Asylum 30th Anniversary Conference: Crowdfunding For Community

The 30th anniversary of Asylum magazine for democratic psychiatry is happening this year and a conference is taking place in the University of Manchester.  The theme of the conference is Action and Reaction.  Hundreds of delegates are traveling from all over the world to talk about various aspects and ideas, ethics and findings of mental health on the 28th of June.  It is a momentous occasion for a very important platform for ideas. Read more…

Podcast: Sara Ryan Keynote: What the fuckwhatery? Disability studies, activism and the continuing denial of the human

Sara Ryan is the Research Director in the Health Experiences Research Group at the University of Oxford. A sociologist, her work focuses on autism, learning disability and difference. More recently she has been involved in the #JusticeforLB campaign. This is an annotated audio recording of the keynote address she did at the 2016 Lancaster University Disabilities Studies conference.

justiceforlb.org

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Culture Bound Syndromes: Contextualising and Historically Locating Mental Illness by Sonia Soans

I still remember the day we went through the ICD- 10 in the clinical psychology class. Our professor, a practicing and competent clinical psychologist, talked us through the various symptoms that constituted a mental illness. Mental illnesses such as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) schizophrenia and depression were assumed to be universal. Extensive studies have been conducted around the world documenting these illnesses. We finally got to the section on culture bound syndromes. Read more…

From one kind of social prescribing to another kind of social prescribing: a change in focus? by John Sawkins

It has long been apparent to service users that their treatment has very little to do with therapy for the individual, and everything to do with social control, with disinhibition, hyperconnectivity and hypersensitivity being the main causes of concern for society. Thus the individual was treated for the benefit of his or her fellow-citizens, rather than as a means to help him/her recover. Read more…

Rowland Urey talks about Psychiatry: Philosopher And Your Friend In Recovery

The grown up person is not a child., the grown up person is an ALIENATED human being, because we do not experience ourselves as the SUBJECT and ORIGINATOR of our own acts. We are FORCED to overcome our Situations for we cannot live as totally alienated humans and remain SANE.
For we have been EMOTIONALLY and SOCIALLY traumatized by our OBJECTIVE life activities reflected SUBJECTIVELY In our HUMAN CONDITION and PSYCHE. Mental Distress is nothing more than a manifestation in humans of a greater malaise brought about by Modern day living Alienation and Isolation. Read more…

Are Psychiatric Drugs Doing More Harm Than Good? Kings College London Maudsley Annotated Debate

This is a commentary, video and transcript of the 52nd Maudsley Debate at Kings College London which is asking the question ‘Are Psychiatric Drugs Doing More Harm Than Good?’.  This is a critical question of our time, and as prescriptions for psychiatric medications sore along with drug company profits, the civic, scientific and medical worlds are driven towards analysing the efficacy of their use. Read more…