Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health
236 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 72 ratingsWelcome to the Mad in America podcast, a weekly discussion that searches for the truth about psychiatric prescription drugs and mental health care worldwide.
Hosted by James Moore, this podcast is part of Mad in America’s mission to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care. We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change.
On the podcast we have interviews with experts and those with lived experience of the psychiatric system. Thank you for joining us as we discuss the many issues around rethinking psychiatric care around the world.
For more information visit madinamerica.com
To contact us email [email protected]
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Steven C Hayes - A Liberated Mind
October 05, 2019 07:00 - 1 hour - 74.8 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we interview Professor of Psychology Dr. Steven C. Hayes. Dr. Hayes is Nevada Foundation Professor in the Behavior Analysis program at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. An author of 45 books and over 625 scientific articles, his career has focused on an analysis of the nature of human language and cognition and the application of this to the understanding and alleviation of human suffering. He is the developer of Relational Frame Theory, an a...
Jenny Freeman - Climate Change, Mental Health and Collective Action
October 04, 2019 08:59 - 56 minutes - 65.4 MBJennifer Freeman is a marriage and family therapist and an Expressive Arts Therapist. Since 2017, she has been researching narratives centered on how humans are facing climate change and responding to these challenging times of social impoverishment, ecological degradation, the Anthropocene, and the sixth great extinction. She has been engaged in therapeutic conversations, international community work, teaching, and professional writing for the past 30 years based on narrative approaches. ...
IIPDW - Carina Håkansson and John Read
October 02, 2019 08:38 - 24 minutes - 34 MBThis week on MIA Radio we turn our attention to psychiatric drug withdrawal and in particular the work of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. The Institute recently held a network meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, where 40 leading experts from around the world came together to discuss the issues of dependence, withdrawal and iatrogenic harm relating to psychiatric drugs. The meeting participants included both professionals and those with lived experience. We chat wi...
Peter Kinderman - Why We Need a Revolution in Mental Health Care
September 28, 2019 07:00 - 48 minutes - 56.5 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we chat with Professor Peter Kinderman. Peter is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool, honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Mersey Care NHS Trust and Clinical Advisor for Public Health England, UK. He was 2016-2017 President of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and twice chair of the BPS Division of Clinical Psychology. His research activity and clinical work concentrate on serious and enduring mental health problems, as well...
Zhiying Ma - Recuperating the Social Person in China
September 23, 2019 08:41 - 38 minutes - 44.4 MBOn MIA Radio, we interview Anthropologist Zhiying Ma, who explores mental health care in China, including tensions between Western psychiatry and socially-oriented local frameworks. Zhiying Ma is a cultural and medical anthropologist and disability studies scholar whose work explores the experiences and rights of those receiving mental health services in China. Her current book project, Intimate Institutions: Governance and Care Under the Mental Health Legal Reform in Contemporary China, i...
Ben Furman - Understanding and Dealing With Adolescent Rage
September 14, 2019 08:09 - 41 minutes - 57.9 MBOn MIA Radio this week, in the second of a number of podcasts focused on parenting issues, we interview Ben Furman MD. Ben is a Finnish psychiatrist, psychotherapist and internationally renowned teacher of the Solution-Focused approach to preventing and treating mental health problems in both children and adults. His numerous books have been translated into over 20 languages. Relevant Links Helping Children With Angry Outbursts The Kid Skills App Please donate If you are enjoying ...
Dan Hurd - One Pedal at a Time
September 07, 2019 09:25 - 53 minutes - 61.9 MBIn our second week of MIA Veterans & Military Families, we interview U.S. Navy Veteran Dan Hurd. Dan is the Founder of Ride With Dan USAand the One Pedal at a Time Movement. After surviving his third suicide attempt, Dan became inspired to bicycle to all 48 States in the continental U.S. to help raise awareness about suicide. Along his journey, Dan has realized his attempts were likely caused by the medications he had been prescribed and now dedicates his life towards inspiring others to liv...
Lillian Comas-Diaz - Addressing the Roots of Racial Trauma
August 14, 2019 08:27 - 49 minutes - 57.6 MBLillian Comas-Díaz is a pioneer in the field of ethnocultural approaches to mental health. She is both a clinical practitioner and multicultural feminist psychologist, writing numerous journal articles and books pushing the field toward more inclusive and less ethnocentric theories and practices. She was recently awarded the 2019 American Psychological Association gold medal awardfor lifetime achievement and the practice of psychology, the first time a person of color has been recognized w...
Derek Blumke – The Mad in America Veterans Initiative
August 07, 2019 10:16 - 35 minutes - 40.8 MBThis week on MIA Radio we turn our attention to veterans, service members and military families. MIA has recently launched a new resource for military veterans which will provide news, personal stories and resources specific to veterans and their families. So to explain more about the new resources I am delighted to have been able to chat with Derek Blumke. Derek is the newest member of the MIA Team and he is the editor of the new veterans section. Derek served 12 years in the US Air Force...
Craig Wiener - ADHD, A Return to Psychology
August 03, 2019 14:37 - 27 minutes - 51.1 MBOn MIA Radio this week, in the first of a number of podcasts focussed on parenting issues, we interview Dr. Craig Wiener, a licensed psychologist based in Worcester, Massachusetts, who specializes in the treatment of children, adolescents, and families. In addition to over 30 years of private practice, Dr. Wiener is an assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Wiener is the author of three books. mos...
Pat Bracken - Toward a Critical Self-Reflective Psychiatry
August 02, 2019 07:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBPat Bracken is a psychiatrist who questions many of the fundamental assumptions of his field. He has worked as a psychiatrist in rural Ireland, inner-city and multi-ethnic parts of the UK, and in Uganda, East Africa. Bracken, who holds doctoral degrees in both medicine and philosophy, calls for a movement toward critical psychiatry. He was one of the people involved in starting the Critical Psychiatry Network, an organization of psychiatrists, researchers, and mental health professionals t...
Diana Kopua - Learning a Different Way
July 18, 2019 08:31 - 1 hour - 65.1 MBMIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Diana Kopua about the Mahi a Atua approach, the global mental health movement, and the importance of language and narratives in how we understand our world and ease our suffering. Diana Kopua’s life resembles the stories she uses in her work. From a psychiatric community nurse to the head of the department of psychiatry for Hauora Tairawhiti in Gisborne, New Zealand, her 13-year long, arduous journey is both deeply personal and profoundly political. Kopua says...
World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day 2019 - Part 2
July 11, 2019 08:00 - 55 minutes - 51.7 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we present a special episode of the MIA podcast to join in the many events being held for World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day, July 11, 2019. 2019 represents the fourth annual awareness day and each year it’s held on July 11 which is a significant date because it is the birthday of Professor Heather Ashton. Dr. Ashton is a world-leading expert in benzodiazepines and wrote the highly regarded Ashton Manual which aims to aid clinicians and patients in coming off benzod...
World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day 2019 - Part 1
July 11, 2019 08:00 - 53 minutes - 49.7 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we present a special episode of the MIA podcast to join in the many events being held for World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day, July 11, 2019. 2019 represents the fourth annual awareness day and each year it’s held on July 11 which is a significant date because it is the birthday of Professor Heather Ashton. Dr. Ashton is a world-leading expert in benzodiazepines and wrote the highly regarded Ashton Manual which aims to aid clinicians and patients in coming off benzod...
Lucy Johnstone - The Creation of a Conceptual Alternative to the DSM
July 03, 2019 08:37 - 53 minutes - 61.2 MBLast year, Lucy Johnstone and her colleagues in the UK launched the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), a set of ideas that represented a sharp departure from the biomedical conceptions that animate the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). This framework shifts the notion of “what is wrong with you” in the DSM to “what has happened to you,” and by doing so turns away from a medical process bent on diagnosing broken brains and toward a narrative respo...
Lee Coleman - Breaking Out of the Circle - Creating a Non-violent Revolution
June 22, 2019 08:36 - 42 minutes - 49.1 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we continue our series of discussions with Doctor Lee Coleman. In previous podcasts, we have discussed Lee’s views as a critical psychiatrist and the role of psychiatry in the courtroom. This time, we turn our attention to the need for action to address the inherent power held by psychiatry and how society might respond. In this episode we discuss: How language has the power to trigger associations and can lead us to not question theories that are presented to us a...
Felicity Thomas and Richard Byng - Poverty, Pathology and Pills
June 12, 2019 08:19 - 1 hour - 74.6 MBOn MIA Radio this week, MIA’s Tim Beck interviewed Dr. Felicity Thomas and Dr. Richard Byng. Dr. Thomas is a Senior Research Fellow in the Medical School and a Senior Research Fellow on the Cultural Contexts of Health in the College of Humanities at the University of Exeter. She is also a co-director (with Professor Mark Jackson) of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Culture and Health and works closely with the WHO Regional Office for Europe project on the Cultural Contexts of Health. Dr. B...
Adriane Fugh-Berman - Getting Pharma Out of Medical Education
June 05, 2019 08:25 - 33 minutes - 38.4 MBOn MIA Radio this week, MIA’s Gavin Crowell-Williamson interviewed Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, a professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology and in the Department of Family Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). She is the director of PharmedOut, a GUMC research and education project promoting rational prescribing and exposing the effects of pharmaceutical marketing on prescribing practices. Dr. Fugh-Berman leads a team of volunteer professionals that has deep...
David Cohen - Mad Science, Psychiatric Coercion and the Therapeutic State
May 15, 2019 08:28 - 41 minutes - 48 MBOn MIA Radio this week, MIA’s Peter Simons interviewed David Cohen, PhD, a social worker, professor of social welfare, and Associate Dean for Research at the Luskin School of Public Affairs of the University of California, Los Angeles. He discussed his path to becoming a researcher focused on mental health, coercive practices, and discontinuation from psychiatric drugs. He studies the social construction of psychoactive drug effects, the union of law and psychiatry within a criminalization...
John Read - Fighting for the Meaning of Madness
May 08, 2019 08:00 - 52 minutes - 71.9 MBOn MIA Radio this week, MIA’s Akansha Vaswani interviewed Dr. John Read, a clinical psychologist at the University of East London, about the influences on his work and research on mental health over the years. John worked for nearly 20 years as a Clinical Psychologist and manager of mental health services in the UK and the USA, before joining the University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 1994, where he worked until 2013. He has published over 140 papers in research journals, primarily on the...
Lee Coleman – The Insanity Defence, Storytelling on the Witness Stand
April 20, 2019 08:36 - 41 minutes - 57.2 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we present our second chat with Doctor Lee Coleman. In the first interview in this series, we discussed Lee’s career, his views as a critical psychiatrist and his 1984 book Reign of Error. For this second interview, we focus on psychiatry in the courtroom and why the psychiatric expert witness role may be failing both the individual on trial and society at large. We also focus on Chapter 3 of Reign of Error: The Insanity Defence, Storytelling on the Witness Stand. ...
Jonathan Raskin - Constructing Alternatives to the DSM
April 17, 2019 08:51 - 16 minutes - 23.2 MBOn MIA Radio this week, MIA’s Jessica Janze interviewed Dr. Jonathan Raskin, in the Department of Psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz where he serves as department chair and teaches classes in psychology and counselor education. Dr. Raskin’s research is focused on constructivist meaning-based approaches in psychology and counseling. He recently authored a textbook titled Abnormal Psychology: Contrasting Perspectives. Dr. Raskin describes a recent article he wro...
Kelly Brogan - The Science and Pseudoscience of Women’s Mental Health
April 13, 2019 08:00 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBScience and Pseudoscience of Mental Health Podcast: Episode 3 This past week, I had the great pleasure to talk with Dr. Kelly Brogan, a leading voice in natural approaches to women’s mental health. Dr. Brogan began her career as a conventional psychiatrist, but following the birth of her first child, she felt bereft of energy and mental clarity and was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Informed by her doctor that she had a chronic illness that would req...
Vance Trudeau - Antidepressant Exposure Across Generations
April 03, 2019 08:34 - 31 minutes - 43.4 MBOn MIA Radio this week, MIA's Zenobia Morrill interviews Dr. Vance Trudeau, a professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada. Dr. Trudeau describes a recent study he conducted, alongside a team of researchers, led by Dr. Marilyn Vera-Chang, that has implications for understanding of the long-term impact of antidepressant drug exposure (see MIA report). The study, titled Transgenerational hypocortisolism and behavioral disruption are induced by the antidepressant fluoxetine in male zebrafi...
Lee Coleman - The Reign of Error
March 23, 2019 09:00 - 57 minutes - 53.1 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we chat with Doctor Lee Coleman. Lee trained in psychiatry during the 1960s, quickly adopting a sceptical attitude to the newly emerging field of biological psychiatry and rejecting the idea that drugs could be beneficial for so-called ‘mental disorders’. By the early 1970s, Lee’s professional life was divided between a small home-based practice of psychotherapy and a variety of activities – writing, speaking and political advocacy – focused on psychiatry’s role in so...
Mark Horowitz - Peer-Support Groups Were Right, Guidelines Were Wrong - Tapering Off Antidepressants
March 20, 2019 09:00 - 28 minutes - 32.5 MBInterview by Peter Simons. Dr. Mark Horowitz is a training psychiatrist and researcher and recently co-authored, with Dr. David Taylor, a review of antidepressant withdrawal that was published in Lancet Psychiatry, which we've written about here at Mad in America (see here). Their article suggests that tapering off antidepressants over months or even years is more successful at preventing withdrawal symptoms than a quick discontinuation of two to four weeks. Dr. Horowitz is currently co...
Gail Hornstein - First-Person Accounts of Madness and Global Mental Health
March 14, 2019 08:45 - 27 minutes - 32.3 MBThis week, MIA Radio presents the fifth in a series of interviews on the topic of the global “mental health” movement.” This series is being developed through a UMASS Boston initiative supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundation. The interviews are being led by UMASS PhD students who also comprise the Mad in America research news team. We interview Dr. Gail Hornstein, a Professor of Psychology at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She is the author of To Redee...
Alita Taylor - Open Dialogue - Making Meaning
February 16, 2019 08:00 - 31 minutes - 43.4 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we turn our attention to Open Dialogue and we chat with psychotherapist and Open Dialogue trainer Alita Taylor. Alita is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, trainer and facilitator based in Tacoma, Washington USA. Her passion is working from a community-based, non-expert, need-adapted Open Dialogue perspective, which utilizes social networks, family, and co-facilitation with other professionals. In this recent blog, Alita shares why Open Dialogue ‘cannot be taug...
Jim van Os - Towards Resilience and Possibilities and Away from Diseases and Symptoms
January 26, 2019 09:41 - 58 minutes - 53.9 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we interview Professor Jim van Os. Professor van Os is Chairman of the Division of Neuroscience at Utrecht University Medical Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands, and Visiting Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at King’s College, Institute of Psychiatry in London. He trained in Psychiatry in Casablanca, Bordeaux and the Institute of Psychiatry and the Maudsley Royal Hospital in London. We last spoke with Jim for the podcast in August 2017 and this time we focus on a...
Darcia Narvaez - Reclaiming Humanity
December 21, 2018 20:19 - 1 hour - 59.4 MBIn this second interview in our Science and Pseudoscience of Mental Health series, Dr. Sharna Olfman interviews Dr. Darcia Narvaez. In 1955, Erich Fromm published a book called The Sane Society. The basic premise is that cultures that support our existential needs for love, community, autonomy, creative expression, purpose, meaning, and communion with nature, enable us to become fully actualized, sane human, beings. Cultures that fail to do so, engender mental illness. Darcia Narvaez,1 a ...
Will Davies - The Happiness Industry
November 17, 2018 10:16 - 46 minutes - 53.6 MBWhen we discuss the issue of forced treatment, coercive mental health interventions like involuntary commitment, forced drugging, and electroconvulsive therapy usually come to mind. But force and coercion can be much more subtle. Many researchers and thought leaders have argued that our society mandates us to be happy and perform well-being at all times through cultural norms, media depictions, and workplace and school regulations. This week on MIA Radio we interview Will Davies, Reader in...
Sandy Steingard - Anatomy of a Psychiatrist
November 10, 2018 10:27 - 53 minutes - 61.8 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we interview Dr. Sandy Steingard. Dr. Steingard is Medical Director at Howard Center, a community mental health center where she has worked for the past 21 years. She is also Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the College of Medicine of the University of Vermont. For more than 25 years, her clinical practice has primarily included patients who have experienced psychotic states. Dr. Steingard serves as Board Chair of the Foundation for Excellence in Mental H...
Derek Summerfield - Moving Global Mental Health "Outside Our Heads"
October 27, 2018 08:40 - 57 minutes - 65.7 MBThis week, MIA Radio presents the fourth in a series of interviews on the topic of the global “mental health” movement.” This series is being developed through a UMASS Boston initiative supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundation. The interviews are being led by UMASS PhD students who also comprise the Mad in America research news team. Over the past three weeks, we have published interviews with many of the leading voices in this debate. Immediately following the release of th...
China Mills - Global Mental Health - Coloniality, Technology and Medicalization
October 24, 2018 09:12 - 56 minutes - 65.7 MBToday, we bring you the third in our series of podcasts on the topic of the global mental health movement. Part one of the series featured Dr Melissa Raven and part two featured Jhilmil Breckenridge and Dr Bhargavi Davar. These interviews are led by our Mad in America research news team. In this episode, we interview Dr China Mills. China participated in organizing the open letter in response to The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development. In this interview,...
Jhilmil Breckenridge and Bhargavi Davar - Global Mental Health - An Old System Wearing New Clothes
October 20, 2018 08:00 - 1 hour - 77.9 MBToday, we bring you the second in our series of podcasts on the topic of the global mental health movement. These interviews are led by our Mad in America research news team. On October 9th and 10th, 2018, World Mental Health Day, the UK government hosted a Global Mental Health Ministerial Summit with the intention of laying out a course of action to implement mental health policies globally. In the same week, The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development publis...
Melissa Raven - The Global Mental Health Movement - Cause for Concern
October 10, 2018 09:04 - 31 minutes - 44.1 MBThis week, we present the first in a series of interviews on the topic of the global ‘mental health’ movement. These interviews will be led by our Mad in America research news team and today’s interview is hosted by our lead research news editor, Justin Karter. In this episode, Justin interviews Dr Melissa Raven, who is a psychiatric epidemiologist, policy analyst and postdoctoral research fellow in the Critical and Ethical Mental Health research group at the University of Adelaide, South ...
Zach Bush - Healthy Planet/Healthy Mind
October 04, 2018 08:00 - 58 minutes - 54.4 MBSharna Olfman Ph.D interviews Zach Bush MD One of the few triple board-certified physicians in the country, with expertise in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Hospice/Palliative care, Dr. Zach Bush abandoned his prestigious academic career in cancer research, and his conventional medical practice a decade ago, after coming to terms with the fact that not only were his pharmaceutically based research and treatment protocols ineffectual; they were making his patients sic...
John Read and Sue Cunliffe - The 57th Maudsley Debate - This House Believes that ECT has no Place in Modern Medicine
October 01, 2018 07:23 - 1 hour - 75.7 MBThis week on MIA Radio we turn our attention to Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) or Electroshock as it’s known in the US. On Wednesday, September 19th, this emotive and controversial intervention was discussed at the 57th Maudsley debate, held at Kings College London. The motion proposed was: “This house believes that ECT has no place in modern medicine”. Supporting the motion were Professor John Read who has undertaken several scientific reviews of the literature supporting the use of EC...
Conflicts of Interest Questioned in Review of Prescribed Drug Dependence
August 21, 2018 08:38 - 38 minutes - 44.4 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we discuss the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists representation on a Government-led review of Prescribed Drug Dependence. Professor Sami Timimi, a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatry, and 30 other mental health experts, have formally asked the College to ‘replace Professor David Baldwin as its representative on The Expert Reference Group of Public Health England’s Review of Prescribed Medicines, with an RCPsych member who is not compromised by conflicts of inter...
Julia Rucklidge - Nutrition, Mental Health and TED
July 28, 2018 06:00 - 37 minutes - 43.8 MBThis week on MIA Radio we interview Dr Julia Rucklidge. Dr Rucklidge is professor of clinical psychology at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and she leads the Mental Health and Nutrition Research Group. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Julia completed her PhD at the University of Calgary followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In the last decade, she and her lab have been running clinical trials investigating the role of broad-spectrum ...
World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day 2018 - Part 2 - Robert Whitaker
July 11, 2018 08:13 - 56 minutes - 64.9 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we present a special episode of the podcast to join in the many events being held for World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day, July 11, 2018. In part 2 of the podcast, we interview Mad in America founder, Robert Whitaker. For many of us, Robert needs no introduction as he is well known for his award-winning book, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America, which was released in 2010. Robert has been a...
World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day 2018 - Part 1 - Nicole Lamberson, Josef Witt-Doerring, Chris Paige
July 11, 2018 08:03 - 1 hour - 92.5 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we present a special episode of the podcast to join in the many events being held for World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day, July 11, 2018. In part 1, we chat with W-BAD Lead Operations Volunteer and Virginia Representative Nicole Lamberson who talks about the events being held for W-BAD. We hear from psychiatrist Dr Josef Witt-Doerring, who talks about a recent paper he co-authored entitled “Online Communities for Drug Withdrawal: What Can We Learn?”. We also hear fro...
Peter Groot and Akansha Vaswani - Tapering Strips and Shared Decision-Making
July 06, 2018 13:41 - 46 minutes - 53.8 MBOn MIA Radio this week, Akansha Vaswani and Dr Peter Groot discuss Tapering Strips, a novel and practical solution for those who wish to taper gradually from a range of prescription drugs. Akansha is a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and her dissertation research will involve interviewing psychiatrists in the US about their experiences helping people stop or reduce their dose of antidepressant medication. Dr Groot is a researcher and geneticist who has led the...
Sami Timimi and John Read - Latest Developments with The UK Royal College of Psychiatrists
June 19, 2018 12:26 - 30 minutes - 42 MBThis week on MIA Radio we provide an update on a complaint made to the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists by a group of thirty academics, psychiatrists and people with lived experience. We hear from both Professor Sami Timimi and Professor John Read who discuss recent events including the latest response from the Chief Executive Officer of the College. Relevant Links: Read the latest update on Mad in America Formal Complaint to the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists Royal College Of P...
Peter Gordon - Addressing the Divide Between the Arts and Medical Sciences
May 17, 2018 07:49 - 24 minutes - 28 MBThis week, we interview Dr Peter Gordon. Dr Gordon describes himself as a gardener with an interest in medicine. He trained in both medicine and landscape architecture before specialising in psychiatry and now works with older adults in Scotland. In addition, he is an activist and campaigner and has a range of creative interests including filmmaking, photography, writing and poetry. In this interview, we walk about Peter’s own experiences of psychiatric treatment and how we need to address...
Sera Davidow - Intersections Between Sexual Violence and Psychiatric Abuse
May 12, 2018 08:34 - 39 minutes - 45.8 MBThis week on MIA Radio we interview Sera Davidow, a psychiatric survivor and prolific activist for the human rights of people labeled mentally ill. Sera serves as the Director of the Western Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community and is a founding member of the Hearing Voices USA Board of Directors. Through her work, she has gained a range of experiences including starting up a peer respite, opening resource centers, and producing educational materials on non-coercive, non-pathologizing...
Laura Delano - Connecting people through the Inner Compass Initiative and Withdrawal Project
May 03, 2018 10:58 - 46 minutes - 54.2 MBThis week, we interview Laura Delano. Laura is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Inner Compass Initiative and The Withdrawal Project, which aim to create safe spaces for people to connect and the opportunity to learn about and be guided through the process of getting beyond the mental health system and off psychiatric drugs. The passion she feels for the mission and vision of ICI arises from the fourteen years she spent lost in the mental health system and the journey that she’s be...
John Read - UK Royal College of Psychiatry Refuses to Retract Misleading Statement about Antidepressant Withdrawal and Dismisses Complaint
May 02, 2018 07:27 - 18 minutes - 21.7 MBToday on MIA Radio we have a special episode which is devoted to recent developments in the UK involving a formal complaint lodged with the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists. Professor John Read from the University of East London took time out to bring us up to date on the response to the complaint which was lodged on behalf of a group of thirty academics, psychiatrists and people with lived experience. Relevant links: Read the full reply letter on Mad in America Hear the Royal So...
Jeffrey Michael Friedman - Trauma and Forced Psychiatric Treatment
April 14, 2018 08:38 - 38 minutes - 44.8 MBThis week on MIA Radio, we interview Jeffrey Michael Friedman, a clinical social worker and an activist in the psychiatric survivor's movement. Jeffrey provides trauma-informed therapy to victims of various forms of abuse and violence, including those who have survived abuses within the mental health system. In addition to his work in the mental health field, Jeffrey is actively involved in the harm reduction movement, which supports human rights and non-coercive services for people who ac...
Russell Razzaque: Breaking Down Is Waking Up
April 09, 2018 16:40 - 40 minutes - 47 MBThis week, we interview Dr Russell Razzaque. Dr Razzaque currently works as a consultant psychiatrist and associate medical director in east London and, together with colleagues, he is leading a pioneering multi-centre Open Dialogue pilot in the UK National Health Service. In 2014 he released his book ‘Breaking Down Is Waking Up’ in which he explores alternative views of mental distress, their relationship to consciousness and comparisons to forms of spiritual awakening. In this intervie...