Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

This 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 as facts.
• How we have come to equate psychiatric ‘treatment’ with interventions in other areas of medicine.
• The deception behind the names of the drugs used in psychiatry such as ‘antidepressants’ or ‘antipsychotics’.
• That society may well be blinded by language to the critical issues of the use of force and the relationship between the law and psychiatry.
• That, ultimately, society demands that psychiatry play the role that it does and therefore we need a societal and political response.
• That any movement to address the dominance of the medical model needs to educate the public at large and so needs resources to be able to provide that challenge.
• How the media often provides an amplified voice for mainstream messages leading to normalisation and lack of critical questioning of such messages.
• That we can and should partner with sympathetic media channels who are open to challenging mainstream messaging.
• That Lee will hopefully be leading a workshop at the 2019 NARPA (National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy) Conference in Connecticut, USA.

Article - Technology and Psychiatry

NARPA 2019 Conference

YouTube - Psychiatry's "War of the Words"

YouTube - Dealing With Powerful Opponents: Psychiatry, Government and Pharma

To get in touch, email us at podcasts@madinamerica.com

© Mad in America 2019