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Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Bruce Cohen - The Failings of “Mental Health”: How a Seemingly Benign Concept Might be Dangerous

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Mad in America

Anxiety, Mental Health, Benzo, Science, Hearingvoices, Psychology, Antipsychotic, Mentalhealth, Depression, Panicattack, Psychosis, Medicine, Health, Health & Fitness, Psychiatry, Ssri, Antidepressant

4.8201 Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2022

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dr. Bruce Cohen is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Auckland. His career spans over thirty years where he has time and again used empirical research to tackle the numerous shortcomings of the psy-disciplines. With his upcoming book series, The Politics of Mental Health and Illness, he continues to expose how the psychiatric discourse “doesn’t work for us” but instead greases the wheels of a neoliberal capitalist society.

In this interview he talks about how the psychiatric discourse has left the clinic and entered workplace, how the DSM has been feminized to the detriment of women, how and why the ADHD diagnosis has shifted shape, and lastly, how the global move towards “mental health” and away from “mental illness” might not be positive or benign.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.

0:14.0

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Mad in America podcast. This is your host for today,

0:19.2

Ayurdi Dhar. I am an assistant professor of psychology

0:22.3

at Mount Mary University and a spotlight interviewer for Mad in America. Today's episode is special

0:29.2

as it is coordinated from different parts of the world, three different parts of the world, actually.

0:34.3

I'm currently visiting my family in India. Our producer James is joining us from the UK.

0:39.3

And of course, our guest for today, Dr. Bruce Cohen,

0:42.3

is in New Zealand.

0:44.3

So about Dr. Cohen.

0:46.3

He is an associate professor of sociology in the University of Auckland.

0:50.3

He has over three decades of experience in numerous topics, some of which are

0:55.4

service user meanings of illness, alternatives to psychiatric hospitalization, and a lot more.

1:03.3

But today, today, we will kind of focus on a couple of his other works, especially his works

1:09.8

that are on critical perspectives of psychiatry.

1:13.3

So, most notably, his book, Psychiatric Hegemony, his new book series called The Politics of

1:20.0

of Mental Health and Illness, and of course, the book that I'm very excited about,

1:24.3

selling mental health. So, Dr. Cohen, welcome to Matt in America. Kiorna, thanks for

1:29.7

having me. Let's dig in with the first question. You have explored various criticisms of the

1:36.1

side disciplines across numerous sectors. And, you know, we will cover some of them in the interview.

1:41.6

But I want to know first that what brought you to them and when did you

1:45.7

and how did you end up seeing these glaring problems? So was there like one particular moment or

1:52.6

it was a slow disillusionment? How did that happen? Well, I'm a sociologist, so I think

...

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