Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

This week on MIA Radio, we interview Professor Sir Robin Murray . Professor Murray is an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in the Psychosis Service located at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in South London. He is also a Professor of Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psychiatry. His research covers epidemiology, molecular genetics, neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging, neuropsychology and neuropharmacol...

This week on MIA Radio , we interview Celia Brown . Celia is a psychiatric survivor and a prominent leader in the movement for human rights in mental health. She is the current president of MindFreedom International, a nonprofit organization uniting 100 sponsor and affiliate grassroots groups with thousands of individual members to win human rights and alternatives for people labelled mentally ill...

This week on MIA Radio, we interview Chris Hansen. Chris started working in New Zealand as an activist after a psychiatric hospitalization 20 years ago.  She has provided advice and media comment locally, regionally and nationally, including work with the New Zealand Mental Health Commission and Ministry of Health.  She was a member of the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations for the devel...

This week on MIA Radio, we interview Dr. George Atwood. Dr. Atwood has devoted a substantial part of his life to the study and treatment of what he refers to as 'so-called psychosis'.  He has authored or coauthored several books, including The Abyss of madness published in 2011 and more than one hundred articles. In the episode we discuss: The story of how Dr. Atwood came to be interested in "so-c...

Download to listen later... This week on MIA Radio , we share the time between two interviewees; clinical psychologist Dr. Noel Hunter and entrepreneur and author Brett Francis . Dr. Noel Hunter is a clinical psychologist in New York and an advocate for the rights of people diagnosed with mental disorders. She believes in a trauma-informed, humanistic, person-centred approach to understanding prob...

This week on  MIA Radio we interview Dr Joseph Firth.  Dr Firth is a postdoctoral research fellow at Western Sydney University. His research focuses on the role of exercise and nutrition in first episode psychosis in young people. In this interview we discuss: That Dr Firth completed his PhD in Manchester, UK, which focussed on the role of exercise in the treatment of psychosis in young people. Th...

This week on  MIA Radio we interview Dr Jay Joseph . Dr Joseph is a clinical psychologist and author who brings a critical perspective to claims in the media and the academic literature that disordered genes underlie psychiatric disorders. His most recent books are  The Trouble with Twin Studies: A Reassessment of Twin Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences  and the 2017 e-book Schizophren...

This week we interview Dr David Healy.  Dr Healy is an internationally respected psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, scientist, and author. A professor of Psychiatry in Wales, David studied medicine in Dublin, and at Cambridge University. He is a former Secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and 20 books, including The Anti...

This week we interview Dr Gordon Warme . Dr Warme is a medical doctor specializing in psychiatry. He trained with Karl Menninger at the Menninger Clinic in the US and at Heidelberg University in Germany, and has been a faculty member at the Menninger Clinic, the University of Kansas, and has been an academic at the University of Toronto for 40 years. His most recent book, published in 2016 is Brai...

This week we interview David Mielke . David is a psychology graduate and teacher in a California high school who has become increasingly concerned about the number of children that he teaches that have a psychiatric diagnosis and how many are on psychiatric drugs. In this interview, we discuss David's experiences as an educator and how teachers can empower students to have more confidence in thems...

This week on the Mad in America podcast we interview Olga Runciman.  Olga is an international trainer and speaker, writer, campaigner, and artist. She co-founded the Danish Hearing Voices Network and sees the role of the Hearing Voices Movement as post-psychiatric, working towards the recognition of human rights while offering hope, empowerment, and access to making sense of individual experiences...

This week, Mad in America editor Emily Sheera Cutler presents the first in a series of interviews that examine the many important issues around forced treatment and cognitive liberty. The series will examine philosophical, theological, and sociological perspectives on coercive treatment. In this first part, Emily interviews two well known and very respected academics and activists Bonnie Burstow a...

This week, Mad in America's news editor Justin Karter interviews Professor Michael O'Loughlin . Professor O'Loughlin is a college professor and researcher at Adelphi University on Long Island. He is a licensed psychologist and a psychoanalyst in private practice in New Hyde Park, New York. Dr O'Loughlin writes critically about the biomedical model of psychiatry and psychology and also has a deep i...

This week I have had the honour of interviewing Dr Irving Kirsch. Dr Kirsch is Associate Director of the Program in Placebo Studies and lecturer in medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is also Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Plymouth and the University of Hull in the UK and University of Connecticut in the US. He has published 10...

This week we have a very special guest for you, it has been my honour to be able to interview Dr. Peter Breggin. Dr. Breggin is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former Consultant at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He has been called "The Conscience of Psychiatry" for his many decades of successful efforts to reform the mental health field. His work provides the foundation for mod...

This week we have an interview with Professor John Read . Professor Read 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, where he worked until 2013.  He has served as Director of the Clinical Psychology professional graduate programmes at both Auckland and, more recently, the...

This week we have an interview with Bobby Fiddaman. Bobby is a very well known author, blogger and researcher who has been writing about psychiatric drugs and the many issues involved for over 11 years. In 2011 he released his book, 'The Evidence, However, Is Clear…The Seroxat Scandal' which is a powerful and explosive account of his experiences taking and withdrawing from the antidepressant Serox...

This week we have a very special guest for you, it has been my honour to be able to interview Dr. Peter Breggin. Dr. Breggin is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former Consultant at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He has been called "The Conscience of Psychiatry" for his many decades of successful efforts to reform the mental health field. His work provides the foundation for mod...

This week, we interview Dr. Rani Bora.  Dr. Bora is a qualified Psychiatrist and Mental Health and Resilience Coach. She has studied a number of approaches to mental well-being – both traditional and non-traditional, and she focuses on holistic approaches to supporting people with their mental wellness. Since deepening her own understanding of the paradigm of 'Innate Health and Resilience', she ha...

  This week, we interview  Professor Jim van Os. Professor van Os is Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands, and Visiting Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at King's College, Institute of Psychiatry, London.  He trained in Psychiatry in Casablanca, Bordeaux and the Institute of Psychiatry and the Maudsley Roy...

This week, we interview  Kermit Cole.  Kermit's first career was in film and television, directing, amongst others, Living Proof: HIV and the Pursuit of Happiness in 1994. Kermit has undergraduate and master's degrees in psychology from Harvard and he has over two decades experience working with people in extreme states. He likes to say that he likes to work with trauma, especially when it's being...

This week, we interview Dr. Pratima Singh . Dr. Singh completed her medical degree in India, before moving to the UK to work at the Maudsley NHS Hospital in London as an adult Psychiatrist. Dr. Singh has a deep interest in alternatives to biological approaches to psychiatry and the use of psychotropic medications. I was keen to ask Dr. Singh about her background, what led her towards psychiatry as...

This week, we have an interview with Monica Cassani.  Monica has seen the mental health system from both sides – as a social worker and as a person whose life was severely ruptured by psychiatric drugs. She writes critically about the system, as well as holistic pathways of healing without medication.  Monica's website, Everything Matters Beyond Meds, is comprehensive library of information contai...

This week, we have an interview with Will Hall . Will is a mental health advocate, counsellor, writer, and teacher. Will advocates the recovery approach to mental illness and is recognised internationally as an innovator in the treatment and social response to psychosis. In 2001, he co-founded the Freedom Center and from 2004-2009 was a co-coordinator for The Icarus Project. He has consulted for M...

This week, we have a special episode to join in with the events being held for World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day. World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day seeks to raise global awareness of iatrogenic benzodiazepine dependence, the dangers of its adverse effects and the associated withdrawal syndrome, which can last for years. To give some context around the issues with Benzodiazepines, we have three i...