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Beyond Medicalization: Psychedelic Therapy and the Promise of Community-Based Healing

Mad in America

Author’s note: For transparency, I am the co-founder of Elemental Psychedelics, a state-approved training center for psilocybin mushroom practitioners in Colorado. Taking all of this into consideration, the question for me has become: Do psychedelics represent something meaningfully different here?

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Beyond the Pill Paradigm: Reclaiming Humanity in Mental Health Care

Mad in America

The way we think about mental distress today is based on a big mistakethat emotional pain comes from brain chemistry problems rather than from people’s experiences, social conditions, and how they make sense of things. I n the clean hallways of today’s mental health centers, a quiet change is taking shape.

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Part 4: Neurodiversity: New Paradigm, or Trojan Horse?

Mad in America

Editor’s Note: Mad in the UK and Mad in America are jointly publishing this four-part series on neurodiversity. The series was edited by Mad in the UK editors, and authored by John Cromby and Lucy Johnstone (with part three written by an anonymous contributor). The series is being archived here.

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The Anatomy of Anxiety: An Interview With Ellen Vora

Mad in America

I said, “On paper everything’s great, but I’m struggling with this existential feeling of being 38, single, childless, increasingly aware of mortality.” She’s the author of The Anatomy of Anxiety and takes a functional medicine approach to mental health. She considers the whole person and addresses imbalance at the root.

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A Case for Parallel Mental Health Care

Mad in America

The real question is whether the “brighter future” is always so distant. When mundane events increasingly take on the character of the surreal or the apocalyptic, what does it mean to be normal or sane? I believe these kinds of questions will shape our understanding of the future of mental health. Yet these things are not acts of God.

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How Mad Studies and the Psychological Humanities are Changing Mental Health: An Interview with Narrative Psychiatrist Bradley Lewis

Mad in America

B radley Lewis works at the intersections of medicine, psychiatry, philosophy, the psychological humanities, mad studies, and disability studies, balancing roles as both a humanities professor and a practicing psychiatrist. Additionally, he serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Medical Humanities. Listen to the audio of the interview here.

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“All Real Living Is Meeting”: Brent Robbins on Love, Death, and the Possibilities of Psychology

Mad in America

Robbins is one of those rare thinkers who makes psychology feel alivenot just a collection of theories and data, but a field full of urgent, deeply human questions. Hes a professor of psychology and the director of the Psy.D. He earned his Ph.D. He earned his Ph.D. On a personal note, Brent has played a foundational role in my own journey.