Serious Mental Illness Blog

An LIU Post Specialty Concentration

Posts tagged apa

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A soon-to-be-released documentary feature, Kings Park offers an inside look at public mental health care in America by focusing on the story of this now abandoned institution. The journey back begins with Lucy’s sudden decision, on the cusp of her fiftieth birthday, to return to Kings Park for the first time in over thirty years. Determined to face her past and come to terms with her commitment to the state hospital, Lucy’s goals are purely personal when the film begins. She soon learns, however, that in order to fully understand her own story, she needs to somehow learn about the institutional world in which she was once locked away. To this end, Lucy seeks out other former patients, their families, and hospital staff, who share intimate accounts of life at Kings Park. Shot on the overgrown and sprawling grounds of the shuttered hospital, these firsthand accounts of a vanishing world bear witness to the many changes in treatment, policy and attitudes over the past century.

The film culminates with a vision of today. Stories are shared of the often brutally executed “emptying out” of the hospital, and we follow Lucy in her effort to see how mental health care has changed since the hospital’s close. Scenes shot at small mental health care centers, committed to the recovery of their members despite limited resources, let us see the kind of progress that is being made. In contrast, footage shot at the local jail reveals a very different reality – where the penal system has replaced the state hospital as the default “provider” for people with serious mental illness.

Filed under western emotions research trauma unconscious intelligence psychology psychiatry psychoanalysis psychosis personality disorder psychotic psychotherapy psychopharmacology psychopathology post traumatic anxiety abuse apa science strength Survivor schizophrenia serious mental illness history drugs drug DSM depression Diagnostic

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The Transformative Power of Emotional Understanding By Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D. for Psychology Today A young woman who had been repeatedly sexually abused by her father when she was a child began psychotherapy with a young female therapist who consulted with me on the case. Early in the treatment, whenever the patient began to remember and describe the sexual abuse, or to recount analogously invasive experiences in her current life, she would display emotional reactions that consisted of two distinctive parts, both of which seemed entirely bodily. One was a trembling in her arms and upper torso, which sometimes escalated into violent shaking. The other was an intense flushing of her face. On these occasions, the therapist was quite alarmed by her patient’s shaking and was concerned to find some way to calm her. I had a hunch that the shaking was a bodily manifestation of a traumatized state and that the flushing was a somatic form of the patient’s shame about exposing this state to her therapist, and I suggested to the therapist that she focus her inquiries on the flushing rather than the shaking. As a result of this shift in focus, the patient began to speak about how she believed her therapist viewed her when she was trembling or shaking: surely her therapist must be regarding her with disdain, seeing her as a damaged mess of a human being. As this belief was repeatedly disconfirmed by her therapist’s responding with emotional understanding rather than contempt, both the flushing and the shaking diminished in intensity. The traumatized states actually underwent a process of transformation from being exclusively bodily states into ones in which the bodily sensations came to be united with words. Instead of only shaking, the patient began to speak about her terror of annihilating intrusion. The one and only time the patient had attempted to speak to her mother about the sexual abuse, her mother shamed her severely, declaring her to be a wicked little girl for making up such lies about her father. Thereafter, the patient did not tell any other human being about her trauma until she revealed it to her therapist, and both the flushing of her face and the restriction of her experience of terror to its nameless bodily component were heir to her mother’s shaming. Only with a shift in her perception of her therapist from one in which her therapist was potentially or secretly shaming to one in which she was accepting and understanding could the patient’s emotional experience of her traumatized states shift from an exclusively bodily form to an experience that could be felt and named as terror. It is in the formation of such somatic-linguistic unities, the bringing of emotional experience into language within a holding context of human understanding, that a sense of being can be born, restored, or consolidated.

The Transformative Power of Emotional Understanding

By Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D. for Psychology Today

A young woman who had been repeatedly sexually abused by her father when she was a child began psychotherapy with a young female therapist who consulted with me on the case. Early in the treatment, whenever the patient began to remember and describe the sexual abuse, or to recount analogously invasive experiences in her current life, she would display emotional reactions that consisted of two distinctive parts, both of which seemed entirely bodily. One was a trembling in her arms and upper torso, which sometimes escalated into violent shaking. The other was an intense flushing of her face. On these occasions, the therapist was quite alarmed by her patient’s shaking and was concerned to find some way to calm her.

I had a hunch that the shaking was a bodily manifestation of a traumatized state and that the flushing was a somatic form of the patient’s shame about exposing this state to her therapist, and I suggested to the therapist that she focus her inquiries on the flushing rather than the shaking. As a result of this shift in focus, the patient began to speak about how she believed her therapist viewed her when she was trembling or shaking: surely her therapist must be regarding her with disdain, seeing her as a damaged mess of a human being. As this belief was repeatedly disconfirmed by her therapist’s responding with emotional understanding rather than contempt, both the flushing and the shaking diminished in intensity. The traumatized states actually underwent a process of transformation from being exclusively bodily states into ones in which the bodily sensations came to be united with words. Instead of only shaking, the patient began to speak about her terror of annihilating intrusion.

The one and only time the patient had attempted to speak to her mother about the sexual abuse, her mother shamed her severely, declaring her to be a wicked little girl for making up such lies about her father. Thereafter, the patient did not tell any other human being about her trauma until she revealed it to her therapist, and both the flushing of her face and the restriction of her experience of terror to its nameless bodily component were heir to her mother’s shaming. Only with a shift in her perception of her therapist from one in which her therapist was potentially or secretly shaming to one in which she was accepting and understanding could the patient’s emotional experience of her traumatized states shift from an exclusively bodily form to an experience that could be felt and named as terror. It is in the formation of such somatic-linguistic unities, the bringing of emotional experience into language within a holding context of human understanding, that a sense of being can be born, restored, or consolidated.

Filed under western emotions research rethinking madness trauma abuse unconscious intelligence psychology ptsd psychiatry psychoanalysis psychotic psychotherapy psychopharmacology psychopathology post traumatic anxiety apa affective science strength Survivor therapist DSM Diagnostic dsm 5 knafo crazy consciousness

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Recommended Resource: NIH’s master list of ~ 500 neurological disorders, neurological symptoms and neurological diseasesCompiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke The list links out to comprehensive neuroscience-focused definitions, treatment options, research endeavors, organizations, and more.

Recommended Resource: NIH’s master list of ~ 500 neurological disorders, neurological symptoms and neurological diseases
Compiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

The list links out to comprehensive neuroscience-focused definitions, treatment options, research endeavors, organizations, and more.

Filed under questions emotions research intelligence psychology psychiatry psychoanalysis psychotherapy psychopathology apa science schizophrenia drugs drug DSM Diagnostic knafo crazy consciousness clinical voice bipolar Neuroscience mental Mad madness mental illness

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[Article of Interest] Mind-Pops More Likely With Schizophrenia By Ia Elua, Keith R. Laws, Lia Kvavilashvili Excerpt: Mind-pops are those little thoughts, words, images or tunes that suddenly pop into your mind at unexpected times and are totally unrelated to your current activity. These involuntary ‘mind-pops’ have become a topic of scientific study only recently even though they were described long ago by novelists such as Vladamir Nabokov. Almost everyone reports experiencing mind-pops at some time or another, but some experience them more than others according to research conducted by the University of Hertfordshire. In the paper to be published in Psychiatry Research, findings suggest that mind-pop experiences are related to hallucinations in those people suffering from schizophrenia. [This study] found that all 100% schizophrenia patients reported experiencing mind-pops, compared to 81% of the depressed patients and 86% of the mentally healthy individuals. In addition, schizophrenia patients experienced mind-pops significantly more frequently than depressed patients and mentally healthy people. Professor Laws added: “Mind-pops were more common both in patients who had experienced hallucinations in the past and in those who were currently experiencing hallucinations.”

[Article of Interest] Mind-Pops More Likely With Schizophrenia

By Ia Elua, Keith R. Laws, Lia Kvavilashvili

Excerpt: Mind-pops are those little thoughts, words, images or tunes that suddenly pop into your mind at unexpected times and are totally unrelated to your current activity. These involuntary ‘mind-pops’ have become a topic of scientific study only recently even though they were described long ago by novelists such as Vladamir Nabokov.

Almost everyone reports experiencing mind-pops at some time or another, but some experience them more than others according to research conducted by the University of Hertfordshire. In the paper to be published in Psychiatry Research, findings suggest that mind-pop experiences are related to hallucinations in those people suffering from schizophrenia.

[This study] found that all 100% schizophrenia patients reported experiencing mind-pops, compared to 81% of the depressed patients and 86% of the mentally healthy individuals. In addition, schizophrenia patients experienced mind-pops significantly more frequently than depressed patients and mentally healthy people. Professor Laws added: “Mind-pops were more common both in patients who had experienced hallucinations in the past and in those who were currently experiencing hallucinations.”

Filed under emotions research rethinking madness unconscious intelligence psychology psychiatry psychoanalysis psychosis psychotic psychotherapy psychopharmacology psychopathology apa affective science schizophrenia Science Daily serious mental illness DSM depression hallucination knafo crazy consciousness clinical voice bipolar Neuroscience mental

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[Book of Interest] A Way Out of Madness: Dealing With Your Family After You’ve Been Diagnosed With A Psychiatric Disorder Co-Written and Co-Edited by Daniel Mackler and Matthew Morrissey, with Contributions by: • Patch Adams, M.D., inspiration for Robin Williams film • Joanne Greenberg, author, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden • David Oaks, director, MindFreedom International • Will Hall, co-founder, Freedom Center • Annie Rogers, Ph.D., professor, author, A Shining Affliction Family conflict can wreak havoc on people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. A Way Out of Madness offers guidance in resolving family conflict and taking control of your life. The book, the first in the ISPS-US book series, also includes personal accounts of family healing by people who were themselves psychiatrically diagnosed. Excerpt from Will Hall’s Essay in the book: My mother was in therapy and she realized my father’s violent past was taking a terrible toll on our lives together. But she couldn’t see her own role and was helpless to change it, to talk, to break the spell we were all under. To this day I have never had a conversation with my father, mother, or brother about being diagnosed with schizophrenia. Years of trying to speak only led back into my worst mental states. And so at different times in my life I’ve broken contact from them entirely. When I do make plans to visit I hope for a snowstorm to cancel the flight, or some other reason not to go. I live in a kind of exile from my family, and a silent and unbreakable taboo is still in place against who I am. We continue trapped in the codes and dramas of our past. I spent a year looking for help in the public mental health system before I began, slowly, to look within myself. My freedom and recovery eventually came through trusted friends and support groups, holistic health and acupuncture and nutrition, meditation and spiritual discipline. I stopped taking psychiatric drugs, and I stopped believing in the diagnosis I was given. I’ve gained enough clarity to make a fragile but lasting peace with  madness, and live with my wild mind, voices, and altered states of consciousness. I now trust that when the demons come, the angels will soon also have their turn. Today I work as a mental health advocate and counselor, and I get calls and emails from people searching for an answer different from what they’ve been told by doctors and TV ads. When parents contact me, desperate to help their sons and daughters, I do hold out the possibility of change. I believe these frightened and traumatized fathers and mothers can grow and become a source of freedom for their children. I tell them that families can heal, and that people can recover.

[Book of Interest] A Way Out of Madness: Dealing With Your Family After You’ve Been Diagnosed With A Psychiatric Disorder

Co-Written and Co-Edited by Daniel Mackler and Matthew Morrissey, with Contributions by:

• Patch Adams, M.D., inspiration for Robin Williams film

• Joanne Greenberg, author, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

• David Oaks, director, MindFreedom International

• Will Hall, co-founder, Freedom Center

• Annie Rogers, Ph.D., professor, author, A Shining Affliction

Family conflict can wreak havoc on people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. A Way Out of Madness offers guidance in resolving family conflict and taking control of your life. The book, the first in the ISPS-US book series, also includes personal accounts of family healing by people who were themselves psychiatrically diagnosed.

Excerpt from Will Hall’s Essay in the book:

My mother was in therapy and she realized my father’s violent past was taking a terrible toll on our lives together. But she couldn’t see her own role and was helpless to change it, to talk, to break the spell we were all under. To this day I have never had a conversation with my father, mother, or brother about being diagnosed with schizophrenia. Years of trying to speak only led back into my worst mental states. And so at different times in my life I’ve broken contact from them entirely. When I do make plans to visit I hope for a snowstorm to cancel the flight, or some other reason not to go. I live in a kind of exile from my family, and a silent and unbreakable taboo is still in place against who I am. We continue trapped in the codes and dramas of our past.

I spent a year looking for help in the public mental health system before I began, slowly, to look within myself. My freedom and recovery eventually came through trusted friends and support groups, holistic health and acupuncture and nutrition, meditation and spiritual discipline. I stopped taking psychiatric drugs, and I stopped believing in the diagnosis I was given. I’ve gained enough clarity to make a fragile but lasting peace with  madness, and live with my wild mind, voices, and altered states of consciousness. I now trust that when the demons come, the angels will soon also have their turn.

Today I work as a mental health advocate and counselor, and I get calls and emails from people searching for an answer different from what they’ve been told by doctors and TV ads. When parents contact me, desperate to help their sons and daughters, I do hold out the possibility of change. I believe these frightened and traumatized fathers and mothers can grow and become a source of freedom for their children. I tell them that families can heal, and that people can recover.

Filed under western emotions research resilience rethinking madness trauma intelligence isps psychology ptsd psychiatry psychoanalysis psychosis psychotic psychotherapy psychopharmacology psychopathology post traumatic abuse apa science strength Survivor schizophrenia serious mental illness drug DSM Diagnostic dsm 5 f

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[Blog Post of Interest] The Big Chill: Psychiatric Medications Now Are on Trial For Murder By Michael Cornwall, Ph.D. on Mad in America Excerpt: The Canadian judge in the first North American criminal trial to find Prozac the sole cause of a murder ruled – “There is clear medical evidence that the Prozac affected his (defendant’s) behavior and judgment, thereby reducing his moral culpability.” Will those chilling words cause a small tremor in the writing hand of every prescriber of Prozac and other psychiatric medications from now on? That Prozac verdict which is not going to be appealed by the District Attorney changes everything. The upcoming Utah Supreme Court trial where the court has already ruled that prescribers of psychiatric medications can be held responsible for the actions of their patients, adds to the huge shift in the landscape for anyone who prescribes.

[Blog Post of Interest] The Big Chill: Psychiatric Medications Now Are on Trial For Murder

By Michael Cornwall, Ph.D. on Mad in America

Excerpt: The Canadian judge in the first North American criminal trial to find Prozac the sole cause of a murder ruled – “There is clear medical evidence that the Prozac affected his (defendant’s) behavior and judgment, thereby reducing his moral culpability.” Will those chilling words cause a small tremor in the writing hand of every prescriber of Prozac and other psychiatric medications from now on?

That Prozac verdict which is not going to be appealed by the District Attorney changes everything. The upcoming Utah Supreme Court trial where the court has already ruled that prescribers of psychiatric medications can be held responsible for the actions of their patients, adds to the huge shift in the landscape for anyone who prescribes.

Filed under Neuroscience abuse addiction apa clinical drug drugs dsm 5 emotions intelligence knafo mental prozac psychiatry psychoanalysis psychology psychopharmacology psychosis psychotherapy research rethinking madness science statistical substance trauma western medication pill pills

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[Book of Interest] Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche

From the New York Times review: The Idea that our Western conception of mental health and illness might be shaping the expression of illnesses in other cultures is rarely discussed in the professional literature. Many modern mental-health practitioners and researchers believe that the scientific standing of our drugs, our illness categories and our theories of the mind have put the field beyond the influence of endlessly shifting cultural trends and beliefs. After all, we now have machines that can literally watch the mind at work. We can change the chemistry of the brain in a variety of interesting ways and we can examine DNA sequences for abnormalities. The assumption is that these remarkable scientific advances have allowed modern-day practitioners to avoid the blind spots and cultural biases of their predecessors.

Filed under psychoanalysis psychopharmacology psychosis psychopathology eating disorder knafo serious mental illness western research mad madness apa mental neuroscience science psychology dsm diagnostic statistical

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Rethinking Madness: A Webinar Presented by Dr. Paris Williams

The upcoming webinar will cover:

  • Common factors associated with onset, deepening, and recovery from psychosis; a way to make some sense out of the anomalous experiences occurring within psychosis; lasting personal paradigm shifts that often occur as a result of going through a psychotic process; and some lasting harms and benefits of this process.
  • Ways to support those struggling with psychotic experiences while also coming to appreciate the important ways that these individuals can contribute to society.
  • A deeper sense of appreciation for the profound wisdom and resilience that lie within all of our beings, even those we may think of as being deeply disturbed.
  • That by gaining a deeper understanding of madness, we gain a deeper understanding of the core existential dilemmas with which we all must struggle, arriving at the unsettling realization of just how thin the boundary really is between madness and sanity.

Filed under psychoanalysis psychopharmacology psychosis psychopathology psychiatry rethinking madness schizophrenia psychotic mad madness apa mental neuroscience science psychology dsm diagnostic statistical

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Depression in Command:  In times of crisis, mentally ill leaders can see what others don’t. Great crisis leaders are not like the rest of us; nor are they like mentally healthy leaders. When society is happy, they toil in sadness, seeking help from friends and family and doctors as they cope with an illness that can be debilitating, even deadly. Sometimes they are up, sometimes they are down, but they are never quite well. Source: The Wall Street Journal

Depression in Command: 

In times of crisis, mentally ill leaders can see what others don’t.

Great crisis leaders are not like the rest of us; nor are they like mentally healthy leaders. When society is happy, they toil in sadness, seeking help from friends and family and doctors as they cope with an illness that can be debilitating, even deadly. Sometimes they are up, sometimes they are down, but they are never quite well.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Filed under Winston Churchill abraham lincoln Martin Luther King Mohandas Gandhi depression psychoanalysis psychopharmacology psychosis psychopathology psychiatry smi serious mental illness mad madness apa mental neuroscience science psychology dsm diagnostic statistical