As a practicing psychiatrist, I have watched with growing dismay and outrage the rise and triumph of the hegemony known as biologic psychiatry. Within the general field of modern psychiatry, biologism now completely dominates the discourse on the causes and treatment of mental illness, and in my view this has been a catastrophe with far-reaching effects on individual patients and the cultural psyche at large. It has occurred to me with forcible irony that psychiatry has quite literally lost its mind, and along with it the minds of the patients they are presumably supposed to care for. Even a cursory glance at any major psychiatric journal is enough to convince me that the field has gone far down the road into a kind of delusion, whose main tenets consist of a particularly pernicious biologic determinism and a pseudo-scientific understanding of human nature and mental illness.
The Journey – Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice -- though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to... Continue Reading →
Finally in the media: Antipsychotics kill libido too, not just antidepressants
It has long made me angry that the only noise about sexual dysfunction is for those people who take antidepressants. Because, you know, depression is normal. Those people who take antipsychotics, well, who cares about their sex lives they really aren't normal. The fact is sex can be an enriching part of everyone's life and... Continue Reading →
Quotes for the week
Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things. -- Elise Boulding... Continue Reading →
Links of the week
Links of note from this week: Pfizer Broke the Law by Promoting Drugs for Unapproved Uses - Bloomberg.com Contaminated Fish Found in Almost Half of U.S. Lakes (Update1) - Bloomberg.com High BPA levels linked to male sexual problems - washingtonpost.com Op-Ed Contributor - The Short Life of a Diagnosis - NYTimes.com -- illustrates the arbitrariness... Continue Reading →
Thich Nhat Hanh on transforming anger (as applicable to the activist)
Here we learn a bit about transforming anger, this powerful energy. Towards the end the video gets into some heavy Buddhist concepts. Just let that go if it doesn't make any sense. One would have to have studied Buddhism to understand it, but the beginning is applicable to everyone. Enjoy. I found it beautiful.
Quote for this day
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. - Dwight D. Eisenhower
On being sane in insane places
This is a very famous study that many may be familiar with. If you're not familiar with it, it's well worth reading it. I put it here just as a piece of interesting sociology really. It's written in a cold and clinical tone and is in the end, in it's conclusion, much too generous to... Continue Reading →
The chemical imbalance myth: by Chris Kresser
This is a wonderful article that Chris Kresser first published on his blog, The Healthy Skeptic, a little over a year ago. I linked to it at the time, but knowing that many people don't follow links I asked him if I could republish it here and he graciously allowed me to share it. by... Continue Reading →
If you feel lost and alone
I posted a link to the prayer of radical forgiveness by Rachel Snyder awhile ago. I got permission to post a whole poem (If you feel lost and alone) for today. I also just read yet another awesome piece called Enough! Do go read that too. Rachel Snyder is a writer, author, poet, speaker, performer, and... Continue Reading →
