Books


Madness Radio: Bipolar Medication Myths Joanna Moncrieff

First Aired 8-26-2010    Duration: 51:41

Is bipolar disorder a disease? Can medications like lithium correct chemical imbalances and stabilize mood? Do psychiatric drugs act completely differently on the brain than recreational drugs? UK psychiatrist Dr. Joanna Moncrieff, author of The Myth Of The Chemical Cure: A Critique of Psychiatric Drug Treatment, discusses how seeing psychiatric medications as treatments for disease misleads the public about how they actually work, and obscures their potential for abuse as tools of social control. www.critpsynet.freeuk.com www.academyanalyticarts.org/moncrieff.htm

Madness Radio: Schizophrenia and Black Politics Jonathan Metzl

First Aired 0-0-    Duration: 52:03

How did the definition of schizophrenia change during the civil rights and Black Power era of the 1960s? Why did a disease primarily affecting withdrawn white housewives suddenly become focused on angry and "paranoid" African American men instead? Psychiatrist and historian Jonathan Metzl, author of The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease, discusses racism and social control in psychiatric diagnosis, and how Black protest was turned into a mental disorder. http://bit.ly/byOeIw, jmetzl(at)umich(dot)edu

Madness Radio: Prison Mental Health Terry Kupers

First Aired 3-2-2010    Duration: 52:29

The US incarcerates more people than any country in the world - and 70% are people of color. Do we need better mental health care inside prisons -- or do prisons themselves cause trauma and madness? Psychiatrist and civil lawsuit expert witness Dr.Terry Kupers, author of Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It, discusses overcrowding, racism, sensory deprivation, isolation, and sexual abuse in the disgraceful US prison system. www.afsc.org/stopmax www.criticalresistance.org www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights

Madness Radio: Schizophrenia Psychotherapy Cathy Penney

First Aired 1-21-2010    Duration: 47:56

Can a severe, chronic case of "schizophrenia" ever recover? Is psychotherapy an alternative to medications? What role does trauma play in madness? Hear the inspiring story of how Catherine Penney, RN, was catatonic and locked in a hospital back ward for years, and then emerged to create a new alternative healing community. www.dantescure.com www.desertgathering.com www.iraresoul.com/dvd.html

Madness Radio: Conscience of Psychiatry Peter Breggin

First Aired 9-16-2009    Duration: 54:05

What do modern psychiatric drug treatments have in common with lobotomy? Is informed consent possible when patients' judgment is impaired by medication? Should psych drugs be banned? For more than 50 years Dr. Peter Breggin has been a leading crusader against psychiatric abuse, Big Pharma, and medication dangers. His latest book is The Conscience of Psychiatry: The Reform Work of Peter R. Breggin, MD. www.breggin.com

Madness Radio: Beyond Belief Tamasin Knight

First Aired 9-16-2009    Duration: 48:25

How do we respond to bizarre beliefs like CIA brain chips, abduction by aliens, hearing voices, spirit possession, or telepathy? Is respect for a different reality "colluding" with a delusion? Or is there meaning in madness? Medical doctor Tamasin Knight was hospitalized for delusions, and went on to write the practical guidebook Beyond Belief: Alternative Ways of Working with Delusions, Obsessions and Unusual Experiences, available as a free download at www.peter-lehmann-publishing.com/books/beyond-belief.pdf.

Madness Radio: Paxil On Trial Alison Bass

First Aired 8-26-2009    Duration: 51:47

When GlaxoSmithKline was caught lying about the risks of its blockbuster anti-depressant Paxil, it set off ongoing investigations. How did New York state take on one of the world's most powerful companies? Was NY Governor Eliot Spitzer driven out by his corporate enemies? Pulitzer-nominated Boston Globe journalist Alison Bass, author of Side Effects: A Prosecutor, A Whistleblower, And A Bestselling Antidepressant On Trial, discusses legal battles to clean up drug company corruption, including pay-offs to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. www.alison-bass.com/

Madness Radio: Mad Science Mad Pride Bradley Lewis

First Aired 8-12-2009    Duration: 56:59

What is the mad movement's best response to science? How is mad pride different from gay pride? Do we want to become equal with "normal" people -- or challenge the idea of normal itself? What about suffering and the risk of romanticizing madness? Icarus Project organizer, psychiatrist, and theorist Bradley Lewis, author of Moving Beyond Prozac, DSM, and the New Psychiatry: Birth of Postpsychiatry, discusses the identity politics of madness. www.theicarusproject.net, www.nyu.edu/gallatin/about/bios/bradley_lewis.html

Madness Radio: Our Daily Meds Melody Petersen

First Aired 7-14-2009    Duration: 51:12

More than 100,000 people die in the US each year from prescription drugs -- used as directed by their doctor. How did aggressive marketing make our health care system a cause of widespread sickness? Why haven't government regulation or medical research been able to protect the public? New York Times health reporter Melody Petersen discusses her new book, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs. www.ourdailymedsthebook.com/

Madness Radio: Art and Schizophrenia Louis Sass

First Aired 6-30-2009    Duration: 53:50

Does modern art, such as Artaud, Beckett, and Duchamp, parallel the mad frames of mind that get labeled "schizophrenia?" Is extreme sensitivity and inner self-consciousness behind artistic innovation and breaks with reality? Rutgers University psychologist Louis Sass, author of Madness And Modernism: Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature, and Thought, discusses art as an insight into the subjective inner world of madness. lsass@rci.rutgers.edu