Gathering in Montreal to Ban ECT
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Up one levelMindFreedom Ireland founder Mary Maddock was featured in a major newspaper story in Ireland.
Mary Maddock is a former nun, an electroshock survivor, founder of MindFreedom Ireland based in Cork, Ireland, and author of the book Soul Survivor. One of the main newspapers in Ireland ran a major feature about Mary. Mary is on the board of directors of MindFreedom International.
UK Guardian: Studies say antidepressants no better than placebo
UK's Guardian newspaper covers the news that a major study says SSRI antidepressant psychiatric drugs are no better than placebo.
Psychiatric Survivor Musician Works on Album
Vara Adams is a psychiatric survivor musician who is working on an album of songs that challenge the current mental health system. She has three of the six songs recorded so far. We've been enjoying these first three at the MindFreedom office! Go Vara!
Mad and Non-Mad Radio: Some Different -- Very Different -- Radio Shows
Here are several Mad radio shows and one Non-Mad radio show you may listen to about changing the mental health system, all hosted by MindFreedom members who are psychiatric survivors! All may be heard on the web.
Review: "Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry" reviewed by Mary Maddock
Mary Maddock of Cork, Ireland reviews the new book "Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry" co-edited by Peter Lehmann and Peter Stastny. Mary is co-founder of MindFreedom Ireland.
Alert: Psychiatric Survivors & Allies May Comment in Medical Magazine
Maths Jesperson is a long-time psychiatric survivor activist, leader and actor in Sweden, who is calling upon psychiatric survivors and allies all over the world to submit comments to an online medical magazine. This magazine covers all kinds of medical topics, but the editor, who is a psychiatrist, has reached out to psychiatric survivors and allies to ask for their commentary, and articles.
Declaration from protest of Eastern European Psychiatric Congress
A nonviolent protest using banners and guerilla theater was held in and outside of the "First Eastern European Psychiatric Congress" in Thessaloniki, Greece on 21 September 2007. The protest was by the Pan-Hellenic Coalition for Psychiatric Reform. There is a link to a brief video of the action that you may watch.
Bonkersfest 2008 Announcement
Bonkersfest is a wonderful annual Mad Pride event in UK that brings thousands of people together for creativity, music, costumes, strangeness and even a bit of education about human rights of people in the mental health system! Bonkersfest announces a call for proposals for 2008 events, along with some other wonderfully Mad Pride activity in UK.
World Hearing Voices Day is 14th September 2007
This is a news release from INTERVOICE about a day for celebrating humane alternatives for people who hear distressing voices.
MDRI Wins International Human Rights Award
The 2007 Thomas J. Dodd Prize hfor International Justice and Human Rights has been given to Mental Disability Rights International, a sponsor group of MindFreedom International. Here is MDRI's news release.
Terence McLaughlin, editor of Asylum magazine, dies
Ian Parker forwarded the sad news that long-time movement activist Terence McLaughlin has died. Terence edited Asylum magazine and supported MindFreedom's work.
MindFreedom Responds to a Call for "More Money" for Mental Health in Poor & Developing Countries
Media are widely covering a news story about global mental health. Lancet, the widely-respected medical publication, published a study calling for more money for mental health services in poor developing countries. World Health Organization promptly put out an endorsement of this call for more money. But MindFreedom asks, "more money for what"?
A People's Centre for Treatment, Health and Therapy: Founding Meeting of the Maitland Ubuntu Centre for Treatment
MindFreedom South Africa launched a new project in the summer of 2007, at the founding meeting of the Maitland Ubuntu Centre for Treatment: Alternatives in Mental Health and Psychrights Advocacy. The Ubuntu Centre was conceived as a means for helping to heal the racially-charged divisions of South Africa's apartheid past, marked by suffering of the vast majority of people given racial or blood-based labels, many of whom are now consigned to suffering the further indignity of being branded by biopsychiatry,
Belgium Psychiatric Survivor Group Celebrates 10th Anniversary
The following news announcement was forwarded by European Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP) about one of their member groups in Belgium, UilenSpiegel, which is celebrating their 10th anniversary. UilenSpiegel is also planning a Mad Pride celebration. Dan Taylor, secretary from MindFreedom Ghana in Accra, Ghana, Africa, intends to attend.
Psychologists protest vote by American Psychological Association
This is an MFI Info Center on the American Psychological Association vote against a ban of psychologists from helping interrogators at Guantanamo Bay and other U.S. military detention centers. Instead, the Association voted for a milder resolution that banned about a dozen interrogation techniques. Dissident psychologists protested the vote.
Photos & reports from Mother's Day Protest of Electroshock in Ireland, Toronto and Montreal.
Protests were held on Mothers Day, 13 May 2007, in Ireland, Toronto and Montreal. Here are photos and reports from all three.
BonkersFest 2007 Successful in UK
BonkersFest 2007 on 2 June 2007 was a wonderful success. There was a celebration of music, creativity, poetry, and strangeness! Mad Pride UK was one of the sponsors. Here is a photo from the launch, the moment when bananas were launched from a large cannon.
New Zealand TV Station Squashes Censorship by Shock Doctor
When a woman who had experienced forced electroshock told her story on a New Zealand television news show, the doctor who had given the involuntary electroshock filed a formal complaint with the TV show, claiming it was the journalist who had violated the woman's informed consent.
Toronto Star Covers "Mad Pride" Movement
The mainstream newspaper Toronto Star in Canada published an article about the international psychiatric survivors and allies in the "Mad Pride" movement.
Psychiatric Survivors Spotlighted in Radical Psychology Journal
The publication Radical Psychology announces a special issue of, by and for the voice of psychiatric survivors.
