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!
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Copyright: © It's Not Just In Your Head
Become a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room and live discussion groups with the hosts.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportPublic 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.
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportTESA 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 and https://www.patreon.com/capitalismhitshome
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room and live discussion groups with the hosts.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportReturning 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 and https://www.patreon.com/capitalismhitshome
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room and live discussion groups with the hosts.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportPsychotherapist 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 and https://www.patreon.com/capitalismhitshome
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room and live discussion groups with the hosts.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportPsychotherapist 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 and https://www.patreon.com/capitalismhitshome
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room and live discussion groups with the hosts.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportThe 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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room and live discussion groups with the hosts.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/support"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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room and live discussion groups with the Ikoi and Liam.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWhat'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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room and discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWe 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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportPsychotherapist 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/
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportPsychotherapist 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.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportA 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/
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportRuthless 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.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportSubstance 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/
Become a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportCynthia 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/
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportPsychotherapist 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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWe 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.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWe 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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet 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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWe 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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet 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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWe 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/
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportA 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.
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet takes a dive into the different ideas and history surrounding Identity Politics.
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Links:
Mistaken Identity - Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWe 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.
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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
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportMax & 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."
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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/
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportMax, 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."
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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
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet 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?
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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
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet 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?'.
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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
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportDo 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.
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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
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportMax 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?
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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/
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportDavid 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.
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More info: cooperationhumboldt.com ussen.org
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportCarissa 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
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportJason 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.
Become a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportMax 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.
Become a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportIn 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.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWe 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.
Become a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportSome 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
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(Mistake: personal, cultural, institutional - not personal, cultural, economic. See here: http://www.liberationhealth.org/documents/s12.pdf)
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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.
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportRon 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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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportIn 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&
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportBecome a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportPiggybagging 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?
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportMax 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.
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Become a patron of our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get early access to full episodes, our discord chat room, and monthly reading/discussion groups.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet 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.
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For early access to this episode go to patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportClinical 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.
This is the voice of Dr. Lucy Johnstone, one of the lead authors of the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) - an alternative to the DSM-5 and ICD-10 frameworks that have come to define not just Western culture's conceptual understanding of "mental disorders" but which have now exported into all parts of the world like a new form of psychological colonialism. Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet 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
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportGet early access to this episode on #FreeBritney at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportGet early access to this episode at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportIn 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.
Get early access to the full episode unironically at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportDo 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.
Get early access to the full episode, monthly reading groups, and the patron-only discord server at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet and Max "wrap up" on identity politics so they can move on to other topics. itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com, patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
Full episode at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. Please give us feedback / reactions to our conversations at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com or anonymously here: https://forms.gle/cafw3KxpQ9XjK9xJ8
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportYoutuber 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
Clip of an upcoming episode with Youtuber Angie Speaks. Check out her work here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUtloyZ_Iu4BJekIqPLc_fQ
Get early access to this episode at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
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
---
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.
Short clip of upcoming episode with critical suicidologist Jennifer White. Hear the whole episode early at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/11/rethinking-suicide-prevention-interview-critical-suicide-studies-jennifer-white/
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
Voice of Jen Garcia, workplace organizer and "reformed animator." Get access to the full episode and our monthly reading groups at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportMarxian 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.
Voice of Professor Richard Wolff - for early access to this episode become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.com
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportFor 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.
This is the voice of Asad Haider, founding editor of Viewpoint Magazine and author of Mistaken Identity.
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/
For early access to the full episode become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
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
Get early access to this episode and other patron perks at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet 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.
---
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.
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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportGet early access to our full episode with Dr. Bethany Morris at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportSarah 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
Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
If you want DSA to make Childcare 4 All a national priority this year, sign this resolution (must be a DSA member to sign):
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16umWek7c7iOYTrTshoWp6SDh6u-cxcQfaDf03zc0E5I/viewform?edit_requested=true
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
Listen to the full episode early at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWe 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
Voice of Randy Capps from Migration Policy Institute. In full episode we talk about this:
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/immigration-enforcement-mental-health-latino-students_final.pdf
Hear the full episode at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
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
Read Kevin Gallagher's 10 part Mad In America series on the history of addiction here:
https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/07/history-addiction-ardent-spirits/
Get early access to this episode at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
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
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.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportThe speaker in this trailer is Roy Grinker, cultural anthropologist and author of Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness. Get early access to this episode at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
Listen to a free sample of Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness here:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671116/nobodys-normal-by-roy-richard-grinker/
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
This is a teaser clip of a full patrons-only episode we did on Sigmund Freud, the "father of psychotherapy." In our patrons-only discord chatroom, we were asked to answer questions about Freud such as: In what ways were Freud's ideas used to liberate vs oppress? Is psychoanalysis still needed? What material conditions helped create Freud's analysis? Why is psychoanalysis so inaccessible? What would Freud say about our culture if he were alive today?
Become a patron today at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead for access to this episode, to get shout outs on the air, extra content, and early access to episodes.
Get early access to full episodes at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
Voice in this trailer is Catherine Liu, author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against The Professional Managerial Class.
https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/virtue-hoarders
Watch her Jacobin interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4WV7oswt3M
Listen to her interview on Aufhebunga Bunga podcast here:
https://aufhebungabunga.podbean.com/2019/07/
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.
Get early access to our full interview with Kristen Ghodsee, author of "Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence," at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Ghodsee
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
Get early access to full episodes at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportTati 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
Email us your reactions at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Support us at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
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
To hear the full episode early become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportMax 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
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
Get early access to our full episode on what caused the Capitol Hill riots at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWe 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.
Sneak peak of our episode with Eric Piece, social worker, union member, DSA member, about the links between LGBT and class struggle. Full episode at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportMillions 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
This is a snippet of the full episode where we talk with Talia Smith, tenant organizer with Omaha Tenants United and Autonomous Tenants Union Network. Is "rent abolition" actually possible? Email us with your thoughts on the topic at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. Support our podcast at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead to get access to early releases of full episodes and patron-only perks.
Talia's podcast: https://tenantsunitedpodcast.buzzsprout.com/
Omaha Tenants United: https://omahatenantsunited.org/
Autonomous Tenants Union Network: https://atun-rsia.org/
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHere 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."
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportEcological 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
Get early access to the FULL podcast episode at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. Email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet 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). --
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Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
Books referenced: In Defense Of Housing by Peter Marcuse and David Madden Capital City by Sam Stein
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportTrailer for Ep24: Decommodify All Parts Of The Economy Related To Human Need
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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
Teaser for the full episode where we talk to two NUHW members - union therapists fighting for better client care and workers rights.
nuhw.org
patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead
"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
Sneak peek of our conversation with members of one of the only existing mental health provider worker cooperatives in existence -- Alliance Psychological Services, from Bushwick, Brooklyn New York. If you're a therapist or social worker interested in joining their team, go to http://www.alliancepsych.nyc/joinus or email info@alliancepsych.nyc. Full episode to be released later this week! Get immediate access to the full episode by joining at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
Support us at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead | email us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com
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
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/
For the full clip of Harriet pretending to be Sigmund Freud, become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.
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
We got some guy named Justin on the podcast for episode #20, to continue talking about the nuclear family, single family homes, and what owning McMansions does to people psychologically and politically.
Read about Justin here (more on him in the full episode description)
https://kotaku.com/the-socialist-youtuber-using-cities-skylines-to-explai-1829245653
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
Max plays role of client, Harriet plays role of therapist. This is the trailer to our next episode "Abolish The Family?"
Music:
Andromeda, Gabriele Tosi
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportThanks 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
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportEpisode #018 is all about sex work and mental health, featuring Marxist sex worker and organizer Gemma Paradise and Feminist Studies scholar Dr. Heather Berg.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportIn 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
Meet Bruce Rogers-Vaughn, an anti-capitalist psychotherapist and Christian minister. Full episode will be released soon!
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportWe 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.
(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)
--
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.
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.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet 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
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
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
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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/
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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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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
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportHarriet 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.)
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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
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!
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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
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportSorry 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/
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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!
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportIn 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.
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[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.
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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!
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--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/itsnotjustinyourhead/supportMax 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.
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