Although several years old, this paper – “NICE Under Scrutiny” still has great relevance. It looks at the impact of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines on the provision of counselling/psychotherapy in the UK. Produced by…
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Set within a North American context (USA), and with relevance to both mental health and physical healthcare, this documentary looks at the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. The documentary’s producers say that it exposes “… the insidious ways that illness is…
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This book explores the overlap between transliminal (“going beyond the threshold”) / spiritual experiences and psychosis. In doing so it looks a different ways of acquiring knowledge – e.g. the subjective and experiential, as contrasted with that gained through ‘objective’…
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Dr. Robert Lefever, a retired GP who is now working as a counsellor, created the first rehabilitation centre in the world to treat all types of addiction. In this 9 minute video he sets out a direct challenge to standard…
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In this blog post from the Mad In America website , psychiatrist Lawrence Kelmenson writes: “As modern psychiatry grows larger and larger, it becomes hungrier and hungrier for more clients. Its formula is to invent fake ‘illnesses’ that everyone meets criteria for, and to lure people to seek…
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Today asylums have largely been consigned to history but mental illness is more prevalent than ever, whilst our culture teems with therapeutic possibilities: from prescription medications and clinical treatment to complementary medicines, online support, and spiritual and creative practices. Against…
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In this book (published 2013), Dr. Ben Goldacre (psychiatrist) argues that: “Drugs are tested by the people who manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analysed using techniques which are flawed by…
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Concerning this book – edited by John Read and Jacqui Dillon – the publishers (Routledge) say: “Are hallucinations and delusions really symptoms of an illness called ‘schizophrenia’? Are mental health problems really caused by chemical imbalances and genetic predispositions? Are…
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