Stay ConnectedTwo mental health professionals explore how our capitalist economic system impacts our emotional lives. From precarious housing and employment, to unaffordable healthcare, to endless debt — it’s not just in your head!
Support us: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Copyright: © It's Not Just In Your Head
Email us: itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
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Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"A Nation of Shopkeepers explores the unstoppable rise of the petite-bourgeoisie, one of the most powerful, but underexplored, classes in modern society."
Our discussion with Dan covers:
Stalled social mobility and bullshit jobs, who the petite-bourgeoisie are (traditional & new), the threat of losing social status and Dan pushes back against the idea of the "99%".
We also cover definitions of class, class boundaries and class as culture.
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
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Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Ikoi and Harriet take a critical look at the false promise of 'Trauma Informed Care' and how the psyche field often fails to understand the material conditions and the context of peoples lives.
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Why is the public discourse around vaccination either 100% good or 100% evil?
Ikoi along with our two guests, both of whom have suffered significant vaccine injuries but remain pro-vaccination, share their stories, experiences and nuanced opinions.
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
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Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"We Hear Only Ourselves is a study of utopia and its contradictions. If a future beyond capitalism cannot be imagined, what is the place of utopia today? The answer, Cashmore argues, lies beyond either idle speculation or merely hopeful optimism. We Hear Only Ourselves seeks a concept of utopia which is strengthened, not undermined, by its contradictions. From the dialectics of the Frankfurt School to the energetics of resistance in the writings of the Black Panthers, this book draws on a wide range of thought to offer a new concept of utopia, one adequate for our present moment."
References:
We Hear Only Ourselves: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/zer0-books/our-books/we-hear-only-ourselves-utopia-narrative-resistance
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Is identity based politics a weapon that has been used to 'divide and conquer' the left? We are joined by the author of the rather spicy book 'Here Be Monsters'.
We discuss the suppression of class understanding, the consequences of organizing around identity, and the revealing use of identity based language by Goldman Sachs, the CIA and the US military: a few players can change but the game must stay the same.
Rhyd makes the case for organizing around shared material conditions and the power of unlikely friendships that come from such struggles.
"Rhyd Wildermuth reveals the roots of current identity conflicts and political contradictions in feminism, anti-racist theory, Marxism, Frankfurt School theorists, and the many other leftist attempts to put the world back into balance."
References:
Here Be Monsters: How to Fight Capitalism Instead of Each Other: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/here-be-monsters/
Who paid the piper?: The CIA and the cultural Cold War: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1902020.Who_Paid_the_Piper_
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
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Famed author of 'McMindfulness' returns to the podcast to discuss his latest article 'How the Life Coaching Industry Sells Pseudo-Solutions to Our Deepest Problems':
"The cultural pressures to become a self-made individual have intensified at the same time that sources of social support have decreased. Enter the life coach."
We discuss the many issues surrounding life coaches, credentialism (or lack of it) and how the industry is underpinned by the deeply flawed 'science' of Positive Psychology (and founding father Martin Seligman's troubling statements).
References:
How the Life Coaching Industry Sells Pseudo-Solutions to Our Deepest Problems: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/07/how-the-life-coaching-industry-sells-pseudo-solutions-to-our-deepest-problems
McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/mcmindfulness-how-mindfulne
Almost anyone can become a life coach. A hidden camera investigation reveals why that's a problem: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-life-coach-1.6364745
Scientific Pollyannaism - From Inquisition to Positive Psychology: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-15982-5
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
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"It's time for the Left to consider the pessimist a helpful guide out of the somnolence of capitalist realism."
We dissect ideas and misunderstandings around optimism & pessimism, and how pessimism is a fundamentally critical position, whilst optimism breeds hubris and complacency.
We discuss the cruelty of optimism, how self destruction can often be an act of autonomy against an unhealthy environment - aka the optimistic delusion of capitalists - and the utopian concept of "Not This".
References:
Disconsolate Dreamers - On Pessimism and Utopia: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/zer0-books/our-books/disconsolate-dreamers-pessimism-utopia
Pronoia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronoia_(psychology)
Cruel Optimism: https://www.dukeupress.edu/Cruel-Optimism/
Productivity vs wages: How wages in America have stagnated: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/productivity-workforce-america-united-states-wages-stagnate/
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
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Ikoi and Liam talk with author of 'This Must Be the Place', Shain Shapiro. We discuss re-conceptualizing music through a systemic lens, how it effects quality of life, building codes, work opportunities, mental health and its near total absence in public policy.
"This Must Be the Place introduces and examines music’s relationship to cities. Not the influence cities have on music, but the powerful impact music can have on how cities are developed, built, managed and governed.
Arguing for the transformative role of artists and musicians in a post-pandemic world, 'This Must Be The Place' serves as a how-to guide and toolkit for music-lovers, artists and activists everywhere to begin the process of reinventing the communities they live in."
References:
This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/this-must-be-the-place/
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"By returning to the original tale of Narcissus, and the flower from which he takes his name, this book offers an alternative reading of narcissism..."
Is their such a thing as healthy Narcissism? We chat with the author of 'Narcissus in Bloom - An Alternative History of the Selfie' about how the finger waving moralism surrounding 'selfies' requires further thought: If Narcissism is the defining pathology of the twenty-first century, what if rather than it being about self-obsession, it's an attempt at self-transformation?
We discuss Freud's idea of finding others narcissism attractive, attempts to capture the ever changing self, politicians being authentically & consistently awful, the bourgeois gaze, 'whatever beings' and the feeling of 'what comes next' vs 'nothing comes next'.
Matt also discusses the forgotten alternative versions of the Narcissus myth and what this reveals about self-transformation and renewal.
References:
Narcissus in Bloom - An Alternative History of the Selfie: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/narcissus-in-bloom/
Egress: On Mourning, Melancholy and Mark Fisher - https://repeaterbooks.com/product/egress-on-mourning-melancholy-and-mark-fisher/
Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures - https://repeaterbooks.com/product/postcapitalist-desire-the-final-lectures/
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
“There is more than one way to flourish as humans in this world”
Harriet talks with anthropologist Francesca Mezzenzana about her work and parental experiences with the Runa of the Ecuadorian Amazon and the challenge of bringing up children to survive in a ruthless neoliberal hellscape.
We discuss the export of middle class parenting ideology and how idea around good childcare are rooted in assumptions from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) societies, and highlight the contrasting community focused values of the indigenous Runa people.
References:
Amazonian childcare: https://aeon.co/essays/why-runa-indigenous-people-find-natural-parenting-so-strange
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56269264-the-dawn-of-everything
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"Confidence culture constantly directs the problem & solution onto the self"
We explore how confidence culture has spread into every sector of society, from self-help to the workplace and beyond.
Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill draw on Foucault’s notion of technologies of self to demonstrate how “confidence culture” demands of women near-constant introspection and vigilance in the service of self-improvement.
They argue that while confidence messaging may feel good, it does not address structural and systemic oppression. Rather, confidence culture suggests that women—along with people of color, the disabled, and other marginalized groups—are responsible for their own conditions.
Rejecting confidence culture’s remaking of feminism along individualistic and neoliberal lines, Orgad and Gill explore alternative articulations of feminism that go beyond the confidence imperative:
"Change the world not, not the women"
References:
The cult of being confident and why it doesn’t help women: https://psyche.co/ideas/the-cult-of-being-confident-and-why-it-doesnt-help-women
Confidence Culture [book]: https://www.dukeupress.edu/confidence-culture
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
“Nostalgia is an unavoidable reaction to the traumas of the modern world”
We speak to Grafton Tanner the author of The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia. We discuss nostalgia as a historical disease, how time is NOT linear, imagined pasts, fake memories and the constant renegotiation of history.
We also talk about the role of nostalgia in sitcoms and entertainment, the weaponization of nostalgia, developing a healthy attitude to the past and we ask the question: what are the correct things to be nostalgic for?
References:
The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57728367-the-hours-have-lost-their-clock?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=pet2xhoNnh&rank=2
Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42366966-earth-emotions?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=U2T7wFwqPw&rank=1
The End of Forgetting: Growing Up with Social Media: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42585056-the-end-of-forgetting?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=g3G7CETCdI&rank=1
Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61358639-saving-time?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=xrM4d6Gf9j&rank=1
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Popular YouTuber Elliot Sang quizzes Harriet and Ikoi on various topics: a brief history of the podcast, authoritarian family structures and school, the compartmentalization of mental health, personality tests & the ever changing self, McMindfulness, diagnosis vs. curiosity and Harriet shares a fascinating story about a past client. We also discuss the problem of using digital platforms and not becoming a tool!
References:
Elliot Sang: https://www.youtube.com/@elliotsayshello
(Part of this recording being used by Elliot) Authoritarian Parenting Has to Stop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBjzG1k7jso&t=567s
You think things, you are wrong meme (attached to patron post): https://www.patreon.com/posts/85567517/
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"Fun is a response to regimented lives"
In response to two recent articles/papers, 'How to start having more fun' and 'A Liberating-engagement Theory of Consumer Fun' Liam presents various questions to Harriet & Ikoi regarding the role of fun in culture & therapy,
We discuss the modern invention of 'fun', whether fun is a 'waste of time' and the difference between fun vs joy. We touch on corporations interest in positive psychology and how the super rich consume at the highest level.
We also discuss the importance of interests, hobbies, creativity and play, the self consciousness of regulated/miserable adults, whether everything should be fun and the desire to return to an intoxicated state aka childhood.
"Fun is a temporary liberation from meaningful commitment".
References:
How to start having more fun: https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-start-having-more-fun-in-your-busy-life
A Liberating-engagement Theory of Consumer Fun: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3909337
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
“...people participate in online shaming because they get an emotional payoff – that is, because it feels good to do it.”
We discuss a recent published paper "Doing good or feeling good? Justice concerns predict online shaming via deservingness and schadenfreude".
We talking about the value of moral outrage, the pleasure of seeing people fall, stigmatizing shaming vs re-integrative shaming and the moderated enjoyment of Schadenfreude.
We also dive into about the paradox of not doing harm to others, transgressive enjoyments, examining ones own sadism and clients trolling their therapists.
Harriet and Ikoi also discuss the idea of being stuck in trauma and the need to have someone in your life who genuinely cares.
We end by asking the question: is their a positive to Schadenfreude?
References:
Doing good or feeling good? Justice concerns predict online shaming via deservingness and schadenfreude: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4359608
Schadenfreude ("the experience of pleasure that comes from others troubles"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude
SICKOS HAHA YES MEME: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sickos-haha-yes
Fundamental Attribution Error: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
“In this world each man pisses in the other mans eye”
Harriet and Ikoi discuss the recently released report by the U.S. Surgeon General 'Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation (The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community)'.
We discuss the empty platitudes of the state, how kindness can (unfortunately) make you a sucker, how isolation is good for business, finding community in products & brands and how men in particular suffer a chronic lack of physical (non-sexual) touch.
References:
Website: https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/connection/index.html
PDF: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf
Life Trends 2023: Emerging Trends in Business | Accenture: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/song/accenture-life-trends
'Be A Man': Modernists and Traditionalists Debate Masculinity: https://youtu.be/9nE3EQEBzc0
Broke: Britain's Debt Emergency | Dispatches | Channel 4 Documentaries: https://youtu.be/X9UlLGAywqU
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We chat about the excellent book 'Everyday Utopia' with author Kristen R. Ghodsee. We discuss why people are resistant to hearing about alternative ways of life, the role regret & shame plays in 'status quo bias' and why the traditional family structure no longer works (if it ever did!).
Kristen illustrates how ‘Blue Sky Thinking’ is encouraged in corporate culture but not for social, politic or economic matters. However she also highlights the power of fiction to persuade people of alternative ideas for social arrangements.
The discussion is a call to re-examine our current domestic arrangements and consider healthier alternatives for the future.
"One of those startlingly rare books that upends what you think is possible, Everyday Utopia offers a radically hopeful vision for how to build more contented and connected societies, alongside a practical guide to what we all can do in the meantime to live the good life each and every day."
References:
Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62919855-everyday-utopia
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56269264-the-dawn-of-everything
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"Land is expensive for housing and free for parking, and you wonder why we have a problem"
We discuss a surprising and an often overlooked issue around sprawling urban design: the high cost of 'free' parking.
Tony highlights various important aspects to parking reform: how lower income households are subsidizing wealthier households, America's unexamined 'socialist' attitude to free parking, parking as a battery for traffic & pollution and better use's for the land.
From an organizing perspective Tony shares his opinion why it's important not to waste your time trying to convince people who are against you, but instead activating a small core who are passionate about the issue.
We also cover the problem of the low social prestige of public transport drivers and mechanics, parking-lot violence, the communal benefits of public transit and why it's important to be exposed to humanity.
References:
Parking Reform - For climate action, housing affordability, and safer streets.: https://parkingreform.org/
The High Cost of Free Parking: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101843.The_High_Cost_of_Free_Parking
Picture Windows: How The Suburbs Happened: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1443177.Picture_Windows?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=DFPmUOw9dp&rank=1
Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63329951-paved-paradise?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=dxvm8hwmKR&rank=6
Meet the Numtots: the millennials who find fixing public transport sexy: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/05/meet-the-numtots-the-millennials-who-find-fixing-public-transit-sexy-urbanist-memes
Parts of the YIMBY Movement Are Moving Left: https://jacobin.com/2022/10/yimby-movement-social-public-housing-bill-california-darrell-owens-left
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"They see something good and they want to destroy it"
Joshua returns to share an in-depth story of his experiences being a minor in an adult prison.
We discuss why prisoners often don't reach out for mental health support, how Joshua navigated an extremely hostile environment and the difficulty of trust & friendships.
Joshua outlines 'prison politics' and the challenge of being LGBTQ+ & First Nations, the idea of 'false' criminals, prison as a disciplinary force, positive prison programs, the contradictory nature of religious-conservative attitudes towards criminals... and the need for hugs!
References:
A Progressive Reentry Program Assisting Disenfranchised People: https://www.thejourneyproject.info/
Journey Project GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-operational-cost-for-the-journey-project?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Ikoi offers a more nuanced perspective surrounding the OceanGate tragedy.
References:
Heuristic for protection against disasters: https://towardsdatascience.com/the-skin-in-the-game-heuristic-for-protection-against-disasters-eaa7bda8b026
The parable of the turkey: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hillennevins/2021/11/24/the-parable-of-the-turkey/
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"Because things are so systemically bad, you actually have to demand more of yourself… everything is systemic but you still gotta be better”
We continue the conversation with educator C. Derek Varn, discussing mental health issues among young students.
We explore how the right-wing offers an appealing form of empowerment & agency around the idea/myth of meritocracy. We discuss survivorship bias, the problems with self flattery and how using politics as a form of community is a mistake.
We talk about school grades as bias and why we see such callousness with teachers and healthcare professions and the virtues of the current generation.
Varn highlights the trauma of active shooter drills, how gun control can only work with other social supports in place and the need for Universal Basic Services.
We close by returning to the idea of self-help and the need for a holistic "self-help/community-help" movement.
References:
CDerickVarnVlog: https://www.youtube.com/c/CDerickVarnVlog
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Public school teacher and host of the CDerickVarnVlog returns to discuss the Mental Health crisis amongst young students.
We explore issues surrounding social media, the breakdown of community and subsequent rising rates of suicidal ideation in minority groups. We also explore falling literacy rates, choosing “not to compete” & the bitterness of non-competition, and how treating people like they are victims can be dis-empowering.
We discuss some over looked details around school shootings, the falling rates of casual sex & drug taking, and the role screen-mediated interactions have had on social skills and the rise of pathological anxiety.
Part 2 of this conversation is a patron only episode. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
CDerickVarnVlog: https://www.youtube.com/c/CDerickVarnVlog
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks..."
We chat with author and journalist Oliver Burkeman about his latest book 'Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals'. We discuss the idea of time as a resource, the trap of efficiency, the fear of death and our willingness to be distracted.
We also touch on JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out), the path through the negative, cultivating an attitude for problems and the subversive role of hobbies!
"You need to stop and smell the dog s***" - Harriet Fraad
References:
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54785515-four-thousand-weeks
Oliver's website: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/
The Sweet Flypaper of Life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sweet_Flypaper_of_Life
Clocks Meme: (see patreon attachment) https://www.patreon.com/posts/82693026
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We chat with building contractor and author Dan Kolbert about the need for - not only housing - but quality housing and the importance of Building Science.
We discuss how cost and quality often don't go hand-in-hand, the problems with housing as a source of wealth, the mental health benefits (or not) of building a house, McMansions and the difference between a House vs a Home.
We touch on the willful denial surrounding climate change and the perverse incentives across industries, the need for an 'adaptive' house and Dan offers some tips/advice about what to think about if you are buying a home.
References:
Book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/pretty-good-house-michael-maines/17201583?ean=9781641551656
Website: https://www.prettygoodhouse.org/
Cheap Old Houses instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheapoldhouses/
Grenfell Tower fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire
‘Grand Designs’ episode overview: https://www.tiktok.com/@podcastwhowouldwatchthis/video/7197567582881336578
Not So Big House book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1361718.The_Not_So_Big_House
McMansion Hell blog: https://mcmansionhell.com/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/McMansionHell/
Diagram Building America climate map: https://basc.pnnl.gov/sites/default/files/images/BuildingAmerica_ClimateMap_HighRes_RGB.jpg
Aging in Place in 2023: What Is It, and How Can You Do It?: https://www.healthline.com/health/aging-in-place
How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38310.How_Buildings_Learn?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=GPE7w5QvqQ&rank=1
Corsi-Rosenthal box: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsi%E2%80%93Rosenthal_Box
Awair Air Quality Monitor Review: https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/awair-air-quality-monitor
DIY Storm Window: https://thecraftsmanblog.com/diy-storm-windows/
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"A manifesto for belonging"
We chat with author and activist Graham Jones about the significance of religion & spirituality to any successful socialist movement... 'Socialism is necessary but not sufficient'.
We discuss the idea of why humans tend towards religion, the popularity of the 'meaning of life' question, ontological security, rationalizing someone out of their beliefs, metaphysics, how some religions have abandoned any criticism of capitalism and why critique is necessary but you always need a replacement idea/belief/concept.
We also cover the tension between constraint & freedom, the inspiring notion of 'Not Yet' and 'Potentials', ideas vs actions and skinny jeans!
References:
Red Enlightenment: On Socialism, Science and Spirituality: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/red-enlightenment/
Podcast series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfQQ3I1MXZo
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"My self awareness threatens your denial"
We continue the conversation around the importance of self-narrative and play.
Meghann details how shes uses theater performance to help people make sense of challenges they have faced in their lives, and how through play we can create new meaning and identities that we've been locked into by ourselves or others.
Meghann offers some insights and criticisms regarding episode '#129: Beyond Rehab & The Twelve Steps (ft. Bob and V)' and we do a deep dive into the idea of 'authenticity' or the 'authentic self' and whether it even exists...
References:
Power Threat Meaning Framework: https://www.bps.org.uk/member-networks/division-clinical-psychology/power-threat-meaning-framework
Steal As Much As You Can (book which contained the idea of how marketing steals our language) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45688217-steal-as-much-as-you-can
Capitalist Realism (book which does a similar job as above but a broader view of everything): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6763725-capitalist-realism?ref=nav_sb_ss_4_8
The Answer is Not a Hut in the Woods (Interesting story which encapsulated the discussion/conclusion on the authentic self: a never ending process): https://youtu.be/PK2SMIOHYig
“… you are equally inaccessible to inspection. When you look to find out who you are, somebody like a Zen master will interrupt you and say, “Excuse me, but who is it that wants to know? And who is it that’s looking?” So, you know, you’re soon chasing your own tail like a little dog. And you never catch up with it.” - Alan Watts
REVOLUTION Recovery - Storytelling | Theatre | Recovery Coaching | Education: meghannperry.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meghann.perry.5/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghannperryrecoverystorytelling/
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Join our FREE monthly reading group and episode discussion: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/its-not-just-in-your-head-56629510013
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We are joined by Meghann Perry from 'REVOLUTION Recovery' to discuss the the fundamental issue with viewing a patient as a subject / object / recipient / commodity and the victim blaming mentality that is helping no one.
We explore the repeated trauma of 'In-take', how substances don't always cause addiction and the obvious - but often unsaid truth - that the desire for substances often comes from a need for fun, joy or a sense of community.
We also discuss why the stories we tell ourselves are so important vs. the stories that are told about us by others and the importance of play.
Part 2 of this conversation is a patron only episode. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
REVOLUTION Recovery - Storytelling | Theatre | Recovery Coaching | Education: meghannperry.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meghann.perry.5/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghannperryrecoverystorytelling/
The Urge by Carl Erik Fisher: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57925153-the-urge?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=zUQDUL6Alx&rank=1
Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22245552-chasing-the-scream?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=3hC7Xbro3L&rank=3
Unbroken Brain and Undoing Drugs by Maia Szalavitz: https://maiasz.com/books/unbroken-brain/
The Biology of Desire by Marc Lewis: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23214265-the-biology-of-desire?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ObgpPxal4p&rank=1
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Mate: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/617702.In_the_Realm_of_Hungry_Ghosts?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Ply1l1D8FC&rank=5
Drug Use for Grownups by Carl Hart: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53481723-drug-use-for-grown-ups
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We speak with psychoanalyst and veteran Mike Kim about his military experiences.
We cover numerous veteran issues and topics including: veterans being used as mascots for capitalism, the veteran profiteer complex and the under appreciated social cohesion that the military provides (if some what temporarily).
We discuss social issues inside the military, the issues of accountability & commander immunity, trauma-bonding, the need for collective organizing vs the media & the 'great man' myth.
We also touch on the 'image' of the military, recruitment issues and the career opportunity the military offers vs job prospects in a decaying society.
References:
Coming Home Well is an all volunteer non-profit organization whose mission is to educate, support and advocate for veterans and their caregivers: https://cominghomewell.com/
Veteran Et Cetera Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2004860 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLcjCT-iU9w&list=PLtivATmC0VHMtipI-8XrYArKHc10gCRpO
Iraq War Veterans, 20 Years Later: ‘I Don’t Know How to Explain the War to Myself’ | Op-Docs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIWfH3iEgXU
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We are joined by the Director of the 'Social Change Lab' to discuss their fascinating report 'What makes a protest movement successful?'.
We dig into all the different factors such as violence vs. nonviolence, size of the movement, diversity of protestors and ask some tough questions about 'elite stakeholders' and philanthropy-funded social change.
References:
What makes a protest movement successful?: https://www.socialchangelab.org/_files/ugd/503ba4_f2b72008b8fd47d087b019a620533236.pdf
https://www.socialchangelab.org
https://twitter.com/JamesOzden
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We are joined by Daniel Maté, co-author of the phenomenal book 'The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture'.
We discuss the process of collaborating with his father Gabor Maté, Daniels perspectives, his professional life and the power of walking, talking and music!
References:
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58537332-the-myth-of-normal
WALK WITH DANIEL - a mental chiropractic service: https://www.walkwithdaniel.com/
https://www.danielmate.com/bio
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"We’ve stopped dreaming"
What can psychoanalysis reveal to us about ideology, society and politics? Duane Rousselle is a Canadian sociological theorist, Lacanian psychoanalyst and Professor of Sociology. We discuss various issues addressed in his latest book 'Post-anarchism and Psychoanalysis'.
We explore revolutionary desires & impulses and how attempts to take down power structures often ends up recreating the same problems. We dive into Freudian and Lacanian concepts like the death drive and jouissance (enjoyment) and how these relate to our political positions.
This free flowing conversation covers a wide range of topics: ChatGPT/Seinfeld 'Nothing Forever', the benefits of capitalism(!), caves & the anxiety of freedom, whether we can still dream, if the unconscious is even real, and the true terror of psychoanalysis: how it rips apart our comforts.
References:
Post-anarchism and Psychoanalysis: Seminars on Politics and Society: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVT4B99N (Free version: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/duane-rousselle-post-anarchism-and-psychoanalysis)
Nothing, Forever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing,_Forever
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"The pandemic within the pandemic"
A pulmonologist (respiratory physician) joins Ikoi and Liam to discuss Long Covid. After catching Covid on the frontline Dr. Asad Khan has endured numerous health issues which has opened his eyes to a level of suffering amongst patients dealing with chronic health issues.
From not being believed by fellow professionals ("it's just psychological") to the social stigma and denial surrounding Long Covid, we explore the systemic incuriosity within the medical system and PTSD patients can experience from repeatedly interfacing with 'efficient' professionals.
We also touch on why there is a sense of mass denial surrounding Long Covid: the fear of becoming 'worth-less'.
References:
Dr. Asad Khan Twitter: https://twitter.com/doctorasadkhan
Useful Resources: https://linktr.ee/doctorasadkhan
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Our guest discusses the horror show that current drug policy is having on American lives, how access to vital medication has been removed from people who need it in order to work, or function, or have any semblance of quality of life. As such, huge numbers of people are turning to street supply or ultimately taking their own lives to escape their chronic pain.
This episode highlights a variety of serious issues with current drug policy and explores the ramifications of letting 'black box' algorithms dictate who is considered worthy of treatment and how easy it is to be labelled a 'drug seeker' based off your mental health history. This discussion is deeply informative and terrifying, because anyone of us could find ourselves in this situation.
"The Doctor Patient Forum is a non-partisan, community-based organization that works to support pain patients and their physicians with access to lifesaving pain relief and to mitigate the harmful effects of efforts to curb liberal prescribing and overdose. With a focus on disabled people, those in chronic pain, and physicians who work with them, DPF provides information, practical tools, and policy analysis to strengthen patient-centered safe and appropriate medical support and advocates for approaches that reduce increasingly common suffering and death resulting from non-consensual medication reduction or termination of care."
Bev Schechtman is a chronic pain patient advocate and educator who has lived with Crohn’s Disease and Psoriatic Arthritis for more than two decades. She grew up in northern New Jersey and has lived in the Raleigh area in North Carolina since 2009. Bev is married to Randy and a mother of two girls, Emma and Olivia. She first contacted Claudia with Don’t Punish Pain (now Doctor Patient) Forum after being denied opioid medication while hospitalized for kidney stones in 2017. She was denied due to being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Bev is a passionate advocate for people with chronic pain and illness as well as those who have survived sexual assault/abuse. Bev also believes strongly in Harm Reduction efforts. Her insights and work to empower and reduce mistreatment of pain patients has been featured in media outlets including the Guardian, Wired, National Public Radio, Truthout, as well as in podcasts and blogs such as Pallimed, a leading forum on hospice and palliative care. In her free time, Bev can be found reading, watching soccer, and playing with her Aussiedoodle, Griffin.
References:
The Doctor Patient Forum: https://www.thedoctorpatientforum.com/
The Doctor Patient Forum (facebook): https://www.facebook.com/groups/DontPunishPainRally/posts/2315429951943900/
The Doctor Patient Forum (podcast): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctor-patient-forum/id1639872299
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
The conversation continues covering why men's support groups work, reason vs. persuasion, the power of listening, why organized religion isn't going anywhere anytime soon, Credentialism vs. Egalitarianism and how the masculine ideal disconnects men from the best part of being human.
We also cover support groups discussing debt as a source for revolutionary change, class as a barrier to intimacy, therapy replacing vulnerability in friendships, male self care, fitness and gym culture.
References:
Hidden Brain podcast - Persuasion Part 1: https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/persuasion-part-1/
Bowling Alone (book): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone
Lindy Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect
A Healed Femur Is the Earliest Sign of True Civilization: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/07/25/femur/
Seven Days At PAH Barcelona (documentary): https://vimeo.com/323297000
David Graeber's debt podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05447pc
Triumphs of Experience (book): https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674503816
"The classical economists also believed that the economic stagnation of pre-modern times was due to the fact that all income surplus to basic needs had been squandered by rulers and landlords. Instead of investing in productive facilities, pre-modern rulers had invested in God": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k39Ulh_8efc&t=190s
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Returning guest William Dawley (#113: Immortality and Cyborg Anthropology) joins us to discuss his work around issues of Masculinity/Machismo and the positive image of masculinity that's possible with male support groups.
Focusing on his work in Costa Rica we explore the link between machismo and right-wing politics, the Neo-Patriarchal bargain and the Churches attempts at effective behavior change via male support groups.
We explore the issues that come up when working in a group setting: the idea of a hierarchy of suffering, the need for male-only, female-only or trans & non-gender-binary only support groups in order to be open and vulnerable. And how groups can help shape a new positive identity by learning to see yourself in others.
We also discuss male bonding, the male shame around economic distress, the rise of the house husband and why domestic labor is often a problem for men.
Part 2 of this conversation is a patron only episode. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
Machismo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machismo
Patriarchal bargain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchal_bargain
The Choice book (the hierarchy of suffering): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30753738-the-choice
Dreams from the Monster Factory: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3272917-dreams-from-the-monster-factory?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_24
Being a Man Festival: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=being+a+man+festival+soutbank+center&ia=web
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Our guests talk about their experiences outside of mainstream recovery programs. The discussion covers personal stories and topics such as the opioid crisis, pain management, the morality of pleasure, the need for community and the mental health benefits of political organizing, rock climbing, writing and poetry.
References:
Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40642337-solitary
"This is the crux of the Yard-sale model. In a free market, one person ends up with all of the wealth – completely by chance.": https://pudding.cool/2022/12/yard-sale/)
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Join our FREE monthly reading group and episode discussion: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/its-not-just-in-your-head-56629510013
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update: https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Michael Stretton, a Social Security Disability Claimant Representative, provides a highly detailed description of the labyrinthine process of claiming disability benefits in the USA.
A general audience might find this episode a little overwhelming - we did! - but this discussion contains A LOT of insightful information and we hope it is of use.
References:
How to win a claim (PDF attached to this episode on Patreon): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lx-4-1cgKPXZIYE-YvDi6u7g9XnCafNc/view?fbclid=IwAR2y0fPgdAMMfYR4b_H6Vpa9hBDbUEfSQLSeHwkolXUhUE5ONCnVYUhK2BI
"The purpose of a system is what it does": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does
Noam Chomsky - Wage Slavery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_ze4AA-p8w&t=40s
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Join our FREE monthly reading group and episode discussion: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/its-not-just-in-your-head-56629510013
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update: https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Our guests discuss their fascinating paper 'Right-Wing Psychedelia' and why psychedelic substances have been mistakenly considered a substance that fosters socially progressive politics. Instead Brian & Neşe show that these substances are 'non-specific amplifiers of consciousness' and make the case that psychedelics can just as equally be used to rarefy hierarchy and authoritarian ideologies.
We discuss how different substances carry different stigmas, explore Jordan Peterson's idea of competence hierarchies, how the capital backed marketing of psychedelics is - yet again - an individual solution to systemic problems and how, at worst, these substances are just an 'antibiotic to a distressed animal to keep it going'.
“The world we're building is a bad place for our brain, so mental health issues will go up. But I do think we have some real shots in our portfolio to end the mental health crisis” - atai Life Sciences' Christian Angermayer
References:
Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.733185/full
Psymposia: https://www.psymposia.com
The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-role-of-luck-in-life-success-is-far-greater-than-we-realized/
(As an addition check out 'WHY THE SUPER RICH ARE INEVITABLE' - "This is the crux of the Yard-sale model. In a free market, one person ends up with all of the wealth – completely by chance.": https://pudding.cool/2022/12/yard-sale/)
The False Promise of Psychedelic Utopia: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypzxj/the-false-promise-of-psychedelic-utopia
The “heroic dose” of psychedelics, according to Johns Hopkins | Dr. Matthew Johnson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGqFxjQI3is
William Shatner's experience of the 'overview effect': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSNXBvpLb9o&t=90s
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Our guest Dr Dan Goyal outlines what the deliberate under funding of the NHS has done to working conditions, the relentless stress nurses face, the impact of covid and the false economics of private health care.
We also discuss the recent news that the UK government are trying to make striking illegal for healthcare workers and the efforts to fightback.
References:
Dr Dan Goyal: https://twitter.com/danielgoyal
NHS Millions - "We're creating a superteam of a million people who are grateful for NHS staff and happy to support them long after Covid is over": https://www.nhsmillion.co.uk/
EveryDoctor - Doctor-led campaign organisation fighting for a better NHS: https://www.everydoctor.org.uk/
“we all dread coming into work and cry after every shift. We didn’t sign up to do war medicine”: https://twitter.com/Dr_BellaR/status/1611045082169212931
Unions have criticised a new bill aimed at enforcing minimum service levels for the public sector during strikes as "undemocratic, unworkable and illegal": https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64219016
Unite Tears Into Government’s Demand For ‘Productivity Savings’ After Pay Talks: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/unite-says-further-nhs-strikes-will-go-ahead-after-talks-leave-him-very-angry_uk_63bc0debe4b0cbfd55eacdad
Exercise Cygnus - a three-day simulation exercise carried out by the UK Government in October 2016 to estimate the impact of a hypothetical H2N2 influenza pandemic on the United Kingdom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_Cygnus
Rishi “flew to California to talk to US private healthcare firms and has recently appointed a private healthcare advisor.”: https://twitter.com/embournemouth/status/1609140439495610369?s=20&t=LXY14NuKaX7PZAFingzw8Q
Novara Media / The Times - "A decade of Tory spending cuts left the country vulnerable to the external shocks of the past two years": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL5ixsGdUrE
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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“Prison walls don’t separate the good people from the bad people”
In this second part of the conversation we cover Covid and the other health issues prisoners face, how long a prisoner should prep for a successful transition, the feeling of not belonging and the fear of having the rug pulled from you once outside.
We also discuss how prisoners become societies boogieman, American Exceptionalism vs solving social problems, the different treatment & support systems with women vs men and how society believes women can change but men can’t.
We hear about the details and need for a structured re-entry plan, the importance of savings and... The Power of Cake!
"The Journey Project provides the opportunity for those desiring to create a new future and want to turn a positive system of beliefs into positive ways of action. We will support you, encourage you, and provide you with tools for inner personal change."
References:
A Progressive Reentry Program Assisting Disenfranchised People: https://www.thejourneyproject.info/
Journey Project GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-operational-cost-for-the-journey-project?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We take a deep dive into the world of prison life and the challenging transition back into society, with Joshua Bryant and Jeremy Williams.
We discuss popular misconceptions about crime and the role of punishment, what locking people up does to their mental and physical health, policies that need to change and many other topics.
The second part of this discussion will be out next week or if you are a patreon member you can listen to it right now at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
"The Journey Project provides the opportunity for those desiring to create a new future and want to turn a positive system of beliefs into positive ways of action. We will support you, encourage you, and provide you with tools for inner personal change."
References:
A Progressive Reentry Program Assisting Disenfranchised People: https://www.thejourneyproject.info/
Journey Project GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-operational-cost-for-the-journey-project?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
Other references:
“I might deserve punishment but I don’t deserve abuse” One Woman's Story of Leaving Prison | The First Day Out | Marie Claire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYRS6lCylOg
Leaving Prison: How an Inmate Spent Her First Day Free | A Hidden America with Diane Sawyer PART 5/6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCtSs5UYJ6U
Cody Lachey - On Re-adjusting to life after prison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPxTxDB1WMc
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Joel Stern, a well-read acquaintance of Harriet's, brings some perspectives and critiques of the psych field - though by his own admission he has no professional background in Psychiatry, Psychotherapy etc - he nevertheless instigates a very lively discussion regarding the conception of mental health/illness and an extended debate around the anti-psychiatry position (and the stigma that that can also cause).
Ikoi offers a series of very well measured counter arguments - medication is not a cure but a symptom management tool.
References:
"The benefit from therapy versus therapy plus medication was identical": https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/09/dilemma-placebo-psychiatry/
'In 2011, Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from 2002-2015, acknowledged: “Whatever we’ve been doing for five decades, it ain’t working. And when I look at the numbers—the number of suicides, number of disabilities, mortality data—it’s abysmal, and it’s not getting any better.”': https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/09/what-liberal-admonishers-of-left-psychiatry-critics-get-wrong/
"Psychiatry’s definition of a mental disorder/illness is so wide that it embraces virtually every significant problem of thinking, feeling, and/or behaving, and psychiatry uses this definition to spuriously medicalize a growing range of problems that are not medical in nature.": https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/04/in-defense-of-anti-psychiatry/
Psychiatry: The Science of Lies by Thomas Szasz: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4955102-psychiatry
Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock & the Psychopharmaceutical Complex: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3707139-brain-disabling-treatments-in-psychiatry
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max makes a welcome return to discuss the fine details of running Catalyst Co-Operative Healing, with Marina Kantarovich Rodríguez.
Whilst this episode is aimed more towards other therapists - rather than a general audience - there are plenty of valuable insights and information from both Marina and Max around the many quality of life benefits that come from setting up and working in a co-operative organization.
References:
Catalyst Co-Operative Healing: https://catalystch.com/
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
As we approach the end of 2022 we decided to briefly discuss some of the notable episodes & guests we've been lucky enough to talk with, we also chat about the rise of remote mental health treatment and the latest AI 'ChatGPT', we discuss the chronic rise in loneliness and the cruel side effects of isolation, and we finish up by addressing a discord members sense of being overwhelmed by all the problems of the world.
Harriet's notable episodes:
#70: Videogames & programmable desire! (ft. Dr Alfie Bown): https://www.patreon.com/posts/70-videogames-ft-60288828
#77: Overcoming Paranoid Schizophrenia (ft. Tracey Higgins): https://www.patreon.com/posts/77-overcoming-ft-62473314
Ikoi's notable episode:
#103: Life after a Cult (ft. Alisa Mahjoub): https://www.patreon.com/posts/103-life-after-1-70475184
Liam's notable episodes:
#105: Escape Fantasies of Tech Billionaires (ft. Douglas Rushkoff): https://www.patreon.com/posts/105-escape-of-ft-71144751
#119: Fully Automated Corporate Capitalism - why 'cashless' is a trap (ft. Brett Scott): https://www.patreon.com/posts/119-fully-why-is-75254248
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References:
ChatGPT: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/
ChatGPT, what would my hero's do?: https://twitter.com/ncasenmare/status/1605612804563537928
The original chatbot, ELIZA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84QouA9Sm4E
From adolescence to old age: who do we spend our time with?: https://ourworldindata.org/time-with-others-lifetime
Four panel meme: (attached to the patron post): https://www.patreon.com/posts/76504009/
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
“We are socialized to believe that schooling is synonymous with education, and that if you don't conform the problem is you".
Today we are joined by Dr Naomi Fisher, an independent clinical psychologist and EMDR consultant and author of ‘Changing our Minds: How Children Can Take Control of their Own Learning’.
We discuss how the school system often fails to meet peoples needs; the children, the teachers and the parents. How schools enforce compliance and alienation instead of educating children to follow their natural curiosity. How those early experiences of success or failure can shape ones self-conception into adulthood, and how we are taught from an early age to see others as competition.
We also cover 'self-directed education', how learning is a process of meaning making, extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation, studying subjects because you’re 'good' at them opposed to what actually interests you, consent and control, why it's a mistake to demonize video games and how empowerment can't start with forced compliance.
“Children are born full of curiosity, eager to participate in the world. They learn as they live, with enthusiasm and joy. Then we send them to school. We stop them from playing and actively exploring their interests, telling them it’s more important to sit still and listen. The result is that for many children, their motivation to learn drops dramatically. The joy of the early years is replaced with apathy and anxiety.
This is not inevitable. Self-directed education puts the child back in control of their learning. This enables children, including those diagnosed with special educational needs, to flourish in their own time and on their own terms. It enables us to put wellbeing at the centre of education.”
References:
Changing Our Minds by Dr Naomi Fisher: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/naomi-fisher/changing-our-minds/9781472145505/
Naomi's Substack: https://naomicfisher.substack.com
Naomi's Website: https://www.naomifisher.co.uk
Naomi's Twitter: https://twitter.com/naomicfisher
Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School by Carla Shalaby: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29502429-troublemakers
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"This polemic dismantles the presumption that social media could be an instrument of radical change and contends that the networks and platforms of transnational corporations are intrinsically incompatible with a habitable earth or with the human interdependence needed to build egalitarian post-capitalist forms of life."
This week we are joined by Jonathan Crary author of 'Scorched Earth: Beyond the digital age to a post capitalist world'.
Jonathan presents the unsayable reality: our ‘digital age’ is synonymous with the disastrous terminal stage of global capitalism and its financialization of social existence, mass impoverishment, ecocide, and military terror. We discuss the estrangement of perception from a living world, environmental and community destruction, EMDR and consumerism, the various claims of digital products as 'here to stay' and the capacity for refusal, how 'hopium' allows things to just stay the same, the American Dream of leaving others behind, the gun as a sanctioned weapon of fate, and what is still recoverable from a Scorched Earth.
Jonathan Crary is an art critic and essayist, and is Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University.
References:
Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60299346-scorched-earth
Stone Age Economics: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28254.Stone_Age_Economics
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Who benefits from a cashless society and who gets left behind? We talk with economic anthropologist and former financial broker Brett Scott about his excellent book 'Cloudmoney - Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets'.
"Cloudmoney tells a revelatory story about the fusion of big finance and tech, which requires physical cash to be replaced by digital money or 'cloudmoney'. Diving beneath the surface of the global financial system, Brett Scott uncovers a long-established lobbying infrastructure waging a covert war on cash, as banking and tech companies promote a cashless society under the banner of progress."
We discuss how physical cash is currently holding capitalism back, why 'financial inclusion' is actually enclosure, how money systems and capitalism are one and the same, how the dollar is NOT a single currency, financial mass surveillance and controlling people on welfare, the entrepreneurial drive to automate human interactions, the possible delusion of fully automated luxury communism, the lie of tech increasing leisure time, crypto as a speculative carnival & the need for a heroic narrative, and how corporate capitalism isolates & strips away meaning from peoples lives.
References:
Cloudmoney - Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62897686-cloudmoney
The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance: A Guide to Creative Financial Activism: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17368973-the-heretic-s-guide-to-global-finance
First They Came for the Poor: Surveillance of Welfare Recipients as an Uncontested Practice: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283845413_First_They_Came_for_the_Poor_Surveillance_of_Welfare_Recipients_as_an_Uncontested_Practice
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We may think of emotions as universal responses, felt inside, but acclaimed psychologist Batja Mesquita argues that emotions are not innate, but relational acts between people, both one-on-one and within larger social networks.
Dr Harriet Fraad and Ikoi Hiroe discuss the MINE vs OURS models and how, if emotions are not essences but situated, that this complicates the therapists and client relationship, in particular ideas around transference and why therapists must remain curious.
Other topics include the emotional consequences surrounding 'in' and 'out' groups, who gets to be angry, shame as a 'positive' emotion, whether emotions always need to be 'expressed' to be authentic, the problems with positive psychology and the changing definition of happiness.
Batja Mesquita is a social psychologist, an affective scientist, and a pioneer of cultural psychology. She is a professor of psychology at the University of Leuven, Belgium, and director of the Center for Social and Cultural Psychology at the University of Leuven.
References:
Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58999194-between-us
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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Ikoi and Liam chat with author Mike Watson about the late great Mark Fisher, the addictive pace of the internet, slow meme movements and the need for reflection, spirituality, mortality, Qanon and Pizzagate, a fair society vs archetypal heroic stories, leftist well-being, selling dirty bath water, being a digital flaneur, the dialectical image, acid communism, helping other people for the sake of it and much much more!
"Watson is fast becoming one of the most impressive left analysts of our strange digital era; helping to fill the void left by Mark Fisher's tragic passing. In his new book-part tribute to Fisher, part cultural analysis, part reflections on the Frankfurt school-Watson shows the enduring power of a dialectical approach to capitalist realism and exposes the many ways post-modern neoliberal culture has successfully neutered liberating aesthetics. In the powerful final chapter, Watson rethinks the potential of Frankfurt school critical theory to provide answers, and sketches an inspiring vision of what the acid-left can be. We may not have all the answers, but all of us should be very grateful Watson is on hand to help us ask the right kinds of questions. --Matt McManus, Professor of Politics at Whitman College"
References:
The Memeing of Mark Fisher: How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What to do About it: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58455150-the-memeing-of-mark-fisher?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=lOOZj2mqna&rank=1
Can the Left Learn to Meme?: Adorno, Video Gaming, and Stranger Things: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43731703-can-the-left-learn-to-meme?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=lOOZj2mqna&rank=3
Art Militancy: A Manifesto: https://www.sublationmag.com/post/art-militancy-a-manifesto
Mark Fisher | Acid Communism (Unfinished Introduction): https://my-blackout.com/2019/04/25/mark-fisher-acid-communism-unfinished-introduction/
Alpha City: How London Was Captured by the Super-Rich by Rowland Atkinson: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53986093-alpha-city
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Psychotherapist Dr Harriet Fraad and Addiction & Substance Use Disorder Counselor, Ikoi Hiroe talk to an Environmental Neuroscientist about how cities make people LESS depressed, urban scaling theory, pace of life, green spaces and class, nature and fractal images, infrastructure and social control, and much more!
References:
Why life is faster but depression is lower in bigger cities: https://psyche.co/ideas/why-life-is-faster-but-depression-is-lower-in-bigger-cities
Environmental Neuroscience (Marc G. Berman, Andrew J. Stier, and Gaby N. Akcelik - University of Chicago): https://www.patreon.com/posts/74685552 [see bottom of patreon post, under attachments]
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6452796-drive
Workbook of an Unsuccessful Architect: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5195517-workbook-of-an-unsuccessful-architect
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"This book is a wake-up call to the potential damage we are doing to ourselves by relying on chemical cures for human distress. Its clear, concise explanations will enable people to make a fully informed decision about the benefits and harms of these drugs and whether and how to come off them if they so choose."
Psychotherapist Dr Harriet Fraad and Addiction & Substance Use Disorder Counselor, Ikoi Hiroe, are joined by Dr Joanna Moncrieff, critical psychiatrist, researcher and author of "A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs". Drawing on extensive research, Joanna demonstrates that psychiatric drugs do not 'treat' or 'cure' mental illness by acting on hypothesised chemical imbalances or other abnormalities in the brain. There is no evidence for any of these ideas.
The discussion covers the major problems with the Disease-Centered model, the problems of telling people they have a brain disease, flawed Random Controlled Trials, the complexity of the withdrawal process, how the medicalization of human distress was been useful for government, the expedient nature of the medical model and how any benefits of medication are often undermined by a lack of housing or general life stability.
References:
A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs: The truth about how they work and how to come off them: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55904282-a-straight-talking-introduction-to-psychiatric-drugs
Joanna Moncrieff's website: https://joannamoncrieff.com/
Joanna Twitter: https://twitter.com/joannamoncrieff
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Psychotherapist Dr. Harriet Fraad is joined by activist physician William Bronston MD to discuss his astonishing book 'Public Hostage Public Ransom: Ending Institutional America':
"Public Hostage should make you outraged. The mistreatment of disabled people in Willowbrook and the mistreatment today of disabled people living in institutions must be understood and together we must fight to provide people the supports they need to live their lives integrated in our communities with dignity and respect. We as a society are responsible for these atrocities if we remain silent..."
"William gives readers an in-depth look at how and why places like Willowbrook existed in the first place, and how financial incentives, hard-wired into the way health care is delivered in this country, encourage institutionalization of one form or another at the expense of more humane, more effective, and more cost effective home based health care. The result has been the continual use of for profit nursing homes and “assistive living centers” to which millions of elders and people with disabilities remain consigned..."
"His book delivers a timely, well-written and meticulously documented argument that radical change is needed. His book is a must read for anyone interested in disability rights, elder rights and health care reform."
References:
Public Hostage Public Ransom: Ending Institutional America: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61146053-public-hostage-public-ransom?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=eFvmxPITOD&rank=1
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51152447-caste?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=VauQJxpgAG&rank=1
The Lost Girls of Willowbrook: A Heartbreaking Novel of Survival Based on True History by Ellen Marie Wiseman: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63051263-the-lost-girls-of-willowbrook?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=2kJGVz4vp4&rank=1
YES! Magazine: https://www.yesmagazine.org/
Natural Causes: Life, Death and the Illusion of Control by Barbara Ehrenreich: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35959785-natural-causes?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Z7ASZ2YiFq&rank=9
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Anthropologists William Dawley and Fartein Nilsen join us to discuss their work on a fascinating project ‘Technoscientific Immortality: A study of Human Futures’, covering the current technologies and philosophies of people trying to live forever and the challenges this poses to existing kinship relations.
It’s an extensive discussion covering cryonics, anti-aging, death-ism & the idea of finitude giving value to life, extending life for everyone, extending ‘life’ through digital tech, interactive memorials, facebook memorial pages, chatbot relationships, digital immortalist’s and more.
Part 2 of this conversation is a patron only episode. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
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References:
Technoscientific Immortality: A study of Human Futures: https://www.uib.no/en/immortality
William Dawley: https://www.uib.no/en/persons/William.Dawley
Fartein Nilsen: https://www.uib.no/en/persons/Fartein.Hauan.Nilsen
RAADfest (Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival): https://raadfest.com
Eterni.me lets you Skype with the dead: https://www.cnet.com/culture/eterni-me-lets-you-skype-with-the-dead/
How a Son Made a Chatbot of His Dying Dad: https://www.wired.com/video/watch/how-a-son-made-a-chat-bot-of-his-dying-dad
StoryFile Life | Interactive Memory Keeping App: https://life.storyfile.com/
HereAfter AI — Interactive Memory App: https://www.hereafter.ai/
All the Ghosts in the Machine: The Digital Afterlife of your Personal Data : https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Ghosts-Machine-Illusions-Immortality/dp/147214189X
Meme successful people coffin: https://starecat.com/content/wp-content/uploads/coffin-successful-people-unsuccessful-people-comparison.jpg
Church of perpetual life: https://www.churchofperpetuallife.org/
Replika - Virtual AI Friend: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/replika-virtual-ai-friend/id1158555867
Black Transhuman Liberation Theology: Technology and Spirituality: https://www.amazon.com/Black-Transhuman-Liberation-Theology-Spirituality/dp/1350081930
Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization: https://www.amazon.com/Immortality-Quest-Forever-Drives-Civilization/dp/1510716157
Mark Fisher (“loss of loss”) Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20863042-ghosts-of-my-life?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=uuTdNHdEZK&rank=1
IBM and the Holocaust: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
“When people rebel you can call them crazy”.
Psychotherapist Dr. Harriet Fraad discusses an article sent to us by a patron entitled: HYSTERIA, WITCHES, AND THE WANDERING UTERUS: A BRIEF HISTORY OR, WHY I TEACH “THE YELLOW WALLPAPER”.
We discuss how a diagnosis - such as hysteria - often says more about a society than the individual, the fear of female emotions, irrationality, fragility and protection, the link between serial killers and Fanon, Adam Curtis, empowerment and the luxury of getting to know yourself.
References:
HYSTERIA, WITCHES, AND THE WANDERING UTERUS: A BRIEF HISTORY OR, WHY I TEACH “THE YELLOW WALLPAPER": https://while-you-were-sleeping.com/2017/04/18/hysteria-witches-and-the-wandering-uterus-a-brief-history-or-why-i-teach-the-yellow-wallpaper/
Molecules of Emotion: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70197.Molecules_of_Emotion?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=9aA3dV6nQX&rank=1
Prologue to Violence: Child Abuse, Dissociation, and Crime : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2516116.Prologue_to_Violence?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=zgcaWBJUP5&rank=3 (Article mentioned 'From Their Cradle To Your Grave' became this book)
Ashley Frawley - Therapy Culture and Happy Signifiers: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/plasticpills-philosophy-critical-theory-podcast/id1501548680?i=1000525781286
Ashley Frawley - Emotional Fads vs. Freedom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHj1TEIBPlY
Adam Curtis TraumaZone: https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2022/adam-curtis-russia-1985-1999-traumazone
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
YouTuber T1J joins Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe to discuss racism, class, the DSA, Jay-Z, Cornel West, socialist history, 'staying in your lane', organizing that replicates the workplace, and meeting people where they are at.
References:
Why Aren't There More Black Socialists? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut7mqstf5sw
This Streamer Thinks I'm Wrong About Socialism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx_5XzfTO8M
T1J Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/the1janitor
T1J Twitter: https://twitter.com/the1janitor
DSA Statement on Nazi Violence in Charlottesville: https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/charlottesville_dl/
Jay-Z has claimed that “capitalist” is a derogatory term invented to bring down the black community: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/jay-z-capitalist-new-slur-wealth-us-b2158116.html
Cornell West's 'Toward a Socialist Theory of Racism': https://www.dsausa.org/files/2018/07/Toward_a_Socialist_Theory_of_Racism.pdf
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Anthropologist Professor Rebecca Cassidy, author of 'Vicious Games: Capitalism and Gambling', chats with Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe:
“Vicious Games is based on field research with the people who produce, shape and consume gambling. Rebecca Cassidy explores the gambling industry's affinity with capitalism and the free market and how the UK has led the way in exporting 'light touch' regulation and 'responsible gambling' around the world. She reveals how the industry extracts wealth from some of our poorest communities, and examines the adverse health effects on those battling gambling addiction. Through an anthropological excavation, Vicious Games opens up this process, with the intention of creating alternative, more equitable futures.”
References:
Vicious Games: Capitalism and Gambling: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48856313-vicious-games
High Stakes: Florida Seminole Gaming and Sovereignty: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv11smmh0
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
The Queen is dead... and who cares? The Monarchy are a potent symbol of unjust hierarchical power, yet the English (and many across the world) are in tears. What are the psychological mechanism at play?
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe (and British editor/producer/co-host Liam Tate) discuss fawning, the enjoyment of suffering, passivity, 'being part of history', dominance and submission, fairy tales & occupied imaginations, slavery, the enjoyment of pomp, and much more!
References:
Nation of bootlickers: Why do English people love oppression?: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/56983/1/nation-of-bootlickers-why-do-the-english-love-oppression-queen-royal-family
Queen 'will help disgraced Prince Andrew pay £12million out-of-court settlement': https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/queen-will-help-disgraced-prince-26242479
Buckingham Palace banned ethnic minorities from office roles, papers reveal: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/02/buckingham-palace-banned-ethnic-minorities-from-office-roles-papers-reveal
Queen lobbied for change in law to hide her private wealth: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/07/revealed-queen-lobbied-for-change-in-law-to-hide-her-private-wealth
King Charles will not pay tax on inheritance from the Queen: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/13/king-charles-will-not-pay-tax-on-inheritance-from-the-queen
You’re a sick old man!: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2022/sep/12/andrew-youre-a-sick-man-police-drag-heckler-from-crowd-during-queens-procession-video
Bearded man heckles King Charles in Cardiff over the cost of the monarchy: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/bearded-man-heckles-king-charles-25043207
'Lizzie's in a box' chant rings out around 3Arena during Bellator Dublin show: https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/ufc/lizzies-box-chant-rings-out-28069317
There are three common myths about the monarchy: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci0KLmxO6L9/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Max is joined by Jeff and Eric, 2 of 7 worker-owners of a therapist worker cooperative in Minneapolis, Minnesota called Phoenix Mental Health. In their collective, everyone keeps 100% of the money they earn from seeing clients, and everyone pitches in money to pay for rent, bills, credentialing, billing, and accounting. They use consensus decision making in meetings, and people know them to be a "non-hierarchical, social justice" minded therapy practice. Members tend to lean "left" but don't necessarily identify with left-wing labels such as anarchist, socialist, Marxist (etc), although some do.
How is Phoenix different from the ordinary capitalist mental health business enterprise? What motivates them to operate how they do? Is it possible for more workers in the mental health field to adopt this kind of model to help transition society toward a more equitable and pro- mental health economy? This episode is a lively discussion about these questions and more.
Learn more about Phoenix at phoenix-mental-health.com, and to learn more about the growing movement of therapist worker co-ops go to therapistworkercoops.info
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Does the Manosphere care about men? We chat with F.D.Signifier about his string of popular video essays: 'Dissecting the Manosphere', 'Connecting the Manosphere' and 'Understanding the BIack Manosphere'.
"The manosphere is a collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism."
The conversation covers aggrieved entitlement, the promise of patriarchy, the loss of male power and the desire for dominance, the socialist ideology of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and the whiteness problem of Socialism... and that's just the first 15 minutes! It's a good one!
Part 2 of this conversation is a patron only episode. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--
References:
Dissecting the Manosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1FkO7Tr70A
Connecting the Manosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y0nR0E8pk4
Understanding the BIack Manosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upt_ks61_70
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FDsignifier
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fdsignifier/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fdsignifier
Bushmaster Rifle Ad: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bushmaster-rifle-ad-masculinity-gun-violence-newtown-adam-lanza_b_2317924
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Why do women who display the same behaviors as men get diagnosed with BPD at a 3:1 ratio? What behaviors are allowed by which gender?
In this episode Dr. Morris discuss with Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe about the assumptions made of the human subject, whether the BPD label helps or hurts, living up to inhumane ideals, liminal spaces, self harm and a metaphorical take on penis envy!
Dr. Morris is an assistant professor of psychology at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she teaches and does theoretical and qualitative research. She is a transdisciplinary scholar whose work bridges critical psychology, literature, philosophy, history, psychoanalysis, and film studies.
Part 2 of this conversation is a patron only episode. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
Dr. Morris' interview with Mad In America:
https://www.madinamerica.com/2021/03/feminism-psychoanalysis-critical-psychology-interview-bethany-morris/
We've always been borderline: https://www.academia.edu/en/35890259/Weve_always_been_borderline
Sexual Difference, Abjection and Liminal Spaces: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57497638-sexual-difference-abjection-and-liminal-spaces (Chapter 7 Borderline, jouissance and capitalist enjoyment)
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind". We are joined by the author of the new book 'Survival of the Richest' and host of the Team Human podcast Douglas Rushkoff, who MIT declared as one of the top ten most influential thinkers.
"Five mysterious billionaires summoned Douglas to a desert resort for a private talk. The topic? How to survive the “Event”: the societal catastrophe they know is coming. Rushkoff came to understand that these men were under the influence of The Mindset, a Silicon Valley–style certainty that they and their cohort can break the laws of physics, economics, and morality to escape a disaster of their own making—as long as they have enough money and the right technology."
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe discuss all the repercussions of what The Mindset means for our society, the myth of individualism, the embedded values of tech, who gets to decide what's best for us, propaganda vs reality, Timothy Leary and tech bros trying to recreate the womb!
Douglas is a media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open source solutions to social problems. Rushkoff is known for coining terms and concepts including viral media (or media virus), digital native, and social currency. He has written ten books on media, technology and culture.
References:
Survival of the Richest - Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60165391-survival-of-the-richest
Team Human podcast: http://teamhuman.fm
Original Medium post: https://onezero.medium.com/survival-of-the-richest-9ef6cddd0cc1
--
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"The recent publication... reviewed decades of research, the chemical imbalance myth was shown to have no support in scientific evidence. The theory of a chemical imbalance is a myth, and has always been a myth."
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe discuss the recent Mad in America article 'Loss, Grief, and Betrayal: Psychiatric Survivors Reflect on the Impact of New Serotonin Study', and the history and harm caused by the chemical imbalance theory.
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References:
Loss, Grief, and Betrayal: Psychiatric Survivors Reflect on the Impact of New Serotonin Study: https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/08/psychiatric-survivors-reflect-serotonin-study/
Cracked: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58651040-cracked
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55723020-dopamine-nation?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=JbGKV90rtM&rank=1
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Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
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Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Born into the Unification Church (aka The Moonies), Alisa talks with Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe, about her experiences living in the cult, how she got out, and her reflections on how she has navigated life since.
Part 2 of this conversation is a patron only episode. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
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References:
Alisa's Twitter: https://twitter.com/alisa_mahjoub
Gifts of Deceit: Sun Myung Moon, Tongsun Park, and the Korean Scandal: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/958117.Gifts_of_Deceit
How Well Do You Know Your Moon: https://howwelldoyouknowyourmoon.tumblr.com/
What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy?: https://positivepsychology.com/dbt-dialectical-behavior-therapy/
QAnon, conspiracy theories and social media warfare: An ethical and anticipatory ethical analysis: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9629154
Consortium News: https://consortiumnews.com/tag/robert-parry/
Bad Moon Rising: How Reverend Moon Created the Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right and Built an American Kingdom: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1979100.Bad_Moon_Rising
--
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Please donate here: nuhw.org/kaiserstrikefund/ or see below for specific areas.
Oakland Adult Psychiatry: @kaosfund / Fundraiser by Oakland Strikefund : Patient Health Not Corporate Wealth! (gofundme.com)
Santa Clara Adult Psychiatry: @santaclara_adult_strike_fund / Fundraiser by Melody Bumgardner : Kaiser SCL Adult Mental Health Worker Strike Fund (gofundme.com)
San Francisco Addiction Medicine: @sf_amrs
San Francisco Psychiatry: @sfo2022strike / Venmo | San Francisco Strike
Richmond Psychiatry: @strike_fund_richmond / @strike_fund_richmond | Linktree
Connect to Care: @connect_2_care_strike_fund / Fundraiser by Steven Schoser : Strike Fund for Kaiser Connect 2 Care employees (gofundme.com)
San Rafael/Petaluma Psychiatry: @kpsrfpet_onstrike / Fundraiser by Strike Fund NUHW San Rafael and Petaluma : Strike Fund NUHW San Rafael & Petaluma Therapists (gofundme.com)
Walnut Creek Psychiatry: @walnutcreek_nuhw_strike / Fundraiser by Alejandra Ledezma : NUHW Walnut Creek Kaiser strike (gofundme.com)
Pleasanton Psychiatry: @kaiser_strikefund
Union City Strike Fund: https://linktr.ee/kp_uncsln_strikefund
Santa Clara Addiction Medicine Recovery Services (AMRS): https://www.gofundme.com/f/amrs-santa-clara-strike-fund?member=21268817&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer
https://linktr.ee/santaclara_strikefund
Vacaville: https://www.gofundme.com/f/vacaville-nuhw-strike-fund?member=21388569&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
Redwood City: https://www.gofundme.com/f/striking-for-justice-and-patient-care?member=21731467&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
Oakland Child Psychiatry: https://linktr.ee/kpoak_strikefund
Oakland AMRS: https://www.gofundme.com/f/strike-fund-nuhw-oakland-amrs?member=21101329&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
San Jose: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-our-kaiser-san-jose-therapists-on-strike?sharetype=teams&member=21573395&utm_medium=social&utm_source=instagram&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet
Sf: https://www.gofundme.com/f/san-francisco-strike-fund-2022
Antioch: https://www.gofundme.com/f/strike-fundnuhw-antioch-psychiatry-amrs
References:
Applied Behavior Analysis: https://www.autismspeaks.org/applied-behavior-analysis
Evidence of increased PTSD symptoms in autistics exposed to applied behavior analysis: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322239353_Evidence_of_increased_PTSD_symptoms_in_autistics_exposed_to_applied_behavior_analysis
"The pros, cons, and controversial aspects of ABA": https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/breaking-barriers/201411/answers-beliefs-about-aba-0
--
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
ABA is controversial, with evidence of PTSD symptoms in Autistic children exposed to it. Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe are joined by a practitioner of Applied Behavior Analysis, to discuss its methods and many problems.
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References:
Applied Behavior Analysis: https://www.autismspeaks.org/applied-behavior-analysis
Evidence of increased PTSD symptoms in autistics exposed to applied behavior analysis: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322239353_Evidence_of_increased_PTSD_symptoms_in_autistics_exposed_to_applied_behavior_analysis
"The pros, cons, and controversial aspects of ABA": https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/breaking-barriers/201411/answers-beliefs-about-aba-0
--
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
References:
Without Apology - The Abortion Struggle Now: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3095-without-apology
https://www.aidandabetabortion.org/
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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Author of 'Without Apology - The Abortion Struggle Now' Jenny Brown joins Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe to discuss the fight back for women's reproductive rights in the USA. Jenny discusses the history of abortion rights, numerous useful tactics and shares various resources (listed below).
"... it is time to return to the fundamental ideas that won legal abortion in the first place: Women publicly telling the full truth of their own experience, demanding repeal of all abortion restrictions, and showing how abortion and birth control are the key demands in the struggle for women’s freedom."
Part 2 of this conversation is a patron only episode. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server and reading/discussion groups.
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References:
Without Apology - The Abortion Struggle Now: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3095-without-apology
https://www.aidandabetabortion.org/
--
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
One Hundred Episodes! To celebrate Liam challenges Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe to answer the question: when IS it just in your head? When is it NOT Capitalism?
The episode covers the right-wings favorite topic: 'personal responsibility', as well as topics like self blame, maladaptive externalizations, empowerment, loneliness, the power to immiserate, joy and much more.
Thanks to all the patrons that have made this show possible :)
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max is back! (Or at least for this one episode, hopefully more in future).
Max talks with Anna Zeira regarding her paper 'Mental Health Challenges Related to Neoliberal Capitalism in the United States'.
"Rates of mental illness have increased dramatically over the past 15 years in the United States. Additionally, life expectancy has fallen over the past several years due to increases in death from suicide, opioid overdose, and alcoholic liver cirrhosis... Over the last decade some have questioned whether these changes are due to neoliberal capitalist policies and ideologies. Neoliberal capitalism incorporates theories of eliminating all restrictions on the market and decreasing government assistance programs... Since then these policies have led to income inequality, disempowerment of workers, outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, inadequate social services, mass incarceration and an expensive and ineffective healthcare system... Studies have shown that the consequences of these policies and ideologies likely have a role in increasing rates of mental illness. This paper will discuss how these factors increase mental distress and postulate ways that mental health professionals can advocate for change."
References:
'Mental Health Challenges Related to Neoliberal Capitalism in the United States': [pdf] https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10597-021-00840-7.pdf
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe discuss the healthline article, 'The Beginner’s Guide to Trauma Responses' and how fight, flight, freeze & fawn not only effect the individual, but the family, relationships and society in general.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
References:
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/fight-flight-freeze-fawn
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe talk with host of This is Revolution podcast Jason Myles about his experiences with homelessness and working with the homeless population.
Part 2 of this conversation is a patron only episode. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
This Is Revolution podcast: https://www.thisisrevolutionpodcast.com/
The price of fairness documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eDOn4YnMHU
Dreams From The Monster Factory: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Dreams_from_the_Monster_Factory.html?id=__D6lAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH and https://www.patreon.com/capitalismhitshome
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"Transference is a phenomenon in which one seems to direct feelings or desires related to an important figure in one’s life—such as a parent—toward someone who is not that person. In the context of psychoanalysis and related forms of therapy, a patient is thought to demonstrate transference when expressing feelings toward the therapist that appear to be based on the patient’s past feelings about someone else."
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/transference
Liam questions Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe on their experiences of Transference and Counter-Transference.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe discuss the desperate mental health situation in the USA, personal responsibility, 'bad choices', Nationalism and what being an American actually means.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Public school teacher, poet and host of the CDerickVarnVlog talks to Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe regarding public education in the USA.
Part 2 of this conversation is a patron only episode. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
CDerickVarnVlog: https://www.youtube.com/c/CDerickVarnVlog
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH and https://www.patreon.com/capitalismhitshome
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
TESA Collective (Toolbox for Education and Social Action) is a worker-owned co-op that designs games and tools for social justice organizations. TESA consciously engages in ethical, social change practices that intend to create healthier communities. TESA’s games have been played in over 30 countries by more than 200,000 people. Titles include STRIKE!, Space Cats Fight Fascism, Rise Up: The Game of People & Power, and Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives.
References:
STRIKE! The Game of Worker Rebellion: https://www.tesacollective.com/portfolio/teaming-up-with-the-labor-movement-to-make-strike-the-game-of-worker-rebellion/
Jobs With Justice: https://www.jwj.org/
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Returning guest David Cobb chats with Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe about Dishgamu Humboldt, a first-of-its kind community land trust for the Wiyot tribe.
References:
https://www.shareable.net/how-to-give-the-land-back/
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe discuss the provisional ruling that could lead to abortion being outlawed in more than half of US states, overturning a 1973 landmark decision which made abortion legal.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad talks with Emily Guendelsberger, author of 'On the Clock'.
"Across three jobs, and in three different parts of the country, Guendelsberger directly took part in the revolution changing the U.S. workplace. Offering an up-close portrait of America's actual essential workers, On the Clock examines the broken social safety net as well as an economy that has purposely had all the slack drained out and converted to profit. Guendelsberger shows us how workers went from being the most expensive element of production to the cheapest - and how low wage jobs have been remade to serve the ideals of efficiency, at the cost of humanity."
References:
On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane: https://bookshop.org/books/on-the-clock-what-low-wage-work-did-to-me-and-how-it-drives-america-insane/9780316509015
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Harriet’s other shows:
WBAI Interpersonal Update (Wednesdays): https://wbai.org/program.php?program=431
Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
The Troubled Teen Industry (TTI) is big business in the USA but how do they operate? Do they work? Co-host Ikoi Hiroe offers a broad overview and then talks with EJ about their first hand experiences and the impact it has had on their life & mental health.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
Information about MBA and its closure: https://www.mentalhealthportland.org/the-story-behind-mount-bachelor-academys-closure/
A resource for parents to learn about how to talk to their kids and what is "normal" behavior, and also lots of articles that can be read with kids and discussed elsewhere on the website: https://www.scarleteen.com/for_parents_and_guardians
Teens are the most stressed age group and it was getting worse: https://www.developmentalscience.com/blog/2019/5/7/our-teens-are-more-stressed-than-ever
This bill will be introduced soon, please contact your congress representatives and tell them you want it to be passed: https://www.unsilenced.org/stop-institutional-child-abuse-act/
https://www.breakingcodesilence.org
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"Despite the doom and gloom of financial crises, global terrorism, climate collapse, and the rise of the far-right, a number of leading intellectuals (Steven Pinker, Hans Rosling, Johan Norberg, and Matt Ridley, among others) have been arguing in recent years that the world is getting better and better. Extreme poverty is nearly eradicated, violence is at historic lows, and only mass pessimism keeps us from realizing how good we have it in the twenty-first century."
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe talk with Rodrigo Aguilera, economist and author of 'The Glass Half-Empty', a book which debunks arguments given by the “New Optimists” and exposes their 'progress' narrative as being little more than a very conservative defence of the status quo.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
The Glass Half-Empty: Debunking the Myth of Progress in the Twenty-First Century: https://repeaterbooks.com/authors/rodrigo-aguilera/
How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate: https://www.routledge.com/How-China-Escaped-Shock-Therapy-The-Market-Reform-Debate/Weber/p/book/9781032008493
Irrational Exuberance : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100132.Irrational_Exuberance
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
What's the difference between Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy? How does Hypnotherapy work, if at all? Psychotherapist & Hypnotherapist Harriet Fraad answers listeners questions alongside Ikoi Hiroe, a Substance Abuse Councillor.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Hypnosis and Behavioral Medicine: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2509329.Hypnosis_and_Behavioral_Medicine
Hypnotherapy and Hypnoanalysis: https://www.amazon.com/Hypnotherapy-Hypnoanalysis-Daniel-P-Brown/dp/0898597838
6 Surprising Health Benefits Of Hypnosis: https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/health-and-wellness/2019/january/hypnosis
"#31 Hypnosis: How Can it Help Me? | Dr Jeffrey Zeig": https://anchor.fm/superpsyched/episodes/31-Hypnosis-How-Can-it-Help-Me---Dr-Jeffrey-Zeig-ejd8o1
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We chat to returning guest Alfie Bown about his new book 'Dream Lovers: The Gamification of Relationships'. We discuss and uncover how Technology, Culture and Politics shapes our wants, needs and desires in ways that are often unexamined.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Dream Lovers: The Gamification of Relationships (Out May 20th): https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745344898/dream-lovers/
Previous episode with Alfie '#70: Videogames & programmable desire!' : https://www.patreon.com/posts/60288828
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Psychotherapist James Barnes, author of the opinion piece 'Current Psychedelic Therapies Use Flawed Models of the Mind' joins Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe to discuss how Relational Therapy could be a better fit for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
'Opinion: Current Psychedelic Therapies Use Flawed Models of the Mind – It’s Time for Relational Therapy': https://healingmaps.com/opinion-current-psychedelic-therapies-use-flawed-models-of-the-mind-its-time-for-relational-therapy/
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad presents various problems with the concept of disease encapsulated by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. However Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe offers a series of rebuttals and alternative view points to Harriet's criticisms. It’s an interesting discussion from two different perspectives and if you have any thoughts about this episode feel free to email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
A qualified social worker and dating & relationships educator, lalalaletmeexplain has spent her career working in the public and voluntary sector helping people to work through, or leave, f**ked up relationships, to change negative patterns of behaviour, and to develop self-love. She left her 15 year career in the public sector in 2018 to bring her professional knowledge to social media and has a loyal following of close to 200k on Instagram.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lalalaletmeexplain/
Her new book 'Block, Delete, Move On': https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/286177/lalalaletmeexplain.html
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/lalalaletmeexplain/id1441978528
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lalalaletmeexplain
Other books mentioned:
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism by Kristen Ghodsee: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1117204/why-women-have-better-sex-under-socialism/9781529110579.html
The Mermaid and the Minotaur by Dorothy Dinnerstein: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/667115/the-mermaid-and-the-minotaur-by-dorothy-dinnerstein/
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Ruthless competition, sexual harassment, crushing student debt, parental pressure, loneliness & working class exclusion ... the pursuit of knowledge meets the reality of a Neo-liberal education in the 21st century.
We spoke to four different people about their experiences in the academic world, their expectations and the problems they faced. Despite the opening paragraph above, it's not all bad. From the joys of teaching (and being taught), to using academic respectability to gain access to government funds for social causes, this episode explores their experiences navigating the rigid hierarchies of our education and social/political system.
Thank you to Katherine, Claire, Austin and Alice :)
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Substance abuse councilor Ikoi Hiroe talks to Carl Erik Fisher, addiction psychiatrist and author of 'The Urge: Our history of addiction'.
Carl draws on his own experience as a clinician, researcher, and alcoholic in recovery to trace the history of addiction that’s troubled us for centuries. His book shows us how addiction has come to be deeply misunderstood and stigmatized in our times, despite being profoundly ordinary across recorded history, and how an honest reckoning with our past successes and failures with addiction can light a better way forward.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
'The Urge: Our history of addiction': https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57925153-the-urge
Carl's podcast, 'Flourishing After Addiction': https://podcast.carlerikfisher.com/
Carl's website: https://www.carlerikfisher.com/
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Cynthia Cruz, author of 'The Melancholia of Class: A Manifesto for the Working Class' joins Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe to discuss the 'invisibility' of class, the cost of assimilation into the middle class, eating disorders, substance abuse and many other issues.
'To be working-class in a middle-class world is to be a ghost. Excluded, marginalised, and subjected to violence, the working class is also deemed by those in power to not exist. We are left with a choice between assimilation into middle-class values and culture, leaving our working-class origins behind, or total annihilation.
In The Melancholia of Class, Cynthia Cruz analyses how this choice between assimilation or annihilation has played out in the lives of working-class musicians, artists, writers, and filmmakers — including Amy Winehouse, Ian Curtis, Jason Molina, Barbara Loden, and many more — and the resultant Freudian melancholia that ensues when the working-class subject leaves their origins to “become someone,” only to find that they lose themselves in the process.'
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
The Melancholia of Class: A Manifesto for the Working Class: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/the-melancholia-of-class-a-manifesto-for-the-working-class/
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi Hiroe have a broad ranging discussion with Tyson Yunkaporta, author of 'Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World'.
“Tyson Yunkaporta belongs to the Apalech Clan from Western Cape York and is a senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University. He has worked extensively with Aboriginal languages and in Indigenous education, and his research activities include oral histories of natural disasters, language, health and cognition. He is a published poet and exhibited artist who practises traditional wood carving.”
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World: https://bookshop.org/books/sand-talk-how-indigenous-thinking-can-save-the-world/9780062975645
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We welcome back Susan to discuss her life and work, specifically with Justice For Workers:
'The movement for decent work is growing. Workers in unstable, low-wage and precarious jobs are demanding justice. The pandemic is demonstrating what we already know - workers need decent wages, decent hours, paid sick days, equal pay, and labour laws that protect us all. While this government is failing workers, with continued organizing, we are proving that even the most anti-worker governments are feeling the pressure to respond . We are fighting for justice for workers, and we won’t stop until we win decent work for ALL.'
https://www.justice4workers.org/
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We talk to Tracey Higgins about Paranoid Schizophrenia and her book 'The Girl on the Bridge: A Memoir', which chronicles her survival of severe childhood abuse and achieving a complete recovery without medication.
References:
The Girl on the Bridge: A Memoir: https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Bridge-Memoir-Tracey-Higgins-ebook/dp/B09CKYP4FW
Tracey's website, for educational purposes only: https://www.fullrecoveryfromschizophrenia.ca/
Tracey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TraceyHiggins92
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet and Ikoi take a look at the social conditions of the USA with a diagnostic angle.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
A short (and entertaining) video by '1Dime' about Modern Monetary Theory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBk78wG1U9U
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We chat with Jon Bailes author of 'Ideology and the Virtual City', a book exploring modern society and the critical value of popular culture.
He describes how ‘neoliberal’ ideology in today’s societies dominates our economic, political and cultural ideals, with an entertaining exploration of narratives, characters and play structures in some of today’s most interesting videogames.
We discuss his four 'archetypes' - essentially a set of attitudes or behaviors that encapsulates attitudes we might have in real life as a response to neoliberalism: Hedonism, Cynicism, Escapism and Reformism.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
Ideology and the Virtual City: https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/ideology-virtual-city
Jon Bailes on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonBailes3
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet examines how and why we might want to use Marxist analysis in our personal lives.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
References:
Class struggle on the home front: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16944413-class-struggle-on-the-home-front
Knowledge, class and economics: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36706330-knowledge-class-and-economics
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We talk with physician and (now retired) trauma-informed psychotherapist Susan Rosenthal about how the label of 'mental illness' is unique to Capitalism and it's pathological need to individualize 'disorders'.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Does Capitalism Make Us Crazy?: https://susanrosenthal.com/oppression/does-capitalism-make-us-crazy/
Rebel Minds: https://remarxpub.com/rebel-minds/
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
A broad ranging discussion covering care worker conditions, dying for your boss, profit in healthcare, abusive healthcare professionals, mental health stigmatization, male suicide, why it can suck to be a boy, borderline personality disorder and medication issues surrounding chronic pain.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet takes a dive into the different ideas and history surrounding Identity Politics.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Links:
Mistaken Identity - Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We speak to Dr Alfie Bown about the role videogames play in our mental health and our lives. Are they a modern day opiate for the masses or are they something more?
Alfie is Lecturer in Digital Media Culture and Technology at Royal Holloway in London. Alfie also writes journalism for places such as The Guardian, The Paris Review, The Independent, New Statesman and Newsweek.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Links:
Enjoying It - Candy Crush and Capitalism: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/enjoying-it-candy-crush-and-capitalism/9781785351556
The Playstation Dreamworld: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-playstation-dreamworld/9781509518036
“There were 2.69 billion video game players worldwide in 2020. The global games market had $159.3 billion in revenues for 2020, almost half of which came from the Asia Pacific market.” https://financesonline.com/number-of-gamers-worldwide/
The Twittering Machine: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Twittering-Machine-Richard-Seymour/dp/1999683382
Harun Farocki - Serious Games: https://vimeo.com/370494311
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max & Harriet speak to Renee A. Schuls-Jacobson about her book 'Psychiatrized: Waking Up After a Decade of Bad Medicine'.
"When a trusted physician tells Renée Schuls-Jacobson that he has the solution for her chronic insomnia -- a “tried and true medication without any side effects,” she believes him. For seven years, she takes her clonazepam exactly as prescribed until, one day, she learns that her doctor is wrong: long-term benzodiazepine use causes all kinds of problems including profound changes in brain function.
With the help of an addiction specialist, Renée embarks on a slow, medically supervised taper, only to find herself cognitively scrambled and stuck in the nightmare of benzodiazepine withdrawal."
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Show notes:
Psychiatrized: Waking Up After a Decade of Bad Medicine: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LGVZ7V1/ref=cm_sw_r_as_gl_api_glt_fabc_AGAVK5PKNVPMKBB7TPMS?linkCode=ml1&tag=rasj-20
Audible version: https://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B09M28N5CZ&source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=pdp
Instagram at @rasjacobson and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rasjacobsonart
For artwork or information about classes:
For information about receiving emotional support coaching while withdrawing from psychiatric medications: https://www.rasjacobson.store/features/
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max, Harriet and Liam talk with one of two authors about a new book 'Psychoanalysis & Revolution', exploring the different 'psy' disciplines and what makes Psychoanalysis a potentially liberating practice.
"This manifesto is an argument for connecting social transformation with personal liberation, showing that the two aspects of profound change can be intimately linked together using psychoanalysis. The manifesto explores what lies beyond us, what we keep repeating, what pushes and pulls us to stay the same and to change, and how those phenomena are transferred into clinical space."
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Show notes:
Psychoanalysis and Revolution by Ian Parker and David Pavón-Cuéllar: https://www.1968press.co.uk/books/psychoanalysis-revolution
1968 Press Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/1968Press
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet examines 'The World Happiness Report 2021' and why America, one of the richest countries in the world, is ranked 19th. What are the other countries doing right?
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Show notes:
The World Happiness Report 2021: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2021/
The Nordic Theory of Everything, Anu Partanen, Harper 2016
The Addams Family Values Thanksgiving scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29XhRfrfsOk
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet takes a deep dive into the events of Striketober and the hope it offers. Harriet & Liam also discuss the issues raised in the Medium article 'Why Are Americans and Conservatives So Afraid of Socialism?'.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Show notes:
Why Are Americans and Conservatives So Afraid of Socialism?: https://aninjusticemag.com/why-are-americans-and-conservatives-so-afraid-of-socialism-33409294290
Rainbow Pie book: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/rainbow-pie-a-memoir-of-redneck-america/9781846272585
Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism book: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism/9780691217079
Dressing like all the the other car salesmen (misremembered as Estate Agents / Realtors in the recording): https://www.unz.com/isteve/classic-from-files-why-do-car-salesmen/
How Politics makes Us Sick, Ted Schrecker, Clare Bambra Palgrave, 2015
The Body Economic, David Stuckler, Sanjay Basu. Basic Books, 2013
Loneliness, John Cacciopo and William Patrick, Norton 2008
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Do you ever take on so much activist work that you become physically or emotionally sick? Begin to hate everyone around you for not 'throwing down' into the cause as much as you? Notice yourself becoming more and more bitter, fantasizing about exiting the movement permanently and becoming a Wall Street Banker because who cares, nothing matters, we're all gonna die anyway? Max does a solocast episode about activist burnout, splits himself into two people, and does a lot of deep breathing.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Preventing Burnout: https://effectiveactivist.com/movements/burnout/
Audre Lorde Thought of Self-Care as an “Act of Political Warfare” https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/audre-lorde-thought-self-care-act-political-warfare
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max and Liam interview Dr. Jeffrey Ansloos, professor of psychology at University of Toronto to talk about indigenous resistance, critical suicidology and more. What are the historical and structural forces that have led to such high suicide rates within indigenous populations? Is the mainstream symptom model of psychology appropriate to understand this phenomenon, and suicide in general? Why are native and white male suicide rates so high (do privilege and oppression possibly come with similar psychic costs)? What kinds of "interventions" are effective in treating suicide, or are interventionist, individualistically focused approaches part of the problem?
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
Dr. Ansloos' resources:
Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/jeffreyansloos
The Medicine of Peace - Indigenous Youth Decolonizing Healing and Resisting Violence: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/the-medicine-of-peace
A question of justice: Critically researching suicide with Indigenous studies of affect, biosociality, and land-based relations: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13634593211046845
NDN Coping Mechanisms: https://houseofanansi.com/products/ndn-coping-mechanisms
A History of My Brief Body: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/604086/a-history-of-my-brief-body-by-billy-ray-belcourt/9780735237780
In Defense of the Wastelands: https://moontimewarrior.com/2017/02/08/in-defense-of-the-wastelands-guts-magazine/
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
David Cobb (he/him) is a "people's lawyer" who has sued corporate polluters, lobbied elected officials, run for political office himself, and been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. He is the Executive Director of Cooperation Humboldt and Co-Coordinator of the US Solidarity Economy Network.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
More info: cooperationhumboldt.com ussen.org
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Carissa Roberts emailed us and volunteered her own life experiences for a case conceptualization episode using the liberation health model. In this episode we discussed the various problems with the prevailing diagnostic and conceptualization systems in mental health, then use the liberation health triangle to try (scratching the surface of) understanding Carissa's life story and struggles.
See a rough sketch using the LHM triangle here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U7gcIymrqCfGsOCzgI4WadCp3W7BWVSC/view?usp=sharing
More on the liberation health model here: http://www.liberationhealth.org/documents/s12.pdf
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Jason Myles & Pascal Roberts, from the THIS IS REVOLUTION podcast join us to talk about black trauma from a political economy and Marxist perspective. Jason and Pascal had Catherine Liu on their show recently to talk specifically about "black trauma spectacle" ongoing within the culture industry, liberal media, and other areas of American society. We asked them what they thought more broadly about the concept of black trauma, racial trauma, intergenerational trauma, and what kind of "treatment plan" is needed to remedy the suffering of those who may suffer under capitalism more disproportionately than others. More therapy for racialized peoples? Reparations and other "race first" programs? So-called "class reductionist" politics? Also, should Harriet compliment men's balls?
Listen to more of Jason and Pascal on their podcast "THIS IS REVOLUTION podcast: at thisisrevolutionpodcast.com
Jason & Pascal's book references:
James Foreman Jr- Locking Up Our Own
Janice Peck- The Age of Oprah neoliberal Icon
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max interviews Harriet about an article she wrote in 2008 ago called Toiling In The Field Of Emotion, published in Class Struggle on the Home Front. He asks her: what is emotional labor? How does the concept fit into Marxian economic analysis of economy and relationships? Why has the concept been repressed in Marxist circles?
Toiling In The Field of Emotion: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9780230246997_6
Still faced experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmE3NfB_HhE&ab_channel=UMassBoston
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this ep we talk about evictions and the trauma they cause, with some emphasis near the end on data showing that race better predicts eviction rates than income. Max shares his own eviction story and educates listeners about the difference between "soft" and "hard" evictions, as well as how extreme the power differential is between landlords and tenants. How helpful are "tenants rights" compared to property rights? Who has access to lawyers? When the landlord retaliates for you exercising your rights, what recourse do you have? Do mental health professionals understand, care, or have any involvement in addressing the extreme housing crisis in America or do they just want you to talk about your childhood and meditate? To get involved in tenant organizing: atun-rsia.org Resources/references: The coming eviction crisis will hit Black communities the hardest https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-coming-eviction-crisis-will-hit-black-communities-the-hardest/
The hidden health costs of eviction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4SEBxf7mU4
Eviction: The physical, financial and mental health consequences of losing your home https://journalistsresource.org/economics/evictions-physical-financial-mental-health/ Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We interview award-winning investigative journalist Bob Hennelly about his new book "Stuck Nation: Can the United States Change Course on Our History of Choosing Profits Over People?" Learn more about Bob here: https://www.stucknation.com/bio.html
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Some listeners suggested we do some case conceptualizations so we decided to use the liberation health model to conceptualize two past cases we had. We plan to try doing something like this once per month or so. Identifying aspects of these cases have been modified so that previous clients could not be identified if listeners, people they knew, or they themselves heard the episode.
See here for information on the liberation health triangle which puts a problem at center, with personal, cultural and institutional factors mapped out at each corner of the triangle to both understand and try solving the problem. http://www.liberationhealth.org/documents/s12.pdf
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this episode we learn from Bob Hall about the concept of "conflict literacy" and how it relates to addressing different forms of interpersonal violence.
Bob Hall is the founder of Learning To Live With Conflict, Inc., a company he established in 1987 to provide education and training in the analysis and resolution of conflict. His academic background includes a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a Masters Degree in Conflict Resolution from Antioch University; as well as a host of informal study and research on sexual violence, human sexuality, addiction, violence, conflict, nonviolence, and Girardian Theory on mimetic rivalry, sacrificial violence, and scapegoating. Learn more about his work at nonviolentsexuality.com.
Email us with feedback, questions, suggestions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Ron Purser, Ph.D., author of McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality, joins us for this episode. We ask him how mindfulness became a multi-billion dollar industry, why Silicon Valley has designed hundreds of mindfulness apps, and whether mindfulness is just a capitalist form of spirituality. Is mindfulness actually a secular medical intervention that improves focus, mood, and compassion? Is mindfulness in its modern Western form in service of anything beyond The Self? Ron helps us figure all this out and more.
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Ron Purser, Ph.D. is the Lam Larsen Distinguished Research Professor of Management at San Francisco State University. He is the author of eight books, including McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality (Penguin Random House/Repeater Books), the Handbook of the Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness and the Handbook of Mindfulness: Culture, Context and Social Engagement. He writes for such media outlets as Tricycle, The Guardian, Salon, Alternet, Tikkun, Pando Daily and Transformation. He is also the host of The Mindful Cranks podcast.
ronpurser.com
mindfulcranks.com
@ronpurser (Twitter)
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Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this episode we interview Prof. Jennifer Silva, author of Coming Up Short: Working-Class Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty. Silva interviewed 100 working class young adults for the book (published in 2013) and found that most interviewees attributed their life problems to psychological issues located within themselves rather than economic or political problems located outside of themselves. While Silva initially found it almost bewildering that none of her interviewees thought of their problems as related to declining wages and working conditions, and other economically and politically determined factors, she later concluded that the more internally focused and psychologized shift was a kind of survival mechanism for working class millennials. If traditional institutions such as churches, unions, the family, government, had failed their parents as well as themselves, the self would be the most rational place to retreat to "work through" struggle. This may explain why millennials are "the therapy generation."
Silva's most recent book is called We're Still Here Pain and Politics in the Heart of America, which you can find here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/were-still-here-9780190888046?cc=us&lang=en&
Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Piggybagging off of last week's episode on death, Harriet and Max focus on aging. What's it like to grow older in a capitalist society that devalues anyone who doesn't produce wealth for the 1%? Why do older people tend to get lonelier over time, go into more debt than ever, and have some of the highest rates of bankruptcy? Harriet speaks on her experience as a 79 year old with more privileges than most - a nice place to live, healthy eating and exercise habits, having attained lots of education. But what's it like to age in poverty in America?
Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max shares about the recent passing of his estranged father and about some very odd and possibly supernatural experiences surrounding it, as well as some expected political economy commentary (his father was homeless in a world where housing is a globally financialized hyper-commodity). Tying the personal to the political, Harriet and Max both remark on how the materialist roots and emphases within Marxism seem sometimes devoid of attention to the seemingly non-materialist phenomena such as supernaturalism, the occult, etc. Harriet shares about her experiences with people dying, being 79 years of age and having seeing so many people go.
Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to gain early access to episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet explains what is cruel about a form of optimism that people internalize which says everything will be fine if they just work hard and follow the rules within this economic system and society. The US capitalist economy is pitted against the vast majority of people and waking up to this and understanding the collective situation we're all in is the first step.
Become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to join monthly discussion groups by zoom, early access to episodes, and a private chatroom for fans of the show, email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Clinical psychologist Dr. Lucy Johnstone, one of the lead authors of the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), joins this episode to talk about the most ambitious, comprehensive challenge to the mainstream diagnostic mental health models used in Western society ever proposed. The PTMF, which was developed over a 5 year period under the British Psychological Society, attempts to replace the entire DSM-5 and ICD-10 and to re-conceptualize human distress as occurring within and often caused by complex social and political situations. Harriet and Max excitedly interview Dr. Johnstone to understand this framework, and encourage listeners to learn more about it and to tell us what your reactions were to this discussion at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Learn more the PTMF website, which has documents, videos, resources, practice examples of PTMF application here:
https://www.bps.org.uk/power-threat-meaning-framework
Here is an accessible short guide for anyone who wants to construct, or support someone to construct, a PTMF narrative:
Follow-up on issues related to challenging diagnosis and medical model understandings - with resources, videos, online festivals and discussion events. Join an international online festival on Sept 17th. www. adisorder4everyone.com
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Support the podcast and get early access to full episodes, our discord server, and monthly reading and discussion groups at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet opens with a deep dive into the #FreeBritney conservatorship abuse phenomenon and how Britney Spears was basically turned into a slave to make her family, as well as legal and medical establishment profit-seekers, very rich at Britney's expense. Max recalls growing up with Britney Spears' music on the radio and TV, and asking about how many child pop stars are basically just child slaves for parental capitalist bosses. What exactly are children for?
Hit us baby one more time with feedback at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Become a patron to get early access to episodes, a monthly reading/discussion group, and discord server at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
A listener emailed us about how politically polarized their family was, and how painful this was for everyone to experience. Harriet and Max comment on what may have caused this phenomenon historically and economically. Email us if your family is politically polarized and whether this causes you distress or if you're fine with this abeing your family dynamic. Do you avoid political conversations? Do you just listen to family members? Have you cut them off permanently due to their views?
itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
To join our patrons-only discord, get early access to episodes, and our monthly reading group, go to patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this solocast episode, Max offers some critiques of the depoliticized and McDonaldized way #mentalhealth is discussed on social media. When he saw a recent CIA recruitment video that included a millennial Latinx CIA agent identifying as being diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and listening to some nearby 20-somethings use a bucket full of DSM-5 and pop-psych jargon, he began wondering why #mentalhealth content has become so #relateable to the millennial and zoomer generations. He did some research and found that the hashtag #TikTokTherapy has 50 million posts on TikTok , then decided to lecture you for 40 minutes about it. The gist is: Marx's theory of alienation is important, the top social media therapist influencers should use their platforms to historicize and politicize young adults' internal experiences and connect them larger social, political, and economic forces, and everyone should read "Coming Up Short: Working Class Adulthood In An Age Of Uncertainty" by Jennifer Silva.
Yell at Max for his problematic takes at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com SMASH this link to become a patron: patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead, so we can #outcompete other #therapists in the #freemarket of #mentalhealth podcasts.
Links:
Woke CIA Recruitment Ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X55JPbAMc9g
Marx's Theory of Alienation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation
Sampled TikTok Therapists:
https://www.tiktok.com/@strongtherapy/video/6952896749132467462?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
https://www.tiktok.com/@evolveandbloom/video/6867622435034877190?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
https://www.tiktok.com/@dylan_sessler/video/6976381439843568901?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
Book: "Coming Up Short: Working Class Adulthood In An Age Of Uncertainty" by Jennifer Silva.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Do you ever feel guilty or ashamed for having climbed or been born into a more "middle class" or "upper class" position on the socioeconomic ladder? Harriet and Max call this phenomenon "class guilt," and define it separately from other forms of "privilege guilt" such as white guilt and male guilt. Harriet complicates "class" by reminding us of the Marxian definition. Some argue there are multiple classes in society denoted by amounts of money or types of jobs, but on a basic level there are ultimately two major classes: the ownership class who owns the means of production and accumulates wealth through ownership, and the working class who do not own the means of production and can only survive through wage labor.
Both therapists offer insights around whether such a sense of guilt, and any form of "privilege" based guilt, is helpful or harmful. Harriet encourages listeners of all backgrounds to simply ask themselves if they stand with those who exploit for a living or if they stand with those who wish to transform the economy into an equitable, sustainable one based on cooperation and democracy. Max encourages listeners to go beyond cognitively believing oneself to "be on a side" and to become active members of organizations intending to build and expand working class power, long-term.
Email us feedback on this episode at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com Get early access to episodes, join monthly reading groups and the discord community at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet and Max "wrap up" on identity politics so they can move on to other topics. itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com, patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Youtuber and podcaster Angie Speaks joins us to talk about what inspired her recent video "How Validation Ruined Your Life: Narcissism and Social Justice." In this episode we discuss (and debate) whether there is value to identifying or allying with certain groups along lines of gender, race, ethnicity, immigration status, etc. Angie argues that most identification to this effect has been twisted into pseudo-political culture wars that produce more infighting and political ineffectiveness. Harriet argues that identity is often a starting point for people to become politicized and later develop class politics (ie, through Blackness, woman-ness, trans-ness, etc). A debate breaks out about whether a "class identity" is an appropriate way to talk about moving toward class unity. Max acknowledges the psychological need most people have to develop a sense of personal and collective identity, but questions whether this identity development process in our current culture leads to class politics or has become designed to become hostile toward it.
Check out Angie Speaks' Youtube videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUtloyZ_Iu4BJekIqPLc_fQ
And her podcast Low Society here:
https://soundcloud.com/low-society
Reach Angie on twitter at twitter.com/SpeaksAngie
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
This week we talk to Jennifer White, one of the founders of the Critical Suicidology Network. White is a professor in the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. She served for 7 years as the Director of Suicide Prevention Center in the Dept. of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. With White, we learn about the new field of "critical suicidology," which seeks to rethink what it means to study and prevent suicide in a more diverse and less psycho-centric and depoliticized ways. We explore how historical factors like colonialism and genocide, deindustrialization, gender violence and racism impact suicide. While DBT's mantra as a modality is to help clients "build a life worth living," White challenges us to develop approaches that empower suicidal people to fight to build a WORLD worth living in.
Here is an additional interview and podcast with Jennifer White from Mad In America:
https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/11/rethinking-suicide-prevention-interview-critical-suicide-studies-jennifer-white/
A book that Prof. White recommends, including an article she wrote on collective ethics of suicide prevention:
Suicide and Social Justice New Perspectives on the Politics of Suicide and Suicide Prevention
https://www.routledge.com/Suicide-and-Social-Justice-New-Perspectives-on-the-Politics-of-Suicide/Button-Marsh/p/book/9781138601840
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Send us your reactions to this episode at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com, and become a patron to get early access to episodes, to join our monthly reading groups and discord server, and extra behind the scenes content at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Two union organizers from Atlanta, Georgia join us to explore questions about the psychology of bosses versus workers in the context of union organizing. What's a typical reaction of managers and bosses when workers form a union? Are these reactions any different with more liberal or progressive bosses? Are workers who organize a real or imagined threat to a business owner's sense of identity and accomplishments? What are common fears that prevent workers from organizing? When workers do organize together, what helps them overcome fear of retaliation from the boss and how do they develop a sense of solidarity over horizontal distrust and competitiveness?
Our guests:
Tedwood Strong (they/them), former animator and campaign lead for CODE-CWA - a campaign to organize digital employees. Jen Garcia, a "reformed animator" and software engineer who "thinks unions are rad."
Go to code-cwa.org for more info
Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com, support the pod at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Marxian economist Richard Wolff joins us for this episode to help us define our terms. What do we mean when we use words like capitalism, socialism, and communism? Wolff begins his explanation by describing different kinds of relationships and tensions between who has owned property throughout history and who has not. Relationships between slave owner and slave, feudal lord and serf, and capitalist employer and employee, all share some commonalities through history and during each historical period there have been both supporters and critics of each economic system. Wolff explains that although in the US, Karl Marx has been made into an almost cartoon-like villain largely due to the 20th century's "Red Scare," that Marx was just one of many critics of capitalism who believed capitalism was born and would die, followed by eventually systems we might call socialism and communism. Wolff makes clear that definitions of socialism and communism have always been heatedly debated, as has been the question of how we are to move from capitalism to socialism, but Americans in particular are only now coming out of decades long hibernation -- having lagged behind the rest of the world in understanding these ideas, discussing and debating them, and applying all of this to their own lives and societies.
After Professor Wolff's explanation, Harriet and Max share thoughts about how these economic systems impact how people see themselves, their relationships to others, their identification with different kinds of social groups and activities, their sense of purpose and meaning, and their ability to imagine new possibilities within their own and other people's lives.
To learn more about Richard Wolff's work, visit democracyatwork.info and rdwolff.com.
Email us any reactions you have about this episode at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com, and to get early access to episodes and other perks, become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
For this episode we invited Asad Haider on to talk about identity politics and mental health. Haider wrote a book called Mistaken Identity in 2018, which weaves in a blend of personal narratives and scholarly analysis; Haider shares on the one hand the "lived experiences" of being on the receiving end of racism having grown up in a Pakistani immigrant family in post-9/11 America, and on the other a deep challenge for the left to consider whether modern identity politics are capable of significantly and positively transforming society.
We ask Haider if he thinks there has been cultural and interpersonal progress on the left from the now relatively normalized integration of mental health and trauma therapy language into identity politic discourse (ie, invalidation, trigger, safe space, micro-aggression). Haider argues that there's a mistake in assuming there are more similarities than differences for people with "the same identities," and that operating on this assumption often leads to ineffective politics. Harriet and Max try to balance the need to acknowledge the psychological significance of identity while understanding the limitations of identity as a form of politics.
Asad Haider is a founding editor of Viewpoint Magazine. He is the author of Mistaken Identity. His writing can be found in The Baffler, n+1, The Point, Salon, and elsewhere.
Read about Haider's work here, here, and here:
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/31/mistaken-identity-by-asad-haider-review
https://theintercept.com/2018/05/27/identity-politics-book-asad-haider/
Two of Haider's more recent writings:
https://saaganthology.com/Emancipation-and-Exhaustion
https://viewpointmag.com/2019/12/16/on-depoliticization/
Please give us your feedback on this discussion at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Support our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max interviews Occupational Therapist Maria Dong to talk about the many ways our for-profit healthcare system negatively impacts healthcare workers and patient outcomes. Maria can be reached at @mariadongwrites on twitter.
Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com and become a patreon at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet reviews Biden's ambitious infrastructure and jobs plan and the inclusion of various aspects of the "caring economy," including investment into childcare, healthcare, eldercare, etc. Such jobs are overwhelmingly performed by women, mostly women of color, and are notoriously underpaid. Harriet praises the arguably "revolutionary" potential of Biden's plans, then critiques them with focus on proposed timelines of implementation and lack of attention to pay disparities within "caring" fields (ie, physician to nurse aid; psychiatrist to mental health counselor). Max explains how union and worker co-op efforts to set pay ratios within workplaces and industries could address the pay disparity problem for women, and generally, but questions whether workplace democracy needs to be "made allowed" more from the top or "fought for" from the bottom.
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We've released this episode one week early to invite listeners to our first ever patrons-only reading/discussion hour with Harriet and Max on the following article: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/536924-the-care-economy-as-an-infrastructure-investment. This discussion will take place April 23, Friday, 12pm PST / 3pm PST. This will be an ongoing perk for patrons, who will influence what is read and discussed monthly. If you absolutely cannot afford to become a patron but are eager to join the discussion, email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. To become a patron go to patreon.com/itsnotjustinyorhead.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Bethany Morris joins us to talk about critical and community psychology, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and borderline personality disorder. Dr. Morris is an assistant professor of psychology at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she teaches and does theoretical and qualitative research. She is a transdisciplinary scholar whose work bridges critical psychology, literature, philosophy, history, psychoanalysis, and film studies.
Dr. Morris' interview with Mad In America:
https://www.madinamerica.com/2021/03/feminism-psychoanalysis-critical-psychology-interview-bethany-morris/
Get early access to episodes and extra perks at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead, and email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Sarah and Mo join Max to talk about the many reasons why a universal childcare program in the U.S. would be good for the mental health of children, mothers, parents-generally, families, teachers, and society-at-large. Rooted in her "whole worker" labor organizing struggle in Appalachia (Southwest Virginia) as a childcare worker, Sarah realized that lack of access to quality childcare for working mothers and families, and the low pay and poor working conditions for childcare workers generally, is as much of a crisis in America as is is our lack of affordable healthcare. Mo, a trained doula, professional caseworker, and healthcare organizer, shares some of her insights about the struggles moms can face when they lack access to childcare. Mo recently ran a public good campaign and believes guaranteed childcare is something socialists need to fight for in a member-funded organization as hard as they do for universal healthcare.
If you want DSA to make Childcare 4 All a national priority this year, sign the resolution here (must be a DSA member to sign):
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16umWek7c7iOYTrTshoWp6SDh6u-cxcQfaDf03zc0E5I/viewform?edit_requested=true
Learn more about the DSA Class Unity Caucus at classunity.org.
Support our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead, and contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this episode, Harriet gives a broad "macro" zoom out view of what's going on in America right now economically and politically. Next, she zooms in to the "micro" level to look at how our crumbling political economy is impacting people's relationships and individual mental health. Max shares his frustrations around wanting for us to be able to move from "diagnosis" to "treatment" in this context, and both therapists explore possible solutions to the economic and political problems facing all of us today.
Get early access to episodes, join our patreon/discord community, and get extra perks by becoming a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We reached out to Migration Policy Institute (MPI) to discuss their research on immigration enforcement and Latino adolescent mental health, resulting in this conversation with their director of research Randy Capps. In this episode, we ask Randy about MPI's research findings on how immigration policies impact the mental health of migrants in the US, with attention to Latino mental health. We ask Randy his thoughts on abolishing ICE, the "open borders" debate, and what kinds of immigration policies would promote the best mental health for migrants in the US.
Through email, we asked Randy about how US military and trade interventionism in South America has impacted migration patterns and he made clear he does not know much about this - if you know of researchers with knowledge in this area let us know so we can address that important aspect of US migration and mental health. Also, this episode is more policy focused than usual, and does not draw on personal narratives to help listeners understand the mental health struggles associated with fear of loved ones being deported. If you are someone with such a story and feel comfortable sharing, please email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Randy Capps is Director of Research for U.S. Programs at the Migration Policy Institute. His areas of expertise include immigration trends, the unauthorized population, immigrants in the U.S. labor force, the children of immigrants and their well-being, and immigrant health-care and public benefits access and use.
Resource:
Immigration Enforcement and the Mental Health of Latino High School Students
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/immigration-enforcement-mental-health-latino-students_final.pdf
Support our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Fellow mental health counselor Kevin Gallagher joins us to talk about the history of addiction in America, its causes, and cures. Kevin shares what he learned first-hand about America's broken approaches to addiction treatment while he struggled through his own past addiction, which led him toward intensive research and writing on the history of addiction and why we approach and conceptualize it the way we do today. Is addiction a moral problem? Why did the "war on drugs" position addiction around (highly racialized) individual criminality? Are people born with "addictive personalities" as a result of defective brains and chemical imbalances? What's missing from today's so-called "trauma informed" approach to addiction popularized by experts such as Gabor Maté?
Read Kevin's 10 part Mad In America series "An American History of Addiction" here:
https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/07/history-addiction-ardent-spirits/
-
Kevin Gallagher is a former adjunct professor of Psychology and Sociology at Point Park University, in Pittsburgh, PA. He has worked in various community-health settings including four years with the award-winning street medicine program, Operation Safety Net. His work focuses on rethinking mental health, substance use, and addiction from a sociological and social-justice perspective. He is currently a writer for Mad in America and works in Medicaid clinical quality program development."
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Get early access to episodes and other perks at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this episode we interview Roy Grinker, cultural anthropologist and author of Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness. His book is broken into three sections: capitalism, wars, and the mind and body.
Grinker explains that the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe created the conditions that gave rise to doctors observing "unproductive deviants" within asylums for the first time in history, leading to categorization of different forms of mental suffering based on "clinical observation" and the cultural invention of psychiatry. World Wars I and II had some of the most profound impacts on the development and later global exportation of the DSM and the cultural and ideological assumptions contained within it and the treatment concepts it espouses. Are rates of autism spectrum disorder higher in South Korea? Can a supportive culture "treat" mental problems better than individualistic diagnostic/treatment modalities? What better explains hallucinations and reduces stigma for those who experience them: brain science or supernaturalism? And what's so important about the neurodiversity movement?
More on Grinker:
https://anthropology.columbian.gwu.edu/roy-richard-grinker
Grinker's book:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671116/nobodys-normal-by-roy-richard-grinker/
Email us reactions, thoughts, critiques at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Get early access to episodes and other perks at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
A listener shared with us that they felt that in episode #030 it sounded like we were shaming people who take psych meds. We wanted to clarify our stance with this brief response for anyone who has felt shamed when we speak critically about the pharmaceutical industry and biologically driven approaches to mental health treatment.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max interviews author of the polemical book Virtue Hoarders, Catherine Liu, about the ways the so-called Professional-Managerial Class (PMC) uses fake empathy, mental health language, and superficial discourse on trauma to protect its material interests at the expense of lower wage workers. The mental health field itself is positioned within the PMC strata and tends to lack class consciousness - part of what sparked the creation of this very podcast. But the PMC as a whole appears to deny any class positionality to the point of dissociation so that it lives in a world of fantasy to explain society, making it "the most delusional class" according to Liu. Near the end, conversations about psychoanalysis and today's cognitive-behavioral "customer satisfaction survey" therapies turn into cackling and managed grief.
Catherine Liu is professor of film and media studies at the University of California, Irvine and the author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/virtue-hoarders
The Professional-Managerial Class w/ Catherine Liu | The Jacobin Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4WV7oswt3M
The Worst Class ft. Catherine Liu https://aufhebungabunga.podbean.com/e/176-the-worst-class-ft-catherine-liu/
Wiki's PMC definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional-managerial_class
Catherine's references:
-Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer, Barbara Ehrenreich
-Coming Up Short: Working Class Adulthood in An Age of Uncertainty, Jennifer Silva
-We're Still Here: Pain and Politics in the Heart of America, Jennifer Silva
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Kristen Ghodsee joins us to talk about sex and sexuality across the varied socialist experiments that took place for most of the 20th century in Eastern Europe. She acknowledges the well-known atrocities (purges, famines, secret police, gulags) - but cautions listeners to understand that "heavy handed state socialism" was not the only form of socialism from 1917 to 1991 across Eastern Europe. Based on decades of ethnographic research, Ghodsee argues that despite some of the failures of socialist experiments (state socialism, goulash communism, market- and "self management" socialism, and many more), women consistently self-report having enjoyed sexual relationships more than women self-report in capitalist countries.
We plan to invite Ghodsee back at another time in the Spring, so send any questions you have for her to itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Support our podcast and get early access to episodes and bonus content, access to a discord chat with other supporters and the hosts, at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
You can get Ghodsee's book "Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence" anywhere books are sold.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this episode, we take a deeper dive into the origins and psychological and international implications of the existence and widespread use of the DSM - Diagnostic Statistical Manual - which is the bible of mental disorders used by psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, social workers and psychotherapists. When you seek therapy through either public or private insurance, you must be diagnosed with something from the DSM for insurance to pay for services. Psychiatrists prescribe medication as treatment based on diagnoses within the DSM.
Where did this model of understanding human suffering come from? Why are biological/individual explanations for mental, emotional, and behavioral phenomena dominant in the field of mental health? How much do culture, politics, economics, and power influence our conceptualization of mental health within the USA and around the world? Does imperialism find ways to use the DSM its adjacent industries as an instrument of "soft power" to maintain and spread US cultural hegemony?
What are your thoughts on the DSM and "mental disorder" concept generally? Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com for feedback and criticism. Support our podcast and get early access to episodes and extra perks at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
References:
-Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness, Roy R. Grinker Sr.
-Wiki page on the DSM-5:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-5
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Tati Cosper contacted us to raise awareness about the connections between hunger, poverty and mental health in America - so we did an episode on it with her! Why are people malnourished in the richest country on Earth? How is it that people can work a full time job or multiple jobs, and not be able to feed their children? We explore stats such as "school-aged children who face severe hunger are 56.2% more likely to have PTSD and 53.1% more likely to have severe depression," and question how it is that 40% of food gets thrown in the trash in America. Is capitalism the best economic system for the production and distribution of food for children and working families?
Contact Tati at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatiana-cosper-44138914a/ and support a project she's involved in called the Urban Indigenous Collective here: https://urbanindigenouscollective.org/donate
Resources:
-Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill
https://www.nrdc.org/resources/wasted-how-america-losing-40-percent-its-food-farm-fork-landfill
Why are people malnourished in the richest country on Earth?
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/hunger/
3 Devastating Effects of Hunger on the Body
https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-blog/3-ways-hunger-affects-your-body
To be thin but not healthy - The body-image dilemma may affect health among female university students in China
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205282
Weight status and body image perceptions in adolescents: current perspectives
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4554432/
Food Security Status of U.S. Households with Children in 2019
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.aspx#children
Food Insecurity and Bulimia Nervosa in the United States https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6555671/
As Thanksgiving Approaches, Fewer Than Half of Households With Kids Very Confident About Affording Needed Food
https://www.cbpp.org/blog/as-thanksgiving-approaches-fewer-than-half-of-households-with-kids-very-confident-about
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max has been wanting to explore this for a while and Harriet gave him permission to do this as a solo episode - but it's not really an episode. It's an actual mindfulness meditation. Max would like listeners to try using this meditation as they would any guided recording (relaxed sitting or laying position, eyes closed) and to give him feedback on the experience. This is a sample of what could be developed into a guided meditation series that blends traditional mindfulness (increasing focus, relaxation, compassion) and political education.
Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Support our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this episode, Harriet and Max offer different interpretations of the Capitol Hill riots and what caused them from both a personal psychological perspective as well as from a more "zoomed out" view that takes history and broader factors into account. Harriet gives an overview of the last several decades and how the decline of value of the "white male wage" due to both neoliberal austerity policies (deindustrialization, outsourcing, automation) and capitalist divide and conquer strategies have played a role in creating the conditions of the right-wing movement we see today. Max shares his views on how the rise of extremely sophisticated psychological influence operations "on the battlefield of social media" explain some of the technical mechanisms that has amplified, spread, and strengthened the far right.
Readings: The Psychology and Strategy of Fake News by Joohn Choe
https://joohnchoe.medium.com/the-resistance-information-warfare-handbook-part-v-3f1f3b4a51b8
Commanding The Trend: Social media as information warfare by Lt. Col. Jarred Prier, U.S. Air Force https://perconcordiam.com/commanding-the-trend/
Contact us itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We spoke to one of our supporters and comrades, fellow mental health and social worker Eric Piece about the intersections of LGBT issues and capitalism. Eric identifies as a gay man and just as strongly as a union member and socialist. He highlighted the ways labor unions have always offered stronger protections for the LGBT community, and some of the pitfalls of thinking of LGBT people first as people with sexual orientations and gender identities as opposed to people with material, class interests first. How did Pride get co-opted and commodified? Why are white gay men painted as gentrifiers in diverse urban environments? Did Reagan use the AIDS crisis of the 1980s to divide and conquer the working class? All of this and more in this episode.
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Support this podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead and get behind the scenes content and other perks.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Millions of tenants are at risk of being thrown out onto the street this year due to the covid-19 eviction moratoria being lifted federally and throughout different states and regions. The mental health field is ill-equipped to conceptualize any way to treat such widespread and looming trauma, and the world of tenant organizing might have something to teach us. Could it be possible that building solidarity through tenant organizing within buildings, across buildings, throughout neighborhoods, can prevent trauma and increase social bonds? In speaking with Talia Smith, tenant organizer with Omaha Tenants United and Autonomous Tenants Union Network, we came to think that tenant organizing could very well be a modality of healing just as much as psychotherapy can be.
Talia explains what might motivate ordinary people to show up to confront police to stop fellow tenants from being evicted, and what can help overcome fear and social anxiety when asking neighbors to sign a demand letter and mail it to a landlord. What collective courage is necessary to go on a rent strike? What internal psychological mechanisms are at play that can transform neighbors from complete strangers who are suspicious and distrustful of one another, to comrades and friends who dedicate their lives to fighting for each other?
Email us with your reactions to this episode at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Support our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get access to early releases of full episodes and other patron-only perks.
Tenants United Podcast:
https://tenantsunitedpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Omaha Tenants United:
https://omahatenantsunited.org
Autonomous Tenants Union Network:
https://atun-rsia.org
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Here is a crossover episode we did with the hosts of Social Medicine On Air, a podcast very similar to our own but run by two physicians. Listen to the original episode here and be sure to check out their other episodes, all of which are extremely important fascinating! https://anchor.fm/social-medicine-on-air/episodes/14--Mental-Health--Individualism--and-the-Economy--Its-Not-Just-In-Your-Head-eo8ieq
"Welcome to Social Medicine On Air, a podcast where we explore the field of social medicine with healthcare practitioners, activists, and researchers. Social medicine hopes to work for a world of justice and health - especially for the most marginalized - and connects clinical care to the deeper causes of health and illness. Through our conversational interviews, we hope to create a warm and welcoming space to learn about social medicine and meet the amazing people you'll find there.
Hosted by Brendan Johnson and Jonas Attilus, produced by Raghav Goyal, and with design by Clara Brand.
Harriet and Max, hosts of the "It's Not Just In Your Head" podcast, join us today to discuss mental health, how capitalism accelerates inequality and social breakdown, and how most approaches to mental health care support neoliberal individualism. They explain the connection between personal and social liberation, our need for one another, the value and pitfalls of medication-based approaches, the need for a strong labor movement and organizing, and how mental health is inextricably bound to social conditions.
"It's Not Just In Your Head" is a podcast with Harriet Fraad (@harrietfraad) and Max Golding, two mental health professionals who explore how our capitalist economic system impacts our emotional lives, from precarious housing and employment, to unaffordable healthcare, to endless debt -- it's not just in your head! Dr. Harriet Fraad is a mental health counselor and activist in New York City with over 45 years of experience, who writes and speaks on the intersection of politics, economics, and personal life; her work can be found at harrietfraad.com. Max Golding is a licenced marriage and family therapist from California who is interested in tenant and labor organizing, and connecting the struggle for mental health with other struggles for justice and liberation.
Their recommended resources:
Mark Fisher. (2009). Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Winchester, UK: Zero Books.
Capitalism Hits Home (podcast) with Dr. Harriet Fraad & Julianna Forlano, link
Kate Pickett & Wilkinson, Richard. (2010). The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. London: Penguin Books."
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Ecological Engineering Phd student Sam Francis joins us for this episode to talk about climate anxiety: the very real and "not just in your head" problem of millions of people fearing the onslaught of terror caused by climate change. Should we all just try our best to recycle, eat less meat and, if we can afford it, buy electric cars? Harriet and Sam explore whether a "central planning" government approach is the only way out while Max spirals into a depressive stupor and wonders if his therapist would understand. We would love listener feedback on this and any other episode. Contact us at: itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Support us at: Patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. To hear more from Harriet and Juliana Forlono on "Capitalism Hits Home" produced by Democracy At Work go to www.harrietfraad.com. Contact Sam on Twitter at @samthejamminman
Sam's references:
-Naomi Klein’s This Change’s Everything: Capitalism versus the Climate
-Leigh Phillip’s Austerity Ecology and the Collapse Porn Addicts
-Citations Needed Episode on Climate Chaos and Liberal Rhetoric Promoting Denialism: https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/episode-121-climate-chaos-part-i-how-the-gap-between-liberal-rhetoric-policy-promotes-denialism
Max's Jacobin reference:
How Environmentalism Was Separated From Class Politics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFJIVdWfnhs
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet proposes in this episode that for Americans to have good mental health, we have to decommodify all parts of the economy related to human need so that people don't feel depressed or anxious about things which all humans need and deserve. These aspects of the economy are primarily related to food, water, air, and housing. Currently, nutritious, organic and quality food is too inaccessible and expensive for millions of Americans. Privatized bottled water competes with public water so that when disasters like Flynt, Michigan occur, those who can afford bottled water for drinking and washing themselves, and those who can't may die. Air may not appear to be commodified, but areas where air is polluted (near fossil fuel extraction sites, for example) is cheaper to live near. The unequal distribution of access of food, water, and air across the U.S. shows patterns of inequality that sustain themselves as long as these aspects of commodified needs remain commodified (reinforcing our heavily racialized class divide in the U.S.).
Both therapists explore what decommodification of housing might look like. Max describes what authors of "In Defense Of Housing" call the hyper-commodification of housing since the Reagan Era, wherein random capitalists from all over the world can make financial decisions that can mass-evict tenants within cities because their housing is an "under performing asset." Max also tries to figure out if he and Harriet are advocating for social democracy (strong capitalist economy with heavy taxes to pay for social programs) or more traditional socialism (getting rid of the capitalist economy altogether). --
Support us at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Books referenced: In Defense Of Housing by Peter Marcuse and David Madden Capital City by Sam Stein
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet and Max interview two therapists who also act as "shop stewards" with the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) - Jackie Schalit LMFT and Elizabeth White LCSW. Both talk about what got them involved in union organizing within the mental health field, and why the labor movement still matters more today than ever. Why was there a "civil war" within Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and why did it lead to the formation of NUHW? Why should mental health workers unionize? How can unions improve the lives of everyday people? Listen to this episode to find out!
To learn more about NUHW go to nuhw.org
Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Also check out Capitalism Hits Home, Harriet's program with Julianna Forlano at democracyatwork.info/capitalismhitshome
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
"We are a cooperatively-run mental health practice located in Bushwick, Brooklyn" - from the Alliance Psychological Services website which also reads "Seeking Licensed Clinical Social Worker to Join Radical Psychotherapy Practice." Meet worker-owners Juliet, Kara, and Billy - who run this cooperative. What makes a worker cooperative different from regular business enterprises? Are co-ops inherently "revolutionary"? How do they make money? Why is the mental health field mostly disconnected and uninformed about workplace democracy and worker-owners? Why are therapists and social workers often considered professionals and not workers? If you're an LCSW in NYC wanting to join Alliance: http://www.alliancepsych.nyc/joinus Learn more about Alliance here: http://www.alliancepsych.nyc If you're a mental health therapist or social worker wanting to start a worker cooperative, or have other questions/comments for them, email them at info@alliancepsych.nyc Learn more about worker cooperatives here: https://institute.coop/what-worker-cooperative
Support us at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We try to answer Patron questions as often as we can. In this recording, we answer Jake's question about how to avoid harming relationships with your politics (a summary of his question).
If you haven't check out Harriet's program with Julianna Forlano called Capitalism Hits Home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Will a Joe Biden presidency be better for our collective mental health? Harriet thinks having a neoliberal president is better than a fascist president, Max mostly agrees. Both therapists encourage listeners to stay (or to get) active, because Biden likely won't unilaterally do much to improve healthcare, education, housing, workers rights, fight climate change (etc) without being pushed "from the bottom." Max and Harriet question whether Biden will follow through on any single campaign promise or platform bullet point from his website, with some attention to mental health policy concerning veterans, the opioid crisis, and suicide. Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Support us at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
--
Resources from this episode:
No Honeymoon For Joe Biden, Ben Burgis
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/joe-biden-administration-opposition-push-left
--
There Was Actually a Lot of Good News for the Left on Election Day, Liza Featherstone
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/downballot-socialist-elected-election-day-dsa
--
Mental Health U.S. Interviews Biden On Mental Health Policy:
https://www.mentalhealthforus.net/candidate/joe-biden/
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this episode we interview leftist civil engineer Justin Roczniak (aka "donoteat01" on YouTube) to better understand the history of single family homes, suburbs, the real estate industry, and try to figure out better ways the built environment can facilitate mental and social wellness among those who... live somewhere. We wanted to talk with Justin about this because in our last episode on the nuclear family, we realized that the history and set of policies around the construction of middle class suburbs was one important puzzle piece related to the decline of cohesive marriages and families. Are single family homes bad? Why is public housing associated with poverty? Does homeownership make people politically right wing? What's a community land trust? Will Biden build me a house with 2.6 dogs? JUSTIN, GIVE US ANSWERS!
Justin's referenced video on gentrification:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdeirDrinWk
Justin's podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPxHg4192hLDpTI2w7F9rPg
patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet describes the invention of the nuclear family as part of the transition from European feudalism to capitalism, with attention to the function of the patriarch as the familial feudal lord, and children as chattel. Max shares his initial reaction to the idea of the nuclear family being flawed or unnatural, asking: what came before, what alternatives are there, and what options to people have? Both therapists explore what it means for the nuclear family to be a social construct and question why entering into a nuclear family appears to a dice roll which can lead to happiness, love, and prosperity - or isolation, violence, and despair. Co-hosts touch on the bizarre urban design concept of single family homes and suburbs, and put a call out to anyone living within more traditional extended families, within housing cooperatives and co-housing communities, or progressive urban planners, to join in a future podcast to look beyond the nuclear family at what's possible.
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Thanks to helpfully critical feedback we received on our W.A.P. episode, we were lucky to make contact with guests Gemma Paradise and Dr. Heather Berg. Gemma is a full service sex worker (which she says many know better as "escort" or "prostitute") and Marxist sex worker organizer. Dr. Heather Berg is a feminist scholar who teaches Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
In this episode we talk about struggles facing sex workers seeking mental health services; whether sex work should be considered an especially exploitative form of wage labor under capitalism or just another form of wage labor; the political weaponization of sex trafficking laws and survivor narratives used against sex workers; why some men feel more comfortable hiring sex workers "for therapy" than actually seeing a therapist...and a lot more!
Resources referenced in the episode:
Marxist reading group for current sex workers: https://twitter.com/who_revolution
Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3039-revolting-prostitutes
We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival: https://www.feministpress.org/books-n-z/we-too
Porn Work: Sex, Labor, and Late Capitalism https://bookshop.org/books/porn-work-sex-labor-and-late-capitalism-9781469661926/9781469661926
Heather's website: drheatherberg.com
More information on the EARN IT Act: surviveearnit.com
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this episode we interview Christian minister and anti-capitalist psychotherapist Bruce Rogers-Vaughn, whose deep and calming voice happens to be an FDA approved anti-anxiety medicine. One of Bruce's students emailed to inform us about his writings, and we discovered there is yet another therapist in the U.S. who openly believes capitalism is bad for our mental health. Bruce is associate professor of pastoral theology and counseling at Vanderbilt Divinity School, and author of Caring For Souls in a Neoliberal Age, and an ordained minister.
Harriet, Bruce, and Max, explore the nuanced reasons for why the Christian Left has been repressed and popularly replaced by the Christian Right in the last half century. Harriet and Max make a new friend, and Bruce and Max almost cry a few times.
Find out more about Bruce here:
https://divinity.vanderbilt.edu/people/bio/bruce-rogers-vaughn
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us on patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We answer four questions from our Patreon community
Support us at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Check out Harriet's program Capitalism Hits Home at https://www.democracyatwork.info/chh_episode_list_s2, or at harrietfraad.com. Also be sure to get to know Democracy At Work better at their website democracyatwork.info.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
(Note from the future: thanks to helpfully critical feedback we received for this episode, we recorded a follow up one with sex worker Gemma Paradise and feminist studies scholar Dr. Heather Berg, who helped us better understand the world of sex work and the various societal nuances within that world. Go here to listen to that follow up episode:
https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/episodes/018-Interviewing-Sex-Worker-Gemma-Paradise-and-Feminist-Studies-Scholar-Dr--Heather-Berg-ekid33)
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Harriet points out that despite pop feminism's celebration of W.A.P. being some kind of symbol of peak female empowerment, that it signals the now widely accepted pornification of sex as something that has to do with body parts and humilitation fetishes minus relational context. The 3rd wave liberal feminist embrace of hypersexualization in popular media came along with it minimal to no effort to push for improved sex education in US public schools, with focus not just on anatomy but the social and emotional skills and complexities leading to mutual sexual consent. Lack of comprehensive sex education in the US has meant that Cardi B and similar entertainers have become the sex educators for the next generation. Since 1 in 4 children in the US are being raised by single mothers with multiple jobs thanks to neoliberalism, youth turn to their incessant relationships to the internet to learn social norms related to sex, sexuality, and relationships. Consumers of videos like W.A.P. may get the impression that sex work is glamorous, and sex workers become so rich that they own mansions. But most sex workers in the US are lower class, working multiple low wage jobs, lack healthcare, are in serious debt, and find that sex work is just another way to barely make ends meet.
Harriet and Max share different views on whether the video celebrates sexist and racist stereotypes, or if certain stereotypes are being reclaimed similarly to how the LGBT community reclaimed the term "queer." Max focuses on Cardi B's videos and lyrics as a result of the shock driven attention economy which transforms every minute of our time online into profits of whoever owns the websites. Cardi B, Ben Shapiro, feminist bloggers, and even the two of us, are actively generating billions of dollars for internet mass media companies by reacting and counter-reacting to W.A.P., everyone participating in the attention economy thinks they're making conscious choices related to what they consume. How much of this is human nature, and how much is Late Stage Capitalism and the dying breaths of an economic system that eats up and spits out the very people it requires to keep the system intact?
Support us at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Check out Harriet's program Capitalism Hits Home at https://www.democracyatwork.info/chh_episode_list_s2, or at harrietfraad.com. Also be sure to get to know Democracy At Work better at their website democracyatwork.info.
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet and Max interview one of their listeners for this episode and cover a wide variety of topics from immigration to gender and cross-cultural expectations, to discrimination and colorism and European colonialism within Africa, to the strengths and limitations of the Black Lives Matter movement -- and, of course, whether these three should start a band called Marxists From Mars. Our guest Russel Ndip walks us through having immigrated to the US from Cameroon in Central Africa at the age of 8, and reflects on what it's like to occupy numerous positions of culture as sometimes both an insider and outsider (ie, African, immigrant, Black, woman, and so on). Max fumbles around trying to figure out where in Europe his family is from while trying to summarize the book "Racecraft." The trio explore some of the economic factors leading to the myth and partial reality of the resilient Black matriarch and the suicide paradox (white males have highest suicide rate, Black women the lowest), why Black Lives Matter is validating for African immigrants, how nobody can speak for a whole group, and the problem with focusing on race without understanding it in the context of class. Also, why has Walmart embraced "anti-racism" so quickly?
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Check out Harriet's program Capitalism Hits Home produced by Democracy At Work at harrietfraad.com or on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgEDdNWbseo&list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
USA National Suicide hotline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Max does a solo episode on the topic of suicide (Harriet will be back next week!). Topics he explores include the correlation between higher suicide rates and lower minimum wage, as well as the "suicide paradox" of white men having the highest suicide rate and black women have the lowest. Max looks at suicide from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) perspective, framing the issue as one rooted in emotional and cognitive "dysregulation" which occurs on a physiological level, caused or exacerbated by a chronically "socially invalidating environment." He uses his own past suicidal ideation to walk listeners through "what it's like," and explores some of the causal factors and influences within his own personal history that led to his own past suicidality followed by some brief clinical examples. His message to anyone who is currently suicidal is a) I've been there and feel free to email us about what you're going through, b) a better world is possible and we can't get there without you. itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Resources:
The Link Between Unemployment, Depression and Suicide in the COVID-19 Pandemic
https://www.psychiatrypodcast.com/psychiatry-psychotherapy-podcast/2020/5/2/the-link-between-unemployment-depression-and-suicide-in-the-covid-19-pandemic
I’ve Got My Family and My Faith: Black Women and the Suicide Paradox
https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/attach/journals/dec17socuisfeature.pdf
Understanding Validation in Families - Alan E. Fruzzetti, PhD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDSIYTQX_dk&t
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this solo episode, Max explains how to form a tenant's union, from inside his car. He gives an overview of what the benefits are of tenants uniting to collectively bargain with landlords, why this can be empowering and good for mental health, and what some of the first steps are to getting this done. He points out that property management companies and landlords tend to belong to "associations" which concentrate their power, which makes tenant's associations a reasonable and necessary balancing mechanism. Through such associations, Max argues that tenants can problem solve common issues in a practical way while even functioning at times as an emotionally focused support group (Max has a specific story about this near the end). He shares how he and tenants throughout Santa Barbara rapidly formed the SB Tenants Council when the pandemic started (facebook.com/sbtenantscouncil) by simply sending an email to a landlord as part of a small disability justice campaign, which eventually led to serious support and empowerment for numerous tenants.
Resource: The Tenants Will Win: TANC Pandemic Organizing Guide https://docs.google.com/document/d/1osMMHmOn3nyhx3Or4HzKtRaeaRAyEDwnQRAtVDgt47c/edit#heading=h.36ucdodsjzs1
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet and Max interview Dawn Belkin Martinez about the Liberation Health Model, which she and other social workers developed 20 years ago to move toward a more holistic "mental health" approach that conceptualizes people's problems within economic, political, cultural, and historical contexts. She gives an overview of "the triangle" method, centering people's problems in the center of the triangle, and the three points of the triangle -- the personal, the cultural, the institutional -- contributing to those problems. Within this model, practitioners such as Dawn help individuals, families, and communities, develop action plans to change the conditions in their lives that cause their distress. This is a radical departure from the dominant mental health model which says most of our life problems stem from whatever is going on inside our heads.
You can learn more at bostonliberationhealth.org, and facebook.com/groups/liberationhealth/
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us on patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
We have a Patreon now! To support us go to Patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
In this episode, Max and Harriet talk about how neoliberalism paved the way toward our epidemic of mass loneliness and why dating now resembles a short term, extractive, free market activity wherein alienated singles try to connect through a market medium to secure a basic human need: love. The new norm is that everyone is expected to perform in a place called "online" portraying themselves as a special, eye-catching brand, to maximize attraction to consumers (dates) within a particular niche market (potential matches within monetized software on phones built with hyper-exploited third world labor). We argue the precarity of housing, jobs, and healthcare has created a kind of "trickle down economics" effect so that even sex, love, and intimacy have transformed into increasingly precarious, scarce commodities. Harriet speaks on how lovers used to meet through living in the same neighborhood, attending the same school or church or bowling alley, and could vet each other within their overlapping circles because people knew each other for a long time. We urge our loneliest and most despairing listeners to fall in love with "the movement" in some way, and to keep searching for meaningful connections however they can so they don't feel so alone within an economy that sees them primarily as a source of cheap labor.
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Resources:
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The ‘Dating Market’ Is Getting Worse
How Tinder Became The McDonalds Of Love
https://medium.com/@petekennedy/romance-2-0-how-tinder-became-the-mcdonalds-of-love-d89f40735a5a
Tinder, Destroyer of Cities—When Capital Abandons Sex
https://strelkamag.com/en/article/tinder-destroyer-of-cities-when-capital-abandons-sex
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Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet and Max chat with biomolecular engineering grad student Rachel Mendelson about her experience participating in the historic Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) campaign that started at UC Santa Cruz in September, 2019, then spread to every UC campus in California. We explore what kinds of conditions typically lead to workers going on strike, and how those conditions can be mapped into the individualistic mental health model as symptoms of depression and anxiety (ie, a sense of dread, feeling helpless and powerless, self-blame, etc). Rachel shares with us the mental health benefits she experienced from joining the wildcat strike along with thousands of other grad students risking their careers (and some being injured by police) in hopes of achieving a better quality of life for themselves as well as everyone else.
Learn more about the ongoing COLA campaign at payusmoreucsc.com, and contact us to say whatever is on your mind itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Harriet and Max talk with Pete Bourgelais about mental health in rural America, with emphasis on Maine because that's where Pete is from (and is running for office to push for a Green New Deal, support for local organic farmers, and public broadband). Harriet emphasizes connectivity as central to mental health, and explores with Pete questions about how people in small towns connect with each other. Pete walks us through the economic history of Maine, as having depended on manufacturing which was outsourced first to the American South then eventually, mostly, to China. Lack of jobs, an aging population, and lack of services those of us in cities typically take for granted, creates unique challenges for rural Americans. Max asks Pete about whether "hick" and "redneck" stereotypes have an impact on rural people, and whether or not it's a myth that white rural Americans are "more racist" than other white Americans.
(Board of Behavioral Sciences: Max was joking about being drunk at 9am.)
Give us positive and negative feedback at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
Resources:
Rural America Reimagined
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/rural-america-reimagined
Maine is the hardest-drinking state in New England:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/03/08/these-americas-drunkest-states/406342002/
‘This will be catastrophic’: Maine families face elder boom, worker shortage in preview of nation’s future
White poverty exists, ignored (from 2014, a little dated in places)
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article2518087.html
Black Lives Matter protest in Kingfield (population 997) peaceful
https://www.theirregular.com/articles/black-lives-matter-protest-in-kingfield-peaceful/
Hollowed Out: Against the Sham Revitalization of Appalachia
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/hollowed-out-ray
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this solo episode, Harriet talks about the many ways people are being impacted emotionally by the current pandemic. Men in particular having a hard time asking for help and being vulnerable, resulting in more substance abuse and expressions of anger. Harriet points out that single men are afflicted with dangerous levels of loneliness more, resorting to buying testosterone supplements and penis enlargement pills, and stocking up on guns. The month of May saw the highest record of mass shootings this year, a fact buried by news about the current pandemic. Harriet highlights how single women are being impacted differently in that there tend to be more severe economic burdens on single women, and especially single mothers. Children are being abused and neglected at higher rates during the pandemic due to increased stress by unemployed parents. We hope anyone who is struggling more than usual understands they're not alone, and that everyone's mental health is being pushed to the limit. Please reach out and try to connect with others to commiserate as much as you can!
Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In this episode we cover both "macro" and "micro" points of discussion about race and racism. Harriet starts off with explaining how capitalism has always required a set of social divisions to pit workers against each other to prevent them from uniting against common oppressors. Max shares the example of how the Bacon's Rebellion of 1676 - white and black servants uniting together to burn down the plantation - resulted in the plantation/ownership class inventing race and codifying it into centuries of law to slightly improve conditions for 'the white race' at the structural expense of 'the black race,' so the former would unite 'as a race' against the latter to maintain materially superior conditions. Harriet reminds us that MLK advocated for multi-racial labor solidarity through unions, and how the unprecedented uprisings of the last month as a reaction to George Floyd's murder by police may be a sign of growing multi-racial, working class solidarity. Max explains the "micro" pieces of racism with attention to stereotypes, prejudices, and microaggressions, then provides an overview of a powerpoint lecture called "Black Minds Matter" by Dr. Luke Wood. (Max failed to read the last slide which had proposed policy solutions like getting rid of school suspensions and integration of restorative justice programs, and more - see below).
Recommended reading and resources
Why Racism Is An Essential Tool For Maintaining The Capitalist Order, Richard Wolff
camft.org/blackmindsmatter (Dr. Wood's powerpoint here)
Fatal Invention, by Dorothy Roberts
Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? by Beverly Tatum
Are We Born Racist? New Insights from Neuroscience and Positive Psychology edited, by Jason Marsh, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, Jeremy Adam Smith
blacksocialists.us/
cooperationjackson.org/
Cornell West and Chris Hedges Interview "The Betrayal by the Black Elite:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcJqjgB4tyQ
How McCarthyism and the Red Scare Hurt the Black Freedom Struggle, Paul Heideman
Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Sorry for the long gap between episodes! We respond to some fanmail and Anchor messages covering topics such as: how we developed our views based on our backgrounds; thoughts on borderline personality disorder; food/diet and mental health; Gloria Steinem and her CIA ties. Near the end, we talk about an exciting mental health activism model called the Liberation Health Model which came out of Boston and appears to be spreading (see the article below). If anyone has ideas on what kinds of rewards we should include within our upcoming Patreon page, let us know. Send any feedback you have to itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
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https://shelterforce.org/2017/11/22/how-organizing-for-justice-helps-your-mental-health/
Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max and Harriet lay out their critique of #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth by first speaking on its origins - a big pharma funded nonprofit called Mental Health America, beginning in 1949 - then explain how the rise of the nonprofit industrial complex helped to pacify, depoliticize, and professionalize social movements to the detriment of the working class. Both counselors agree that while the 100-200k salaries paid out to Mental Health America nonprofit executives are not necessarily excessive, it would make more sense for them to advocate for ALL workers to make that wage in service of solving the mental health crisis. Max draws on parallel processes brought on from the neoliberal era (Reagan to now) : wealth for the 1% went up higher than ever due to lowered tax rates, deregulation, outsourcing; public sector funding was cut and so needs for public services became highest in decades; capitalists seized the decimation of public/democratic control of capital by promoting charity with strings attached as the solution; many nonprofits formed and found niche markets of 'helping,' and began competing with each other like small capitalist firms; worker productivity rose 70% due to higher expectations, weaker unions, and technological advancements but wages stagnated so managers, executives and shareholders could make more money; working class wealth transferred to the 1% and, in small portions, redistributed into nonprofits such as Mental Health America, so that radical demands for structural changes to society were replaced with "awareness raising activities." Subsequently, mental health problems have worsened over this period and we're typically told that the solution is either take medication, correct our negative thinking, or do better self care. We offer systems level suggestions on how to solve the mental health crisis, including a Green New Deal, stronger unions, adopting something similar to Italy's Marcora Law to grow worker cooperatives, and for listeners to get as engaged in fighting for these solutions as possible. Near the end, we read some fanmail and respond to it. We'll be fixing our audio quality issues soon, thanks for listening!
Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
In the first half of this episode, Harriet lays out a thesis on four depressions in the United States. 1) Depression of wages and employment in the late 1970s caused by outsourcing and automation of mainly male jobs, causing severe economic and family systems consequences; 2) Depression of the American family resulting from the economic crisis, including a dramatic spikes in male violence, substance abuse, divorce rates (all carried on to now), and the majority of children now living with single-mothers; 3) The current economic depression felt by tens of millions of Americans from the pandemic; 4) Depression of mental health conditions for Americans due to economic instability, lack of competent government leadership, and lack of care infrastructure due to pro-business and anti-government shifts which started in the 1970s but never ended.
In the second half, Max personalizes Harriet's thesis through self-disclosures about his own childhood traumas having been caught in the middle of family violence exacerbated by the economic decisions made in boardrooms beyond his family's influence during the 1980s. Both mental health counselors emphasize how mental health problems on this scale require "treatment" outside of the therapy office, through social connections and political engagement on a mass scale.
Email us with questions, comments, criticisms at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
[Disclaimer: Harriet and Max are pro-meditation, pro-yoga, and pro- self-care! And want listeners to think about these practices within a broader sociopolitical context.]
The mental health counselor duo guide listeners through a mock meditation that makes rent strikes, labor exploitation, climate change, and all bad-vibes-in-general, completely vanish through deep breathing. Both share thoughts on whether class unconscious loving-kindness meditations and sweaty yoga classes can end imperialism and world hunger (both disclose that they like meditation and yoga, by the way). Max explores the idea of meditation teachers and therapists being helicoptered into the 1800s to calm down abolitionists and suffragists as a means to "help." Harriet clarifies what the women's liberation movement meant by 'the personal is political,' and shares how self-care can help strengthen our collective resolve to build an economy based more on care than exploitation.
Readings that inspired this episode:
Tell Me It’s Going to be OK: Self-care and social retreat under neoliberalism, Miya Tokumitsu
A History of Self-Care: From its radical roots to its yuppie-driven middle age to its election-inspired resurgence, Aisha Harris
Remembering the Origins of the Self-Care Movement, Sarah Boyle
‘Self-care’: how a radical feminist idea was stripped of politics for the mass market, André Spicer
McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality, Ronald Purser
Extreme Makeover: Yoga in the British Empire from Decolonizing Yoga, Melissa Heather
Meditation background music in this episode by Dmitriy Samoylenko - Old Forms Must Die.
Email us questions, comments, criticisms at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Recorded on May 1, International Worker's Day, mental health counselors Harriet and Max talk about the many ways covid-19 is impacting our collective mental health with emphasis on class disparities and the US proving itself to be a failed state. Bill Gates bought a $43 million dollar mansion near the US-Mexico border while undocumented workers aren't getting stimulus checks despite being the backbone of the economy. The working class rent strikes again, but who killed militant unionism in the US for the last 50 years? Everyone's even more anxious and depressed than usual -- it's not just in your head!
Give us feedback at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
Max and Harriet introduce themselves, how they met and why they're starting the podcast with hopes of reaching other mental health practitioners, consumers of mental health services, and whoever else will listen. Harriet explains the mental health industrial complex involving four co-conspirators. Both emphasize the systemic nature of the problem so as not to blame any one or another individual involved. Max critiques the main text used to define mental disorders (DSM-5) and emphasizes that our conception of mental illness today is a product of historical, cultural, socioeconomic, and political factors.
Give us your feedback on this first podcast at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.
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