It's Not Just In Your Head

Max & Harriet speak to Renee A. Schuls-Jacobson about her book 'Psychiatrized: Waking Up After a Decade of Bad Medicine'. "When a trusted physician tells Renée Schuls-Jacobson that he has the  solution for her chronic insomnia -- a “tried and true medication  without any side effects,” she believes him. For seven years, she takes  her clonazepam exactly as prescribed until, one...

Max, Harriet and Liam talk with one of two authors about a new book 'Psychoanalysis & Revolution', exploring the different 'psy' disciplines and what makes Psychoanalysis a potentially liberating practice. "This manifesto is an argument for connecting social transformation with personal liberation, showing that the two aspects of profound change can be intimately linked together using psychoan...

Harriet examines 'The World Happiness Report 2021'  and why America, one of the richest countries in the world, is ranked 19th. What are the other countries doing right? Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com . Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access  to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion...

Harriet takes a deep dive into the events of Striketober and the hope it offers. Harriet & Liam also discuss the issues raised in the Medium article 'Why Are Americans and Conservatives So Afraid of Socialism?'. Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com . Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access  to episodes, our disco...

Do you ever take on so much activist work that you become physically or  emotionally sick? Begin to hate everyone around you for not 'throwing  down' into the cause as much as you? Notice yourself becoming more and  more bitter, fantasizing about exiting the movement permanently and  becoming a Wall Street Banker because who cares, nothing matters, we're  all gonna die any...

Max and Liam interview Dr. Jeffrey Ansloos, professor of psychology at University of Toronto to talk about indigenous resistance, critical suicidology and more. What are the historical and structural forces that have led to such high suicide rates within indigenous populations? Is the mainstream symptom model of psychology appropriate to understand this phenomenon, and suicide in general? Why are...

David Cobb (he/him) is a "people's lawyer" who has sued corporate polluters, lobbied elected officials, run for political office himself, and been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. He is the Executive Director of Cooperation Humboldt and Co-Coordinator of the US Solidarity Economy Network.   Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com . Become a...

Carissa Roberts emailed us and volunteered her own life experiences for a case conceptualization episode using the liberation health model. In this episode we discussed the various problems with the prevailing diagnostic and conceptualization systems in mental health, then use the liberation health triangle to try (scratching the surface of) understanding Carissa's life story and struggles. See a...

Jason Myles & Pascal Roberts, from the THIS IS REVOLUTION podcast join us to talk about black trauma from a political economy and Marxist perspective. Jason and Pascal had Catherine Liu on their show recently to talk specifically about "black trauma spectacle" ongoing within the culture industry, liberal media, and other areas of American society. We asked them what they thought more broadly a...

Max interviews Harriet about an article she wrote in 2008 ago called Toiling In The Field Of Emotion, published in Class Struggle on the Home Front. He asks her: what is emotional labor? How does the concept fit into Marxian economic analysis of economy and relationships? Why has the concept been repressed in Marxist circles? Toiling In The Field of Emotion: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.10...

In this ep we talk about evictions and the trauma they cause, with some emphasis near the end on data showing that race better predicts eviction rates than income. Max shares his own eviction story and educates listeners about the difference between "soft" and "hard" evictions, as well as how extreme the power differential is between landlords and tenants. How helpful are "tenants rights" compared...

We interview award-winning investigative journalist Bob Hennelly about his new book "Stuck Nation: Can the United States Change Course on Our History of Choosing Profits Over People?" Learn more about Bob here: https://www.stucknation.com/bio.html Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com . Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early acc...

Some listeners suggested we do some case conceptualizations so we decided to use the liberation health model to conceptualize two past cases we had. We plan to try doing something like this once per month or so. Identifying aspects of these cases have been modified so that previous clients could not be identified if listeners, people they knew, or they themselves heard the episode.  See here...

In this episode we learn from Bob Hall about the concept of "conflict literacy" and how it relates to addressing different forms of interpersonal violence. Bob Hall is  the founder of Learning To Live With Conflict, Inc., a company he  established in 1987 to provide education and training in the analysis  and resolution of conflict. His academic background includes a Bachelors &nbsp...

Ron Purser, Ph. D., author of McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality, joins us for this episode. We ask him how mindfulness became a multi-billion dollar industry, why Silicon Valley has designed hundreds of mindfulness apps, and whether mindfulness is just a capitalist form of spirituality. Is mindfulness actually a secular medical intervention that improves focus,...

In this episode we interview Prof. Jennifer Silva, author of Coming Up Short: Working-Class Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty. Silva interviewed 100 working class young adults for the book (published in 2013) and found that most interviewees attributed their life problems to psychological issues located within themselves rather than economic or political problems located outside of themselves. Wh...

Piggybagging off of last week's episode on death, Harriet and Max focus on aging. What's it like to grow older in a capitalist society that devalues anyone who doesn't produce wealth for the 1%? Why do older people tend to get lonelier over time, go into more debt than ever, and have some of the highest rates of bankruptcy? Harriet speaks on her experience as a 79 year old with more privileges tha...

Max shares about the recent passing of his estranged father and about some very odd and possibly supernatural experiences surrounding it, as well as some expected political economy commentary (his father was homeless in a world where housing is a globally financialized hyper-commodity).  Tying the personal to the political, Harriet and Max both remark on how the materialist roots and emphases...

Harriet explains what is cruel about a form of optimism that people internalize which says everything will be fine if they just work hard and follow the rules within this economic system and society. The US capitalist economy is pitted against the vast majority of people and waking up to this and understanding the collective situation we're all in is the first step. Become a patron at patreon.com/...

Clinical psychologist Dr. Lucy Johnstone, one of the lead authors of the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), joins this episode to talk about the most ambitious, comprehensive challenge to the mainstream diagnostic mental health models used in Western society ever proposed. The PTMF, which was developed over a 5 year period under the British Psychological Society, attempts to replace the entire...

Harriet opens with a deep dive into the #FreeBritney conservatorship abuse phenomenon and how Britney Spears was basically turned into a slave to make her family, as well as legal and medical establishment profit-seekers, very rich at Britney's expense. Max recalls growing up with Britney Spears' music on the radio and TV, and asking about how many child pop stars are basically just child slaves f...

A listener emailed us about how politically polarized their family was, and how painful this was for everyone to experience. Harriet and Max comment on what may have caused this phenomenon historically and economically. Email us if your family is politically polarized and whether this causes you distress or if you're fine with this abeing your family dynamic. Do you avoid political conversations?...

In this solocast episode, Max offers some critiques of the depoliticized and McDonaldized way #mentalhealth is discussed on social media. When he saw a recent CIA recruitment video that included a millennial Latinx CIA agent identifying as being diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and listening to some nearby 20-somethings use a bucket full of DSM-5 and pop-psych jargon, he began wonderin...

Do you ever feel guilty or ashamed for having climbed or been born into a more "middle class" or "upper class" position on the socioeconomic ladder? Harriet and Max call this phenomenon "class guilt," and define it separately from other forms of "privilege guilt" such as white guilt and male guilt. Harriet complicates "class" by reminding us of the Marxian definition. Some argue there are multiple...

Harriet and Max "wrap up" on identity politics so they can move on to other topics. itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com, patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please con...