Madness Radio

Clinical Psychologist David Lukoff talks about his madness experience and the spiritual transformation it triggered. David went on to become a leading figure in the field of Transpersonal Psychology and works to bring greater spiritual awareness into mainstream mental health practice. http://www.spiritualcompetency.comThe post Spiritual Emergence: David Lukoff first appeared on Madness Radio.

UK video activist and writer Mel Gunasena on her mystical experiences and forced psychiatric hospitalization. Mel is the director of Evolving Minds, a documentary film about spiritual experiences and what gets labeled “psychosis” by the mental health system. She also discusses the art therapy project in Sri Lanka she helped found to assist traumatized tsunami-affected children. See a trailer for the film at http://www.undercurrents.org/minds and check out the Sri Lanka project at http://www.art-2-art.orgThe post Evolving Minds: Mel Gunasena first appeared on Madness Radio.

Community organizer and writer Michael Gennarelli talks about his 8 years of psychiatric treatment as a child and his stays at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Michael reads his poetry about these painful experiences and discusses his activism, including an after school program for kids and the Misled Youth Network. http://www.misled-youth.org http://www.123communityspace.org http://www.fountainhouse.org http://www.theicarusproject.netThe post Misled Youth: Michael Gennarelli first appeared on Madness Radio.

Recovery leader and survivor Ed Knight talks about Zen, Insight, and Christian meditation and “schizophrenia,” including discrimination against people with psychiatric labels at meditation retreats, the link between spiritual awakening and madness, and living beyond “managing symptoms.” http://www.professored.com http://www.recoverycircles.orgThe post Buddhist Meditation and Schizophrenia: Ed Knight first appeared on Madness Radio.

Warsaw Poland psychologist Bogna Szymkiewicz discusses “wounded states of consciousness,” what the mind and body do when trauma is activated, as well as how trauma affects our relationships and what we can do to recover. http://www.bogna.infoThe post Wounded States of Consciousness: Bogna Szymkiewicz first appeared on Madness Radio.

Blacks in the UK are much more likely than white people to be locked up, put on drugs, and mistreated in the mental health system. Social scientist Philip Morgan of London’s Tower Hamlets African and Caribbean Mental Health Organization (THACMHO) discusses the legacy of slavery, survivor-run advocacy for system change, and an innovative project reclaiming Black identity through historical research. http://www.thacmho.org.ukThe post Black Mental Health UK: Philip Morgan first appeared on Madness Radio.

Clinical psychologist Jay Joseph details medical science’s 30-year failed quest to find any link between genetics and diagnoses of mental disorders, and debunks widely held beliefs in the psychiatric profession, including the idea of “genetic predispositions” for mental illness. Jay is the author of The Missing Gene: Psychiatry, Heredity, and the Fruitless Search for Genes and The Gene Illusion: Genetic Research in Psychiatry and Psychology Under the Microscope. http://www.jayjoseph.netThe post Genetic Predispositions? Jay Joseph first appeared on Madness Radio.

Harvard University faculty Paula Caplan, author of They Say You’re Crazy: How The World’s Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who’s Normal and editor of Bias In Psychiatric Diagnosis. Paula was on one of the writing committees for the DSM and offers an insightful perspective on the politics behind psychiatric pseudo-science. She discusses mental disorder labeling, including bipolar and post-trauma stress disorder, from a feminist perspective. http://www.psychdiagnosis.net http://paulajcaplan.netThe post Psych Diagnosis Bias: Paula Caplan first appeared on Madness Radio.

Counselor and researcher Joe Goodbread discusses his more than 25 years experience working with madness and extreme states using Process Oriented Psychology, an innovative approach based in the work of Carl Jung and developed by Arnold Mindell. Joe describes listening to the meaning in experience, helping people unfold their states, taoism, dreams, rank differences, and working with the body. Joe is a senior faculty at the Process Work Institute and author of The Dreambody Toolkit and Radical Intercourse. http://www.aamindell.net http://www.processwork.orgThe post Process Oriented Counseling with Joe Goodbread first appeared on Madness Radio.

Award-winning journalist Philip Dawdy, formerly a writer with the Seattle Weekly newspaper, discusses how forced psychiatric treatment and drugging are ineffective responses to violent crime and the so-called “dangerous mentally ill.” Philip is the writer of the excellent blog about Big Pharma profiteering and mental health policy http://www.FuriousSeasons.comThe post Forced Drugging and Treatment with Journalist Philip Dawdy first appeared on Madness Radio.