Symphony of Science Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness | Magazine Every so often Al Frances says something that seems to surprise even him. Just now, for instance, in the predawn darkness of his comfortable, rambling home in Carmel, California, he has broken off his exercise routine to declare that “there is no definition of a mental disorder. It’s bullshit. But he recovers quickly, and back in the living room he finishes explaining why he came out of a seemingly contented retirement to launch a bitter and protracted battle with the people, some of them friends, who are creating the next edition of the DSM. One influential advocate for diagnosing bipolar disorder in kids failed to disclose money he received from the makers of the bipolar drug Risperdal. As a practicing psychotherapist myself, I can attest that this is a startling turn. Frances, who claims he doesn’t care about the royalties (which amount, he says, to just 10 grand a year), also claims not to mind if the APA cites his faults. Regier wants to know who said these things. “No.”
Slipping into psychosis: living in the prodrome (part 1) Hello there! If you enjoy the content on Neuroanthropology, consider subscribing for future posts via email or RSS feed. How might it feel to sense your own sanity eroding? When does a strong idea take on a pathological flavor? Aviv wrote in the December issue of Harper’s Magazine: Which way madness lies: Can psychosis be prevented? The piece is a powerful, troubling, and thought-provoking read. It is impossible to predict the precise moment when a person has embarked on a path toward madness, since there is no quantifiable point at which healthy thoughts become insane. What I particularly appreciate about Aviv’s account is that she writes extensively about the nature of the delusions themselves, about the flow of delusional ideas, their relation to the collapse of a clear sense of self, and the challenges facing an individual who begins to feel the implausible welling up in everyday reality. As Aaron (not his real name) told Aviv: ‘What happens if there’s some truth to your delusion?
MindFreedom International: Mental Health Rights and Alternative Mental Health — MFI Portal Mystery Suspect in the "Obesity Epidemic" | The Icarus Project The Mystery Suspect in the American “Obesity Epidemic” Paula Caplan If you wanted to make someone feel helpless, hopeless, even crazy, one good way to do it would be this: Teach them that others will value them mostly for being thin and being nurturant, put them in situations where they are too agitated or sad to be cheerleaders and caretakers for family and friends, and when they ask for help in getting back to their duties, give them a pill that may calm them down or pep them up but will have a good chance of increasing their weight. Hardly a week goes by without some media story about the causes of this epidemic, which is described as including two-thirds of American adults classified as overweight – more than 130 million, nearly half of whom are labeled “obese,” usually described as, for women, having a greater than 30% body fat composition. Undoubtedly, all these factors can play roles in weight gain.
Delusions, odd and common: Living in the prodrome, part 2 Hello there! If you enjoy the content on Neuroanthropology, consider subscribing for future posts via email or RSS feed. Author Rachel Aviv talked at length with a number of young people who had been identified as being ‘prodromal’ for schizophrenia, experiencing periodic delusions and at risk of converting to full-blown schizophrenia, following some of the at-risk individuals for a year. Psychiatric Research by Ted Watson Aviv’s piece was really moving and inspired this post and an earlier one. This post is my more speculative offering, contemplating the relation of the content of delusions to the cultural context in which they occur. Aviv’s remarkable detailed account of prodrome, especially because it’s so strongly based in sensitive biographies of living on the boundary with schizophrenia, offers an opportunity to reflect on how the specific content of delusions — not simply the fact of having delusions — might provide the sufferer with different avenues to relate with others.