Resources

"Sixty-one authors – (ex-) users and survivors of psychiatry, therapists, psychiatrists, lawyers, social scientists and relatives from all five continents – report about their alternative work, their objectives and successes, and their individual and collective experiences."

"In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades?"

Peter Gøtzsche's book seeks to "alert people to two terrible facts: Prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. The behaviour of Big Pharma fulfils the criteria for organised crime in US law."

China Mills' book "seeks to de-familiarize current ‘Western’ conceptions of psychology and psychiatry using postcolonial theory. It leads us to wonder whether we should call for equality in global access to psychiatry, whether everyone should have the right to a psychotropic citizenship and whether mental health can, or should, be global."

A collection edited by Mark Rapley, Joanna Moncrieff, and Jacqui Dillon: "Psychiatry and psychology have constructed a mental health system that does no justice to the problems it claims to understand and creates multiple problems for its users. Yet the myth of biologically-based mental illness defines our present.

"This book is a groundbreaking development in modern mental health because it recognises the importance of the first hand experience and argues that hearing voices is not a sign of madness but a reaction to serious problems in life. Must-read book for all concerned with mental health issues."

Edited by Brenda A. LeFrançois, Robert Menzies, Geoffrey Reaume. "With contributions from scholars in numerous disciplines, as well as activists and psychiatric survivors, [this book] presents diverse critical voices that convey the lived experiences of the psychiatrized and challenges dominant understandings of "mental illness.""

Written by Stuart A. Kirk, Tomi Gomory, and David Cohen, this book "provides an engaging and readable scientific and social critique of current mental health practices. The authors are scholars, researchers, and clinicians who have written extensively about community care, diagnosis, and psychoactive drugs."

"This second edition of Models of Madness challenges those who hold to simplistic, pessimistic and often damaging theories and treatments of madness.

Written by Robert Whitaker and Lisa Cosgrove, "Psychiatry Under the Influence investigates the actions and practices of the American Psychiatric Association and academic psychiatry in the United States, and presents it as a case study of institutional corruption."

"Blending first-person accounts, riveting case studies, cutting-edge research and passionate argument, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction...takes a panoramic yet highly intimate look at this widespread and perplexing human ailment."

Written by Grace Jackson, "Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide for Informed Consent is a critical appraisal of the medications which an estimated 20% of Americans consume on a regular (and sometimes involuntary) basis."

"Referencing Joanne Greenberg’s book I Never Promised you a Rose Garden, this collection demonstrates the challenge, determination and successes of the authors in working towards a paradigm shift in the understanding of madness and distress."

"Psychiatric diagnosis has become one of the most contested practices in mental health services today. Lucy Johnstone asks 'Do you still need your psychiatric diagnosis?' This book will help you to decide... If the authors of the diagnostic manuals are admitting that psychiatric diagnoses are not supported by evidence, then no one should be forced to accept them."

"The author's 33 years of experience working as a mental health professional - psychiatric nurse, clinical psychologist and manager - has enabled the creation of a distinctive insider account of the shameful failings of the Western psychiatric system.

The Therapy Industry fundamentally challenges our conceptions of happiness and wellbeing. Moloney argues that therapeutic and applied psychology have little basis in science, that their benefits are highly exaggerated and they prosper because they serve the interests of power.

"Can a person literally die of loneliness? Is there a connection between the ability to express emotions and Alzheimer’s disease? Is there such a thing as a 'cancer personality'?"