Madness Radio - Voices and Visions From Outside Mental Health

How common are suicidal feelings? Is a psychiatric illness behind suicidal despair -- or a meaningful and even spiritual life crisis? Does forced hospitalization really provide help? Suicide attempt survivor David Webb, author of Thinking About Suicide: Contemplating and Comprehending the Urge to Die, discusses how speaking openly about suicidal feelings, rather than reacting with panic and fear, is the best form of suicide prevention. http://www.jungcircle.com/DWebb.html http://thinkingaboutsuicide.org/

Can breakdown sometimes be breakthrough? Neuroscientist Daniel Fisher suffered an extreme emotional state and ended up in a locked psychiatric ward diagnosed with schizophrenia. His crisis of scientific faith fueled his recovery, and he went on to become a practicing psychiatrist bringing new insights to work with people experiencing psychosis and their families. Today Dr. Fisher is Director of the National Empowerment Center, guided by a vision he had in solitary confinement of mental health system change, including the peer movement and hospital alternatives. http://www.power2u.org/

Are voices real -- or are they just auditory hallucinations and sign of mental illness? Is it best to try to control and get rid of voices -- or listen and discover their meaning? After being sexually abused by a priest and in grief at the death of his first wife, Scottish advocate Ron Coleman started hearing voices, was labeled a chronic schizophrenic and spent six years in psychiatric hospitals. Ron describes his remarkable recovery, and how he became a renowned teacher and leading trainer with the Hearing Voices movement in the UK. http://www.workingtorecovery.co.uk/

What is reality? Why do people in extreme states feel connected to the universe, and experience uncanny and even supernatural events? Does quantum physics have something to teach us about madness? What if therapists were like indigenous tribal shamans, entering into clients' "psychotic" worlds as if stepping into a dream? Arnold Mindell studied with pioneering scientists Richard Feynman and Norbert Wiener and then became a Jungian therapist and founder of Process Oriented Psychology. He discusses his more than 40 years of work with individuals and groups, including people diagnosed with psychosis, and the ancient belief in a purposeful dreaming reality behind everyday events. http://www.aamindell.net/blog/books#arny http://www.processwork.org http://www.sonic.net/~billkirn/mindell_interview.html.

How did pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Smith Kline create "depression" in Japan - and a billion dollar market for its anti-depressant drug Paxil? Why do people diagnosed with schizophrenia recover more in Tanzania than they do in the US? Can western-style psychotherapy help tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka? Ethan Watters, author of Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche, discusses how mental disorders are cultural products, defined in the US and then exported around the world. www.crazylikeus.com

Can therapy reach people in extreme states of "psychosis" -- without using medications? Do we need to give a diagnosis to help someone? Why are counselors afraid to listen to their "mad" clients? New York psychotherapist and filmmaker Daniel Mackler discusses how be defied social work training in his work with people labeled with schizophrenia and bipolar, and what he learned from recent visits to successful treatment alternatives in Northern Europe. Daniel is the filmmaker of Take These Broken Wings and co-author with Matthew Morrissey of A Way Out of Madness. http://www.iraresoul.com

Seamstress Agnes Richter was locked away in a mental asylum in the 1890s, and was so determined to have a voice that she embroidered her personal story onto the jacket she wore on the ward. What is the hidden history of people writing their own narratives of going insane? How important is it to listen to the experiences of "mentally ill" people? Is there meaning in madness? Gail Hornstein, Mt. Holyoke College professor and author of Agnes's Jacket: A Psychologist's Search for the Meanings of Madness, discusses the work of the Hearing Voices Movement in the UK, peer run support communities including Freedom Center in the US, and why professionals should let patients speak for themselves. http://www.gailhornstein.com http://bit.ly/aG9bnS

How did the New York underground of punk rock music, squatting, and homeless protest give rise to a thriving and innovative peer-run mental health community? Are there creative gifts to be found in the depths of madness? Does the future of Mad Pride lie in the joining of activism with spirituality? Icarus Project co-founder Sascha Altman DuBrul discusses his escape into apocalyptic visions and psychiatric hospitals, and how he was inspired to challenge the identity of bipolar disorder. www.theicarusproject.net; scatter(at)theicarusproject(dot)net

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

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

Is a 'psychotic' crisis inside one person's mind -- or does it happen between people, in their relationship? Can therapy untangle the web of madness by addressing the family, providers, and entire social network? Smith College social worker and Fulbright scholar Mary Olson discusses the innovative work of Jaakko Seikkula and colleagues' Open Dialogue Approach in Finland, which has achieved dramatic success helping people through extreme states labeled 'psychosis' and 'schizophrenia' -- while relying much less on medication and hospitalization. http://www.dialogicpractice.net, http://beyondmeds.com/2010/01/04/alternative-for-psychosis/, http://www.willhall.net/opendialogue

People who hear voices are no more violent than anyone else -- but what about the small number of voice hearers that do actually commit violent crimes? Are medications and locked wards the best way to help those who act on their aggressive "command hallucinations?" Dutch psychiatric social worker and Hearing Voices Movement member Erica van den Akker discusses her innovative counseling work with violent offenders in the Netherlands.alpouvar1(at)tomaatnet(dot)nl

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-r

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

Leah Harris was orphaned after both parents were diagnosed with schizophrenia and died from medication toxicity. Today she is a leading voice in survivor activism, and her powerful spoken word poetry, including "I Was A Teenage Mental Patient," has been featured in publications including Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution, and DC Poets against the War: An Anthology. Leah is also the co-coordinator of the US Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. Buy her new cd "Take Refuge" at the National Empowerment Center: http://bit.ly/7f5kyN. www.myspace.com/dharmamamaleah, www.usnusp.org/