Remove Hospitality Remove Pharmaceuticals Remove Trauma and the brain
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Human

Mad in America

Perhaps if I took a different prescription or combination of prescriptions, my brain would magically adjust and rid me of my alleged ‘chemical imbalance’. My brain sat in my skull like a dead goldfish. I had been diagnosed with numerous ‘disorders’ because I had a traumatic childhood. I was severely unwell. I was disgusted.

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Doctors Are Not Trained to Think Critically

Mad in America

By the time we got to our clinical studies and spent most of our time rotating around the various specialities in the local hospitals, we were well used to being subjected to belittling treatment at the hands of our superiors. The prospect of spending time in the large institution, Springfield Psychiatric Hospital in Tooting, was scary.

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Escaping The Shackles of Psychiatry: What I’ve Seen and Survived, as Both Doctor and Patient

Mad in America

The whole of my family had suffered horrendously during the seven years from 1994, when I was repeatedly hospitalized as a psychiatric patient, drugged, and given ECT. The whole of my family had suffered horrendously during the seven years from 1994, when I was repeatedly hospitalized as a psychiatric patient, drugged, and given ECT.

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One Person’s Journey from Celebrity Medical Model Advocate to Skeptic: An Interview with Rose Cartwright

Mad in America

She talks about understanding the place of her own childhood trauma and also the limitations of simplistic trauma narratives. She talks about understanding the place of her own childhood trauma and also the limitations of simplistic trauma narratives. She is also a writer and producer on Netflix’s 3 Body Problem.

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A Case for Parallel Mental Health Care

Mad in America

The real question is whether the “brighter future” is always so distant. When mundane events increasingly take on the character of the surreal or the apocalyptic, what does it mean to be normal or sane? I believe these kinds of questions will shape our understanding of the future of mental health. Yet these things are not acts of God.

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Do Critics of Biological Psychiatry Have an Alternative to a Life of “Whack-A-Mole”?

Mad in America

Joanna Moncrieff, Chemically Imbalanced (2025) E stablishment psychiatry has recently switched the biological cause of mental illness from a chemical imbalance to a brain circuitry defect. Challenging the biological model of depression feels like a game of whack-a-mole: as soon as you put one theory to bed, another one sprouts up.

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“All Real Living Is Meeting”: Brent Robbins on Love, Death, and the Possibilities of Psychology

Mad in America

Robbins is one of those rare thinkers who makes psychology feel alivenot just a collection of theories and data, but a field full of urgent, deeply human questions. Hes a professor of psychology and the director of the Psy.D. He earned his Ph.D. He earned his Ph.D. On a personal note, Brent has played a foundational role in my own journey.