and issues with psychiatric treatments including psychiatric drugs and electroconvulsive therapy. Thank you to all of you who took the time and trouble to send in your questions. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

On the Mad in America podcast this week we have Robert Whitaker with us to answer questions sent in by readers and listeners. Thank you to all of you who took the time and trouble to get in touch. You sent some great questions and on this and our next podcast, we will be talking with Bob about Mad in America, the biopsychosocial model, the history of psychiatry, pharmaceutical marketing, and issues with psychiatric treatments including psychiatric drugs and electroconvulsive therapy. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

Audrey Clare Farley is a writer, editor, and scholar of 20th-century American culture with a special interest in science and religion. She earned a PhD in English literature at the University of Maryland, College Park. She now teaches a course on U.S. history at Mount St. Mary’s University. Her first book, The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt, tells the story of a 1930s millionairess whose mother secretly sterilized her to deprive her of the family fortune, sparking a sensational case and forcing a debate of eugenics. Her second book, which we will be discussing today, Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America, explores the lives of the four women behind the National Institute of Mental Health’s famous case study of schizophrenia. It was named a New York Times Editors’ Pick and will be the focus of our conversation today. Audrey’s essays have appeared in the Atlantic, New York Times, Washington Post, and many other outlets. She lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. Mad in America podcasts and reports are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Thomas Jobe Fund. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

Like to know more about MIA, its mission or rethinking psychiatry more broadly? On our podcast, MIA founder Robert Whitaker will answer your questions. Email questions to askmia@madinamerica.com by November 10 and we will pick a selection. *** Our guest today is Diane Dimond, a longtime, award-winning investigative journalist specializing in crime and justice issues. As a freelance journalist, syndicated columnist, and former television correspondent, her reporting and commentary have been featured in newspapers, magazines, and TV news outlets across the country. She’s also the author of several books, including Be Careful Who You Love: Inside the Michael Jackson Case, which she wrote after years of groundbreaking reporting on the topic; and her most recent, We’re Here to Help: When Guardianship Goes Wrong, recently published by Brandeis University Press. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. Mad in America podcasts and reports are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Thomas Jobe Fund. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

Like to know more about MIA, its mission or rethinking psychiatry more broadly? On our podcast, MIA founder Robert Whitaker will answer your questions. Email questions to askmia@madinamerica.com by November 10 and we will pick a selection. *** Brooke Siem is a writer, speaker, and advocate for the safe de-prescribing of psychiatric drugs. Her work on antidepressant withdrawal has appeared in The Washington Post, the New York Post, Psychology Today, and many more. She is also an award-winning chef and Food Network Chopped Champion. In this interview, we talk about her experiences of withdrawal from a cocktail of psychiatric drugs and her debut memoir, May Cause Side Effects, published in 2022 which is one of the first books on antidepressant withdrawal to make it to the mass market. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. Mad in America podcasts and reports are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Thomas Jobe Fund. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here  

Ray Moynihan is an accomplished health journalist and author who has won several awards for his work. He is also an academic at Bond University and a documentary filmmaker. Moynihan's research and writing focus on the healthcare industry, with an emphasis on how diseases are created, branded, and marketed to unsuspecting people. He is known for his use of sharp humor, which can be seen in his mock documentary about a fictional illness called 'Motivational Deficiency Disorder.' He is also a founding member of the international conference Preventing Overdiagnosis and hosts the podcast The Recommended Dose. Today, we will be discussing something that the speaker refers to as "an assault on being human" - the labeling of everyday life struggles as disorders and how patient advocacy groups, doctors, medical journalists, and respected academics are often manipulated by a powerful, corporatized healthcare system. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. Mad in America podcasts and reports are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Thomas Jobe Fund. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here

Bradley Lewis, a narrative psychiatrist and humanities professor, explores the transformative intersection of psychiatry and the humanities. He discusses the importance of narrative in mental health care, emphasizing meaning-making over objective truths. Lewis critiques the biomedical model, advocating for inclusive practices that honor diverse voices. He highlights the power of metaphors in reshaping identities and the role of art in fostering understanding. By promoting a collaborative approach, he envisions a more humane and empathetic mental health landscape.